Homestead House

When the Ingebright's purchased the homestead in 1958, it had this house which was built around 1900.
They used it from 1960 to 1980 for weekend stays and summer vacations.
 

 


 


 View from Jordan road about 1960
 

The Homestead house June 2012


At some point a kitchen and pantry addition were added to the south side. The itchen was in bad shape in 1976 and was torn down.
 

Compare the same holly tree (at left in photo) to the 1960 shot at the top of the page. David renovated the house and added an upper-level loft for weekends and summer vacations 1976-1982.		  
 Raised Grain on West-facing cedar siding


Another shot of raised cedar siding grain. Note how the nail changed the weathering.

 
 

The House was probably built by Peter Nelson or Ole Anderson in 1901 or 1902

    
                   Download a desktop background of this texture
 

The house was constructed with hand-split clear cedar rails, boards and beams and insulated with coarse sawdust from nearby sawmills.
 		  
 
interior boards are the nicest clear cedar we've ever seen. In this shot,the old newspaper has been removed and most of the sawdust vacuumed out


 

Here's a close-up of one of the interior boards showing hundreds of vertical scratches. We suspect that these were made by mice or squirrels  living inside the walls traveling vertically over the years. We found thousands of old cherry seeds while disassembling the building. We also discovered two amazingly intact skeletons

Newspaper Ad from 1901 newspapers glued to walls
 

  

 


 
2012: Flashing from chimney really shows how the house is settling on its foundation after 110 Years
 		 Here's a shot from where the front porch was. A nice spring afternoon's view to the southwest



The cedar boards on the interior were covered with old newspaper pasted on to them. And then sawdust was used to fill the 4" gap between the innner wall and the outer wall. Probably a great form of insulation.

Here's a shot of the sleeping loft installed in the mid-seventies after teardown of the kitchen addition. Note the balcony and  open ceiling, original shake roof and newer chimney.


In 2010, Allstate insurance insisted that the building be demolished because we could not remove all the moss from the roof...

 Here's Earl Ingebright beginning the tear down of the building.
 

Shot of the NE corner of the homestead house and reinforcements done in 2008.
 Note the cedar stump.
 


 



            Here's the house with the North wall removed.
We think that this house had been built by a real house builder, not someone interested in just building shelter. Note the drip-edge installed to keep water away from the foundation.

Note also the 45 degree bevel in the boards. Other signs of workmanship were planed boards for a tight fit, selection of similar thicknesses and good fit of all boards, even if they were rough-cut.

 

  
View the
 Everett Herald article  on Earl and the house dated June 22, 2012
View Page two of the article
 

 
View Video clip of the house being tipped over by David on the excavator...
 

 
View maps of the homestead ownership over the years 1895--2010
 		  
Special Thanks to the Granite Falls Historical Society for the Old Maps
 		  
View our advertisement for the boards on Craigslist
 		  
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06/08/21