September, 2016 - McCuiston House

Restoration/ September 7, 2016May 18, 2018

Kitchen Stoop Restoration

September 6, 2012. Goodness… just look at that. This is how she looked when I first went to look at the inside of the house.

Wisteria, English ivy, poison ivy, and periwinkle had been the only inhabitants of the McCuiston House for almost two years. A break-in attempt had left the screen door askew, a nasty roof leak (discovered by my friend when we first walked in the house–the dining room floor was covered in water), aluminum siding, and a busted-up brick patio were hiding the charm of this old farmhouse.

My friend purchased the house to keep her from deteriorating further, and just a few days later the clearing of the debris began. After two days worth of work, the vines were cleared, revealing the brick patio was much larger than anticipated, and there was a nice brick planter area. The plastic shutters were removed, which really helped the look of the old house. I found out later that the house was originally without shutters.

Once the debris was removed, a much-overdo new roof was put on. The aluminum siding was pressure washed and spray painted, and a plastic cover was added over the old coal window to keep water and other things from getting down into the window well and cellar. As there was much to do around the rest of the exterior and the interior, the kitchen area remained like this until after I purchased the house in June 2014.

When my friend purchased the old house, I worked hard to try to find the descendants of the builder of the house. You can learn how I found them in my previous post. I was able to contact the great-granddaughter of John James McCuiston, Mrs. Betty Carlson, last year. She was the last of the family to own the house, and raised her children here. She now lives in Virginia, and I was honored to have Mrs. Carlson, her daughter and son, and her grandson (the great-great-great-grandson of John McCuiston) to visit the house this past Christmas. We had a wonderful visit full of old stories, coffee, and several old photos of the place that they were so kind to share with me.

Because they want to keep the history of this place alive, Mrs. Carlson so graciously gave me permission to share their names and old photos with you.

23172232286_56be4515c1_c I believe this photo was taken in the 1950s. You can see the original layout of the house. This is the closest I have to an original photo of this end of the house. The laundry room is to the left, and the old garage is to the right. The garage was connected to the house sometime in the 1980s after Mrs. Carlson sold the home.

Now it’s time to get on to the good stuff! Restoration, here we come!!!

October 2015–A good friend of mine is a bricklayer by trade. When he heard that I was planning on tackling the brick patio by myself, he and his family very kindly volunteered their services. The project took several phases as the job was done on Saturdays and there was a lot of damage from years of overgrowth of vines and tree roots. Lots of cement, new pavers, and coffee on cold days saw this job through.

“Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends.”
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Since the patio was now repaired and no longer a death trap due to broken brick, it was time to have friends over for a good meal. October was Pastor Appreciation Month at our church, so a few of us 18 to 30-somethings got together for a good supper and time around the fire pit with our pastor and pastor’s wife. Nobody caught on fire and everyone had a great time. It’s a blessing to have such a tight group of friends–we are truly more like family.

Hard to beat a good salad and lasagna

Hot chocolate and s’mores–always a cold-weather favorite

February 2016–Time to start tearing some stuff up!

Thanks to the wise advice from several members over at The Historic District, I knew not to start removing the siding until after a few very good freezes so any bees behind the siding will be good and dead. Because… ain’t nobody got time for that! And being pretty allergic to bee stings, I figured I would rather put my money into this restoration project instead of an ER visit.

Because this portion of the stoop was not covered with siding when my friend bought the place, I knew exactly what would be behind the vinyl siding on the ceiling.

24497055519_d027c607fc_b 24771213221_71393358d4_b

Yep. Exactly as I remembered it. Lookin’ better already!

My parents were supposed to have already showed up at this point to help me yank this mess off, but they had been delayed. I didn’t want to wait around, so me any my little pink hammer went to work on the aluminum siding beside the kitchen door.

Here we go, to uncharted territory! What kind of siding would be behind the aluminum? The metal siding had been put up in the ’70s by Mrs. Carlson, the great-granddaughter, because the paint job every so many years had gotten tiring. She knew the wood siding had been in good shape at that point, but who knew what it looked like after so many years?

24771213121_11fff9d3e1_b Look at that!!! SIDING!!!! That’s one happy face, right there, y’all! Of course, I had to have a monogrammed ballcap–I am Southern, after all… (Go get yourself a monogrammed ballcap! I bought it from ThePalmGifts over at Etsy.com, but they don’t have any available now. If you want one of your own to wear during your own projects, you can purchase a similar one here.)

The job’s not done… on with the ripping out!

24864638605_edb58e4d25_b After I got the side wall of the kitchen stoop stripped out, my parents showed up with a ladder and more tools. My dad helped get the ceiling light down and tore off the rest of the vinyl on the ceiling. If you look closely, you can see one of the five wasp nests hiding behind all the stuff we removed. If I hadn’t have heeded the advice of my good friends over at The Historic District, the day may not have ended on such a good note. 😉

Once the sun began to set, the temperature began heading back towards the low 40s, so we called it a day. We did make one surprise discovery–the wiring for the old ceiling porch light was bad, so I knew I would be rewiring for a new wall light.

The following Saturday, February 2016–Time to finish yanking off the rest of the siding from the kitchen wall! This project was a mother-daughter one. As you can see here, I was pretty excited to see how much larger the windows seemed once the siding was off! Having aluminum or vinyl siding on an old home really does destroy the character and details that one expects to see on an old place like this one.

There’s my lovely mamma! Another day’s work done. Boy, isn’t it a big difference in the details? The house already looks even more like it should just by having the aluminum removed.

April 2016–Time to throw down some paint!

The dangerous wiring of the old porch light was disconnected and I added a cap to fill in the hole. After removing as much of the old paint that I could and sanding the surface, I painted the stoop ceiling a traditional Southern “haint blue”. Supposedly this color mimics the sky and insects are less likely to build nests and such. Believe it or not, I haven’t had to content with wasp nests or spider webs this summer since this color was added.

And there it is! Before and after.

I am in search of a Victorian screen door that I can alter to have an interchangeable screen for summer and Plexiglas insert for winter. I am also looking for a salvage Victorian porch post. These three windows will be replaced with historically-accurate four-over-four to replace the two vinyl windows (on the left) and the window in the early laundry room/extended pantry addition (on the right). That window will also have an appropriate window frame added that replicates the original style of the house that you see on the kitchen windows.

She’s not quite there yet, but she’s sure come a long way.