Interesting Finds & Basement Progress

In an old house there is a certain amount of excitement when you do demolition because you never know what you are going to find. We have a box of “finds” and have even framed a few up. The underside of our first floor was “insulated” with newspaper in 1900 (in our case the Philadelphia Inquirer). The pieces are pretty fragile but mostly still legible. Here are a couple of our favorites from this weekend:

"Talk-O-Phone" Ad Circa 1900

This photos is of an article about Ben Franklin’s grave. “Practically neglected and forgotten for 116 years, the unpretentious tomb of Benjamin Franklin” at Christ Church graveyard in Philadelphia was redone and “bedecked” (what a good word). I find this very interesting as Ben’s tomb is still a favorite site for visitors today.

Article about 100 year old Ben Franklin Burial Site

This weekend we made our way to the front of the basement (under the Living Room) on our ongoing project to remove all the old 1970s paneling and walls and we (mostly Mr. S.) removed the last major walls in our demolition project. This meant that we had to get a second Bagster for the debris, but it was totally worth it because the satisfaction of getting all the old walls out is hard to beat.

Paint Cans on Old Shelving from September (after removing a LOT of old cans)

Basement wall before Demolition

Demolition All DONE in this area!

We also signed the contract with the company who is going to install a new french drain around the entire perimeter of the basement a special “fabric” over the walls (BQ Basement Systems). They have a pretty long wait list, so it looks like we won’t be able to get this done until January, but in the meantime we still have lots to do. On the current list is:

1. Have our contractor grout the damaged areas on the old stone ruble foundation walls and remove the last wall (behind the washer and dryer)
2. Decide on the shower unit for the bathroom.
3. Rough in for the new bathroom
4. Patch the concrete floor
5. Make some decisions about the locations for future walls for the space.

We also have this crazy idea of creating an opening in one of the brick walls below our brick fireplaces and making a wine cave. I have to talk to my structural engineer about that one (it might cause issues with the shear load on the house).