About the Paulinskill Lake House 8/17/07

I thought the least I could do is tell you about my nearly 200 year old lake house. Since I showed you the picture. It is really 4 stories high, but from outside, you can not see that in the front. It looks like a two story job. Only from one side does it show four stories high.... It is sort of built into the hill on the opposite side, and that shows 3 stories. Most all of the windows are 8 feet high, except the bathroom window, added later.

Anyway, there are 4 or 5 fireplaces, one is closed off entirely. The others only appear as mantels. One is in the basement Rathskeller, on the next floor up in the dining room, it leads up and then on the next floor, is our bedroom and that has a beauty of a fireplace. The attic above that has two rooms, but no more fireplaces. The chimneys we took down, as they were crumbled with age, and my father was sure that they would fall on someone on the ground. Needless to say, the fireplaces must be kept closed off. Both birds and bats kept coming in the house with them open.
There is one in the living room that is entirely closed off, mantel and all, and even plastered over. And, the last one is above that in the now, guest room. The neat thing is that someone thought fit to close off the one large room, and make a bathroom between a huge bedroom, dividing it with a wall, and closing the fireplace into a closet, and thus another room, the guest room.
My favorite place is the staircase. It goes up from the front doorway foyer, and when you get to the top, it goes down in the back with another matching staircase. Beautiful rails on the banisters.
The dining room has wainscoting up as high as the fireplace, a horizontal wainscoting. I never saw that done before.
And, the first floor bathroom, now that is interesting.....it used to be the back door way. (Leading outside to the outhouse.) Someone closed off that place into a small bathroom and it has the smallest sink that I have ever seen. Just perfect for that tiny place! It even has a super fancy window, with a piece of fancy raised patterned art glass that you can not see through. The window goes up and down with a weight.
All of the windows in this house work that way. There is a little button for some windows to push in and some have little recessed holes that are only large enough for a finger to go in and push to open the window. You have to lift the window with your other hand. Some are too hard to open.
Upstairs is a beautiful window, made with a set of French Doors. I am in love with that view!!! You look out over all mown grass as far as you can see. That land belongs to the lake, but it used to overlook the beautiful tressle bridge that was always in front of this house. Now in 1989 they replaced it with a wide cement bridge. In the winter, my father used to put a huge nail in the top of the frame to keep the doors from blowing open in the winter wind. Many a night, without that nail, that window has blown open and freezes us out, and did the same to them. In the spring and summer, it is so nice sleeping at night when the air is cooler. Mornings, I used to sit there to write letters, but alas, I rarely do that by hand any longer. My computer has crept into my life and I love to type away for hours.
There are 4 chandeliers in this house. One at the bottom of the stairs when you come in the front door, one over the dining room table, and two in the living room. The living room is about 40 feet long, and there is one at each end of it. The living room is very special....it has plaster molding from the day this house was born. The beautiful ceiling molding goes around the room several times, and it has graceful curves and has two large plaster medalians that hold up the chandeliers, which are just lovely.
Now, the kitchen.....hmmmmm, that is really special....it used to have four small rooms in it. My father knocked down the walls and changed it all. He made one huge kitchen about 20' x 20'. It now has all Dutch Maid cabinets in it and they have lasted well. He must have gotten them on sale, because most of the cabinets are all drawers. Which, of course leave no place for the pots and pans. So, oven it is. Annoying to say the least. But living here is so fabulous that it is easy to put up with.
My middle son, Wade came and put up pretty tiles behind the stove, and it looks just beautiful there now. He did a fabulous job. Wade is a very talented man, and he has promised to help me either repair the foyer with the slates, (which are all coming up) or, we can replace them with a pretty tile. They make such nice tiles today, that the choice is so endless. I would love to do down the entire hallway to the bathroom, and rip out that old carpet. Maybe we will. Who knows what the future can bring.
Dad put shag carpet all over the house when he owned this before us, except the bedrooms and the living room. The kitchen has linoleum on it. The carpets and the linoleum certainly are worn. Sometimes I wish I was born rich and could have a real carpet and repair the linoleum. It will never happen. Each time I save up to do it, something else comes up and the money is gone.
One year we had to remove the nearly 200 year old slates from the roof and put on a regular roof, just to keep out the bats. At the same time, we also sided the house. Guaranteed for 30 years. Right away, some of the siding blew off. Clark, my youngest son, did fix one place, and there is yet another to be done.
We even hired a man to come and paint the window sashings outside. It looked great for about 3 years. Now it needs it again. I have already begun to sand it and ready it for two new coats of paint, which I shall do myself.
This year we are trying to sell the house to move, and we have to repair the front steps, and replace one of the huge columns that holds up the porch roof on the far end. Winters are so harsh here, that they always cause some type of damage to the house, or yard. In a couple more weeks, my Clark and Wade told me they will set up scaffolding and do that huge repair job.
I do have a man coming to look at the steps and give me a repair estimate. After that, I think I only need a plaster man to come and look at the ceiling in the hallway upstairs.
It seems like this would not be the time to make repairs, but to sell this house, I believe it is so necessary. Well, that is enough on this old house. It is smiling a lot more these days with it's face liftings, and look out house, there is a dumpster coming. Treasures beware!!!!!!
This family is going west, and moving to Wyoming.