a house abandoned, now healed

Fixing up a house that might have fallen to the wrecking ball became a healing act for this owner, at a time of personal change. Delightful surprises were to be found along the way.

Iwas in and out of all sorts of places, and nothing struck my fancy,” says Sallie Dunham–Davis. “But this house became a labor of love, a project of healing for me.” She’d begun house hunting after going through a divorce.

This house, with about 1400 square feet, was built in 1804 in Milford, New York, about eight miles from Cooperstown. Dunham–Davis speculates that it might have served as a barn, at first, seasonally housing farm animals. By the time she saw it, the Federal-era survivor was in rough shape.

“No one had lived here for several years,” she recalls. “The windows were broken, the front porch was falling off, the foundation un

der the kitchen was gone, and the mechanicals were outdated or non-existent. The wiring was downright dangerous.

“But when I walked in, what I saw were the 22-inch-wide pine floorboards and the original pantry.”

A clinical social worker with a private practice, Dunham– Davis says that she’s always been drawn to old houses, inspired by her antiques-loving mother. This house looked decrepit, but she saw past that to its timber-frame construction and classical proportions, those floorboards and period woodwork. She decided that it could be the home she wanted to establish for herself, with room for her grown children and grandchildren when they came to visit.

“The house inspector, who kept on giving me bad news, called me up to the attic to show me the pegged frame. ‘Look how straight it is . . . this house was built really well’, he said.”

Sallie bought the property in 2007 and spent the next year and a half working on it. She removed the later-addition porches, revealing a Greek Revival-period door surround. She installed new systems and a new roof, rebuilt the foundation under the kitchen, and installed a new kitchen. She took down a wall to open the dining room to the kitchen. The old ceiling beams were exposed and a new fireplace built with salvaged old bricks. Dunham–Davis built a new staircase, installed a full bathroom downstairs, and converted a small upstairs bedroom into a bath. In October of 2008, she finally moved in.

FAR RIGHT When Sallie Dunham–Davis removed a rotting front porch (a later addition), this beautiful front door was revealed. The window sashes are new, but casings are original. INSET Timothy Northup and Sallie Dunham–Davis posed with dogs Roo (now of blessed memory) and minidachshund Jackson.

ABOVE (left) Sallie Dunham–Davis removed one wall; now the view from the kitchen looks into the adjacent dining room and the living room beyond. The color red is repeated throughout the interior. • (right) The dining room features a table painted with blue milk paint. BELOW Window treatments were designed and sewn by the homeowner.