A Before and After Restoration Story
Finally, here are some Before and After pictures of our Victorian home renovation reveals that I have been promising. Well, now that the garden is sleeping for the winter, we have had time to organize our pictures, and I am finally ready to present the first of many.
Over the last 10 years, Dudley and I have completely restored 2 homes. The first was an apartment that we purchased in a Beaux Arts co-op building built in 1915. Our little piece of the large building was a 1600 square foot, 2 story apartment with 3 bedrooms, 1 and ½ baths, dining room, living room and a sunporch.
You may have seen pictures of the kitchen project that we posted earlier. Click Here
Our second and current project is a 1900 square foot, 2 story simple Victorian, built in 1899.
Today I am presenting pictures from our current home. One of the best features of our home is the staircase, but when we first saw it, it was not lovely. Years ago, the beautiful original Victorian railing was removed from the staircase but was still original along the upstairs hall.
And, if that wasn’t enough, they had removed a load bearing wall that had caused the ceiling and the upstairs floor to sag.
The new replacement was terrible, at best. It looked like 2 clothes poles with square balusters. No where near the beautiful turned newel post and balusters (pickets) that remained in the hall upstairs.
So, what to do??
I went on eBay hoping to find an answer and found an almost identical railing, and almost the exact size that we needed. We jumped in the car and drove an hour to Steven Shellenberger Architectural Antiques in York, PA, to take a closer look. It was perfect! He agreed to store it for until we were ready to install.
First thing we had to do was to rebuild the missing wall. That meant jacking up the ceiling, adding the 4×4 wall, drywall and paint.
Then, after much thought, discussions, and a dose of trepidation, along with a contractor with restoration experience, we installed the new/old railing. We knew we had about 1 shot to get this right. Any miscalculation could ruin the entire plan.
It went off without a hitch!! What a relief. And you can tell by the pictures that it made a huge difference. Not to mention, the addition of the wall gave Dudley a private study.
And, below, check out the pictures of the original mouldings that were hand crafted with tools from the late 1800s.
Hope you enjoyed seeing our beautiful staircase. Let me know what you think of this post. It will help me to learn what to write about in future posts.
Trust your journey!
Marion
