In addition to the painting the family room itself, my sister-in-laws tackled another daunting project: removing the crazy little brackets in the doorways downstairs. Now those brackets were STURDY… as you can see from the picture below (from when we moved in last year), they can definitely support my weight. They were nailed, caulked, and perhaps wood glued into the corners of the doorways.
No match for these ambitious ladies, though!
It was a team effort, and from what I’m told, once they got the technique down, it wasn’t too difficult.
In the course of one day they were able to paint most of the family room AND remove these annoying, non-original brackets downstairs!
Doesn’t that doorway look so much more peaceful without them?
Those brackets came from just the two doors entering the family room… they ended up removing the brackets going to the dining room and study as well, giving us 8 total. I don’t really want to throw them away (as much as I hate them in the doorways, they are a part of the house after all). I’ll figure out some creative way to reuse them somewhere…
But in the meantime, HIP HIP HOORAY to Liz and Ansley for getting those things down!!!!! I am soooo excited!
Hooooray for you! Those bracket things are literally the first thing I would have had to deal with after closing if I bought that house. The trim on the doors in the photos is probably late 1950s to early 1960s at the earliest, but those brackets don’t go even with that.
The flat brackets are cnc routed probably less than 10 years old and look like something that would come from Michael’s or another craft store. The ones you are hanging from seem to have turned spokes so they were made differently, but probably the same vintage and source. They would make decent shelf supports for small shelves. Looks like polyurethane glue, that’s why all the mess, so clean that off really well if you glue them to something. It’s tough but will sand or use a sharp razor knife.
As an aside, you have posted enough photos now to say that it looks like 3 distinct earlier construction phases. There is an 1850s frame core, 1940-50s renovation and/or expansion, and probably a 1960-70’s final expansion with exterior brick cover at that point. Floor board width, plasterboard in some walls, and the type and method of the brick work, windows, and interior trim all point to roughly that sequence.
There was also the later renovation probably without expansion that built the old kitchen and probably added things like the beauty moulding above the one fireplace near the wall mounted tv. Now you’re adding your layer. Reading history is fun, making it is even more fun.
I think you got it dead on! Apparently the brackets were added in the 1990s and they DEFINITELY never fit the feel of the house. It feels good having them off, believe me. The ones upstairs are different than the ones downstairs, weirdly enough.
So from the little history we know for sure: the house was built in 1850 exactly, and someone with access to funding bought it in the 1940s and either expanded it then or just renovated it. They added the brick outside at some point before they sold it. Then the previous owners purchased it (it was almost a foreclosure– they got a really great deal on it and the land around it) in the 1960s and totally renovated it. They redid the kitchen sometime in the 80s/90s and other than that, from what we understand, it just kind of sat here. You’re so right… it is a ton of fun making our own mark on the house!
Once the baby is born and I am not working full-time out of the home, I intend to spend some time tracking down the exact dates of everything that happened here. We might even try to get the house registered in the Historic Register– who knows. The history of the house deserves to be uncovered though, I do know that! Hopefully I’ll find lots of good stuff once I start digging. 🙂
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