The Outside

 Before

 This photograph was used by the realtors to advertise the house.  Most of the house was covered with 1" foam board.  The areas of exposed siding were mostly rotten, with occasional spots where you could see right through the wall of the house. 

At some point the farmers painted the foam board to match the exposed siding.

The ladder seen in this photograph served two purposes. First as a fire escape and second as a method of entry and exit for the kids who slept on the second floor.  When we went to remove it it very neatly fell off the side of the house.

Around the house the farmers had shoveled earth and sod up against the side of the house to insulate it.

In the back of the house plastic garbage bags had been filled with straw and stacked against the house.  The corner area seen below had some severe rot, most likely the result of snow and rain that ran off the roof and saturated the siding and the sills.

 Most of the siding came off easily.  At one point,  I accidentally bumped the second floor window and the whole thing fell out.  I temporarily covered the hole with an old storm that I found in the barn.

Sills

In the late 1700's the  foundations of this style of cape were built in two ways. There were generally  cellar holes in the center of the house.   These were made from stacked stone, usually with larger stone toward the bottom.  The rest of the foundation was made by digging a trench and filling it with stone and then topping it off with cut granite blocks.  I've seen many houses in the area where this type of foundation has stayed in place, without any settling, for several hundred years.  Our house had granite block across the front and piled stone across the back.
 

When I removed the earth and siding to expose the sill I found extreme rot across the back of the house.  I jacked up the house, cut out all the rotten beams and replaced them with comparable sized beams made from treated lumber.

I'm sure my jacking system was a little unorthodox.  I found the by bolting a 2"x10" to the framing of the house I could lift the structure using a few bottle jacks simultaneously.

I rebuilt as much of the stone structure as I could and then poured a concrete wall to seal the crawl space off from critters.

There are a number of local techniques for solving this problem.  Some are quite expensive and labor intensive.  This method seemed to work well except that to grade the landscape so that water could run away from the house the sill would have to once again be below the topsoil.  I flashed the base of the house and ran plastic and Tyvec down the side of the house and about 3 ft across the lawn away from the house.  When I sided the house I used several layers of 2"x10" treated lumber to seal and protect the sills.

Sheathing

The demolition team below removed all of the inside of the house and all of the siding.

I dug out and removed all of the earth surrounding the house.  I exposed these beautiful cut granite blocks on the front.  The sheathing went up pretty easily.

This area to the left of the front door had some severe rot, most likely due to water running off the roof above directly onto the side of the house.  The granite stepping stone were submerged under the grass.

I wrapped the house in Tyvek.

It took several summers to complete the outside of the house.  Prior to leaving Vermont for the winter, I wrapped the house in black plastic to protect it.

Siding

We researched  many different siding types.  We didn't have much money so we went with the least expensive pine clapboards that we could find. 
 

Here you can see where I framed to install a bigger window going into the Big Room.  It lets lots of light in as well as provides good ventilation on hot days.

I developed different techniques for getting to the high places without having to rent scaffolding.  In this photo I have raised the bucket of my tractor as high as it could go and braced it with an old log to it didn't slowly drop to the ground.  When I worked on the roof I would place a ladder in the bucket and run it up the roof.  I don't think this is an OSHA recommended technique.

We went with a California Paint (Flaxen Field).  It covered nicely in one coat over primer.

Roof

The roof consisted of  at least three different styles of metal.  My guess is that it was probably salvaged from other buildings at various times in history.

It was badly rusted in most places.

I tried several different methods of getting up there to paint it.  In this photo I'm using a homemade ladder bracket.  This was cumbersome to move and work from.  Eventually I figured out the tractor technique.  Combined with a 16' roller extension I could reach all areas.

After
These are photos of the completed exterior.  I still haven't finished the dormers.  Maybe this summer.