This post will feature a bit of a quick introduction to my two friends who are restoring this old farmhouse, as they'll be appearing occasionally in photos. It will also show some of the interior of the detached barn (which you'll be able to see more clearly from the exterior in the next post).
My friends' names are Angelina and Pierre. I've been friends with Angie since high school, and we met through another mutual friend. She is very interested in archaeology, and she spent many years working at Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg. Through her, I was able to see many events held at the village (which I always adore visiting). Pierre is her husband, and I think we (our group of friends) first met him around 2010, maybe 2009? He is very interested in 3D modeling and computer graphic design. They're the same age as me (32 going on 33).
I asked Angie if she had any earlier "before" photos of the house, and she sent me a bunch, most of which will follow.
Here we see the office (refer to floor plan) where Pierre is ripping up some of the old linoleum flooring. The walls also had wallpaper (there was wallpaper and mac-tac pretty much everywhere in the house) but by this point they had already removed it from this room. I believe she told me that this room also had ugly shag carpeting over the linoleum. I'm not sure what was in the hallway with the staircase. Probably more of the same.
Here's another shot of the original front room archway which we opened up (which will be shown in the next post). You can see two of the old wallpaper layers. I shared a similar photo, but in this one you can see the patch work along the bottom. Some of it is moulding, and the other half is a sawn piece of tongue-and-groove. All of it is nailed in place with old square nails, and we were able to figure out that this archway has been blocked up since the mid 1920s.
The second archway in the same room, looking into the main room (living room). Here you can see some of the ugly and soiled carpeting. Ick! As I've already mentioned, the house was largely empty aside from 2 or 3 cats for around 4 or 5 years. You can also see the poorly patched-in HVAC stack to the right. I had thought it was drywall, but it is in fact painted plywood.
The main room before renovations. Brown shag carpet, and beige floral wallpaper. The picture on the far wall is actually hand stitch work from around the 1970s or 80s, and is a family made piece. I believe it's being kept, but I'm not too sure where it will end up.
Under the carpeting was linoleum. This one is printed to look like carpeting! I had no idea they ever made such a product. It's kind of funny, kind of cool, and kind of hideous all at the same time, haha!
Under some of the linoleum were old newspapers. This was one of the neat looking pages from the Ottawa Journal, dated September 9, 1969!
Barn
Here's Angie standing within the chicken coop portion at the back of the detached barn.
I didn't really grab a good photo near the front of the barn, but I'll describe it as best as I can. It is, after all, just a barn. When you walk in, there are 3 stalls for animals. They didn't look large enough for horses, so I have to assume something smaller. To the left is a narrow hallway that leads to the next section of the barn. On the right hand side of this hallway are some pantry cupboards with old doors and narrow shelves. There were remnants of medications for farm animals in one of them.
The next room is where some of the next photos were taken. This is largely just a big square room with posts propping-up the sagging ceiling. The left wall (same wall with the hallway) is badly caving in. Further along that wall it leads into the chicken coop section, which seems to have been tacked-on to the main barn later. To help, I've just quickly thrown together this floor plan of the detached barn:
There was a sort of foothold or ladder, so I was able to grab this photo that shows the small attic of the chicken coop section.
The actual chicken coop, with the small side door to the outside.
Here is the saggy left hand wall looking from the chicken coop door towards the front of the barn. Don't let your brain adjust the angles, it's THAT crooked. You can see the hinged door on the left is hanging fairly vertically. The man at the far end is Angie's father. The floor is all rough and cracked concrete.
Facing the right wall of the large square room. The item in the lower centre of the photo is a rough ladder to go up to the loft (second floor). Half the floor is rotted so it was not in any way safe to even attempt this.
This is the section of wall between the coop and the rear door. A lot of the interior of the barn has floral bits of linoleum tacked to the walls. It's actually kind of pretty. It almost looks like 17th century tapestries. I assume this is old linoleum flooring that was once in the house.
Looking up into the loft.
Rear door.
The loft again from a slightly different angle.
As far as I know there aren't any current plans for the barn other than try to keep it standing. I assume that it would be nice to fix it up, square it up, and use it for something, but that will be time and budget permitting, and after everything else is finished. Until next time. (And for those who are curious, it's now 10:52PM as I'm wrapping this up). Final edits done at 11:08! :P
What a project! That linoleum that looks like carpet is wild. I don't think I have ever seen anything like that either. Tacking up linoleum seems to be a "thing." We have bits and pieces tacked up over holes and gaps on various porches and in the basement.
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