New Lockset

This was not a very productive weekend. All I got done was the purchase and installation of a new lockset in the back door (with a matching set purchased, but not yet installed for the front). We also picked some paint colors for the back stairwell and purchased some patching material and a blade.

I opened one of the formerly sealed doors of the barn. I still am working on re-opening one other. Why someone decided to seal and cover all the doors is yet another 'what were they thinking?' mystery.

Beyond the minimal work, the learned quite a bit about more the town and our property's history. The original house that stood on the property still exists. It was moved in 1899/1900 from its original location to North High St. The current Port Matilda Hotel was the original funeral home of Mr. Pringle. It also was relocated from its original home on the corner to the next lot over. The hotel previous to this incarnation was located where the current post office now stands. It was torn down. There continues to be no evidence that anything ever stood on the empty lot. I am fairly convinced that the bank story is a myth. Further, I have tracked down the death of Mr. Sanderson and it was an industrial accident. That pretty much closes the book on the supposed suicide in the attic as there are no unaccounted for prior residents. It appears to also be a myth. So, all the final pieces to the puzzle are falling into place.

Permit Approved

After a month, my fencing permit was finally approved. It seems the delay was because they couldn't figure out why I wanted to put up fence sections in different parts of the property that weren't all of the same material nor could they understand why I wanted to put the fences in particular locations. I explained both, but not until after I pointed out that the answers to those questions were not really any of their business and they should not have held up the approval because of them. So long as none of the fences violated any ordinance, the permit should have been approved no matter how strange they thought my intentions were. So, despite there being new faces on the Council, it still seems that some old habits (going beyond the scope of their authority and adding unwritten extra requirements) have yet to die off. It is no wonder that most people don't bother to get the proper permits. It costs money, serves no real purpose, adds unneccesary delay and encourgages meddling.

More Demo

This weekend was mostly taken up by Fire Company training, so not much was accomplished. Outside, I extended the temporary fencing to give the dogs some more space. I also removed the old storm door in preparation for adding a dog door. Most of the work that got done was inside work.

The wall in the north bedroom that is being relocated is nearly down. I still have to pull the baseboards off (it and the two adjacent walls) and the finish knocking out the last of the lath that is behind the baseboard. Then I need to relocate some wires. Then I need to pull down some of the ceiling (to where the wall will go). Finally, I will take down the wall and set it back up in the new location. After that I can rip off peeling wallpaper and loose plaster. Once that is done, I'll go buy the drywall and some vapor barrier. When the materials are in hand, then I can pull down the rest of the ceiling (which is damaged) and put up the barrier and new drywall. Then I can patch and skim coat the other walls, tape and fill the new drywall, paint it and then put up the crown moulding. Some final touch-ups and the room is done, except for carpeting. It's a lot of work, but each individual step isn't all that bad. The worst will be putting up the new ceiling.

I picked up the jack columns today to start lifting the sagging beam. Over the next few weeks, I should get that all straightened out and properly supported so that the sag is gone permanently. Then I can take the jack columns out to the barn for that project.

Dusty Old Books

This week has been devoted to research. So far I've managed to trace ownership of the two lots all the way back to their purchase from the Six Nations. I've also managed to piece together some of the history behind the names on the deeds. All of this is listed on the history page of the main site. I still have a few holes that I need to fill in, but I'm closing in on a fairly good picture of the history of these properties. Some of the information missing as of this date:
- The date that the original house was built
- Why it was torn down and the current home built
- Details about George & Nancy Cornelius
- When did the original home stop also being a store
- Details about Nora & James Thompson (history 1903-1925)
- Was the home ever a funeral home (particularly history 1945-1959)
- Was there ever a bank on Lot 43, if so when
- Was the home primarily a residence or business from 1892-1897 and from 1897-1899

I am hoping some obituary searches and a second look at the tax records might fill in some gaps. Then the tedious task of manual newspaper searching can begin.

Exploratory Demolition

After pulling down the dumb wall in the 2nd floor hallway, we made a few interesting discoveries. The most significant of those was electrical lines laying on the top of the suspended ceiling. This past weekend was dedicated to exploring more of the innards of the house.

Four main tasks were set for the weekend:
1. Remove paneling in stairwell
2. Find source of slump in hallway
3. Figure out the electrical
4. Open bottom stair wall

All of these easy tasks were accomplished. The first one completed was finding the source of the slump in the hallway. There is a noticable slump in the floor (both first and second floors) about 4-5 feet in from the front on the house in the wall opposite the fireplace. This same slump is the source of a slight tilt in the stairway as its only cross support is the at the top of the stairs in about that same location.

An exploration of the basement by tearing out some paneling that was put up as a ceiling exposed the problem. It is an interesting situation. It appears that two of the brick pillars holding up the beam under that wall must have settled. A repair was done on one pillar, adding a half-layer of brick to bring things back into level. Sometime after that repair and possibly because of it, the second pillar must have settled. Now there is about a two inch bow to the beam under that wall between the foundation and the earlier repaired pillar. It seems that a slow lift (small amount per day over about a month) of the beam into level and then a repair to the sunken pillar should mostly correct both the slump and the stairway tilt.

The next task was tearing off the paneling that was on one wall of the stairwell. I wanted to get this off early so I could find out what sort of damage might be behind it. Strangely, the wall was fine. The one wall of ugly paneling must have been done just for ugly's sake. The masonry of the chimney is fine (which was behind that paneling) and there is no evidence of any heat or smoke damage.

The third task completed was figuring out the electrical. Taking out more suspended ceilings cleared up the electrical. A feed line runs up the outside wall of the dining room into the former 2nd floor kitchen. From there it is channeled from room to room between the ceiling and the suspended ceiling. Needless to say, that is unacceptable. However, it should be a fairly inexpensive repair once the walls are opened up. In taking out the suspending ceiling in the bedroom above the living room, I found evidence of water damage that had been poorly repaired. This damage is from prior to the roof replacement. Only the plaster seems to be damaged and that would have been removed anyway. I'll keep a watch on that area to make sure there is no current leak.

The final task was opening up the wall at the bottom of the stairway. There were three reasons I wanted to open it up. First is that we wanted to do something with that wall to make it less boring. We thought about an opening, decorative glass or a niche. In order to figure out what we could do, I needed to see its structure. Secondly, I wanted to find out how difficult scraping off the plaster would be and lastly I wanted to figure out how difficult opening up sections of wall would be.

Scraping off the plaster was a piece of cake, although dusty. Smashing through the wall was not very hard either, although a reciprocating saw would have been nice. The structure of the wall (which I do not want to change) was pretty substantial. The placement of the three supports ruled out a niche or an opening. So, the option of decorative glass will be used. We'll put in two panels of decorative glass in a pattern that mimics the design of the stairway posts. With a light added to the ceiling just outside the basement door, the glass will be backlit and should really make the stairway feel more open at that bend.

Below are some pics of the aftermath of the further stairway work.

Starting point

Paneling down & wall open

Stairway turn

Opening viewed from bottom

Final view of demo