And now, for something completely different...

... I know I've been dropping hints about my mother's fabulous house pretty much all the time, so, as this is another Involuntary Inaction day wrt our little bungalow, I'll post some pictures of the Great Crumbling (not really) Pile. I'm thinking that I might do this on my off days, from now on, since this place isn't being blogged anywhere and I'm working on it for mom, since her back injury.

These were all taken in winter, hence the snow. I really need to get some photos of the inside and the outside in spring - it's really gorgeous now.




This is the house from about halfway down the lawn toward the road. Looks like a typical colonial/federal type house. It's bigger than it looks here - each of the 4 rooms in this wing are 20x20 feet, with very tall ceilings (10'+, with teh lower floor having higher ceilings than the upper by a foot or two), and the hall is a good 10x20, with a well-preserved formal staircase. Note to self: get pictures.

That funny little pseudo-antebellum semicircular porch is both incorrect (if you look closely, you can see the outline of the original front verandah on the walls) , and Badly Installed. It slopes toward the house (BAD).We have grand plans to rip it out and rebuild the original verandah, but that requires a jackhammer and money that's just not there right now.

We don't use this entrance much at all, as there is no path to it and the porch is horrible. That ought to change once we replace the missing, correct, USABLE porch.





This was taken after walking around that line of trees to the left in the picture above. This is a view around the side of the house to the remaining old barn (or older barn - it was probably built using older lumber from a now-missing structure), which Needs Help if it is to remain standing. There are plans to rescue it, as it's such a neat old building, and other than requiring some shoring (and sistering a cracked beam, and fixing a busted door, and...) it's still in fairly good shape.



This is a view walking around the other side of the house, toward the side entrance, now used as the main entrance. Here the beautiful original verandah is still in evidence, save for its brackets. In this wing is a large (20x40+?) lower room, and two upstairs rooms a narrow room (20x10) and a large room, probably intended to be the nursery (20x30).




We're walking, we're walking... Now you can see (nearly) the whole of the verandah. Also, you can see the kitchen addition (the short part of the house), and that it has FOUR chimneystacks. That does in fact mean 8 fireplaces and attendant flues. No, none of them are usable just now. LIning them is also on the to-do list. We are currently living above the kitchen, in a 20x30 room that pretty neatly holds most of our furniture.




Okay, this is taken from the corner of the kitchen addition looking toward the front of the house.

Now, some historical info- this house was built in 1857 by a Mr. Wolfe for his sister and brother-in-law (the Tuckers) to live in. It's a virtual copy of several l-shaped Shenandoah Valley Federal houses, though it is in southern Illinois. We suspect that it is actually a copy of an older house in that area.

Most of the rooms have been at least partially restored, but the nursery is the last one, and we have a good deal of tuckpointing (on the chimneybreast) and replastering to do yet in there. There is still, thankfully, quite a bit of the original woodgraining left in the house, though the PO did sand/refinish some of the floors (he was VERY good at structural repairs - we have him to thank for having a new roof, sound foundation and non-collapsing, non-sealed chimneys-, and admitted himself that he wasn't suited to restoring the interior).

Besides not having any images of the interior yet, you don't see the l-shaped back porch (there are four doors that exit onto this porch from the main floor) in any of these pictures. There's also a 3/4 cellar under the kitchen and part of the main house.

And, this is just down the road from my little 20th century house. Very handy!