Then and Now #2 After Lang Sine Farm

Entry

The formal entry is located in the Civil War addition and was constructed by Paul and Sarah Smith. It is 12' wide by 16' long and three stories high. The wall along the first floor and attic staircases is the exterior wall of the original house. We removed the stucco on this wall to expose the stone. At the top of the first floor staircase, almost to the second story landing, we found a window frame that had been filled with stone and covered with stucco. This was the original window in the stairwell during the late 1700s and early 1800s. It exhibits mortise and tenon construction with corner pegs. Unfortunately, we don't have any photos of the wall with stucco intact.

entry east wall.jpg

entry chandelier 1.jpg entry chandelier 2.jpg

Living Room South Window

The original part of the house on the first floor was dark because of the porch to the west, an addition to the east, and an addition to the north. The exterior south door was solid wood and there wasn't any window on the south side of the house. So we changed all the doors on the south side (three of them) to 12 lite glass doors and added a window in the south wall. The photos below show the window being installed. Howard "Big Man" Haymaker made the hole through 2 feet of stone. Babs framed out the window and Big Man closed it up again. It makes quite a difference in the living room now.

The first picture shows Big Man taking out the stones. He said the hole looked like "Franklinstein" at that point.

Front Bay Window

We believe that Charles and Lydia Hardesty installed a bay window in the front of the house, in the original part, sometime in the 1880s. This changed the entire character of the Federal Style architecture. It just didn't look right! So we removed it and installed a window to match the other window in the front of the house. This restored the symmetry. We also moved the original door from the exterior wall to the interior wall.

bay window front porch.jpg bay window blocking up.jpg front porch old door.jpg

South Side

The south side of the house had an addition constructed by Addison Withers around 1914. The original downstairs of the house was divided in half, from front to back. The south room was Addison and Mary Withers' bedroom. Mrs. Glascock was born in the SE corner of that room in 1908, about where the south door is now. Addison added the room to expand the bedroom and have a "sun porch" - a screened-in porch to the east of the addition. Mrs. Glascock said the room was too hot, so Addison just used it for "tools" and storage. We removed the addition completely and will be building a pergola there someday...

Living Room

The first floor of the original house has been designated the living room. It was divided into two separate rooms, the wall running from front to back. The dividing wall had a door in the middle of the wall. The ceiling and walls were covered with tongue and groove wood that had been faux painted to look like light pine. This was done by the Hardisty's in the Victorian Era. They also added a bay window in the front wall next to the original door.

The Clarke County Historical Society advised me not to remove the wall dividing the room because they felt it was original to the 1790s house. The floor was covered with short knap carpeting, a layer of plywood subfloor and wood veneer. When we removed all the coverings, we found the original pine floorboards, some 18" wide. There were burns throughout the room from the fireplaces (there are two in this room) and about 10% or so were in poor condition. Without the added plywood support, the floor bounced like a trampoline. Some of the beams below were weak.

But the rooms were small and dark and we didn't like the layout or looks of any of it. So out came the wall, the carpeting, plywood and veneer. Much to our suprise, the wall was NOT original because we found the original chair rail behind where the dividing wall met the back wall. All the wood came off the ceiling too because it seemed oppressive. The original interior had a chair rail running around the room at the level of the window aprons. The Hardesty's removed the rail and patched over the stone with cement. The original floorboards were removed too so we could repair the beams and lay down a plastic vapor barrier since the basment below has a dirt floor. We installed a 3/4" tongue and groove plywood as a subfloor, then will replace and original pine floorboards in the future.

Looking Northeast. Exposed floor logs. Note Chair Rail position. Looking into Dining Room. Note wall to right of door. North fireplace under restoration n living room fireplace.jpg

North Fireplace n living room wall.jpg Northeast part of Living Room ne living room and fireplace.jpg South Fireplace s living room fireplace.jpg

Stay tuned. Living Room "Now" pictures are coming soon. Presently, the room is used as storage because elsewhere, the floors are being refinished.