The House In The Woods - Inside Before

I'll do a much better drawing to start working from soon, but until then I have a rough sketch to show how The House in the Woods looks right now.  As I said in the first post (A House in the Woods - Outside Before) THitW was originally two houses that were connected with one room that I'm calling the breezeway.  You can see clearly the small house in the back that had it's own kitchen, bedroom, pantry, closet, and a small porch.  The bigger part of the home up front is nearly a thousand square feet with a large front porch where you could wait out a downpour and not feel a drop.  It's BIG! 

It's currently a three bedroom, two bath house with a challenging layout.  But I like that.  There's lots of potential and plenty of great details to work with; wood floors, wood planks on the walls, and wood ceilings.  My first job will be coming up with a more efficient plan.  As I said before, I intend to open things up  and may even juggle some of the rooms so the Living/Dining/Kitchen are closer together.  The bedrooms being spread out is great if you have a house full of snorers, but what parents want their children sleeping on the other side of the house?  All the sleeping quarters need to be closer together.   

I also need to eliminate some of the wasted space and improve the foot traffic, which is always in mind as I redesign a home.  That breezeway is like a big hall with too much wasted square footage.  I also need to add a bathroom to the back of the house.  Bedroom #1 has a door out onto the porch, which makes me wonder if they used to use this room as some type of home office.  This front bedroom isn't accessible from indoors without walking through the bathroom so there's an obvious opportunity to make that functionally more practical.  There are plenty of closets, but they're sort of jacked up.  Efficient, practical closet space is a big plus when it's time to sell.  It's not hard to work in if you're thinking about closets from the start and I always am.  I have to squeeze in a laundry room too... at least dedicated space for a washer and dryer. 

The shuttered bay windows in the front bedroom.

The main kitchen is ready to be modernized.

The back bedroom has some sweet trim.

Kitchen in the back.  Pantry on the right,

door to the porch on the left.

Windows in the breezeway is a clue that

this used to be the outside.

The panels on the high ceilings cover up wood.  Nice!

Living Room

This reminds me of the days when we only had three channels.

This house is really dark inside because

of all the overgrowth on the outside.

Although I'm ready to start... I'm not quite ready to start.  :)  I have some other projects to finish first.  However, everyone keeps asking me what's next and seems as excited about this one as I am.  I'm still trying to decide the best way for everyone to watch me dig into it, but I'm figuring that out and it's going to be a whole lot of fun! 

Stay tuned peoples.

A House in the Woods - Outside Before  (Sept. 23, 2016)

A House In The Woods - Outside Before

I've seen houses like this for decades, but until now I've never owned one.  Mother Nature is winning.  She hasn't won yet, but it looks like she's already victorious.  She's not.  This house had a great metal roof system installed decades ago, I'm not sure if it's original, but it's done an outstanding job for a long time and that has made the difference for this special place. 

I'm so excited to clean up the property and give the home a chance to breathe again.  It's engulfed by trees, vines, bushes, weeds, and natural debris.  However, getting choked by the invasive plants are some grand oaks, pines, and magnolias as well as grape vines and flowering bushes that need room to thrive and bloom again. 

This Pig's Ear is like many old homes in this part of the country in that it's actually two separate homes that were connected together to become one.  The small house in the back is close to four hundred square feet and the biggest home in the front is nearly 1,150.  The small section that connects the two buildings, perhaps a large breezeway that has since been enclosed, is a little shy of two hundred square feet. 

I've been inside and know the conditions on the interior.  I have a lot of work to do, but this house has tons of potential.  I'm going to open it up and transform it into something extraordinary.  It will be a smart, practical renovation that I'll do in a way that honors the home's history, while making this house feel modern and cool.  There are plenty of windows which will make it easy to let the natural light pour in from multiple directions. 

The original little house in the back.

This metal roof is made up of multiple, interlocking squares of metal.

These delicate corner details are in surprisingly good condition.

The azaleas blooming in the spring.

The pictures on the inside are next.

American Rehab Virginia

I hope you’re enjoying American Rehab Virginia on the DIY Network.  Homeowner couple Catherine and Tayloe Emery are the hands-on hosts, who are occasionally juggling their two young boys (and rambunctious dogs) as they take on a room at a time.  Four episodes have been shared already on DIY, but it’s not too late to see any missed episodes to get caught up. 

 

The home is named Mt.Airy and located on the  Rappahannock River.  This 450 acre homestead has been in the Tayloe Family since 1682!  Wow!  The thing that grabs my attention first off is two-fold; the size and the symmetry.  When I think of this as a builder, it’s impressive because it’s so massively ambitious.  Right and left side, everything has to be the same or the entire effect will be tarnished.  This building could not have been easy to build back in the mid 1700’s, but they obviously did it right.

 

My initial reaction to what I see inside is about potential.  There appears to be amazing opportunities to make major improvements and I'll enjoy learning more about how this home was built.  I'd love to be the one to tear it apart and put it back together.  I love history and this house has plenty of that.  It's flanked by two dependencies which are all connected as a trio by two curved passageways, one of which is the Kitchen that gets renovated on the show.  Square footage details weren’t part of the first episodes, but some basic math tells me this five part building is over 7,500 square feet!

 

As always, I don't want to serve as a spoiler.  Watch Friday, 10pm to 12 on DIY and see for yourself.