the 1870 victorian....a new roof...and layers of wallpaper

the first big project to tackle was the roof....as i said before, the current roof was at least 85 years old and placed right over the original (what i think were original) wooden shakes. im pretty sure the only reason the roof lasted this long was because the shingles were slate...in pretty poor condition, but were 'mostly' still on. there was some significant leaking around the 2 chimney's and various other places in the house. so getting this done will be HUGE, so we can start renovating the interior.

here's a photo of the old slate roof...

its been quite the project getting the new roof finished. all of the unexpected little things that come up! of course some of the fascia is rotten, along with some of the soffit, AND some of the crown moulding. alot of that work we'll be doing this spring when we get the exterior back to its glory! but some of it has to be done now, with the roof.

so the tear off began...and the new sheeting put up....do you notice it looks a little WET?!?!

so we've had great weather for a few months now...hardly any rain. and it decided to rain once we got the roof torn off and the sheeting on...needless to say....it leaked a bit ALOT.  it was a good downpour for most of the day and night on this particular day. we knew there wasn't much we could do, but finally at 930 that night, i decided to go take a look...why wait until 930 at night...when i could've just gone to bed and thought about it in the morning...??? but i went over there and this is what i found...

hey, the wallpaper and plaster are coming off anyways, right?! AND with the wallpaper peeling...i discovered just how many layers of paper there are!! some if it is gorgeous and i'll post pictures of it all later. can you imagine how many different looks this house has had inside?!?! so anyway, this just helped the process along...and we decided the house needed a little bath. i was still freaking out a little, so i headed home and grabbed all the containers i could fine, stopped at the shop and grabbed what i could and then off to the house again...and all i could use there are the infamous 'red solo cups' to catch water. so i went around the house, placed a little red solo cup under drips, bowls, garbage can lids..whatever i had...

this actually worked quite well and it caught A LOT of water! all i good now...the roof is papered and shingles are being put on. so a dry house now!!
 
and we can continue to do this...and there is a whole lot of 'this' to do. starting with the upstairs and working our way down. we couldn't keep the plaster....one, because it was cracking and in very poor condition on the ceilings and the walls. and two, because this beast needs to be insulated!!!