By: Townsend On: Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:08 pm
As a nice bonus, I was treated to a little 161 year old history. Inside the massive brick and granite base for the three fireplaces above is a small room built in to the base. I imagine it was a root cellar in days gone by. The ceiling of said room was plastered over and the plaster was starting to come loose. I decided to remove it. It exposed a beautiful face of the 11" X 8" inch chestnut beam that have stalwartly supported all that weight for 161 years. They are a gorgeous golden color, first light they saw in as much time! And show the hand hewn adz marks left by the craftsman of the day, long since departed from this earth.
A nice sight that pictures are hard to do justice, due to the confined area I was forced to photograph in. I will attempt to post better ones but here are a couple. Also shown are shots of the exposed edges of the beams to juxtapose the differences.
In order to hold the ruler in place I needed to drill pilot holes for the nails. It was like trying to nail into steel!
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Last edited by
Townsend on Sun Nov 06, 2011 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.