Hidden

No shortage of interesting things behind the walls of LJH. The most interesting thing we were surprised to see was an entry door that had been sided over on the outside, plastered over on the inside, and left in place all the way down to the doorknob. In the background research we had done on the house at the Mary Riley Styles Library, there was a mention of a entrance that was no longer used but we had thought it might be the existing door that was painted shut.

Voila!

With Plaster

The door itself is located behind the stairwell leading to the second floor in what we are calling the library. It is also in a place that explains the presence of a concrete "walkway to nowhere" on the outside of the house, along with a patch in the foundation that might have once been attached to steps of some sort.

As you can see from the before and after pictures, the door was behind plaster and wainscot, with a picture hanging over the place where the door is behind the wall. We don't see a great reason to remove it, so we plan to put wallboard right back over it.

An interesting architectural feature present in the house was a coved ceiling in the master bedroom, added when the first addition was put on. This was leveled in the current house, meaning the cove had been spanned by drywall that made the ceiling appear flat and parallel to the floor. This is not a feature that we will expose in the finished house because it is essentially where the hall bathroom and laundry rooms sit. Given the simple construction of the original house, this was an interesting feature to find.

Framing for the Original Cove Ceiling

Chimney on 2nd Floor

Chimney in Dining Room

The original house as it was constructed did not have a kitchen, which is a topic for a subsequent post. However, when the first addition was put on a kitchen was created in the basement with a fireplace for cooking. The chimney for that fireplace ran up the back of the exterior of the house at that time, and through the dining room and master bedroom created above it with the coved ceiling. Each room above the kitchen had a (likely) coal-burning stove for heat. The chimney served three heat sources and had flues at each level.

Historic Bees

A not-so-pleasant find was the lack of headers above any of the doors or windows. The house was essentially being supported by trim and the doors and windows themselves. The trim above every window is bowed downward from the pressure of the framing above. It is amazing that this flaw didn't eventually break all the windows and result in binding the doors on their hinges. We found the same to be the case over the arch that frames the entrance to the library. Several of the studs aren't even't touching the arch. This will require some carpentry work to retrofit every opening with structural support.

Finally, we were amused to find the remains of 2 or 3 ancient beehives in the foyer ceiling at the bottom of the stairs. These were on the exterior wall adjacent to the porch roof. Soundproofing between floors will usher these out.

Deconstruction

This week marked the first actual work being done on the renovation.

Empty Window Frame

On a beautifully sunny and warm December 5th, the first of the deconstruction and restoration portion of the work began with the removal of the original windows, and the boarding up of the openings. It has been our plan all along to remove, restore and replace these windows, which are original right down to the wavy glass.

All of the trim for each window was carefully removed, and the windows themselves detached from the framing and slowly slid out as entire units. Over the years the sliding and pin mechanisms had seized up through multiple coats of paint and infrequent usage. A company specializing in restoring old windows took them away to be worked on and replaced when the time is right.

The next major piece of the deconstruction process also completed, with the removal of all of the plaster and wood lath from the studs inside the house. This took a few guys an entire week, and exposed all sorts of interesting finds in the process.

Balloon-framed Wall

With the walls gone, we learned a lot about how the house was constructed. As we expected, the house is constructed with a balloon frame technique. Basically, that means that the wall studs start at the foundation of the first floor and run as a single piece of wood all the way to the roof line. Basically these were 15-20 foot sections of trees shaped into actual 2" x 6" sections, as opposed to the 1.75" x 5.25" pieces you would get today when you buy a 2x6.

As you can see from the picture taken from the stairwell, there is a cross piece notched into the framing. This is the beam that supports the second floor, with joists running across the width of the house from these pieces, which ring the outside of the house.

Light Through Siding

There are two other interesting things to note from the picture. First, there is an air gap that runs from the first floor all the way to the roof. This is a major fire hazard, and a drawback of balloon framing, that will need to be blocked during renovation. Basically, if fire starts on the first floor and gets to the wall, it immediately shoots up behind the wall through the air gaps all the way to the top, which is not good news for someone left inside.

Second, the siding - which is fantastic heart pine from trees that were possibly 100 years old when they were felled 160 years ago - is nailed directly to the studs. All homes built today have plywood or engineered sheathing that attaches to the studs. Then a further layer of house wrap is applied over the sheathing to protect the interior from wind, water and temperature (TyVek is a common brand). Given the age of the studs and siding, it is neither feasible nor cost-effective to remove the siding, apply these layers, and then re-attach the siding. Basically we will have to use some sort of insulation - possibly spray foam - to fill these cavities after fire blocking has been applied.

Without the walls in place, we were able to see the original roof line still intact behind the walls of the third floor bedroom. In short, the original roof pitch was much shallower and no third floor room existed in the original structure. In a subsequent renovation, about which more later, the original roof was essentially scalped and used as a supporting structure for a higher-pitched roof. Stairs up into the attic were added, and a room with gabled windows added. Our plan is to keep this room and use it as an extra bedroom or office.

Original Roof with Cedar Shingles