Penn Marshall Stone House. (1 Viewer)

[kybishop]

Thanks, too many memories and family dreams tied to this place to give up. I also just love working on this sort of thing. I am planning on retiring from my full time job in September of this year at relatively young age so I can focus my time and energy on this place. I will have my years of service in at that time. Plus, office jobs will kill ya...

We have some poplar and cherry trees that have fallen on the farm. Our neighbor has a portable mill, nice sized one. I hope to use the poplar to make flooring to replace those taken out of the old floor. The cherry I would like to make some cabinets for storage in the first floor laundry/bathroom.

The plan is to homestead out here, farm, garden and can most of what we need. Be basically off the grid with multiple sources of heat and power. Looking at geothermal, wood gasification furnaces, gas stove and solar to go along with the wood stove and fireplace, propane and electric that is already there. May install radiant floor heat in the floor of the redwood addition. The house is about 700 feet from the Kentucky River. It does not flood but the road to it does. Power is lost from time to time and multiple sources of power and heat are needed. A bigger backup generator will be in store as well...sometime down the road.

 

[se2000]

I have ground source geo in my house. Took advantage of the 30% fed tax credits. Since you are going to be a long time or pass it down, it will be an overall cheap way of cooling and heating.

 

[JohnnyC]

What an outstanding house!!!

You have my dream home... I have always been fascinated with the older homes 1820's and earlier... And a stone house to boot... That's a double whammy for me

Before getting married I almost bought a 1740 house... Instead got a HUD home (great deal) ... But... Felt I always missed out... Love seeing more!!

Any old pictures?

 

[firestopper]

Very nostalgic and impressive home. You have your work cut out my friend.

 

[devildogcruiser25]

Wow, what a cool project! Best if luck with it.

 

[kybishop]

What an outstanding house!!!

You have my dream home... I have always been fascinated with the older homes 1820's and earlier... And a stone house to boot... That's a double whammy for me

Before getting married I almost bought a 1740 house... Instead got a HUD home (great deal) ... But... Felt I always missed out... Love seeing more!!

Any old pictures?

Not too many historically old pictures unfortunately. I know we have some from the time it has been in our family which would be from 1971 to present. Prior to that I have seen a few but that is about it. And they were maybe from the 50's or 60's. Nothing really old.

 

[sggoat]

You're gonna love this place when you're done--It's got some real character. Are those roof boards Chestnut??

 

[kybishop]

Where?

You're gonna love this place when you're done--It's got some real character. Are those roof boards Chestnut??

The roof boards in the attic of the old part? On the inside? You know I really don't know. That was where my room was too, up in the attic of the old stone part. Hmmm, you got me curious now, I will have to see if I can figure out what they are.

The shingles are cedar, the family put those on in the 70's. I need to get a roof on it now. May go with standing seem metal roof, most practical at the moment. I looked at going wood shingles again but the cost and quality of the wood is so different now, just not going to work I don't think.

 

[JohnnyC]

a metal roof would look great IMHO and last practically forever

silver or copper... copper would cost alot however

 

[kybishop]

The house still has the original wood shingles on it, they are visible through the roof boards from the attic. When I was little the asphalt shingles were cleaned off the roof down to the original wood shingles. Dad wanted to leave those visible on the inside, left those in place and put a heavy foam boarding insulation, roof decking and new wood shingles. These have lasted about 40 years but are breaking down bad now.

I have priced a standing seam copper roof and it was incredibly expensive. Most all the flashing on the house now is copper. If I go with metal other than copper I am going to have to separate the roofing from the flashing to avoid reactions between the two metals.

I have looked at a lot of different roof types and will probably end up with a standing seam metal roof.

You can see the old wooden shingles between the roof boards in the photos below.

 

[DSRTRDR]

another vote for geothermal - came to love it in our Nebraska house

 

[kybishop]

I have ground source geo in my house. Took advantage of the 30% fed tax credits. Since you are going to be a long time or pass it down, it will be an overall cheap way of cooling and heating.

another vote for geothermal - came to love it in our Nebraska house

Thanks guys. I am leaning toward geothermal in the old part of the house, replacing the dated furnace there. I would like to do a wood gasification and radiant floor heat in the new part. I will have to do this in stages, being able to fund all this will take some time.

With the square footage of this place these systems should greatly reduce the heating/cooling costs. Also with the plan of staying here and hopefully in the family it will pay for itself. We should have plenty of wood to supply these options. With my plans to retire in September, cutting the wood should keep me (or get me actually) in good shape.

 

[kybishop]

Thank you,

What an outstanding house!!!

You have my dream home... I have always been fascinated with the older homes 1820's and earlier... And a stone house to boot... That's a double whammy for me

Before getting married I almost bought a 1740 house... Instead got a HUD home (great deal) ... But... Felt I always missed out... Love seeing more!!

Any old pictures?

It was a dream home for my parents as well. I would like to see that dream through for them. My father is still with us, my mom passed away 30 years ago when I was 15, she way too young. I am quite the dreamer myself...

The HUD homes are a great option, I have looked at them. If I didn't have the opportunity to live here I would probably go the route of a small or tiny house. I have a lot of respect for living minimally.

 

[kybishop]

Agreed.

a metal roof would look great IMHO and last practically forever

silver or copper... copper would cost alot however

This option is probably best for longevity and for fire protection as well with the wood heat being used in this place.

 

[kybishop]

Thanks.

Wow, what a cool project! Best if luck with it.

Many, many thanks.

 

[RAYJON]

good luck, its a lot of work but it will be worth it, taking something 200 years old and updating it without killing the character a challenge,

ohh on the heating thing given you have pleanty of wood, take a look at rocket mass heaters, not period correct but provide alot of heat and dont burn much wood.. and you can hid them in a mass of stone also..

another idea is radiant floor heat with a boiler.. wood or otherwise,

they will both pay for themselves in 2-3 years..

 

[se2000]

I have a metal panel roof. less seams as the panels cover 3' across. With the new coatings, the paint will outlast us.
Metal is an excellent choice for going over a roof deck spaced for shingles too. I would put 4 or more inches of hi density foam over the shakes and under the metal. There are lots of choices for dielectrics to keep the steel away from the copper. Maybe even adding a sacrificial rod just in case.

 

[LDowney]

... May go with standing seem metal roof, ...

Two years ago, we had a standing seem roof installed on our home. My wife was worried that she would not like the look, but loves it. In fact, it looks better now than when first installed. There was a little bit of 'oil canning' appearance after installation, but this floated out over the next few months as the roof expanded/contracted from heating and cooling in th sun. If I recall correctly, the material came with a 50 year warranty so we have strong confidence that it will last more years than I have.

Good luck with your project. You have a very special home.

 

[KY Longhunter]

kybishop ... Just found your thread, awesome house! I'm in Bowling Green, KY.

Would love to lend a hand and have a glass of bourbon sometime.

My father-in-law lives in house built in 1860's in Breckinridge County. A couple of years ago, while renovating they pulled the original fireplace mantel away from the wall and found a Silver Dollar dated 1879. He had it put on a chain and gave it to his daughter, my wife.

He also found writing on the original plaster walls upstairs where passing visitors who stayed in the house along the stagecoach road wrote their name and dated. I've got a picture somewhere...

Anyway, cool project. Wish you luck! Maybe I will make it up sometime.

 

[kybishop]

Cool.

kybishop ... Just found your thread, awesome house! I'm in Bowling Green, KY.

Would love to lend a hand and have a glass of bourbon sometime.

My father-in-law lives in house built in 1860's in Breckinridge County. A couple of years ago, while renovating they pulled the original fireplace mantel away from the wall and found a Silver Dollar dated 1879. He had it put on a chain and gave it to his daughter, my wife.

He also found writing on the original plaster walls upstairs where passing visitors who stayed in the house along the stagecoach road wrote their name and dated. I've got a picture somewhere...

Anyway, cool project. Wish you luck! Maybe I will make it up sometime.

That sounds like a neat old house with some interesting history. Any house that was used as a stopover has got to have some interesting stories to tell.

We have found a few things in this one but nothing extremely interesting. Found some really old shoes, old glass marbles and I found a sterling silver button in the yard. Lots of arrowheads all over the property. There are initials carved into one of the stones in the house.

The old part is limestone and it is interesting that one of the bigger and lowest rocks in it is completely sandstone. Not really sure why they did that, it looks completely different than the others and is in one of the first couple visible runs of stone at the bottom.

This house is right on the river and I know it was a stop for the steam boats that used to come up and down the river. They used to deliver supplies and pick up goods from various stops. I saw the printed schedule from one of the steam boats and saw the Penn Farm (this house) on the stops. Two hollows down is called steamboat hollow and it was where they used to work on and build steamboats. Couple of murders have taken place on and in relation to the property. There were quite a few unexplained and strange happenings in this house while growing up there.

We were down in your neck of the woods this weekend. We stayed at Lake Barkley State Resort Park for the Eagle Weekend tours. Took the boat tour out on Kenlake and spotted 41 Bald Eagles. It was a great time with some great food at the lodge. Missed all the snow storms up here this past weekend.

I don't need much of an excuse to pour a glass of bourbon. If you are heading this way let me know and maybe you can swing by.