Old House in Need of Life Support

One of the blogs I look at, Old House Dreams, posts real estate listings featuring old homes, often as candidates for restoration. Many of these feature low prices (at least compared to other areas), prompting any number of "Oh, I would love to buy that and fix it up if it were only (in a place I actually wanted to live, wasn't in an economically depressed area, wasn't adjacent to a sewage treatment plant, etc.)."

One recent post was particularly intriguing, because I was somewhat familiar with the area, and was going to be traveling through it in the near future. The house is outside of Sharon Springs, NY (a town whose main activity seems to be the Instagramming of the abandoned spa and hotels from its heyday). This particular house had a gloomy, mysterious appearance. I thought it would make a great subject for a painting.

This house does take "fixer upper" to a whole new level, but the fact that you see little evidence of post-1900 material about provides it with a time-capsule, derelict atmosphere.

A better photographer than I am could probably do a good photo essay on this place. Will I ever do a painting? Who knows, but I am afraid anything I attempt would just be a "forlorn house" cliche.

Front view

Rear Left Corner

Side with missing chimney

Front door

Front and side. Guess light bill was unpaid.

Gable end

Rear view looks like someone tried residing with manufactured board

Looks like another missing chimney; probably a small porch was here as well.

The Doors



It seems that in New England, we are known for our difficulty in parting with things that would appear to have outlived their usefulness. And in fact, I (and others) often find inspiration in them. you may remember seeing this scene from one of our painting sessions at a florist's premises, where some of us were more interested in the debris pile than the flowers.

 

 

 I even completed a water color of this scene.

 

 

Then, a few weeks later, I was cleaning out the cellar in Maine, and after hauling these old doors out of the cellar, took some photos to use as a reference for a potential painting project.

 

 

I was planning to take them to the dump, even though it was against my nature, but instead, took them home and painted them so that I can use them as a display backdrop. But when I get a chance, I will still do a painting of them as they looked when first seeing the light of day after years in the cellar.

 

Painting Floors

Even thought this weekend in Wiscasset was beautiful (and probably the last nice weekend of the season), indoor work was on the schedule. The floors of a bedroom and hallway were due for a new paint job. Only good part is you don't need to be on a ladder to paint floors.

Another Snowball Project

A few weeks ago, we stopped at a yard sale and, and after some dithering, bought a molded ceiling medallion, with the idea of using it in the Wiscasset house. Simple enough, but of course, it became another "snowball" project. After painting it, and then taking it to Maine, realized that the reason for the nice depth was that it was intended for a ceiling fan, rather than a light fixture. Ok, so we'll just make an adjustment.

 

I had some extra lamp rod, and cut a new piece, but forgot to allow for the canopy, and didn't want a piece that just barely made it. So, off to the hardware store, where I also found a new hanging bracket that would make life easier, and I didn't even need to pick up extra nuts, as they were included with the bracket. Back to the house, where I realized that someone must have returned the bracket to the store, and I hadn't noticed the package had been opened and the nuts removed.

 

So, back to the hardware store, where I laid in a good supply of lamp and wiring supplies as a hedge for future projects. Finally installed, it makes a nice addition to the front hall. On to the next project!

 

 

 

Finished Steps

The repairs to the steps and railings are complete (see Snowball Project) for details.

 

 

Fall color has not been that dramatic around the neighborhood.

Another Snowball Project

Working around the house, there are often small repair jobs that quickly snowball into more involved projects. The railings on the front steps were getting loose, and I wanted to tighten the bolts that held them to the brickwork. Since it was a nice day, it seemed reasonable to allocate 15 minutes to this task.

 

Of course, once I looked, one was loose because a brick it was bolted into was loose. As were a number of adjacent bricks. The other railing was also loose, due to missing bolts, leading me to suspect some other issue there as well.

So, next step was to remove the railings, and as long as they were off, and it was a nice day, scrape/sand/wire brush the flaking paint and rust so that I could prime and ultimately repaint them.

Almost had enough primer to complete this.

So, let's repair the brick work. Mixed up the mortar, and placed most of the loose bricks. Not enough mortar to finish that part of the job.

But it was a nice sunny day, so it was not unpleasant to spend all of Sunday afternoon working on this.

Today I will go to the home improvement store for additional primer, paint, mortar mix, bolts and inserts, masonry drill (and check out prices on new power drill, as it seemed to be dying during the wire brushing).