The dumpster arrived at the house before we did. It had been ordered for the day of the closing, and we hoped to have it for a week. This was wishful thinking. After donning air masks, the first thing we did was to tear down the shredded draperies. The sun was able to shine through the wavy glass window panes once again and the golden afternoon light flowed in. Like sunlight reflected off the water, rippled light patterns began to dance on the walls. By sundown we had a good deal of the wallpaper down. It was ready to be released, and simply pulled away from the plaster walls with little effort. The small amount of flooring had been removed as well, which included carpet from the living room and old vinyl sheets from most of the closets and two small bedrooms. It felt like the house could breathe again. We sat in the red wooden front porch swing before leaving and watched the last of the evening light wane on the hillside across the river to our east. “Could it really be ours?” Randy was filled with utter excitement over it all. I on the other hand, felt a mixture of relief, in light of the closing (no small feat these days), disbelief that such a stunning place could be really be ours, and brief intermittent moments of anxiety at the enormity of what we were embarking upon.
We had scheduled the closing to coincide with a vacation from my job. I had eleven days to work non-stop with Randy, who’s schedule would allow for him to work on the house nearly every day for the next few months. During the two and a half weeks we had the dumpsters (yes, there turned out to be not one, but two), we cleared out the remaining contents of the house, workshop and barn. The basement alone, took a total of four days. We donned full white hazmat suits and air masks for that job and carried buckets and bags of dusty debris up the stone bulkhead steps to the wheelbarrow waiting at the top.
Outside, we spent an entire day cleaning out the gully between the barn and stream which had been used as a household garbage dump. This was a disturbing reality for us, as we could not fathom dumping trash in such a lovely place, but this is not uncommon for old homes, as local trash sites simply did not exist a century ago. We happened to do that on Earth Day, which seemed apropos. Mostly rusty metal, glass and plastic remained, which we meticulously removed and carted away. The largest item we were able to unearth was the rusting and worn-out bench seat from a long gone automobile. It took a long rope and the two of us heaving and tugging it uphill along wet leaves to get it out, no small feat.
Anything worth saving, but unwanted, went out to the figurative curb. We were hoping people would just come and take things, which they did, and we met some of the neighbors as they gave new homes to old furniture. Two of the neighbors even re-purposed wood and metal from the dumpster, which left us with needed space to fill. Windows, walls, woodwork and floors got the first of many washings, and the house began to shine. Four suspended ceilings were carefully taken down and hauled away to expose the cracked and in some places, crumbling ceilings. One of our favorite discoveries was the wainscoted ceiling in the kitchen. It matched the floor to ceiling wainscoting on the walls, which we loved. There were at least six colors of paint in the room, and a few layers of wallpaper on the top two feet, behind the drop ceiling. We had our work cut out for us!
The last and heaviest item to go into the dumpsters was plaster. Lots of plaster! As we cleaned the three fireplaces, we came to realize that two of the beautiful facades and mantles were quite loose. A decision was made to take them down, which revealed loose and crumbling brick that had been added to hold them up. They too came out easily, revealing a final layer of beautiful brick and mortar, all in decent shape. Above the mantles, the brick chimneys were covered with plaster. We wondered about exposing the brick, and before long decided to go for it. Randy worked for days, carefully chipping away and carrying out bags of debris. Aching hands and wrists accompanied him home each night as the work progressed. I had returned to work by that point, and eagerly awaited news of the day, as I took the short ride home each evening.
Our meticulous cleanup included removing any old nails or hooks we found and boy, did we find hooks! Beautiful old hooks were nailed in and lined each of the closet walls, small modern screw-in hooks were in the woodwork and walls in every room, big rubber coated hooks were in the basement, workshop and barn, and medium sized screw-in metal hooks were outside in the porch posts and ceilings. We must have removed at least thousand hooks! The beauty and simplicity of the lines of the house were appearing before our eyes. We had known the possibility from the beginning, but it was becoming more a reality with each day. We arrived back at our home down river each night exhausted, excited, and dreaming of what potential the next day might hold.
J. Howard Beach House 