Asa Wolverton House Restoration Progress

We have had many requests to post our progress on the restoration of the Wolverton House. For those who have found this blog and have not heard of this house, let me give you a bit of history.

This home was built in 1851 by a lumber merchant, Asa Wolverton. He was originally from Cayuga, NY but migrated into Canada with his family when he was a young man of only 17 years old. I have not found any information about his life before the time that he started building this magnificant Greek Revival Plantation House on the Banks of the Grand River in Brant County. He married Juliet Capron from Leicester, VT. For what ever reason, they did not have any children, however, it is believed that they were a very happy household during the ten years that they lived together in this house. Asa's family was very much a part of the Civil War and four of his nephews were stewards in New York during the 1850's. Also during that time Asa and his wife took in the freed slaves that would wonder up the banks of the Grand River. His home was the only one allowed to take in these people.

I have come across family records that describe several of the black servants that lived with the Wolvertons. There have also been Irish immigrants that were employeed by the Wolverton's. At the onset there were two sisters (or cousins) that worked for this couple. Later there was a family of four that stayed at this house and worked for the family.

August of 2007, my husband and I purchased this historic manor with great intentions of restoring it back to it's original spendor. We have ripped out everything that was not original to this home, including dismantelling three apartment units. To date, it is returned to one home; the plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling systems have been modernized. The walls have been insulated and currently the roof is being totally replaced.

Our jouney to this point has been exactly as we predicted, however our friends and neighbours shake their heads in amazement that we live like this. You see, we live in an ongoing construction zone in every part of our home. We have no finished walls, floors, trim, window frames, doors and stairs. We do however have several tool rooms, spiders, cobwebs, dust, three bathrooms near completion. We are still missing the doors...just minor details. I've survived living through the dark ages when we had no electricity for weeks, survived the two weeks when there was no plumbing. That will be another story.

I will begin my story by telling you what we did today. My husband is finally going to get the laundry room together. He started today by continuing to patch holes in the lathe and plaster walls and boxing in duct work. I told him weeks ago that I would no longer do the family laundry until I had a "real laundry room" with my appliances both residing in the same room. Right now, the dryer is in the main house and the washer is in the Carriage House (next door). Its really, really cold outside and today it is trying to snow. I refuse to spend another moment carrying cold, wet laundry in and out and out and in and all the while dropping a sock or a tea towel or a shirt on route.

I, on the other hand, chose to work in the Master Bedroom. We are still sleeping "where ever" and we still don't own a mattress for the new canopy bed that sits in storage..in the laundry room... since last May. BTW, "where ever" includes our B&B guests quarters down the road, in the Carriage house guest beds, the sofa, on 3/4 mattresses on the floor upstairs, 3" cot mattress on the floor in the library, in the trailer, and at times, I have left home to stay with my Aunt, hundreds of miles away. This month we are sharing a 160 year old bed in the guest room. Nice mattress, and very cozy-- tight together.

It's been almost a year working on this room and we are almost there! Two weeks ago, I spent three days hanging wallpaper. We stripped the paint from the floor, sanded and ready for paint. I stapled the canvas to the floor as I am making the 12'x10' floor cloth. I was so excited weeks ago to think that we would soon be sleeping in a 'real' bed, in a real room, that we could actually call our own. I was counting the days till I could lie in bed and watch TV...a favourite past time. I had finished putting up the final piece of wall paper and cleaned the floor and went to bed (on the floor in the library) excited but exhausted. The next day I was going to paint my floor cloth and count the days till completion. As I lie on the floor, I could hear the rain pouring down hard and fast and all the time questioning if it was raining inside and not out. My husband came in to listen but excused it as being misdirected water from the roof. Afterall the eave trough was missing now and the rain was falling into the gravel patch on the other side of the parlour windows.

By morning, the carpenter had returned to finish his job of repairing and restoring the facia board and trim. He came in to ask if we had any water on the inside of the house. I didnt like the question and proceeded to climb the stairs and enter the Master bedroom. Sure enough, the trim around the window had buckled, water dripping from the cil, huge dark wet spots on the newly papered walls around the window and the pine floor water soaked like a sponge along the wall's edge. Now the paper is removed from the wall, and a heater is on full time to dry up the lathe and plaster and floor. The floor has black streaks and waves that hopefully will be sanded back to flat. You see, the rain started late afternoon and the carpenter decided to leave early...forgetting to put the trim on that would keep the rain from entering between the walls and soaking the newly blown-in insulation. Two weeks later and the insulation is still like a wet sponge and the walls...well I cant even think what is happening between the walls right now. The parlour wall is really sad looking too. I told the carpenter to be glad that room wasnt done yet as it has $4,000 worth of custom historically correct wall paper ready to hang.

Today I have concentrated on painting the floor cloth as there is nothing else I can do until the wall completely drys, window put back together, floor resanded. Hopefully we will have a completed bedroom before Christmas. 

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