Lifting the House...sort of.

It came!!! My new USB connector for the digital camera! Yay! So I can finally post all my pictures of what's been going on at the house for the last month and a half. Basically...lots. We're deep enough into the demolition and digging that we've taken security precautions.

I have a deep fear of a neighbor falling into the hole...some of our neighbors have questionable standards of living/safety...

Since finishing the sills about a month ago, we've been digging out the area under the dining room and living room and Shawn's built up the cribbing to hold the I-beams in place. Here are some pictures of our digging progress for the past few weeks. The cribs are built from railroad ties (3 foot - 4 foot sections) and the I-beams are being "rented" from a salvage yard near Greenwood. We bought them but intend on selling them back for about 80% of the cost.

This process seems to be the standard method of house-lifting out there. The folks at Geekazon used it, as did Brothers Builders in Ontario. It was recommended, of course, by our hero, George Nash, and done by the Hinton family in the wonderful documentary Moving Midway. What the Hinton's did was much more complex, as they were transporting a 155 year old preservation-quality plantation house to a new location, while we're justing holding a 105 year old busted farmhouse in the air to build under it. But the concept remains the same. I never would have guessed....

Shawn also had to bust up and remove our front 'porch,' a piece of poured concrete about 2 feet thick. This was done mostly while I was at inservice days and during my first week of school.

We may be able to do our second footer pour next weekend, depending on how bad the rainy season and when we can get the cement truck to visit. We'll see.

Style

We’re still digging and I’m still waiting for a USB cord for the camera. Ergo, I have no news to report and frankly, digging is very boring.

So, I’ve started thinking ahead. Lately, I’ve been considering the style of the house. Most homes have a known style (Cape Cod, Ranch, Queen Anne, Bungalow) and I’d really like to give our house a uniformity of style itself. I’ve never been in favor of trying to be something you ain’t, so as much as I love Frank Lloyd Wright I will not try to convince anyone that my house is Fallingwater.

I explored the interweb and found a wonderful resource by Dr. Tom Paradis, an associate professor at Northern Arizona University, who says I may use his pictures as long as I tell you that they’re his. So, thank you Dr. P., creator of http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~twp/architecture/

I started my research knowing that this house was built in 1905 as a simple two-room, two-story structure. I knew that the outside walls that end in ‘points’ on top are called the ‘gable walls’. I knew we now had an L-shaped design. I knew that in 1905, my area was a tiny farm town known for simple country folk, not stylish modern architecture. And I knew from neighbors that some previous folks living here had done things like growing gardens and painting the house and the garage/barn the same garish cranberry color inside and out. I decided to only strongly consider those styles that were popular way before 1905 up through maybe 1910. I figured whatever I found, ours would be a simplistic version—not state of the art.

I finished my research having learned that the ‘pointiness’ of gable walls is a big factor in classifying American styles. Also, adding a lot of multi-dimensional stuff significantly changes the style. Here’s our house:

What is now the right half of the house used to be the whole house. There’s a gable wall around the corner of the right side and the used to be (of course) a gable wall around the left side. I suspect this is based on the Early Colonial style, which is actually no style at all. Folks simply built a shelter whether in Virginia in the 1700s or Oklahoma in the 1800s. While this house was built in 1905, it doesn’t appear to have been designed by anyone desiring more than a roofs and four walls.

In later colonial periods (when America had more cash for its government buildings, and Americans had more cash for their homes), some of these other familiar styles popped up among the stylish. The Federal Style (1780-1850) and Greek Revival (1800-1855) are very similar and noted for their columns and wide gable front pieces. (Think of the Parthenon, Lincoln Memorial, NY Public Library, College of William & Mary.) The other major revival in American architecture was the Gothic revival (1840-1880). These buildings are known for their “Steeply pitched roof” and arches (think church steeples, medieval cathedrals, Chicago’s Tribune Tower.)

Both Greek and Gothic are stately and beautiful, and neither resembles our home, mostly because both rely heavily on their gables (low vs. steep) for their style. Our gables are medium and simple—'farmhousy'. So, I continued my search.

The Victorian era boasts a greater variety of styles than I had thought. The Victorian house that popped into your head just now is probably a Queen Anne (1880s-1905.) Often, when a town is described as having many “quaint Victorian houses,” it means Queen Annes which are known for their many different roofs, dormers, porches, gables, even a turret or two. Another distinct Victorian style is the Second Empire (1860s-1880s) known for its Mansard roof. This is a roof unlike any other: it has a flat top, like the Italian style, but the uppermost floor of the house has exterior walls that lean slightly inward and are covered in roofing materials, not siding. It’s very odd.

At this point in my journey, I had reached the 20^th century and still no style for my little house! I know it’s not the product of a single architect sitting down at his drawing board and creating a piece of art. It’s a mish-mosh of skilled and unskilled additions and “improvements” from 1905 to today! How could I possibly give it any kind of uniformity? But, you know, just because a house isn’t the work of a real architect, doesn’t mean it’s style-less. Here is Dr. Paradis’s narrative on what was happening from town to town from 1880-1910:

“The spread of Folk Victorian (and other late 19th century styles) was made possible by railroads expanding into smaller towns and cities. Mass-produced wood features could be transported quickly and cheaply almost anywhere. Home builders often simply added trim and ornament to traditional folk houses. Older folk homes were often updated with new ornamentation, now available everywhere due to pattern books and mass production and sale of wood features. A very common style found in turn-of-the-century western towns settled during that time.”

No, Delaware isn’t out west, but here’s something that actually made sense. These were homes built while Victorian houses were the fashion by homeowners who didn’t have the carpentry skills or the money to really go all Queen-Anne-Mansard-bling on it. So they improvised. These are the ‘Folk Victorians’: often L-shaped, with three gable ends, possibly a porch or two (or not), and whatever little Victorian details and trim could be squeezed in. Ours doesn’t have the detail work that the following two examples do, but the potential is definitely there.

Welcome to our Busted Folk Victorian Farmhouse!

For more insight visit Dr. Paradis’s site (all pictures except the very first one are his. Nearly all wisdom is as well.)

Also, check out Dave Taylor’s Victorian house site for more styles, details, and cool pictures.

Heigh-ho! Digging....again.

"We dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig in a mine the whole day through!

To dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig is what we like to do."

Yes, it's that time again. Time to dig... and dig... and dig. I can hear Shawn picking away underneath me as I write. He got a nail in his foot early last week, poor guy, so we "pre-poned" this week's trip to Venango County, PA. We went last weekend to spend time with his family. (Hi, all!)

We came back early this week, took a little time off for the foot, and now we're back to digging. I'm still in the unfortunate camera situation of not having a USB cord, but I finally broke down and ebayed one for just under $3. I'll have more pictures up soon, I promise.

I also think I should buy my own digital camera (like a big girl) and stop borrowing my mama's. This month's Consumer Reports speaks very well of a $130-$150 Canon A1000. The price looked right so I froogled it... Wouldn'tcha know, all the better priced models were sold out. Guess I'm not the only person who does whatever C.R. tells me to.

Here are some early digging photos though so you have an idea of where we are:

If you stood in the spot the photographer is in today, it would be terribly uncomfortable because you'd be trapped in concrete blocks and your left side would be covered in gravel and dirt. But it should give some idea. We dug the open space out back in March, and are now digging out what's dead ahead of the viewer. The first two I-beams in this picture are gone. The house now rests on the new concrete block wall. We still have the beams, though, and we'll use them again very soon.

Once we run out of things to dig...