Deep Thoughts..

1 Peter 4:8 says that Love covers a multitude of sins.......so does paint!!!

It Never Ends....

It's been awhile since we last updated, but we've been busy, busy, busy!

We dug around the foundation of the house and pointed up the stone and parged the inside and outside of the basement walls. We also put on a waterproofing barrier on the outside of the walls before backfilling. Our oldest son found many treasures while digging!

While taking out windows to repair, Jeff noticed that most of the window sills needed replacing. Mostly due to water damage. Jeff rebuilt and installed all of the sills himself. When Jeff was working on one of the sills in the front of the house, he pulled a coin out of the wall. It was wedged in between the bricks. It's a one-cent piece dated 1817!
We scraped the entire exterior of the house of loose paint. Following lead safe practices, of course! I'm certified by MDE. We then hired someone to paint. It was too big of a job to do when other things needed Jeff's attention. As the painters finished with the window frames, Jeff installed storm windows and some extra insulation...hopefully, that will help with drafts!

Plumbing has been roughed-in, electric also. The HVAC guys have been working the past few days running duct work. Soon we'll have the outside buttoned up and be able to work on the inside over the winter.

What a Pane in the Glass!!!

For the past 3 weeks, we have been taking the panes out of the window sashes. So far, we've removed over 250 individual panes. We have about 15 more windows to go. Most of the windows are 6 over 6. The rest of the windows, in the front part of the house, are 6 over 9 and 9 over 9. We've managed to break very few panes. I don't know what is holding some of those panes in, but it's not window glazing...it's as hard as concrete. We've tried to heat the glazing up to see if it would soften any...NO. This past weekend, I barely finished 2 windows by slowly and delicately chipping and scraping away that "stuff."

On a more interesting note...

While Jeff was working on one of the sashes out of the family room, I noticed some pencil writing on the side.

" John Donahoo July 27th 1831"

After doing a little research, John Donahoo lived in Havre de Grace, MD and built Turkey Point Lighthouse among other lighthouses in Maryland and Virginia.

We figure this is the year the window was replaced. Hopefully, we'll find more "jewels" like this as we continue!

Tear the Roof of the Sucker...

1st major project was getting a new roof on her. The existing roof had been on for who knows how long and was leaking badly. The front part of the house had a cedar shake roof that wasn't installed properly. We decided to put a standing seam metal roof on the whole house. We bought our materials from A.B. Martin Roofing Supply in Ephrata, PA. We chose a barn red color that was similar to the metal roof that was on the back wing.


It took my husband, his friend Tony Johnson, and my husband's dad (Ron) about 2 weeks to tear off and put on. My dad helped too, but being a union worker, he was on break most of the time...hahaha. Actually, he helped quite a bit.









While they were working on the roof, we also had to have 2 chimneys rebuilt from the attic up and 2 others repaired and re-parged. The mortar was gone in spots and the bricks were litterally just sitting there. Thanks to our friend Pete Tibbin, we have beautiful new chimneys!

A History Lesson....

In the early 1700's, William Penn claimed approx. 18,000 acres of land known as the Nottingham Lots. Lots, because it is said that the buyers "drew lots" for the land that they were to purchase. Upon purchase, the buyers paid eight British pounds per 100 acres. The original Nottinghan Lots extended from just west of Newark, Delaware to Rising Sun, Maryland. In 1701, all 18,000 acres were in Chester County, PA. In the 1760's when Mason-Dixon surveyed the land, approx 16,000 became part of Cecil County, MD.



There were 37 original lots. The lot our house stands on is part of lot 31. Robert Dutton was the original purchaser. In 1722, Samuel Littler wanted to purchase an additional 300 acres and was sold part of lot 31. Upon Littler's death, his will instructed his son to sell some of the property. His son, John Littler, sold property to his brother-in-law, John Day. In 1739, John Day paid taxes on the property. There, he established the East Nottingham Tanyard. The tanyard was in operation until sometime around 1848.

Here we go!

We started the restoration of a property in December 2009 believed to be built in 1739, possibly earlier. Here we want to document our progress and any interesting things found.