Penn Marshall Stone House.

[KY Longhunter]

Funny you mention that. My father-in-law caught a Racoon that was raiding his horse feed in a live cage trap.

He went inside to get the .22 but when he came out there was a 3 ft tall Bald Eagle sitting on the cage trying to snag a free meal ! I was disappointed that he failed to take pictures.

If Kentucky was a running shoe, Breckinridge County would be where the laces are, along the Ohio River...

 

[kybishop]

Funny you mention that. My father-in-law caught a Racoon that was raiding his horse feed in a live cage trap.

He went inside to get the .22 but when he came out there was a 3 ft tall Bald Eagle sitting on the cage trying to snag a free meal ! I was disappointed that he failed to take pictures.

If Kentucky was a running shoe, Breckinridge County would be where the laces are, along the Ohio River...

Ah, okay. I was going by your location of Bowling Green in your profile.

Nice build on your 40 by the way. You did a great job turning a bad situation into a good one. I have had really good luck with Ebay, mostly meeting good people. I too however had one bad auto buying experience with a not so honest seller. Not much fun.

 

[kybishop]

Been a while since I have been on the forum here. Have made some progress on the kitchen. All the termite damage has been removed. The damaged beams and floor joists have been replaced. The crawl space for the kitchen bump out addition has been dug. Footer poured, drain and gravel in place, block and stone laid and outside wall and roof rafters on. Plywood and tar paper in place.

Still have to put the beam in to support the existing exterior wall, held in place by 4x4's at the moment. The entire bottom portion of this old exterior wall was damaged by termites. The small galley kitchen is going from a 5'x18' to a 12'x18'.

Have to install the windows. Used existing windows and 3 additional windows I found in the attic. That will get me dried in for the winter.

One picture of the driveway for fall's sake...

More picture coming soon...

 

[micruz60]

Great project! Do you have radon mitigation in place?

 

[kybishop]

Thanks. We don't have much focus on radon in this area, at least not during construction that I am aware of. I don't think I know of anyone messing with it. There are some developments further west that have had some high levels of radon. No one close to us has had any high levels.

I do have a radon test kit though and it does not hurt to test for sure. May not be a bad idea just to see what it looks like.

Some more photos.

 

[kybishop]

More.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Beautiful house

 

[kybishop]

Thanks. I love being out there and working on it. I retired the 1st of October so this is my full time job for a while. I had to move the electric so my hurdle right now is satisfying the electrical inspector. Luckily you can do a farmstead exemption here in Kentucky and not have to have a building inspection if you have over 10 acres.

The 80 sitting and watching me work... She is helping me clean up debris on site though. She picked up a nail.

 

[kybishop]

Couple of beams stacked in place on the wall. 8x8 red oak post put in place under beams. Beams are going to be hidden in wall above.

Windows in and we are now dried in for winter! Need to seal up some and insulate... new roof... finish moving electric...

 

[kybishop]

I prefer re-purposing and salvaging items both to keep them out of the land fill and to help finance this renovation. The two larger windows were just moved out to the new wall, they were existing in the 1970's addition. I needed three small windows that were identical or similar to the small windows in the rest of the house. Interestingly enough, I went looking through the attic and found three windows that were sitting up there waiting to be used.

Not sure where they originally came from but they have been sitting in the house since it has been in our family. They are now put to use in the kitchen addition. Frames were made out of milled cedar and a couple of glass panes were replaced. I then re glazed the windows. There are now 9 windows like the three small ones in this addition. This, I hope, lets the addition blend in with the existing structure and not look 'tacked on'.

 

[kybishop]

Did some back fill while the weather was nice. Just in time, been raining the last few days.

I am now deep in electrical work. Had to have an electrical inspection due to moving the meter. It was a mess and I cringe every time inspectors get involved. I am homestead exempt from building inspections though due to acreage. For electrical it is underground for about 250' to the property line. I had to uncover it in about 4 spots so the inspector could see it was deep enough. New meter at the pole, new cutoff at the new addition wall. Had to put a new panel box inside and move it from its current location as it was in the bathroom. Up to code then but not now. So I am now hooking all the existing wiring back up to the new panel.

I plan to put in two skylights in the new addition bump out and then a new roof. Need one badly.

Photo after getting most of the back fill back in place.

 

[kybishop]

I have started a blog about the Penn Marshall Stone House (PMSH as we refer to it). It will be a bit about the history of the house, past work, current work and future plans. Here is a link to the blog to those interested.

There is a short about page in this blog. There is one entry from back in October of last year and several entries from this past February. These appear under 'archives'.

It is all a big learning process. It is overwhelming and emotional at times due to my ties and family history with the place. Work is slow but funds limited so mostly it is done by myself and family and friends. Some things are and will be hired out. I just hope and look to finish the dream that my parents started.

Thanks for looking.

https://pennmarshallstonehouse.wordpress.com/about/

 

[sggoat]

Cool.



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.

That's the keystone----

 

[sggoat]

you are doing justice to this old home--keep up the wonderful work--very, very nice work!

 

[sggoat]

I just walked outside to watch the moon after I posted the last, and I was thinking about this house--it suddenly dawned on me that this place screams MILLSTONE! You have to incorporate one somehow in the final design--either in the kitchen floor, the entry, or the living area--a large one, maybe 3-4 feet in diameter--I know they can sometimes be $$, but it would compliment your construction immeasurably--

 

[kybishop]

I just walked outside to watch the moon after I posted the last, and I was thinking about this house--it suddenly dawned on me that this place screams MILLSTONE! You have to incorporate one somehow in the final design--either in the kitchen floor, the entry, or the living area--a large one, maybe 3-4 feet in diameter--I know they can sometimes be $$, but it would compliment your construction immeasurably--

First off, I really, really appreciate the encouraging comments. I sometimes get so overwhelmed I just sit and stare, not sure what to do next. I have actually gone out and was so overwhelmed that I end up just cleaning up the work area then sitting and having a bourbon and cigar. Sit and think. Thanks for the encouragement.

It is very interesting that you mention the millstone. There was rumor of one that was the front stoop and was covered up when they built the porch on. The person that built the porch mentioned it but couldn't remember if they left the millstone or not. We did tear the porch down, it was a bit tacky. Sadly there was no millstone to be found. Still some mounded up dirt there that I will go poking through some more. May just be one there yet.

I think I will try to do that though, incorporate a millstone somewhere. I'll just have to find one that I can afford. Maybe one that is sitting local somewhere as opposed to sitting at a salvage site. Thanks for bringing it up, I'll keep an eye out for one.

 

[kybishop]

That's the keystone----

Another note of interest about the sandstone, this keystone.

Sandstone is indeed softer and not as common here in central Kentucky. It could very well be the keystone. I had some older than myself fellers out looking around. One helped get me dried in. His older brother mentioned that the date was probably carved on the sandstone/keystone. It being softer it was much easier to carve letters and numbers. The white marble limestone was too hard and chipped too much for this to be done easily.

The face of the sandstone has weathered off and it is hard to tell if there is any of the date (if there was) left.

On the first photo below the sandstone is between the pink (yes pink) sawhorses just below the wood laying on them.

On the second photo it is just above the angled piece of wood laying next to the corner of the house.

 

[sggoat]

I would bet that is it--too bad there are no markings(if any) left. Would have been a real find if there were. Still a wonderful rebuild here--lots of folks would have just razed the place--I'm with you--a structure as sound as this one will last longer than we will--plus it's a beauty!

 

[sggoat]

Been looking at your full thread for this restore--a massive undertaking for sure. It is definitely worth it, though--I wish We had a home with this kind of history-that wreath on the chimney side does show the Shaker influence--nice!
A note--saw the post about the Choridane stained flooring--me, I would try to find more--to treat the rest of the place.--This stuff worked, when used as directed--got a bad rap when it was indiscriminently used for everything and anything-so much for the epa-and stupid people--
I had researched millstones many years ago-I'll do it again--this house needs one--any hopefuls I find, I'll send your way
Gary

 

[kybishop]

Some updates to the blog. Working on the interior kitchen walls right now.

The Penn Marshall Stone House