Holiday weekend

We had an eventful Memorial Day weekend over at the Sharptown house, where we've finally started kicking it into high gear. We finally got 100% of the old furniture and things out of the house, and started demo on a small scale. The first things to come out were the 1970's built-ins and wooden covers over the windows.

Thanks, Erin!

This really opened up and brightened the living room more than I had anticipated that it would. We also took this time to open up the walls and investigate some things. First off, we knew there was a brick chimney running up the wall between the (future) kitchen and dining room. While we were pretty sure it had been there for a wood stove, we didn't know which room the wood stove sat in. The answer is - both rooms!

Kitchen side of the chimney, with a low iron pipe for a cooking stove

Dining room side of the chimney, Mark is chipping away old plaster but you can see the iron pipe for a heating stove at the top of this picture

We were excited to get this chimney exposed because we plan on leaving it out for a nice accent in both the kitchen and dining rooms. Second, we tore off the part of the dining room ceiling that had obviously sustained significant water damage. We found pretty much what we had expected- extensive rot and old beams that were supported by absolutely nothing, because a wall has apparently been removed at the back of the house at some point. If it looks to you like someone just shoved a bunch of rotting wood beams in the ceiling, well, that's what it looked like to me, too. This confirms what we has suspected about the sagging floors in Ivy's room, and will require a significant header and jacking up to get it right again.

Scary and gross!

We also had a very exciting find this weekend- an antique pamphlet detailing various aspects of the house and a description of its use as a rabbit, pigeon, and chicken farm- but more on that later.