Finished Master Bedroom and Master Bath

We have recently completed the master bedroom and master bathroom.  The master bath is in the exact location and size of the original in 1877.  The bathroom had been redone in the 30s and again in the 60s as evidenced by a copy of the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1960 discovered under the floorboards. 
 There must have been a cistern on the 3rd floor to supply water to this bathroom and the kitchen directly below.  The cistern was supported with 10x3s on 12 inch centers. Unfortunately, contractors had cut deeply into the 10x3s for the plumbing on both floors and they now needed sistering to adequately support the loads.  With wide lumber on narrow centers,  there was little room for the bolt and tool to drive it!
The bedroom ceiling was originally wallpapered.  None of it was in good condition,  The best pieces were in the closet.  We found a wallpaper that had a similar character, metallic flower petals on off-white paper.  There was no evidence of original fixtures but there were built-in corner sinks in each main bedroom.  These might not have had supply water, but we found remains of a lead pipe in the wall that probably served as a drain.  The bell cable on the wall in the master bedroom is fully functional, except no servants come anymore.
We discovered a gas pipe in the sidewall of the bathroom, so we put sconces on the wall as a tribute to the original lighting.  I assure you that the low flow Kohler toilet and dimmable overhead lights are far superior to the original single gas light and Mr Crapper's nearly original design.  We bought a sideboard at a local auction house to serve as a vanity and adapted a pair of vessel sinks to it. We wanted the room fully functional but in character with the original (still novel) idea of a furnished room with running water.

Here is what the bedroom looked like with the drop ceiling and debris removed.  Yes we bought the house with molding missing from the windows and exterior brick wall exposed under the plaster.

 With the plywood sub-floor pulled up, you can see the flexible tiles which were attached directly to the pine floor.  We guess that this work was probably done in the 1930s.

Winter 2009-2010

We all had a difficult winter this year because of the blizzards. It snowed on December 5th and about 2 inches had fallen by late afternoon. I was able to make a photograph at dusk from the street while it was still falling gently. I sent this photo of our house as a holiday greeting card to my customers and our friends.

I have added a few more images of the February blizzard.

Before and after - Pool

As purchased April 2007:

The real estate disclosure form had "none" marked under the question: Is there a pool on the property?  One then had to ask whether the pool was on another property or was it now defined as a pond?

The pool was surrounded by holly trees.  Ouch!

You can see the original privy on the left.  We cleaned out the debris (polite term) and painted it this summer.  More on that later.

July 2007:

The pool is a cement Anthony pool from 1972.  We hired Chas Pools to muck out the mud and debris.  They replaced the pump and filter too and kept it nice all summer.  We hired Steve Samluk of Trees, Inc to remove two overgrown cedar trees and all the holly trees.  The chestnut tree in the background on the left had a very large branch that scraped the corner of the roof.  It had actually scraped through the shingles and had worked its way through the corner of the roof deck.  We heard that the house might be haunted.  It was just neglected.

As purchased, April 27, 2007

I made quite a few images to document everything visually on the day we purchased the home.

There are a few photos here for you to see, but if you follow this link, you can see the rest:

As Purchased Web Gallery

Come on back and the story continues!

Background

My wife Wende and I had been searching for a Victorian home for 15 years before we found this one.  We looked at beach houses, farm houses and town houses in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland.  We finally began to narrow our search for a grand home in a historic community in walking distance to community shopping and restaurants.  It had to be in the right level of dis-repair so I could afford it!

We saw this one before it came up for sale and made contact with the owners after seeing an article about the house in the October 2004 issue of the Middletown Transcript.  Shortly afterward, the home was listed for sale, but it was overpriced.  We would see it now and again over the years and bide our time.

Finally, in January 2007, we learned that the home was heading to foreclosure.  We would have a chance to buy it at Sheriff's sale, but the outstanding mortgages exceeded its real value.  This took us by surprise.  If we wanted this house, we were going to have to act immediately.  We would borrow all the equity from our current home in Newark and add to it a mortgage and credit line on this home.  We would buy it in April 2007 from the bank that bought it at Sheriff's sale and have a clear title.

If anyone has been following the news, this was not a good time in the real estate business to do this kind of thing.  Home prices were falling and credit was tightening.  We had hoped to sell our home in about one month and have enough money to pay off all the loans.  But our home took 8 months to sell!  By the time our home sold, we had lowered the price and spent all our cash on swing loan payments so that we were dead even, not in the cash-rich position to make repairs that I had hoped!