RE: My Promo-Mentors writing challenge: Ever had a mouse chew your hair at night?
I am not necessarily scared of mice, but I hate them and can't stand the idea of them jumping out at any moment. I realize they can't hurt me, but the thought of them touching me grosses me out. When we bought our farm house two years ago it probably could have been considered condemned. It was that bad. We spent time deciding whether or not to tear or down or restore it. We chose to restore it and after camping on the property for several months got the kitchen, bathroom, and one bedroom livable and moved in while we worked on there rest. Well, since most of the house was still in rough shape and the house had been vacant for two years we had mice issues. I will never forget one night when I was sleeping and a mouse ran across my face. I lost it! I couldn't sleep after that! We ended up buying metal bed frames that sit really high off the ground (which is excellent or storing totes underneath) to keep mice from getting into the bed and I've slept much better.
Oh my goodness, that would completely freak me out!! I had a cockroach do that to me one time in an old apartment...yuck! It's nearly impossible to sleep after experiencing that.
I'm impressed that you tackled restoring a condemnable-worthy farmhouse! How old is it? I love old farm houses. We have neighbors that have one on their property and they decided against restoring it because it's just a disaster. It's a shame because the building itself is really pretty.
My cover photo on my page is a pic of the outside of the house. You can't tell by the outside, but our house originally was a two-story log cabin moved to this location in 1864. We don't know where it was originally built. It was added onto in the late 1800s and turned into a "salt box style" house. At some point in time (we believe early 1900s - maybe 1920-ish?) a back part was added onto the house. The whole place was sided with asbestos shingles and then eventually to vinyl siding. That is why, from the outside you can't tell it was once a two story log home!
When we renovated we tore most everything out. Drywall, ceiling tiles, etc. We actually removed a portion of the back wall and flooring and rebuilt them as they were in disrepair. We brought the original log cabin down to the logs on the second floor (first floor had been covered with beautiful vintage beadboard at some point in time and I didn't have the heart to tear it down because it was beautiful). We considered restoring some of the logs upstairs, but after much research we realized we just couldn't do everything. House has turned out pretty nice overall. Still lots of projects to do, but we have the whole house functional now, which is the most important thing.
By the way, unless your names are Chip & Joanna Gaines, don't restore a farmhouse. It is such an ENORMOUS undertaking. And trying to homestead on top of that is, well, CRAZY. Ha ha ha ha!
Another interesting thing is that we found several partial pairs of shoes (circa 1920's or 1930's) in the walls behind the drywall in the log cabin portion. I kinda wonder what happened to the other half of the pairs of shoes? Was there a mischievous child hiding shoes in the wall during a renovation? Or did the child find a way to shove them behind the wall through a small hole? Who knows! But it was fun coming up with ideas on why those shoes were there!
One thing that felt sentimental to me as we were doing demo was that there were so many layers of wallpaper. On the walls and even on the ceilings. I think the most layers we counted in one area was 7! That's a lot of wallpaper! And you know each layer was saved for and meticulously picked out by whoever owned the home. I know how excited I get when I paint a room a new color. These homeowners were probably equally excited each time the wallpaper got replaced with the more modern wallpaper of the time. Made me a bit tearful thinking about all the thought and joy that went into picking out each layer of wallpaper as I carelessly scraped it away. We did take some pictures, of course, but it still felt sad scraping it off.
Wow, that was such interesting reading! I loved it! If the cabin was moved in 1864 I wonder when it was actually built...what a treasure!! How funny to find shoes behind the wall. Now I'm wondering how and why they got there, too! Were they kid's shoes or adult?
I can relate on the wallpaper thing in that my family briefly owned a 100-year old house when I was in 8th grade and my dad scraped all the old exterior paint off before painting it...I forget how many layers there were, but it was insane, and that house had been pretty much every color at some point in time.
It must be fun thinking back and speculating on who lived there and what happened to them along the way of enjoying life within those walls. Now you get to add another layer to that, just like the wallpaper :)
Yes, the cabin was moved in 1864. We are very close to several Civil War battlefields and camps (central Kentucky), so part of us wonders if it was moved due to a battle or something? Maybe a battle broke loose in their backyard and they couldn't stand the thought of living there anymore? Or maybe one side or the other commandeered their land and forced them to move? Who knows! It's exciting to think about, that's for sure! I plan to eventually do some research at our local historical society and try to figure it out.
There were adult and kids shoes in the wall. They were in really bad shape. We took a picture and tossed them.
If you piece together the history of the house, I hope you post about it :)