Our Home Renovation

Last night, Jay and I were standing in the back yard talking and I saw a raccoon in the window of the Sheridan House - inside. We ran inside to see what was going on and sure enough, there was a raccoon in the second bedroom.

Jay tried feeding it a day old hot dog, but the raccoon just wanted to get out. We were about to call animal control when it finally got the screen in the back window pushed out far enough to escape. We’re pretty sure he got in earlier in the day and was in the basement hiding until there wasn’t anyone in the house and he wandered upstairs looking for a way out. It was quite exciting.

In other news, things are really coming together on the house. When I mentioned recently that we were going to be “stepping things up,” I didn’t quite know what I meant by that. Now I do - we’ve been starting between 7:30 and 9:00 am every day and finishing anywhere from 12:30 to 2:30 am. Hence the reason that you haven’t heard much from me this past week. I don’t expect things to slow down for at least a few more days, although I am taking one day off of the house this week - I won’t go to the Sheridan House at all. I can’t remember when the last day was that I wasn’t there.

On Saturday at 8:00 am, we had 14 tons of gravel delivered to the Sheridan House. Sound like a lot? It is. There was a slight mix-up that led to my ordering about 7 tons too much. While slightly humorous in many ways, there’s no way around the fact that it’s a lot of work to move 7 tons of gravel by hand.
Last week I needed to order gravel for the driveway. We figured that we needed about 4.5-5 cubic yards of what is called road rock. I called to inquire about the price per yard. I was informed that they don’t measure gravel by the yard, but instead by the ton. I was told that it costs “four eighty five per ton.” I asked the lady if she know how many tons it is per yard approximately. “No sir,” she replied. “Would you be picking it up or having it delivered?” I told her that I had a small trailer that could hold about half a ton and could maybe use that. “Keep in mind that there’s a $15 minimum” she said. Really having no idea about anything to do with gravel, I asked, “Are we talking four dollars and eighty-five cents per ton, or four hundred and eighty-five dollars per ton?” She chuckled and replied “four dollars.” Oh. wow. That’s ridiculously cheap. What the heck else can you buy a ton of for less than $5??

Still unsure of how much I needed, I did get the lady to tell me that a full dump truck load was about 15 tons. A friend told me that dump trucks are usually 5 or 10 yards, and that he figured 15 tons was a 5 yard load. So, that’s what I went with - and ordered a full load.

It was delivered Saturday morning and turned out to be about 10 yards - twice as much as we had figured. The driver was supposed to dump half the load in front of the house and the rest behind the garage. Instead, it all came out at once, so it’s all in the front driveway. We shoveled and moved several tons, but still have another 2 tons or so to move. Anybody need some gravel?

Yesterday I posted a quick history, but thankfully Art, who I bought the house from, provided a much better history of the house with more details. Rather than just change the previous post, I decided to give it a new post and just add a note to the previous one.

The Sheridan House was built in the early 1920s. A few years after being built, the original owners sold it to the Buist family from whom I bought it this year. Charles and Helen Buist (immigrants from Scotland) moved-in in 1925, along with their children: Charles, Jr. (14), Helen (18) and Mona (11). In the mid-1930’s Charles, Jr. (in his early 20’s) undertook a renovation of the house, which changed a bedroom to the kitchen, and vis-versa, (the old kitchen had a hand-pump for water). An inside bathroom was installed (the original house had an outhouse in the back). The livingroom was expanded and a fireplace was built.

Charles Sr. passed away in 1952, and Mrs. Helen Buist passed away in 1975, at age 92. Their son Charles Jr. took care of the house for the next 30 years. The lawn was kept mowed and overall the property was maintained so as to not be an eyesore. In September 2004, Charles Jr. allowed his son Art to take the living room and dining room furniture, so Art could furnish a newly purchased vintage rowhouse in Baltimore. Charles Jr. passed away peacefully at his son’s house in Baltimore, in March 2005, age 94, surrounded by the furniture that had been at the house on Sheridan for so many years. Art Buist then set about closing-out not only the house on Sheridan, but also his own boyhood home which his father had built and lived in, in another part of Rockford.

Today when we cleaned out the fireplace, at first it appeared that the logs were some sort of electric comtraption, as a cord was coming out of them. After investigating further, we discovered that there was a bare bulb hidden under a bowl (or maybe old light fixture globe), wrapped in red cellophane and covered with logs. Unfortunately the cord was too deteriorated to plug in and see how well the electric fire worked.

Update: This “quick history” is missing a lot of details. A more complete version can be found here.

You may have read how a little trailer led to our buying the Sheridan House. I haven’t, however, posted yet about the interesting history of the Sheridan House. As a bonus, I’ve got a few newly-acquired photos of the interior from days gone by. This short history isn’t meant to be exact or exhaustive, but more just to share the interesting story of the house.

The Sheridan House was built in the early 1920s. A few years after being built, the original owners sold it to the Buist family who I bought it from this year. (Don’t worry, the interesting part is still coming - that wasn’t it…) Mr. Buist passed away sometime prior to 1975 when his wife died. Their son, Charles, took care of the house for the next 30 years. The lawn was kept mowed and overall the property was maintained so as to not be an eyesore. Nobody has lived in the house since 1975. In 2005, Charles passed away and his son is the one from whom I bought the house this year.

So, we’re the third owners of the house and I have to say that it has been a very satisfying challenge to try and fix up the Sheridan House while still maintaining the character and respecting the sentiment and emotion that it represents for the descendants/family of Mr. and Mrs. Buist.

Here are a few photos of the interior of the Sheridan House as it appeared from 1975 until 2007. Click to see them larger.

This was the only plug/outlet in one of the Sheridan House bedrooms.

At first glance, I had assumed that it was an old phone jack, but when I took it out, it appeared to have been connected as some sort of electrical outlet. It’s hard to read what it says, but it appears to say “woodwin” “50V 10A.” There could have been a number before the 50, but the bakelite chipped off so it’s hard to tell.

Any ideas what this was used for? The room it was in is a bedroom which used to be a back porch off of the kitchen. Now it’s part of the new master bedroom. I’m really stumped because there are 4 prong openings, but it only had 2 wires connected to it. Let me know if you have any ideas - humor is always welcome too.

Here’s what the front door of the Sheridan House looks like:

The dilemma is whether to refinish it, leaving it as natural wood (depending on the color of the wood, maybe stain it) and using some heavy-duty polyurethane -or- paint the door red to match the shutters on the front of the house.

Originally I was planning on sanding the door to see how well it cleaned up and then unless it was in too bad of shape, keep it as natural wood. However, the more I’ve thought about it, the door is exposed to a lot of moisture since there are no eaves. That being the case, a natural wood door means a lot of upkeep to maintain. Painting it would still look good but mean less maintenance.

What do you think? If it were your door, would you prefer it painted or stained considering the maintenance? There’s no guarantee that whoever buys the house will be interested in refinishing the door every few years to keep it looking nice. Thoughts?

Here’s a photo of the front of the house so you can see the color of the shutters (which the door would match if painted).

I just realized that I was counting an extra week between now and Labor Day. We’ve been hoping to have the Sheridan House on the market by Labor Day weekend. The Sheridan House is right by the river and a large park with a boat launch. Everyone going to that park or to the boat launch drives by the house (we see 50-100 boats go by on trailers everyday), so it seems like to best take advantage of the location, we need to get a sign up in the yard before Labor Day weekend. So, yeah, it’s only 1.5 weeks away, not 2.5 like I was thinking/planning. So, we’re going to kick it into even higher gear! We’ve pretty much been there all day, everyday (except for when I’m at my “real” job, but even then, there’s usually someone there working, either Danielle or one of my friends that has been helping).

I haven’t quite kept pace to make 30 posts in 30 days, but it’ll be close. The other day I had a great post ready to go with a photo of our truck pulling out a stump in the backyard, but the photos got deleted before I had downloaded them. Oh well.