A current project of mine is remodeling and restoring a couple of old circa 1905 and 1908 buildings which are connected by a mutual wall and collectively contain an old derelict hotel upstairs, a separate upstairs apartment, a grange hall meeting room and kitchen, post office and small store downstairs where I’m housing my rock shop.
Remember the old movie Money Pit starring Tom Hanks and Shelly Long. In the movie a newlywed couple bought an old classic house and proceeded to fixed it up. Every time they fixed one problem several other issues would appear. Well these buildings are turning out to be money pits. There are holes in the walls, holes in the ceilings, spongy floorboards and broken windows and the electricity and plumbing needs attention.
The buildings are located in King Hill and the first thing my hubby and I noticed after we bought them was the roof leaked so we put a layer of tar down. That stopped some leaks but not all, so the next summer we put a layer of tar paper on the roof. That also helped somewhat but the roof still leaked mainly through four skylights. We put a brand new metal roof on the buildings and removed all but one of the sky lights. The water then ran to the one skylight and poured down through it like Niagra Falls. So this summer we removed the last skylight and put metal roofing over it. We’ll have to see what happens this winter when the snow gets deep and piled up on the roof, then melts.
I have been applying insulation, sheet rock and paint to walls where I can reach without scaffolding. I can’t really afford to hire a contractor full time to do the repairs so we are fixing things one job at a time. I have a young man who helps me with the repairs and he uses the building projects like a part time job to supplement his full time income. I have parked a travel trailer there for him to stay in and stocked the refrigerator. He uses it much like a get away on weekends — takes his dogs with him and fishes and putters around fixing here and there. It works out fine because he keeps his hours down so I am never overwhelmed by his wages, and he is making steady progress.
Anyway, I have been having fun exploring the nooks and crannies of the old hotel upstairs from the grange hall. One trunk was full of small 48 star United States Flags (pre-Hawaii and Alaska statehood). There were a couple of old kerosene lanterns, a couple of old ballot boxes with pad locks, an old ice box, old stove, and many old books and agricultural records. There is an absolutely beautiful hand rail at the top of the stairs and If I can locate a good wood burning stove I will keep my rock shop open and me working on building repairs until Christmas. Then close everything down for the winter and reopen again in March.
I have started doing historical research on the buildings’ past and am finding interesting tid bits about the town as well as the buildings.
Here is a photo of the buildings in all their fixer upper glory shortly after we bought them. I believe all my spare money and spare time is spoken for for the rest of my life.
I love that old hotel, as you know, and have already picked out my very own room/s. If that place was mine, I’d be trying to figure out who were the tenants. Just think of the stories that old place could tell if it had a voice. That would be my next project, a book containing all the stories of the people who lived there! ; )