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This is my house from the front. It's big and old, in the Historic District of Ashland, OH. Even though historic houses are notorious money pits, I love the place. I haven't had it very long. Bob & I bought it in 2001, but it has some important memories for me and I want to stay here. When you see the back, you will know why I had to add to the house even though I don't need the space at all. (BACK) |
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This is the back of the house before we bought it. The people who owned it were moving things from the third floor by using a pulley system. It really is as tall as it looks. In fact, even taller. The walk goes down a hill with one step to help with the grade, and it is quite a distance to the carriage house where I garage my car. Last winter, I slid on the ice on the walk and fell, breaking a rib. I decided that I have to have an attached garage by this winter. So...the garage was started in October.
Another view of the start of the digging. That's the Ashland County Historic Association main building in the far background, and the Buchanan house at the right.
Ed attacked the stump, but it proved to have roots that snaked throughout the whole digging area, so he had to take a chain saw to cut it so part of it at least could be removed whole and saved.
It is now Nov 17 and we have had a part that broke on the digging equipment and had to be replaced and several days of rain. Today is decent though and this is the project of breaking up the steps that ran down to the alley from the level below the back porch.
This is also Nov. 19. Ed came and looked at our little lake and said, Let's plan on Monday." Until now I only prayed that the people working on my addition would be kept safe. Now I'm praying for an end to lousy weather.
It is now Nov 29. The mud has proved too much for Ed's equipment so Bartley & Bolen, major excavators, have been hired to bring in big equipment and finish the job.
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 Ed Finley, an excavator from Mansfield, is digging out for the garage. The house is so high we have to put the garage at basement level with an addition to the back porch and a deck over the garage. My contractor is Greg Skafec of Greg Skafec, General Contractor. My architect is Chris Buchanan of Century Restorations. This picture is dated October 28. Ed isn't even close to moving all the dirt yet. The roots at the right are from a mulberry tree that was cut down by the previous owners. I had planted portulacca and hen and chickens in it and wanted it saved and added to my landscaping later. It actually came out in a few pieces but Ed saved it and we will try to use it.
This is a view from the alley. There was an old cistern right where the footers should go, so to get it out without flooding the neighborhood, ED filled it with dirt to soak up the water. That's my contractor, Greg watching from the steps to the back porch.
Ed and Greg took sledge hammers to the wall of the cistern to break it once it was filled with dirt.
There it is, the bottom of the cistern! Most of the wall of the cistern has been removed along with the dirt Ed put into it. That cistern bottom is about at the level of the bottom of the footers so Greg and Chris want to get permission from City of Ashland Building and Zoning to form the footers and pour right on top of the cistern base.
November 19 and we have had lots of rain and some minor cave-in's. The cistern base with a small part of the brick cistern wall remains and it is filled with water.
This is the filled base of the cistern and the caved in wall. You can see that there is a big crack in the dirt above the cistern. This and several other pictures were taken from the back porch. I think it's about 15 feet from the floor at the right to the water in this picture. I've learned something about Microsoft FrontPage web pages. There is a limit to what I can put on one page. After having two pictures rejected, I am having to go to a second page sooner than I had anticipated. If you want to see more, go to
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