I walked through the house recently to get “before” pictures from every corner in every room, imagining that someday, the “
The time has finally come, and things started
So, here is what everybody has been asking to see. Here are photos of the house before the construction starts. Keep in mind that ALL surfaces will be redone in some way: walls, floors, ceilings, doors, windows, roof (and, of course, all new electrical, plumbing, heating). But being “redone” doesn’t mean that we are taking away the charm of the 300+ yr old house. Back then, it was common to paint over oak woodwork and paint or even cover up the ceiling beams. We hope to restore as much of the original wood as possible, blasting the paint off the beams, installing appropriate hardwood flooring to replace the hodgepodge of tile, and stripping and refinishing those painted doors and the stairway.
The house looks big but it is surprisingly small.
The front door is in sad shape and must be replaced. But we hope to keep the same style.
The entry area, with doors into living room on right, and kitchen on left. That is a narrow closet straight ahead. 
Entry closet and stairs. We plan to move the closet door back about 3 feet to open up the stairway a bit at the bottom.
This will be our kitchen.
That partial wall will be gone soon.
Looking back from within the kitchen toward the door to the entry.
Across the entry hall, this was their kitchen, but it will be our living room.
We hope to restore the fireplace that is behind that wall on the left. 
The back wall will be removed to expand the room a bit.
Through that door up the steps in the back of the living room is what we call the cave. 
We will make this cave into a combination pantry, laundry, and guest bath. It’s a long room that goes across the back of the house, so it will be accessed from both the kitchen and living room.
At the top of the stairs is a dinky bathroom. 
To the left, a nice-sized guestroom with the only working fireplace in the house. 
To the right, a large bedroom that had been divided into two rooms.
The stairs continue up to the attic. It’s spooky up there now. 
The attic is spacious and will become a large guest suite. 
When the roof is replaced, some of the supporting beams will have to be removed. We hope to keep as many as possible.
What I can’t show you is what doesn’t exist yet. We plan to build a perpendicular addition onto the house, which will become our master bedroom and bath. Fortunately, there is plenty of room for it as the backyard is massive.
The addition is shown on the plans, and here you can see how the cave goes across the back of the house. It already has an entry from the living room, so we will add a door from the kitchen so it can be used as a pantry and laundry.
So, that’s it. Now that work has begun, things are changing quickly. I will try to post often as changes are made.