This house began as a one room log cabin near what would become Flatonia, sometime before the Civil War. Through the nineteenth century it added rooms twice until around the turn of the century the log room was buried beneath a skin of the late Victorian period. In danger of being razed, a family with great foresight and fortitude took on the huge task of moving it 45 miles to north of Round Top to begin a new life that will take it well into the 21st century.
This house began as a one room log cabin near what would become Flatonia, sometime before the Civil War. Through the nineteenth century it added rooms twice until around the turn of the century the log room was buried beneath a skin of the late Victorian period. In danger of being razed, a family with great foresight and fortitude took on the huge task of moving it 45 miles to north of Round Top to begin a new life that will take it well into the 21st century.
This is the house inits original foundation still very much unchanged by anything but age since the turn of the 20th century.
It is rare these days to find a house that is still sitting on its original foundation. In this case, sandstone piers.
More times than not the roof and small and protruding additions have to be removed to make a house able to be moved any distance at all. Months later and over bridge and dale it sits in a new foundation ready to be put back together.
While the house is separated and moved a vision of what the house will look like when finished
The plan is to place the old summer kitchen in the same proximate location as the original site and connect it to the main house. The diminutive building will then be re-utilizied as the new master bath. The hallway connecting them will be the same pitch and proportions and the original back rooms but be just framing and glass to open views to the lake from the new master bedroom and log room library.
The old kitchen had extensive restoration to be done as it was last used by a pair of nest turkey vultures. Documentation and measurements of the structure before the move was not met kindly by the former tenants.
The finished master bath from the north side. The silo on the side is the shower.
The master bath with the finished connector hallway also in place. It is almost as transparent as the "al fresco" walk had originally been on a trip to the kitchen, but heating and air-conditioning have been great modern accomplishments.
In the beginning the hallway provided new access to the master bath, but in the future it would become circulation for future additions.
the original rooms along the north wall were almost certainly added in the late 19th century, but were only 5 1/2 ft. at the plate and they had to be removed to make the house moveable. in the picture below they are the shed addition on the left of the porch.
The idea for the hallway was to make is fundamental and transparent as possible. The framing and its connections are all exposed much in the same way a log structure has its connections exposed. Special stainless steel connectors were fabricated for their task.
This picture shows the hallway from the exterior and the one below shows the interior.
The restored log room would become the library and a circulation hallway.
A look inside the old kitchen before the move...and after the vultures had been evicted. an interesting detail on the dividing wall between the two rooms had been painted over. A vertical board & batt for a sort, but the battens were custom cut tin strips folded to slip into the groves between boards and flanged to be nailed to each side. This wall was restored and is shown in the picture below.
Phase One: Restoration of the main house and Phase Two: master Bath and Connectore Hallway are complete
Phase Three to come. Every farm needs a Barn, doesn't it?