The Big Spring Project
My latest restoration project has been on the driveway side of the house. I did a large amount of work on the exterior kitchen wall, kitchen stoop, and laundry room wall last year. This year’s work consists of stripping the siding from the rest of this side of the house and restoring what’s behind it, putting up a picket fence so Joy the Papillon has a place to run safely off the leash, and doing some much-needed landscaping.
Here is this side of the house as it appeared when my friend finished having the debris cleared off the house, new roof put on, and aluminum siding painted.
This old photograph was provided to me by the descendants of John McCuiston. To the left you can see an awning that used to be over the laundry room window. The refrigerator also used to be in this room. To the right is the three-walled garage area with upstairs storage room. You can see where there was another outbuilding of some sort in the background. The two trees behind this building I believe to be the same two trees that stand there now. My great-uncle Johnny thinks they are persimmon trees, but because there is no longer a male or female tree I do not have any fruit. I hope to be able to remedy that soon.
At some point in the 1980s a connector was built from the laundry room/pantry to the garage, which you now see today.
I decided to go with Hardy Board for the siding that would go up on the missing portion. Because I had absolutely no experience in working with this material and also because I didn’t care to purchase the tools for this one-time project, I decided to get some friends of mine to help out.
And part of the fence is painted! I found this cast iron “Beware of the Dog” sign in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and ordered a second one to match from eBay. I then painted the signs to match the fence, with the same shade of green that I used on the trim of the house.
Since this picture, my mom and I have finished painting the fence and putting down the landscape fabric.
I am still in the process of trying to locate a six-over-six window that matches the others on the house to replace the one-over-one bathroom window. Once one is located (or made, if it comes down to it), the aluminum will come down, siding will go up, and this side will be restored.
Hopefully this phase will be done soon.