Restoring an 1850's limestone home and adding 7000 SF CopperstoneInn.com

Our project started in July, 2006 with an old Limestone Farm house built in 1858 with an addition from early 20th century. My wife and I embarked on a journey of hard work, learning and patience. Of course my wife will tell you that I have absolutely no patience but am the hardest worker she knows. I think I have gained an understanding of patience now though. As you follow the project, you will understand. There is so much to go over, so if your interested, be patient and hang on for the ride.

We will start out from the beginning and a little story about us. My wife and I have this dream of living on a farm and raising our yet to be born children. We are in our early 30's and own a construction company. We decided to buy a home and a 60 acre parcel of property in my hometown Rockton, IL in 2005. Our original goal was to have an apple orchard and pumpkin patch along with raising alpaca and horses. This is still a main priority but was sidetracked due to the Inn project. So after being in our house for about a month, I realized there was this quaint yet masculine Limestone home next door. While driving by the home one day in Dec 2005, I said to my wife, " You know if that ever sells, we have to buy it". The next week there was a sign in the yard "For Sale by Owner". It was fate, but the problem was that I was saying that for 5 years down the road. Well, not to lose out on an opportunity we bought the place So at this point, we owned 2 homes within 500 feet of eachother and had to come up with an idea of what to do. Well, I wanted to restore the old home no matter what. I have always loved the old Limestone solid structures of the 19th century and before. Our town Rockton has probably 100 homes and businesses. So my wife says, "What now?" I said, "I don't know, lets build a Bed and Breakfast, to go along with our Apple Orchard". Time lapse 2 years and we are here, in the 4th quarter as I say. We are almost finished with the project and cannot wait until it is done. We hope to be done by April, 2008 and open this Summer once landscaping is done. Enough rambling, lets get to the project.



Thanks for your interest.

Richard Spanton Jr.
Owner

Original Home 1858 START OF PROJECT July, 2006

Here is a photo of the Limestone house before we started the project. It looks nice, but what you can't see is what is lurking inside. Old wood, plaster, lead paints, wallpapers, rotting rafters and foundation, etc. The biggest part of this project was to save the original Limestone structure. After you see the project, I think we did our job. Some have said, "Wouldn't it have been cheaper just to bulldoze the old house". This makes me cringe. It did cost alot to save the house in dollars and hardwork, but nothing compares to it now. It will be here for another 150 years or much longer.

Inside of home before

Here is some of what was inside.

old basement 1858

This is the old basement looking down from above.

Double sided fireplace with wood burning stoves

The original owners said that they heated the entire home with wood. You will see in the future pictures that though we had to tear down the original fireplace, we put the new one in the same spot and it is still double sided.

Inside Limestone Great Room

This is a view of the inside of the old home during demo. You can see the original headers and oak beams. We saved most of them and they are in the same spot today.

Original trusses 1858 portion

Here is a pic of the original trusses. You can see that they just needed to be replaced. We will opt to go with a scissor truss to keep the inside 5 and 12 pitch vaulted ceiling yet wanted to match the new additions outside pitch or 8 and 12. Pics to come.

Limestone home only

Here is the Limestone home alone without its addition.

demo

here is some old siding. est. 1900 or so.

START EXCAVATION FOR NEW ADDITION

Here we began to tear out the original additions foundation and sis well.

Excavation

keep digging!

Interesting change in plans Sept 2006

At this point digging the new foundation hole for the massive addition my excavators realized an important situation. While digging near the Limestone home, the original foundation began to crumble. Though the stone on the home above ground was in pretty good shape, the stone foundation had rotted due to years of moisture and age. It just started to crumble when touched.

STOP ALL PRODUCTION! Now we had to come to a conclusion. How to fix this issue and save the original home.

Roger Olson from R&R concrete and excavation put his many years of expertise and connections to work. We contacted Hueser Heavey Haulers, a home and building mover out of Wisconsin. They were in the middle of moving an airport hanger, so I thought, these are the guys! Mr Hueser came down to assess the issue and said reluctantly that he could help. Roger trusted that he could do it, so I trusted Roger. Well, we are glad Roger was right.

Following pics you will see us shoring and beaming up the old house to dig for a new foundation under the existion home to save it.

ESTIMATED WEIGHT OF THE LIMESTONE HOME: 250 TONS!

I AM GLAD WE MET THESE GUYS!

HOLDING THE HOUSE UP

Here is how we held the home up.

holding home up

Here is 250 Tons of stone being held up.

ready for foundation

Here we started preparing for new foundation. Oct 2006

pouring walls

Pouring the walls. We went through 3 pumper trucks that kept breaking down. This is when the workers and us started thinking the home maybe haunted! It just seems that something is prolonging this project.

Blocking up

After the foundation was poured and cured, we had to block up the rest of the foundation to the existing limestone. We blocked it between the beams so then the home would now be resting on the new foundation and the steel beams could be pulled out.

Blockwork

you can see the blockwork and how the beams would be easily extracted! Easy, hah!

Beams and Block

closeup of beams and block

from inside limestone home

Here is view from standing inside on beams

New addition foundation

Here we start working on the addition foundation.

foundation walls pouring

pouring walls

inside new foundation

Here we jump to the new foundation with floor joists in place.

more new basement

Here is an I beam to hold up the massive addition.

RADIANT HEAT FLOORS IN BASEMENT

We decided to heat the finished basement with radiant heat. There will be 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a mini spa, and a bar/game room in the basement along with many of the mechanicals.

More Radiant

other view

Setting floor

Putting in the subfloor on the main addition.

Framing up Addition COLD!

Framing up addition main floor walls. Very cold winter of 2006.

Framing second floor

putting up the second floor walls

Second floor up!

Here we have the second floor up.

Rear view of exposed basement

Here is the southern view of the addition. You can see we have an exposed walk out basement.

Removing old roof

Here we hired a crane to do the dirty work. We needed to remove the old roof and truss system to instal our new roof. Pretty awesome seeing a roof go up 60 feet in the air.

AND AWAY!

This was scary! A 4000 pound roof over top of our new addition framed up. Good thing we had strong straps!

NEW ROOF

LOOKING LIKE A HOUSE AGAIN!

Here we jump to the where the new trusses and roofs are installed on both the addition and the original home!

You can see the void that the new scissor trusses caused on the 1858 portion. In future pictures you will see how we solved this issue.

Before: Stone

Here is the south side of the origial Limestone home. Our masons cleaned out all of the joints about 3-4". We then re-tucked all joints inside and out

Before: Great Room

berfore re-tucking.

After: Dining tuck pointing

This is the dining room stone wall after re-tucking. It is actually the exterior of the old 1858 home exposed to the interior of the addition. It will be very beautiful when entire home is completed.

Concrete Top Plate

We installed a 4" concrete cap around the perimeter of the entire 1858 home. It also incluldes rebar and pins for the plates. I don't thing this roof is going anywhere. It also gave us a nice true edge to adhear the trusses to.

after: tuck pointing

Here is some of the after pics of the tuckpointing inside.

Before: Exterior stone home after cleaning joints

Here is the outside after cleaning out all joints.

north gable

this is the road side gable. as you can see they used a better cut stone for the front This is the original home.

Corner stone Built in 1858

here is the original cornerstone. Hand Chiseled.

Starting the roof

I decided to use a Certainteed Carriage house shingle. It has a lifetime warranty and gives the look of an old slate shingle. We used copper in all of the valleys, flashings, wriglets, etc.

Also using copper for all fascia, frieze, soffit, gutters, downs, etc etc.

Thus, The Copperstone Inn!

roofing

roofing

roofing

roofing

Installing copper w-valley

We decided to have some custom bent W-Valley for rigidity of all valleys. Should last forever. At least I hope. Copper has gone through the roof price-wise, no pun intended.

Installing copper drip edge

copper copper copper

Installing Custom Copper Standing seam on Dormers

We did all of the dormers, the hexagon turrit and the porch in copper standing seam.

Copper dormer

Copper dormer. slow but steady. It took a while, but in the end, the dormers look fantastic.

Thanks to Renaissance Roofing in Belvidere, IL.

www.claytileroof.com

Copper fascia and frieze

We did mostly custom copper work on the entire home. the frieze board had to be custom manufactured to our specs. It is pretty amazing. I have really never seen this amount of copper used on a residential home. Well, maybe in Lake Forest, IL but not out in the sticks by us. It is pretty amazing and the craftsmanship is second to none.

north elevation copper

more copper.

Copper return

soffit and return. what great work!

Coppersmith Craftsman

What great guys! They worked from sun up to sun down and look at the results!

OH YEAH!, WE GOT MARRIED SOMEWHERE IN THIS TIME

We got married Jan 27th, 2007. They say three of the most stressful things you can do in your life is 1. get married, 2. build a home, and 3. start a new business.

Well, we have been doing all 3 the past 2 years but its luckily going pretty good for the most part. Plus we own a few other businesses that keep us always busy.

It is stressful, but I would not be able to do it without my beautiful, hardworking and understanding wife Chrissie.

Thank you honey, I love you more each day.
Richard Spanton Jr.

Stone work on new addition over 5000 SF

We decided to use 4-6" Limestone quarried locally. It is almost a near perfect match to the old house from 1858. The only diff is the new stone is not bleached out as much. With using a colored mortar on the old home when re-tucking and the new addition it blends easier. It makes the home look as if it was completely built in 1858!

We love the stone!

Precision Masonry
Tim Smith and Justin Condon: 2 young hard working guys and there employees did all the stone work inside and out.

Tim Leveling up some stone

The guys did a great job of keeping everything true and level. There is not a better job out there!

Scaffolding and stone

The guys had to buy all new scaffolding just to reach the work on this addition. At times on the exposed basement part, they were up 50 feet setting stone.

Justin and Ben setting stone

Justin Condon setting stone with Ben his sidekick. They do great work!

Scaffolding and stone on the back

exposed portion of home. wait until you see the finished product pics to come!

Stonework

more stonework

Dormer Stonework

All of the 4 dormers on the home are stone. We used an Angle Iron brace at the base of the stone mounted to the truss plates of the dormer. The masons used half blocks cut down to 4 inches for the first course. This was so that we could counterflash a wriglet in place after the stone was up and there would be a clean line. It looks great and no leaks! Dormers are actually vaulted inside the home for natural light to come into the bedrooms upstairs.

Finished Product (well, almost)

What beautiful and matching stonework to the 1858 original home.

West Elevation and turret

You can see the beauty of the other side here.

Stone/Copper Turret

this is a victorian sittin room inside!

there is also a huge stamped concrete patio that has a hexagon shape to match the house.

Boulder Retaining wall

We used Wisconsin Granite boulders to create a bit more color to the retaining wall.

Crimson Valley Landscaping out of Rockford, IL is doing a great job.

The exposed area will be a rose garden among other flowering plants.

other side boulder wall with flagstone steps

This area hasa natural Flagstone steps to get up to the future walkway of pavers. This walkway will go towards the Jacuzzi building and outdoor fireplace/Grill area. It will be explained later in the project.

The little building is also where we are housing our Corn Burner. We will be "Green" and heating the entire home with corn.

Also we will house our Kohler Generator in the same building.

boulders and pavers

boulders and pavers

Brick Pavers

We chose to go with a hand laid tumbled brick paver for all of the walkways and patios.

The Parking area will also be pavers set this spring. It is about 9000 SF of pavers. Should be beautiful and last forever.

south patio pavers

here is a large patio at the exposed basement portion.

North elevation porch pavers

Her is a patio on the other entrance. This is also our ADA entrance. As you can see the pitch of the paver walkway is perfect.

Center intersection for paver walkways

Here is a custom design in the walkways.

rear patio

as you can see the patio is looking good! this is about November 2007

Foundation and footing for Corn Burner building

This is where we will house the corn burner, Generator in one side and a Jacuzzi and bathroom in the other. The floor is stamped concrete with Radiant heat.

The footing and frost walls are poured here. We are also putting a full masonry outdoor fireplace/grill area that will also have a brick paver patio. The countertops will be rough cut Granite and the stone will match the house.

The building will be a wainscot of stone, and then Cedar Barn siding painted red/white trim to match historic barns already on the property. Also there will be a matching green roof to the barns.

Kind of an outdoor entertainment retreat!

I can't wait to hang out here!

fireplace foundation

Thanks to Randy Baier concrete. Randy is one of the hardest working guys I know and just a great guy too! He is out of Belvidere, IL. He is also my great neighbor Bob Baier's brother. Bob heped design this entire house. He owns Systems Design Services out of Rockford, IL.

corn building

notice the John Deere. We are JD for life around here!

Corn burner building

Her is the Framed up and ready to go Corn Burner building. Still no corn burner yet.

Front of out building

This is the front porch of the jacuzzi/corn burner building. Eventually the walls will be barn siding red and white trim. Then pavers and the fireplace will be put in. This will be a relaxing area to have some fun.

Stone post

These posts will be wrapped with western cedar and stained or painted white. I think they will look fantastic either way! We will see once we get the red siding on the building.

Chrissie x-mas on the farm

The beauty of the bed and breakfast is really the property it sits on. 130 acres of rolling hills, pastures and old growth hardwoods. We have Hickory, oak, walnut, etc. out there.

I thought I would add a couple of scenic farm photos for you to see why we love it and hopefully are not crazy to build this B&B out in the country.

We think the country is what will draw people to our "Little Hideaway".

People have too much city in them these days. Hussle and bustle. We want guests to be able to slow it down a bit, turn off the cell phones and laptops and enjoy nature and life.

Wow!, I should listen to my own advise here. It sounds wonderful. I hope I can stop moving for a bit and enjoy it too!

Some of the old growth Oaks

we have beatiful and magnificent old growth trees on the farm. Wait and see for yourself!

pasture

can you wait to see the horses in the pasture looking out from the B&B? I can't!

We will begin our horse and alpaca raising adventure either later this year or in 2009.

horses here were just boarding for a while.

Family of Geese

We had a family of Geese in one of the ponds 2007. We see lots of geese throughout the year.

Blowing in Spider Insulation

We chose to use Johns Manville Spider blown in insulation. With the 2X6 framing we did on the entire home, it gives us an R-value of like R28 or something. Pretty tight. the ceilings are formaldahyde free R-38 Bats.

This house is tight as a whistle and has proper ridge vent and soffit vents to make sure the attic is ventalated correctly.

insulation

this is blown in and before they shave off and reuse the excess.

Chrissie pointing out something with the insulation

We used the spider in the exterior walls.

Also, all interior walls and floor joices are insulated with acoustic R-38 bats.

This house is dead silent!

Insulating the 1858 ceiling

We used the R-38 bats in the 1858 ceiling also. With the scissor trusses, this was the only option. It will be covered with cdx and then 3/4 inch tungue and groove white oak. 6" wide plank for the finished ceiling. pics to come.

insulating and soundproofing floors

you will see the ext walls spider insulation and the floors batted.

Hanging Blue Board (drywall) to prepare for plaster

Barn room is one of the themed rooms. here the guys are putting up drywall getting walls ready.

Victoring room blue board

this is the sitting area in one of the bedrooms. ready for plaster soon!

Starting plaster

this area is the dining room with exposed stone from 1858 home. there will be custom built in cabinets in the openings.

Stairway smooth coat

Gordy Johnson plaster out of Rockford, IL did the plaster and is doing a great job.

basement plaster

The basement will have the look of an old train station. the walls will be plaster painted like concrete and the beams will be red brick simulating a brick foundation. It should be pretty neat.

brick tunnel in basement

this will be veneer red brick tucked old fashioned. This is in the basement and is part of the train station look.

Victorian Bedroom

This room will have fancy victorian wallpaper above and a wainscot of vertical beaded poplar painted brilliant white with chair-rail. should be pretty nice!

Victorian bath Jacuzzi

This is one of the 4 rooms with double occupancy jacuzzi tubs. this one is 72" X 48" . does not get much bigger than that!

Notice the granite. We used all natural products in every bath and all counters. Either granite, quartz, stone, slate tile, etc.

Walk in shower in victorian bath

Here is the view of the shower and to the right where the vanity will sit.

All showers in the home are double occupancy except for the 2 bedrooms in the basement.

One side of this shower gets to use the 18 gallon a minute vertical spa by Moen waterhill collection. Notice there is no ceiling on this shower and it is directly below the open light dormer. I can't wait to see this one!

Wood room double jacuzzi

Wood room will be all walnut walls and hickory floors.

This is the double occupancy tub. It also has the double shower.

basement different view

this is the great room or gathering room as we call it in the basement.

here will be the brick pilars and the 1 and 1/4" oak barrell vault ceiling. shoould be pretty masculine down here. Except for the mini spa to the left. It will be explained later.

I am a pretty manly guy, but you can't beat a great massage or even pedicure! If you haven't had one, you can't judge!

Barn room jacuzzi

Here is the bath in the Barn Room.

We made this bedroom and bath look like the inside of an old barn. Really used 150 year old barn board from the Amish in Wisconsin. We will finish the walls with a wainsot of cultured stone matching the fireplace in the bedroom. look ahead!

Barn room

there is access from the house and outside to the Barn room. there is a small patio for the guests outside also.

Barn room fireplace in progress

The masons putting up the cultured stone on the fireplace

now you can see the hand hewn beams and rafters of the Barn room.

The stone will be used in the bath too!

The Beam in this picture came out of the old Barn on the property. 150 years old!

Barn room fireplace

notice the beam mantle. This really looks nice.

Barn room with wainsot metal

We use a galvanized corrugated metal for a wainscot in the barn room.

It really gives it good appeal and brightens up the room

the built out door to the left is the entry to the jacuzzi bathroom.

there is a double shower in there too!

Copperstoneinn.com

Maybe Bob will come do a story on this project. It is definitely worthy.

Boulder retaining wall

Copperstone Inn

flagstone steps

Copperstone Inn

Richard Spanton Jr.

Mason Justin Condon

Heres justin, doing what he does best.