I can’t find any before photos of the hallway. This is kind of strange considering how important it is to the house. The back hallway connects the kitchen, dining room, back vestibule, backstairs, the grand foyer and the laundry room. Our current laundry room we are going to move and make that room a tearoom but that is a project for another day.
It has huge ceiling height. You know that warning that they have on top of the ladder saying not to stand here? Well, that was the only way I could reach the top to do the trim. The same old repairs had to be made. Filling in all the nail holes, foaming the ones that were too big. There were a few cracks that had to be addressed.
How the back hallway turned out.
Taken looking out of the laundry room looking at the dining room.
This is looking from the dining room to the laundry room.
The door to the basement.
The door in the bottom image goes down to the basement. When we first moved in that door was not here. They had blocked off access from inside the house to the basement.
A thick piece of plywood over it and security screws. They didn’t want ANYONE down there. My saw saw made short work out of the plywood, but the security screws was a different story all together.
We did luck out and find the door that use to be there in the basement. Covered in cobwebs. It was just a matter of going to Lowe’s and getting a doorknob and some door hinges. For now, we put in the cheapest ones that we could just to get by. Going to replace them with something fancier later. Having access to the basement from inside the house is a huge deal when the weather here gets to -30 degrees.
We think the reason the basement was closed off was because the college students at one time-built a bar in the basement. What we heard that one of the fraternities got busted for serving liquor to minors. There is no bar down there now, but you can see some of the traces of it.
No Doors
The other thing to note there is no DOORS. Now this is hard for me to understand. On the first floor all the doors but the outside ones had been removed. You can see where they went, so at one time they were there. When we get some cash, I’m going to be looking at getting some refurbished doors if we can find a place that sells them. You can get these cheaper than a new door. Otherwise, it will be off to the hardware place.
Why are doors important? With a house this size it’s good to control the air flow. Right now, all the rooms are wide open. So, the house is locked in summer mode, and you get a breeze going around the house making it hard to heat. In the summertime it’ll be very nice but right now it’s a pain.
Maybe if we get some donations, we can get some. If you would like to help, we do have a donation page.