Some " Free Town Restoration Project" photographs 8/16/13

creskol

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This is a photograph of an old house I bought last month. It was built in 1875, and will be under restoration for a while. A chimney on the site dates back to the 1820's. The photo below shows what it looked like when I bought it.
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The two photographs below show what it looks like right now:
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There is a LOT of grading that needs to be done around the house, but we started where we discovered an old sidewalk leading to the old chimney. Unfortunately, the sidewalk has to go, so we are hand digging and screening every bit of it as we go. Here is a photo of the screen set-up we are using:
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Here is the mound of screened dirt we have moved so far:
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We are dumping all the discarded rubble into a plastic tubs .. so far we have filled ten of these tubs with broken bottles , tin can pieces, and the other junk left on the screen after sifting.
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Below are some random shots of some of the relics we have found and saved to date:
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Upvote 11
I see that old chimney now..... Where that arrow is pointing does that hill side kinda slope down?? Probably loaded with trash & good artifacts mixed in there and maybe some more coins are waiting to be found near the chimney. Keep us updated!!
 

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I will keep you posted .. Digging and scouting away from the house is very distant. .. first things first.
 

Rob - now that looks like it has the potential to be a REAL NICE man cave! A great place to sit on the porch, spit and tell lies! :icon_thumleft: It really looks like a beautiful setting. I'll bet you'll make a great find before it's all said and done! Keep us posted with your progress.
 

Thanks Rick .. I put "Jine" to work yesterday digging and sifting. Found a few marbles, a buffalo nickel, several pieces of pottery, and a few odds and ends. Back to the task again today.
 

Now this is my kind of thread. Lots of pics and a good story!
 

Thanks Rick .. I put "Jine" to work yesterday digging and sifting. Found a few marbles, a buffalo nickel, several pieces of pottery, and a few odds and ends. Back to the task again today.

Yes, I'm sure Doug is enjoying his "vacation." Keep him occupied!
 

You have showed me some of your handy work before (a post few years back).I'm sure when your done it will be a sight to see.:thumbsup: It's cool you have a strong passion for this as todays society seems to have a lot of lazy a$$es in it.:sadsmiley:
Take Care,
Pete,:hello:
 

You have showed me some of your handy work before (a post few years back).I'm sure when your done it will be a sight to see.:thumbsup: It's cool you have a strong passion for this as todays society seems to have a lot of lazy a$$es in it.:sadsmiley:
Take Care,
Pete,:hello:

Thanks Pete .. We spent another day today digging and sifting and found a couple of overall/work clothes buttons, two marbles, a few pieces of pottery, a buffalo nickle(not sure of the date yet, and a token. LOTS and Lots of broken glass, nails, and scraps of rusted away tin cans. Had to work mighty hard for those goodies as the ground was damp from the recent rains and didn't sift very well.

On another note, Dominion Power finally got their arses out and finished the service change upgrade from the old 70 amp service to 200 amp service.
 

Sounds like a fun, but hard, project. Good luck and I hope there are no surprises except for good ones.
 

What a great place! That's going to be a fun place to be for a long time. :) :icon_thumleft:
 

Thanks for all the nice comments .. I will keep you all updated as things progress.
 

You should clean up some of the better relic finds and make yourself a shadow box dining room table to show them off in. That would be an awesome addition to an otherwise historic house, imho, and I'd love to see how it looks when it's done. As a second thought, you're surrounded by trees, so if that table were made of native wood... exponential cool factor there.
 


Thanks .. Yes.. we have found some coins with the oldest one found today .. a
1699 King William III Farthing. We have also found an 1881 I.H. penny, a dateless I.H. penny, a dateless Barber dime, a nice 1913 Barber dime, a 1937 Buffalo nickel, a 1944 Wheat penny, and one very old unknown fancy disc that we thought was a coin, but it is probably a piece from some kind of jewelry.

That's some nice finds - even if they are not going to fetch $1,000,000. That 1699 Farthing sure sounds like a find. Can we see a photo? Sounds like it's definitely a colonial site?

- Bill
 

That's some nice finds - even if they are not going to fetch $1,000,000. That 1699 Farthing sure sounds like a find. Can we see a photo? Sounds like it's definitely a colonial site?

- Bill


Thanks Bill .. On Page 2 of this thread I have a photo of the Farthing posted. This old place has a lot of history .. There is an adjoining property that has an old cemetery on it, with the graves marked with rocks but with no tomb stones. There is no recorded history on it that I can find. I would love to know more about it, but have not had the time to dive into the records at the land office yet.
 

Thanks Bill .. On Page 2 of this thread I have a photo of the Farthing posted. This old place has a lot of history .. There is an adjoining property that has an old cemetery on it, with the graves marked with rocks but with no tomb stones. There is no recorded history on it that I can find. I would love to know more about it, but have not had the time to dive into the records at the land office yet.

Somehow I totally missed those pics! Thanks! Sounds like a great pickup!

- Bill
 

It looks like you have your work cut out for you creskol. have to say though I'm kind of jealous.8-)
 

That is awesome!!!!!!!
 

Rob - now that looks like it has the potential to be a REAL NICE man cave! A great place to sit on the porch, spit and tell lies! :icon_thumleft: It really looks like a beautiful setting. I'll bet you'll make a great find before it's all said and done! Keep us posted with your progress.

Herer is a 9/11/13 pictorial update showing progression:



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