About this time of year in 2011 (March 4) I featured a home in the Lykins Neighborhood that had just been purchased and was under renovation. Anthony had undertaken the task. More needed to be done than he had imagined.... termites, leaking roof, hidden doors, tuck pointing of brick... but progress has been made and there's an update below. But, for reference, see this link first:
http://hyperblogal.blogspot.com/2011/03/northeast-mansions-volume-5-lykins.html
The original porch had to be removed and, above, you can see the new one going into place with footings that are 3-feet deep. The porch will wrap around the front and east and west sides. East side, below, has a door restored to the porch. Below the right portion of the brick has been restored by a previous owner ... the center section will be the next to be rebuilt. Three courses of bricks on the lower story, decreasing by one to the top. Anthony estimates the home will be finished by the end of this year.
Below, the west side. Those two windows, center section, at the bottom had to be dug out. They were buried in dirt. Anthony built a retaining wall next to them.
Living room/parlor floor ( above and below ) had to be completely reconstructed due to heavy termite damage..
All new electrical, plumbing, and HVAC has been installed.
A lot of the original woodwork has been preserved.. the door above came from the second floor but will be installed here. Below, the kitchen with a new bathroom on the left which was moved from the front part of the home.
The basement above, now, below in 2011... most of the floor joists had rotted away..
Anthony has done all of the work himself.... to show the scope of that work, the arrow below shows how high dirt had been piled up from there to the wall. It had to be hauled out a bucket at a time through a hole in the wall.
Below, the only remaining sample of the wallpaper in the house... with color on the right closest to the original colors.... this is by the stairs leading from the basement to the first floor.
New bathroom going in on the second floor, below, and laundry room above.
Finishing the floor and cleaning paint off a door are all that remain to be done in this, the bedroom. The door, below, was interesting.
Master suite on the second floor above, and, below, detail of the fireplace.
The detailed painting on the exterior can be seen through the window of the third bedroom... Anthony also cleaned the paint off the limestone above the window so the carving could be seen.
Attic
Above and below, some things that were found in the house during restoration. Above, comics from 1927, below, picture of one of the original occupiers of the home.
Below, all the artifacts that have been found to date including two pennies, one from 1924 and one from 1895.
What a labor of love that is! The grandson ran into some of the same problems this house had, remodeling our old house. The north side of it had, at some time in the past, been invaded by termites and had sunk five inches. The grandson swears that he would never attempt to have such a monstrous remodeling job done again, but would tear down the old and build new. Old houses contain many unpleasant surprises.
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