-
Photo of the former schoolhouse in North Weare, converted by Kreg and Danielle Jones. -
Outside the former schoolhouse in North Weare, converted by Kreg and Danielle Jones. -
Photo of the former schoolhouse in North Weare, converted by Kreg and Danielle Jones. -
Photo showing the spacious room and high ceilings of the former schoolhouse in North Weare, converted by Kreg and Danielle Jones. -
Photo of the stairway inside the former schoolhouse in North Weare, converted by Kreg and Danielle Jones.
Creating a home out of a very old building that was never a home before is a lot of fun. Mostly.
“The foundation work was one of the most difficult pieces, because the floor (of the addition built in 1900) had settled seven inches from one corner to the other,” said Kreg Jones who, with his wife, Danielle, took an 1856 North Weare schoolhouse and turned it into their home.
Why had it settled? “It was just sitting on big rocks that they had rolled in, one at each corner,” said Danielle Jones. “They were just at the corners. There wasn’t a wall, so we had to completely redo all of that foundation.”
Even without subterranean surprises, working within historic confines of a brick building you’re trying to preserve and update at the same time can be tricky. As an example, she said, “There was no insulation anywhere. We were able to do it in most places but not always to the level we wanted.”
Nonetheless, the couple says their year-long effort, completed three years ago, has been more than worth it.
“Just to be able to have a historic home with all the history built into the school. In one place on the floor you can see where the old potbellied stove used to sit; you could never build that into a new building. … Outside there are initials that (students) carved into the siding. That kind of character you can never build into a new home,” said Danielle Jones.
“People stop by all the time. There are older people who say ‘I went to school there,’ and we’ve had people bring us a postcard that had a picture of the school from 1920.”
The schoolhouse was built to serve Weare’s 16th district back when one-room schoolhouses were scattered around towns. It remained a school through 1952, then became the local Grange Hall. A private buyer obtained it in the 1990s but never turned it into a home.
The Joneses found the interior mostly gutted with some delightful surprises.
“They had gotten rid of the lead paint, which was great,” said Jones. “Fortunately, the former owner saved the original doors and original moulding – they were stacked in the middle of the floor. We were able to rescue them.”
Its past life means the building has unusual proportions for a home. The 30-by-30-foot living space, for example, has 14-foot ceilings. “You don’t often get the opportunity to even design things like that. It doesn’t feel out of proportion,” said Kreg Jones.
“The windows are so large to let in light so kids could read by it, because they didn’t have electric light when it was built. The quality of light is so amazing, even on the darkest day,” Danielle Jones said.
The couple has a leg up on most of us for conversion projects like this: Their company, Inscription Architects, specializes in them. “We’ve done a number of projects where we’ve modified homes and then lived in them and we’ve done this for other clients,” said Kreg Jones. u