we’ve been absolutely totally busy working on the new house all the time! Lots of details and stories over here: http://www.limingtonfarmhouse.org/blog/ among other delights, It’s been great discovering layered bits of old wallpaper around the house.
peeling back the layers of wallpaper on the old chimney in the kitchen
a tiny snippet of wallpaper in the attic
the old chimney in the kitchen was covered with wallboard; behind that we found many layers of wallpaper and horsehair plaster over the bricks!
old wallpaper in an upstairs closet
in an upstairs bedroom
more wallpaper from the kitchen
layers of wallpaper in an upstairs closet
We got a tour of our neighbor Mike’s place, also a historical house undergoing renovation. He had some great old wallpaper too!
OK, we’re totally obsessed with this house and absolutely overflowing with excitement and anxiety to find out whether the whole deal is going to go through! Today we got some positive news, our offer has formally been accepted by the bank, on paper. Looks like it’s a go!!!!! Thursday is supposed to be our official closing date. So, we’ll be able to really say it’s our house by the end of the week, hopefully! My mom went in to the town office and did a bit of research, and learned that this property & house were last assessed in 2003, at that time they were valued at around 400% the price we’re going to pay! WOW. Perhaps that was before the barn collapsed and before the ell roof fell apart.
Meanwhile, we’ve been doing lots of research about the place. Because the house has a historic plaque on the porch, Mike started researching the history and has been corresponding with the Limington Historical Society, he’s found some colorful stories about the history of the town but hasn’t found anything specific about our house yet.
historical plaque on the porch
We read all about the Francis Small nature preserve, hiking on Sawyer Mountain, and swimming at Pequawket Beach on Horne Pond, just down the road from our house! (Of course there’s also the Limington Rips, where I remember splashing around as a kid.)
Anyway, I’ve got some more pictures of the place! Here is the exterior:
complicated roofline (front side of the house)
In back of the house is the ell, which is in terrible condition:
side view of the house and ell
I think this is currently the main entrance (on the side of the house)
trashy looking junk piled up beside the ell
The ell is filled with junk. My mom found a fridge in there, still filled with food! yuck.
there is also an “in-law apartment” in the ell, but it’s badly damaged by water from the leaky roof so it’ll have to be all torn out and… maybe we’ll even have to demolish the whole ell. or maybe we can save it. who knows.
Here’s the back yard:
i’m pretty sure that’s one of three apple trees growing in our back yard!
too bad about the barn
squash growing in the back yard
basketball hoop behind the barn
richard and backyard
backside of barn
back side of the ell – looking towards the house from the barn
inside the house!
nice wood floors and windows. first floor, front room (this is inside one of the front turrets)
downstairs
kitchen
nice bannister, missing plaster
upstairs, turret bedroom
more missing plaster, upstairs bedroom
in the cellar – the granite slab & boulder foundation
front porch & front yard:
the front porch
barn view from porch
retaining wall, street view from downhill
hydrangea bush
pampas grasses
here’s the hitching post where visitors used to tie up their horses
it looks like there are lots of other pretty old houses in the neighborhood! here’s a video of my sister and brother-in-law driving around getting lost in the neighborhood:
