Abandoned Colonial Cottage Complete Restoration

Jason
by Jason
We lost our house of 10 years a few years ago so I went on the hunt for a cheap fixer upper and boy did I find one! A beautiful property (once cleaned up!) within 5 min walking distance of a lake. Purchased towns interest in property for a dollar and hired a lawyer to foreclose on back taxes at a cost of approx 5k. A note on the house under the siding states it was "built the first time 1803". For a couple years now i have cleaned up the yard, gutted and rebuilt the house replacing all rotten wood, entire 1st floor had almost completely rotted and was replaced, a new foundation put in, dug and laid by hand! Good way to loose some weight! With the house stable inside I started putting the restored windows back in and new siding up. Plan to double the size of the house with a 16'x30' addition to the back (should make the house look more like a saltbox) and an 8'x10' addition to the driveway side for an additional entrance/mudroom. This is tough to try and sum up here but if you're interested in seeing more progress photos i've created a blog for family and friends, see link below.
As it sat before i went to work, yard completely claimed by weeds and homehold garbage all over the property
the people that once lived here never used a garbage can or took anything to the dump, all garbage was just tossed outside or left inside, huge mess, made numerous dump runs and filled 2 - 30 yard dumpsters! And as if that wasn't enough, there was a huge garage on the right side of the house which had burned down at some point so i had that to clean up as well!!
The back wall was the worst due to the rotting lower roof and this wall sat on a timber foundation which was completely rotted so this wall was pretty much just hanging there, I leaned against it and the wall swung in, pretty scary!
getting rid of the back wall while jacking up and supporting the house on the inside
back wall almost all gone, digging out crawl space and new foundation
old porch gone and new foundation, joists, floor and framing done, enclosed half of porch to enlarge dining area.
front porch roof almost done, enclosing half of porch
starting to look live a livable house again!
the driveway/right side of the house after old siding was removed, note crumbling concrete block foundation
the right side of house as it stands today, getting there!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 167 comments
Next