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!