Structure

Or lack thereof. The last couple of weeks have seen a decent amount of work continue inside the old part of the house to keep it from falling down. Putting headers over windows and doors where they did not exist before was an obvious course of action once the plaster came off the walls. However, additional review by the structural engineer and the city building inspector has led to the need for more fundamental work to be done.

Not Supporting Much

For example, the wall separating the main parlor from the entry hall and library was almost comically underbuilt. The top plate of the wall was a 1x4 laid flat, and the structure above the arch to the library both lacked a header and wasn't resting on the trim itself. In short, the entire archway supported nothing at all on the upper floors. As a result, the 2nd floor had roughly a 3-4" sag in the middle from the outside walls to the center. In addition, some of the studs had been notched or removed to make way for forced air ducts that were added much later.

Done Correctly

We were left with little option but to replace the entire wall with one built from modern materials and approaches. We aren't huge fans of replacing old structure, but the good news in this case is that we were able to save all of the studs and cross pieces of old timber to be used for future furniture and decorative projects in the interior. Had we just covered the old studs with finished walls, we would not have been able to "see" the old wood anymore. Now we have accumulated enough old timbers, dimensional boards and original cedar shingles to satisfy the woodworking bug for quite some time!

Now Supporting Upper Floors

While the new parlor wall, now load-bearing, was being built, a number of level lines were strung to check before and after elevations of the floor. Once the structure was in place, the 3" sag in the 2nd floor was removed. We didn't believe we would be able to accomplish that because of the risk of cracking the settled structure, but the poor condition of the flooring above that area anyway allowed it to flex rather easily back into a (mostly) level condition now.

A further indignity was the way in which the old (not-so-load-bearing) wall was supported in the basement structure. The wall itself ran parallel to the joists underneath, and also fell in between two joists. In short, the wall was only supported below by the soft yellow pine flooring nailed across the joists! This of course could not remain as is, and a modern engineered wood beam was put directly below the bearing wall supported by the foundation at one end an an engineered post at the other end. Shown above left is the beam running beneath the new parlor bearing wall, the engineered post and a temporary support to be replaced later.

New  Beam Across Media Room

Another problem that has been resolved is the steel I-beam supporting the second floor over what is going to be the media room. A post doesn't work so well in the middle of a media room, so the original steel post was removed, with the assumption that additional steel could be welded to either side of the existing beam to reinforce what was in place. The structural engineer vetoed that, of course. Instead, the steel beam had to be replaced by a quad-sistered engineered beam. Given its 14" width the existing joists had to be cut and hung from the new beams so it didn't block half the room.

Old Meets New

New Meets Old

Finally, on the second floor as the first addition to the old house meets the addition on the new, a structural splicing of old and new walls has taken place. The pictures here show how the existing structure was retained yet reinforced with new structure, providing sufficient heft to support the new roof. At left is the exterior wall in the upstairs hallway. At right is a view of the laundry room entrance and a look down the hallway into the boarded-up darkness of the original house.

Some framing and structural work remains, including replacing the temporary posts with permanent ones, rebuilding the sill plate around the side porch, and other relatively minor items. The brickwork is 90% complete, just at the right time for someone to buy out a huge stock of the supply such that the last 10% is back-ordered. The holes for the piers to support the new porches have been dug. The electrical rough-in starts this week. Over the next 3 weeks the systems work will be completed, wall insulation will be installed throughout, and drywall installation will get going. Progress.

Dry

Trusses over Bedroom

New Windows

Mostly. After several weeks of being wide open, the house has been closed to the elements. A complex set of roof trusses appeared and were assembled like a jigsaw puzzle atop the addition, with the new roof joining the old roof over the original house. All of the new windows were put in. After removing several layers of shingles from the old house, the entire new roof was sheathed and felted over.

Because of the complex footprint of the house, which resembles an ell with several jogs around the perimeter, the roof design was extremely complicated, consisting of over 60 different truss elements. It went up quickly in just a couple of days, however, without a hitch. I know our architect was relieved.

New Brick

Old Mortar

On the outside of the house, the bricklayers have been working on completing the brickwork on the outside of the basement area that is above grade, including around the window wells on the southeast corner of the basement. There are no shortcuts here, with brick being laid by hand one at a time. While they are around the house, the masons will also be working on re-pointing the old brick in certain places. For example, the mortar between the bricks under the original front porch has essentially turned to sand and can be blown right out of the joints with merely a puff.

Block Wall Under Old Corner

We Have Pipes!

With the house now enclosed, work can begin in earnest (and has) on the interior systems. We have simultaneous construction with the bricklayers working on the outside, the HVAC contractor running the ducts and installing the attic unit, plumbers putting in waste lines and vents and the concrete team in the basement working on shoring up the room under the old house that will become the media room. In fact, the picture on the left shows the corner of a block wall that has replaced the frightening old pile of bricks shown in this older post. Work now proceeds apace!

Over the next two weeks we will be finalizing our cabinet designs and placing those orders, reviewing and finalizing electrical plans and layouts, and trying to get all critical path items moving so none hold up the move-in date. If everything goes well, we hope to be in by mid-August.

New Footprint Comes to Life

Naming

Whenever a property carries a name, it feels as though it carries a certain weight or importance, whether or not the provenance is obvious. As we did research into the history of Larner-Jones House, and talked to locals who knew the prior owners, it became clear the house has often been referred to by a name rather than its street address.

This, naturally, might prompt one to consider what is in a name, anyway. Perhaps it is somewhat obvious or intuitive that the tradition of naming houses took root in England, where even today they do love to name properties. For one thing, there is the notion that naming a property added a certain prestige, and allowed a family of any standing to have a slice of the noble life. Names, after all, are free, and who would live at 12345 Street Road when you can live at Downton Abbey?

On a more practical level, both in early England and the United States up until the 1900s there was not much of a road system, so the idea of referring to a house by its street name and number was not particularly workable. On the other hand, simply calling a property the "Collins House", for example, might only be useful to the extent that you knew the Collinses, or had ever visited their house. If not, knowing there was a Collins House wouldn't tell you much about it or where it was.

Little Hunting Creek Plantation

In the United States, almost no one names new houses anymore unless it is a beach or resort property, and naming a vacation home seems similar to naming a boat, where wordplay and whimsy rule the proposition. Still, there are a number of well-known properties that most everyone has heard of in the US, such as the White House, Biltmore Estate, Gracie Mansion, Fallingwater, the House of the Seven Gables and others. Some of these names are of obvious origins, and some are decidedly not.

For example, one Virginia property that most have heard of is Mount Vernon. What most do not know, and we didn't until we looked it up, is that Mount Vernon wasn't always called Mount Vernon. In fact, the first name of the property was Little Hunting Creek Plantation, so named for a nearby stream. George Washington's older half-brother Lawrence changed the name of the property to Mount Vernon in honor of Vice Admiral Edward Vernon and his victory in the grisly-named War of Jenkins' Ear, fought between Spain and Great Britain.

The war itself started when a Spanish patrol boat boarded the British brig Rebecca off the coast of Florida in 1731. Accusing the Rebecca of smuggling, the Spanish captain cut off the ear of Rebecca's captain and sent the captain off with a warning to the King. The captain, with severed ear as a visual aid, subsequently testified to this in the House of Commons, so enraging the British Parliament that a war was successfully prosecuted under the command of Vernon. And it was in this fashion that the avenger of Robert Jenkins' ear happened to become the namesake for the home of our country's first President.

The Falls Church

Locally to us of course, the city of Falls Church itself is named for The Falls Church, the city's oldest structure. Built in 1769, the church was named the Falls Church because of its location at the intersection of the Middle Turnpike and the road to the Falls of the Potomac (or "Falls Road"). Now Little Falls Street, and bisected by I-66, the Falls Road was originally an Indian trail that terminated at the furthest point up the Potomac that is navigable by canoe.

There are a number of named properties in Falls Church, most notably Lawton House, originally named "Home Hill" by Robert and Ruth Judson, who built it around the time LJH was built. The property was renamed Lawton House after the Civil War for its then-owner General Henry Ware Lawton, who was killed in the Spanish-American War. Two different schools for girls were based at Lawton House in the late 1800s, and the house was briefly the regional headquarters of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Lawton House is on the National Register of Historic Places.

There is also Mount Hope, built between 1790-1815 and the second oldest structure in Falls Church. Perched atop a local hill, Mount Hope was often also referred to as "Old Duncan Place" for its owner Captain William A. Duncan following the Civil War. There are several other named properties, such as Bonnie Briar [ED: mentioned by commenter, currently up for sale], Birch House, Tallwood and the DePutron House.

All of which brings us back to the old farmhouse at the corner of Maple and Columbia. It is certainly not an English estate, hasn't been the home of a Civil War general, and isn't the oldest property in town. And we certainly aren't the sort that would seek to name the house of our own volition. Having said that, while its primary distinction is that it is old, there have been a number of notable residents of the house (topic for another post), and as I mentioned at the start it is clear from the research and local talk that the owners have been invoked when referring to the house by name. We find that there are two who are most deserving to have their names attached to the property.

Most of the research done in 1970, and some of the references in books like Falls Church: Places and People, have referred to the property in variations of "Larner House". Mrs. Caroline F. Larner purchased the property and house in 1890, and she lived there until her death in 1915. We believe much of the expansion of the house was done while she owned it (subject for yet another post). In 1915, she willed the house to her daughter Mary D. Moore, who lived there with her children until 1941, making for a solid 53-year run of Larners in the house. In fact, subsequent owners of the house reported returning home one day to find old Mary rocking away in their front parlor as if she still owned the place.

In 1960, the family of Theodore and Mary Jones purchased the grounds and house. While all the research and books about Falls Church mention the Larners, all the living Falls Church long-timers talk about our property as the "Jones House". We purchased the property from the Jones family, who lived in the house for 52 years straight, dating from their purchase in 1960.

So, while it would be tempting to call the property the "Red House" as our kids do, we find it most appropriate to call it the "Larner-Jones House", in deference to the families who lived there for 105 years of the house's 140-160 year history.