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Restoration Journey!
Our 1806 house on Historic Cox's Corner
APRIL 08:A few weeks ago we purchased a Circa 1806 Federal style center hall colonial near historic Allentown New Jersey and have done research on the deeds and its inhabitants. Samuel Rue married Mary Potts in Upper Freehold in 1828. She had already owned the house previous to her marriage for two years. Her family was prominent Quakers during the late 18th century and had intermarried with the Cox's, who were Baptists.
Although the house changed hands several times during the next twenty years, in the end the Rue's lived here for many years and raised a family and had servants quartered here.
UPDATE 1/5/09: Ed did some more deed research this past week and we now believe that the house was built by William Cox, a nephew of Commander James Cox. Ancestral land was owned by Asher Cox in the 1700's somewhere on the Shrewsbury Road up towards Cabbagetown (near present New Sharon).
1840 census entry: Rue Samuel 219 18 pg218.txt Upper Freehold Township
Click here for a visual (large image) of the 1850 Upper Freehold Census describing the residents of the Rue household.
As an old colonial house to restore has been a life-long dream of mine, and we have renovated two houses previously (1980's townhouse and 1960's ranch home) we felt we were able to take on this monumental task. This house needs major T.L.C.
One day I will tell the story of the struggle it took to purchase this house-- 1 bad real estate agent, 1 scheming real estate agent, very mediocre buyers on our former house who barely could make the closing due to financial issues, and who tried to nickel and dime us down to the point where we would have nothing left to restore this house, a bad market, many open houses, and an effective but somewhat snotty attorney. But for now, it is still too fresh and thinking about it is bad energy!
BEFORE PURCHASE: APPROXIMATELY MARCH 08
Grime, dirt and peeling paint, and paint spatters all over the original cedar flooring.
BEFORE: APRIL 08 Our center hall, when we first in, only about two weeks into this project. ith really dirty staircase, bad contractor pack lighting, and peeling paint.
AFTER: SEP 08 AFTER five months of restoration our center hall. Great refinished floors and stairs, crown moldings, and brass period appropriate chandelier. It is a gussied up.
UPDATES 5/20/08: My dear brother and sister in law, Frank and Jackie, are buying us a historical plaque for the front of the house.
Our shutters are expected in the next few days. Ed has found some original ones (??) in the loft of the carriage house.
UPDATE 5/28/08: The guys are coming to redo the laundry room floor today. We have installed shutters on the bottom half of the house, and the upper ones are on order. The shutters are colonial paneled in Ocean Blue and they look great. Ed is working on the worn areas of the stairs today and I will post pictures of the repair later... We replaced a rotted section of kitchen floor with footers and new plywood over the weekend. That part of the floor is very solid. I am starting to feel like we may be able to actually live at this place now!
UPDATE 6/9/08: We had a very busy weekend but achieved several big deals. The laundry room floor is done and I stained the thresholds this morning. The painting of the endless trim in the little downstairs bathroom is done, except for a few nicks and repairs I will do later after the quarter round goes down. There is a heat wave officially now for three days we have been over 95 degrees, and the paint is taking very long to dry, but I have fans rolling. I have updated the Tour section with new pictures and more info. Our gorgeous Sam Rue sign is installed! I plan to paint the door panels in my room and Kim's room today, I am home sick with a cold but hope to get to do that. Maybe tonight the bathroom floor will be finished and then that room can be shelved for now. In the future I do plan to tear off the fake tile and install wainscoting.
UPDATE 6/20/08 Mark worked yesterday and hasoutfitted the whole back wall of the laundry room with new Sheetrock. We only need to tape and Spackle. He said the mold was scarey. I bet. I am just finishing staining the upper landing, and will try to poly over the weekend.
UPDATE 7/2/08 Happy almost fourth of July! This house was built around the time Lewis and Clark were trekking to the Oregon coast, but it's occupants probably already were celebrating the holiday at the time. The nation was 30 years old when this house's timbers were laid...
Progress is being made. The laundry room is DONE!! The kitchen floor subfloor continues to be fixed, 4x4 area at a time. I am hoping that we may be able to start lying real floor this weekend?
UPDATE 7/12/08 We finally are nearly done with our kitchen floor and I have painted the cabinets as well as replaced the hardware with country/retro satin nickel knobs and cup pulls. Check out the pictures (later) in the before and after.
Below: The front door has been painted two toned blue to bring out the details of the pilasters and the obelisk-shaped molding details. 
Edward has been hard at work capturing photos of many 19th century architectural styles around our area. Once he gets the photos and text in order I will post a photo journal of them.
AUGUST 3rd We have been busy doing crown molding and such in the center hall. The girls and I visited the Walnford Mansion yesterday so I could show them how similar this large Georgian mansion was to our home. I am sure that the families were friends as both were Upper Freehold Quakers. Please check the blog for updated pics!
Next Page: Making Upstairs Bathroom Funtional
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