Ooooo Look What We Found at the Stone House!

[talesofthesevenseas]

This "hook" in the exterior wall of the stone house appears to be an old iron musket butt plate that was repurposed as a hook! How cool is that? My fiance sent this photo over from Tennessee this morning. He's out there for a brief trip, we actually make the move in late April. The second photo is a similar example of an iron musket butt plate.

[ghopper1924]

Only you would spot a detail like that! Very cool!!

[talesofthesevenseas]

Actually it was Bruce and his good friend Byron who recognized it. They are both 18th century reenactors, so they knew what it was!

[Rauville]

Pretty neat to find something like that. (Question: Does a stone house need to be re-chinked between the rocks as the years go by, or do you just patch spots as needed?)

[talesofthesevenseas]

It was all inspected by a home inspector who specialized in this type of old house and he stated that it was the best house of its type he had ever seen. In the entire house he found only one very minor crack in one stone. The walls are 2' thick and the place is built like a fortress. He also commented that everything was "dry as a bone" inside, which is good so none of the "rising damp" that results from leaky stone walls. He said the house had been extremely well maintained. Apparently you can do a lot of very serious damage to a stone house by "re-pointing" the mortar and trying to pretty it up: http://www.heritage-house.org/damp-problems-caused-by-cement-pointing-of-brick-or-stone.html So as I understand it, the inspector said that the most important thing for us to do is to keep the sills and door frames painted because if the wood deteriorates and is allowed to sag, it can compromise the structural integrity of the house.

[benbenny007]

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

I would never have guessed it and it would stay my life time in the wall if it was my house

[mart]

Now thats a good place to hang your water hose !!  No one else will have one like it !!

[talesofthesevenseas]

Oh no worries Benbenny007, we definitely will not be removing it! I am thinking it was probably used to hang a lantern on. You can see the position of it in the photo below if you look carefully. It is located to the right of the right hand window, left of the tree trunk. This photo was taken in 1973.

[KC]

This house was definitely meant for you talesof!  Love your found treasure and hope you find much, much more (and share it) after you move in!

[awhitetriangle]

Great find and a lovely looking house too, very nice... intrigued to see what you may uncover. I've helped renovate a number of old buildings over the years i used to be in the building trade they always throw up some surprises!

[greenacres]

Privy time, lol. Check and see if the privy has been touched. Then get permission and dig away!

[KC]

I was chuckling and thinking that as well greenacres!  Lots of great finds at the privy!!!!

[talesofthesevenseas]

Well, the first order of business would be figuring out where the privy was. Looking at the old photos none of them look to be a privy, at least as I would expect one to look. There is a small building in the old photos which we know to be the summer kitchen, because it  has a cellar below ground with a flue running up through it. This building was later expanded and is now the cottage, which you can see to the right of the house in the last photo below:

[Rauville]

I'm sure the privy was moved a few times over the years. If you don't already have one, get or make a good probe and start looking for likely locations. Good luck, and keep us updated.
http://singingprivyprobes.yolasite.com/

[talesofthesevenseas]

I had two, but they were not made to "sing" like the ones at the link above. What a good idea! I did not ship them to Tennessee as our space in the storage container was limited. I will have to get one when I get there. I'm guessing using a metal detector would also be a good way to locate the old privy.