Original Wood floors and a couple of odd rooms at the side of the kitchen, OK, but fairly modern for such a beautiful old house.
Yes, that was a weird title. What’s weirder is the unusual assortment of things we have discovered in the walls of this home as we do some restoration during the normally slow season of Winter. We were all set to install an entire heritage kitchen in one of the front rooms. But that eventually left us wondering why we would put in a THIRD kitchen. (duh?) We decided to use the lowermost kitchen for our own use and make the house’s existing big kitchen the Bygone Basic’s kitchen. (My husband, John, had designs on the lower kitchen….something to do with hops…guess he’ll have to rethink that one.)
Anyway…we pulled down some of the crazy mixture of recent walls that created a mouse maze of little rooms. The previous owner had the place rented out as a tri-plex. In process we found:
- A bathroom (circa 1960 ish)
- Dentures
- Bunch of Bones (yes….we aren’t quite sure what to do about this find)
- Old Tinker toys
- A chimney
- Beautiful original paneling (real tongue and grove pine original to the house)
- A tarnished coin that had John all excited until I read the inscription on it “where a kid can be a kid.” <I’m still laughing about that find> circa 2003
And that was all within a 15 square foot area that got a complete, down to studs stripping. We can’t help but wonder what else these old walls have. Hopefully not the ears to the bones. 🙂 I’d sure like the rest of the tinkertoy set though.
This renovation/restoration has been enlightening. Just seeing how a home was constructed 140 years ago has been quite an education. Anyone know what we can do with the square iron nails we have pulled from some of the lumber? We are trying to reuse/repurpose anything that isn’t being re-placed. The kitchen will be complete by April 1st. I can’t wait for guests of Bygone Basics to experience it.
We are booking the spring and summer now so if you would like to Experience heritage skills in a fun and unique way, get your date on the Calendar of Experiences by giving me a call or an email. (231) 740-4065 or ICan@bygonebasics.com
Of course, check out the Bygone Basics website too at www.bygonebasics.com
Of Names:
I announced previously a name contest. We did get some submissions, and I thank EVERYONE for their submission; but not “The Name” that tapped us on the shoulder and made us feel like it belonged. We are calling the house for now “Amanda’s Bequest” as it was Noah Ferry’s mother, Amanda, who left the bequest in 1870 to build the house. I think the name will make itself at home and stick around.
Until next time….and I promise it won’t be as long….
icanatbygonebasics 