" So Richard, this is our project. This is your next undertaking. You're a brave guy."

" Well, this is it. It needs a lot of work."

" What's it called?"

" It's called the Dr. Edward North House. That's who we believe was the original builder. Probable----"

" And your same period?"

" Same period as the last house, probably about 1810."

" Okay. I do see similarities to the last house, at least in this. Isn't that a belvedere staircase on the front?"

" That's right. And the staircase and the porch probably date from a similar period as the porch from the last house."

" Torn down in the hurricane?"

" This one was heavily damaged in the hurricane Hugo in 1989, and it was purchased by a local historical society that saved the house, and then my clients, the Johnsons, purchased it from them."

" Okay. Well we'll meet them shortly, I hope. How was this house used in the last 10-20 years let's say. Was it a rooming house or something?"

" It was part of a local college campus at one time so there were classrooms inside."

" I see. Okay. It seems quite a bit smaller than the house on the corner."

" It's a single house. It's only one-room deep. And it's typical for Charleston."

" So that was a double house that we were looking at."

" That's right."

" 2 rooms deep. And what' going on on the back side here?"

" This pier relates to an early porch, probably 1820s, the brick pier here."

" Right."

" And so, the porch was then closed then and then it was later turned into more of a double house with an enclosed room on the back."

" And was that also damaged in the hurricane?"

" It was. It came down as a result of the hurricane."

" the whole thing came down."

" Uh huh."

" Okay. So, you are rebuilding it and are you gonna be putting anymore windows in it or is it----?"

" The windows will copy the windows on the old portion of the house. We're making the jams for the windows right now inside."

" Making them on site."

" Uh huh."

" That's neat. It's a great property. How much land do they have here?"

" It's about 2/3 of an acre, so we've got almost 300 feet in depth. This is the carriage house for the house, and it dates from the---- probably the 1820s, and owners are living in it now. We renovated it first before we're doing the main house."

" Well maybe we can visit with them later, but shall we go inside now?"

" Uh huh."

" Well Richard, tell us a little bit about the front facade of the house."

" Well you can see that it's---- we can see where the porches were on the front, and----"

" But it's essentially kind of a better-looking facade."

" It's very federal and typical for Charleston to be elevated. It kept it cool and the grounds floor was used for support reasons and the upper floors were used for the living quarters."

" Sure. You know, it's interesting because in New England, you would have just had the 2 floors of the federal facade right on a granite foundation at grade, and here, you've got the whole thing up and then this beautiful, I guess it is a belvedere staircase; probably named after the belvedere palace."

" Probably,----"

" Yeah."

" but the porch was added early on after the house was built."

" Yeah."

" It was original a small portico to enter in the main living level."

" Uh huh."

" And here, we intend to keep the staircase."

" Uh huh, so that you will keep it and then add a new entrance porch up in the middle."

" That's right."

" And you get rid of all these on either side."

" Right. So, we'll get rid of the brick, but we'll fade them and clean them, and you can see Harry is cleaning the bricks----"

" Yeah, he's doing that."

" and we're gonna reuse them on the back side of the house."

" Is that---- I mean, it's awfully labor intensive. Does it make sense to do that?"

" It does because old English or old Charleston bricks are about $1.00 a piece."

" To buy antique ones."

" Uh huh."

" That makes a lot of sense. The steps here, I think they're brownstone, aren't they?"

" They are brownstone, probably from the Northeast, maybe New England."

" Maybe brought down as ballast for ships that were coming up with different gear?"

" Trading with Charleston."

" Yeah. And look at that, the boot scraper."

" Uh huh."

" Nice detail. Let's take a look up here."

" We've got a fair amount of work to do to these stairs."

" Yeah, it looks like the ironwork will have to be re-attached----"

" And----"

" for starters."

" That's right. And the brownstone we will repair."

" Boy, look at this doorway. It's huge, isn't it?"

" It's a large doorway. It---- almost 10 feet up to the top of the transom."

" Yeah."

" And you'll see the detail on the transom bar."

" So you'll have a lot of restoration work to do on the doorway, and the doors look pretty shut. I suppose that glass is original?"

" No. The glass is obviously added. And you can see, this is probably an original panel, and we're gonna replace this and this with panels to match."

" To match it."

" Yeah."

" Wouldn't it be easier just to get a new door?"

" Well, the---- given the fact that this is probably an original door, it's more important to keep it with the house."

" Yeah, I agree with you. Well, can we go inside? Well I'm surprised. I didn't expect to see all the plaster gone."

" Well, during Hugo, the owner thought it was gonna be a---- thought it would be better to gut the house to see what work needed to be done. And so, he went ahead and took all the flat plats throughout on the ceiling and walls."

" So he left the decorative plaster. Isn't it a mistake to take all your plaster off if it's intact in an early house like this?"

" It is. We found that we can really save the wall plaster and ceiling plaster in this period."

" And when you've got that early plaster with the patina, you know, the imperfections in it, it's a shame that it's gone."

" It is. You really can't replicate it."

" Well, this is pretty extraordinary though. Full dimensional. What are they? 3 x 4?"

" These are 3 x 4 studs."

" Yeah."

" Solid hard pine."

" Yeah."

" They're long-leaf pine, which is very common for this period."

" So they could have been sewn very close to the building site."

" There were mills---- mill ponds and saw mills on the river right near here."

" Uh huh."

" And these are the early rot nails used to nail the lath end with."

" Hand made."

" And the lath was also hand split----"

" Right."

" which tells you it was an early house."

" So there's a previous owner in the field supply here who tore off the plaster and the lath----"

" Uh huh."

" and has left us with a totally exposed house including what I guess is wainscoting in the other room, huh?"

" That's the one nice thing about it is we can see the back of all of the finished surfaces."

" Uh huh."

" You can see the hand plain marks in this piece of cypress----"

" Indeed."

" and cypress was used for the wider boards. It was soft and easy to saw."

" It's a wonderful wood. Let's take a look at the money side here. Just beautiful molding work. Isn't it incredible?"

" Yeah. Most Adam-style wainscot has this amount of detail."

" Yeah. We call it Adams after the Adams brothers in England who really developed this neoclassical detailing. Is this applied or is it carved?"

" It is carved, and it's probably cypress. Cypress was a soft wood and easy to carve."

" Well it's wonderful that all these detail is in the house."

" Uh huh."

" Look at this brace. This is pretty unusual, isn't it?"

" Well, the brace was used for diagonal stability on the interior partition walls. And the house being one-room deep, it really added a lot of rigidity to the building."

" Of course, because the original back wall that we see through there would have been the outside wall."

" That's right."

" Very neat. And you've got all the corners plastered and placed, but boy, a lot of restoration work to be done here."

" We have a lot of work. We've already re-attached some of it where it was falling."

" Look at this work. Is this an original mantel?"

" This is the original mantel, and this was either the dining room or the living room. And this molding appeared to be carved when it was painted, and now you can see it's got a slight glossy tint to it. It's made of composition material."

" Of course, it's a hunt scene with the fox and the hounds and in the background, there's a church or something."

" Uh huh."

" Just exquisite."

" The Adams brothers patented this composition molding in England in the late 18th century, and a lot of these patterns came from England. Maybe the block that this was cast on could have come from England."

" Really. Well, we'll be learning in weeks to come about how to restore all these, but I think this is a tip off of any serious restoration job. Not a single shard or a little piece of decorative work has been tossed out."

" Well these are all parts of the cornice, and we're saving them and cataloguing them to be cast for new pieces where the missing ones----"