01. The Front
The house is on the left with the doors and windows...
The barn is on the right with an old, large machine door.
These are some photos of our house; a work in progress. Click on any for a description or on the first one to view as a complete slideshow
The house is on the left with the doors and windows...
The barn is on the right with an old, large machine door.
The back of the house - with part of the barn on the left. The little balcony, we hope to fix and have coming off the kitchen with a spiral staircase down to a terrace .... Yeah, I know, big plans!
This is the side view. One of the things we are really excited about is we can walk all around our house. Not a very common feat here in Europe - with an old house.
Closer look at the balcony... We're putting the door back and will repair the balcony, with a spiral staircase leading down to the ground.
This is a view of our house from the road on the other side of the field. The house is on the right and the attached barn on the left.
You can see the full basement, with doors and windows along the bottom.
This is a sketch of the house as we bought it. It was listed as a 4 bedroom house.
The new plans: There is currently a window overlooking the balcony at the end of the hall. We will be putting the door back. Also, in the hall, we will be putting stairs up to the first floor, which will eventually have 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We are removing the door between the new kitchen and the den but leaving the door way - the wall there is 2 feet thick. And we made a 5' opening from the new kitchen into the hall across from what will be the dining room. The tiny 'old' kitchen well be a laundry room/pantry.
This is the complete 'old kitchen'. There was nothing else in it. It was actually built on to the side of the house - but in the barn. We think the old man probably cooked in the fireplace.
This is the new kitchen before we started work. It's 16' X 17' roughly 275 sq feet (30 sq meters)
This is the room that the front (and only) door leads into. The door you see off to the side goes into the barn. This will be the den.
This is our 1 working fireplace. It needs a bit of care but it works great! It also has a chimney that one can stand up in.
This is why we redid the floors: Rotten boards plus walking around was like being on a heaving sailboat.
This will be the bedroom to start, while we work on the 1st floor. Eventually, it will be a dining room. We won't be saving this fireplace.
Each of the 4 rooms are about 275 sq ft. This one we hope to be the living room... We'll put another, smaller stove in this fireplace. We think - we have to open it up first.
This is the first floor - wide open and filled with hand-hewn beams.
Our, quite ambitious plan, is to put 4 bedrooms and 2 baths up here. It had been used to dry tobacco. And, yes, one can stand up, even in the corners under the beams. It's a very high ceiling.
These are the current stairs going to the 1st floor. They are in the barn. They are rotten.
I did not actually go into the cellar - there were no lights. But I stuck my camera under the door and snapped. See the bat hanging in the lower left corner?
