Mooreland House

We finally have the Mooreland House supported enough to pull out the rotted beam that used to hold up the roof. It has been a long process but it worked out. All that is left now is to put everything back like it was originally.

We have to support every joist that holds up this part of the attic floor. Once we do it we will be able to remove the bricks and old beam and put a new support beam in. Sure is a lot of work to replace four 2x8s.

In the video today we show the beam we decided on. We also explain how much the old beam has sagged. Building the temporary supports sure does use a lot of nails and screws.

We finally did enough prep work that we can start getting the drywall and plaster off of the ceiling. It’s amazing how much work we have to do to reach the ceiling in this house. It is going to be nice to not have plaster chunks falling on the stairs any more.

Frank goes through a detailed account of whether we think the porte cochere is original to the Mooreland House or not. There was a comment earlier this week on one of the videos featuring the porte cochere and we wanted to follow up with a video. Hope you don’t mind a midweek update.

Working on ladders and walk boards isn’t as much fun as it seems. We have too much to do over the stair well to do much more safely. Building a temporary platform to work off of seemed the best solution. We build it strong enough to dance on.

Once again, we must cover the stained glass window. This time we have to cover the inside. We need to pull down the drywall and plaster that loom over the stained glass. We are very protective of the glass because it is one of the only things left in the Mooreland House that is undamaged or taken out. We now have a little bit of an insulation sandwich with a stained glass filling. It will be well protected for the demolition that is soon to take place. Thanks for sharing a little bit of your week with us.

In today’s video we explore what is under the crown molding trim in the second floor hallway. We know that the beam needs some work but we can’t see it until we pull the trim. What we find is a little disturbing. We don’t know how they missed this.

The back stairs have been a source of concern for a while. We use them quite often and they are the only access to the attic floor. We couldn’t tell for sure but it felt like they were getting worse. Today’s video is about us putting up some temporary posts in order to ward off the collapse for a few more years until we can get to the permanent fix.

We had a small group of people try to get into the Mooreland House tonight. We caught them on the security camera and got a pretty good picture of one. We were hoping some of the local people might be able to check to see if they can identify her. They saw the camera and sprinted off before we could call any law enforcement. Trespassing would be very dangerous because it is very dark and cold in there and there are entire floors missing! Thanks for looking.