42 Ralph Talbot St. Weymouth, MA - 7/9 - 7/23 - Surprises, Accidents & Delays

Surprises, Accidents & Delays ... That's what the past couple of weeks have been all about!

Demolition continued with more Recycling & interesting finds: Antique bottles, post cards, playing cards, newspapers, Women's Club yearbooks from 1906-1909, more shoes, 1906 newspapers, old posts & nails that held the beams together, medicine bottles and more...








I dropped everything off at the Weymouth Historical Society and the curator there was so nice, knew so much about the town's History and gave me a tour of their house. Very exciting and interesting to see old maps, photos and other items from before our time. Fascinating.

In addition to the Antique findings we also discovered that the house had multiple fires.

We exposed beams & posts that were charred by either kitchen or fireplace fires, some beams were rotting, some bug damaged but more importantly we exposed beams that were over 280 years old that are still in GREAT CONDITION.



THESE BEAMS WE'RE KEEPING and reusing in the home. Now back to the drawing board to redraw the floor plans for the house.

We also had a little accident on site. Michael decided to play Russian Roulette with the rotting beams and stepped right through one dead center. Well you can all imagine what happened next... something straight out of a cartoon (however we didn't get it on film)... straight through to the basement feet first. The T-shirt didn't survive but Michael escaped death, head injuries, broken ribs and walked away with scraped skin down his back and some arm cuts & bruises. To me they looked really bad but "the tough guy" refused to have it checked out by a doctor and kept on working. He was very fortunate to have walked away with minimal injuries and thus far no infection.

The job site was shut down for a few days so he could finish up some smaller projects and now we're back at it again.

OUR PROGRESS THUS FAR:
Building permit is in hand and interior Demolition is complete!

Back room is rebuilt (Framed, Sheathed, Door & window installed)

Roof is rebuilt and New Roof is installed along with a new garage door

1st floor NEW BEAMS/JOISTS are 90% installed.


This coming week we will have the siding, windows and new doors installed and then framing begins.
Follow us on Facebook to see our progress and to give us your input on selections for kitchen cabinets, wall colors, faucets & lighting: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Braintree-MA/MKE-Development-Corporation/230330345527?ref=ts

42 Ralph Talbot St. Weymouth, MA - 7/3/10 - 7/8/10

Phase 1 (Salvaging/recycling) of our demolition is complete!
Many people came through the property and took items that they could use in their own homes. Some items went to salvage yards like Yankee Restoration, others to builders who are asked to restore old homes.

At the end of Phase 1 we were left with some bare walls and floors and off to the Cape we went for the 4th.

After a beautiful 4th of July weekend the start of our short work week began with almost 100 degree weather and lasted a couple of days. YIKES! All hands were on deck though and we made sure that they didn't lack any ice, water, tea, watermelon and Pizza of course.

Phase II - Demolition:

The start of our demolition began with lots of surprises. We found a couple of old coins dating back to the 1800's & 1900's, an Abraham Lincoln statue, newspapers tucked in the walls & ceilings dating back to 1916, 1924 & 1929, an old baking soda can, condensed milk can, a roll of beautiful antique wall paper, a small section of a wall paper runner with Historical figures and items on it, an old stove, plastic bathroom tiles, and an old shoe.

The shoe puzzled us so we began some research and found out that people back then would place a shoe in the cavities of the home they were building to ward off bad spirits. We found this article which explains: Most often concealed shoes are placed in chimneys or over doors and windows "areas of the house considered susceptible, or weak, where something could come into the property," says Josephine Hickin, shoe heritage development officer at the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery in England. http://www.thestar.com/article/447311


We also found another article from the Wayland Historical Society which speculates why shoes were hidden. http://wayhistsoc.home.comcast.net/~wayhistsoc/whs/Shoes_in_the_Wall/shoes_in_the_wall.htm

Strangely enough, the shoe we found was discovered next to the fireplace.
After our research was done we concluded that these items should be donated to the Weymouth Historical Society along with the old torn flag that draped the entry stairway. They are all a part of history and must be preserved due to the historical significance of this home.

Below are some photos of our fascinating finds - check out the cost of a coat back in 1916:












Our next blog will show before photos of the rooms and the demo'd rooms. Stay Tuned!

42 Ralph Talbot St. Weymouth, MA - Day 6/30 - 7/2, 2010

Welcome to our next project: a neglected almost 300 yr old (built in 1720) Georgian Colonial: The task: converting it into an Energy Star Level II Energy Efficient home while keeping some of the period's detail and reusing the beautiful pine flooring. Tag along and see how we do..

Since our closing at 12 noon on Wednesday we've been really hard at work making sure that all the salvageable items find a good home. When we gut our homes we take stock of what's there that can be reused and put it up for sale or donate it.


In two days we've recycled both kitchens, most of the doors, some trim work & beadboard, chair rails, some light fixtures, trex decking, dishwasher, stove, brick and some fireplace accessories.

All went to good homes (aside from some things that didn't work) and we still have one more day of things to take out before our demo guys begin their work next week.

We've got lots more items to recycle like Insulation, a refrigerator, another stove, lighting fixtures, flooring, a few more doors, a furnace, a water heater, some more woodwork and of course a couple of rugs and old fashioned curtain rods. We've posted all of these items on craigslist for little money or free to people who can use them otherwise they would have ended up in a landfill.

We have also been looking into the history of this home and here's what we found:

• This home is said to have been Built 1720


• Currently on the Historical society's Demolition Delay ordinance because of it's historical significance.


• We found out that this home was moved to this location back in the early 1900's from the center of town.


• It is believed that this home was the home of Richard Harding, ancestor of President Warren Harding


• This home has a Georgian Colonial look with the panelled door and square side lights however the Style we found out today is really a Federal Colonial home.


• The windows on the home are the original windows and are hand blown - back then the glass was wavy and had slight imperfections like bubbles in each pane. (we're going to set these aside and sell them once the new windows arrive as they're great for greenhouses. As a matter of fact one of the neighbors is picking up 5 of these for the greenhouse that they're building).

So the more we sell or donate the less ends up in a landfill.

We had a very knowledgeable historian (Ed) from Yankee Preservation in Middleboro, Ma come through the home today to take and salvage some items from the home that we cannot reuse. He took a few of the old style 4 panel doors, the old fireplace mantels, old brick, paneling and other items for their salvage yard. Ed and his partner Ron Bernier were kind enough to share some of their knowledge and history of the home that they discovered while walking through the home. The most fascinating discovery today was that the home really wasn't built in 1720 but most likely much later in the 1700's or even early 1800's. Now I have to unlearn all that I learned these past couple of days on this house and start anew.

We also found 3 beautiful oil paintings on the walls of the kitchen fireplace. We have yet to figure out how to transfer them from the walls to a frame as they're on plaster but we'll figure something out. One painting has a sign on it that says: Dover - 5MI (five miles).

Tag along and see how we revive this beautiful treasure and we'll be sure to invite you to the open house in a couple of months.

Signing off for now. Happy & Safe 4th of July everyone!