Farmhouse Story

This is our web page dedicated to the restoration of our home. We hired a local contractor, Jason Kaech, and we did a lot of work ourselves too.

CLICK on the photos to see enlargements.

This is the front of the house as it was when we bought it in July 2002. There was ivy growing under the siding which was original from when the house was built in the 1940’s. The roof, siding and windows needed replacing. Almost everything you see in this photo had to be redone.

This is the front of the house now. There’s new siding, windows and roof. The garage was been fixed also and the ivy ripped out.

This is the back of the house when we got it. There was an unfinished extension off the back that never was finished and I doubt was legal. It had a huge fly infestation as well as housing birds and bats. It had to go!

This is the back after the renovation. The extension is gone, a dormer was rebuilt, and the roof and siding replaced.

This is the kitchen as it was when we bought it. There’s the hot water heater to the right of the refrigerator that leaked. There’s a hole in the wall where the chimney is.

This is the kitchen now. The entire electrical wiring had to be replaced. All new sheet-rock was put in. The floors sagged so the foundation had to be shored up. A new hot water heater was put in under the stairs so it’s out of the way. We haven’t replaced the counter tops, the cabinets or the flooring yet.

This is a portion of the back yard after 13 car hulks were removed. There was still this lovely goat shed that had a large metal drum with molasses in it and many tires. The nettles were so thick you couldn’t walk without full coverage. Notice the toilet bowl.

This is the same section of the yard after a lot of hard work on Tom and I’s part. We burned large amounts of debris including the old goat shed. We chopped the nettles down and got the grass to a manageable height. After all of this we set up some party tents and were married in this very back yard!

P.S. (2011):  I recently discovered more photos of our farmhouse renovation.  They are at http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Ibs2zRy3cs3Eg.  We have come a long way!