a dream project

Normally we only make a post after we have finished a project so we can share all the beautiful and glamorous after photos, once the chaos has long died down and we have recovered. However, this upcoming project is not the case.

By some miracle we have been given the opportunity to restore the cutest stone house in the entire world. Honored does not even begin to describe the feeling. I wanted to share some before photos and explain the work a little bit so anyone interested can follow along. :)

First, we have to clean out the house. It’s been uninhabited since at least the 1950s and has been used largely as farm storage and even had a snowmobile repair shop at some point too! The main portion looks to be original and the back portion, in much rougher shape, an addition. That is our best guess, and as there are no windows on the back of the house we surmise the addition must have been planned all along. But who knows, that’s the joy of old buildings! You get to be a bit of a detective!

After the building is cleaned out (and boy, is there a LOT of stuff), in the spring we are going to be rebuilding the stone on the back addition and anywhere else that needs attention and then re-pointing all of the stone. We are getting all the mortar matched and consulting with a company in Chicago, so that we can get the exact aggregate, lime, and sand mix that was used originally. After that, we are replacing the roof with the same framing style and timber framing a new flooring system as all the floor joists have collapsed or rotted out. It will be such an adventure, but what an amazing opportunity to save a piece of history.