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About Ned, Michelle and
the 4-Leggeds

Old Rome Norwich Terrier(s)

about Lititz

Nathaniel (Ned) and Michelle were married in June of 1991. Michelle had just graduated from college and Ned was secure in his teaching career. They each had a love of history with Ned teaching early American History and Michelle researching her family heritage and Navtive American studies. They decided that when they were ready to puchase a house they would look for an old dwelling. From pages and pages of real estate listings they found a small house on the eastern side of Lititz. They went to visit it and as they say, "The rest is history."

They found a little house as old as dirt (figuratively speaking of course) and set about restoring it. First things first; a shower was installed. The former owners used a makeshift shower system in the basement where there was nothing but a dirt floor. Michelle's dad offered his expertise, and the project was complete just a few weeks after they settled on the property. The broken staircase was next to go. After speaking to the realtor, Ned and Michelle found a local builder/handyman who wasn't necessarily listening to what they wanted, but he got the job done after Ned and Michelle pulled out the wall that enclosed the ricketty old steps. The builder installed a trap door to the basement under the open staircase.

Then the major projects started. After a winter with much ice and a wet spring, a leek began to drip in the family room at the back of the house; this is an addition so it's not shown in our tour. The asphalt shingles were inadequate to protect against a typical PA winter on a low pitch of the roof so, after much research, a metal roof was deemed to be appropriate, for both the ice belt weather and the asthetic nature of the house. After even more research, a tinsmith was found who was able to make a hand-crimped, standing seam roof. Now because of the changing of the roof, the house's facia needed replacing which also meant the aluminum siding had to go.

What to side the house with was the next decision, and which walls were the log ones? The house was built in 1765 as a dwelling with a tobacco shop; the shop portion of the building was moved to the present location in 1868.

Ned and Michelle decided to side the house as they might have at that time. Acording to Robert Jensen Architectural Record 1971,

"Board and batten was popular as a wooden siding for houses in America between 1845 and 1865. The princial advocate of the siding was Andrew Jackon Downing, who saw board and batten as an 'expression' or symbol of the wood frame that it covered; unlike the traditional horizontal clapboarding, board an batten was vertical, reflecting the predominately vertical direcrion of the framing pieced behind it. At about the same time, the balloon frame was becoming a popular construction technique for small wooden houses, gradually replacing the traditional braced frame used since colonial times."

With many of their questions answered, Ned and Michelle were ready to replace the roof, reside the non-log walls and expose the logs where possible.