A House Restored: The Tragedies and Triumphs of Saving a New England Colonial Audiobook

Shop Class as Soulcraft meets A Place of My Own in this lyrical meditation of a woodworker steadfastly repairing a historic home.

Old houses share their secrets only if they survive. Trading the corporate ladder for a stepladder, Lee McColgan commits to preserving the ramshackle Loring House, built in 1702, using period materials and methods and on a holiday deadline. But his enchantment withers as he discovers the massive repairs it needs. A small kitchen fix reveals that the structure’s rotten frame could collapse at any moment. In a bathroom, mold appears and spreads. He fights deteriorating bricks, frozen pipes, shattered windows, a punctured foundation, and even an airborne chimney cap while learning from a diverse cast of preservationists, including a master mason named Irons, a stone whisperer, and the Window Witch. But can he meet his deadline before family and friends arrive, or will it all come crashing down? McColgan’s journey expertly examines our relationship to history through the homes we inhabit, beautifully articulating the philosophy of preserving the past to find purpose for the future.

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"This meticulous chronicle describes a series of discoveries: of materials, techniques, and principles common in the time of the Salem Witch Trials but now confined largely to the hands of specialists. It’s also a story of innocence lost. As he confronts the cracks, rot, dissolutions, and disconnections of a very old building, McColgan comes to question his motivation. ‘Why restore anything?’ he eventually asks. Still, with admirable persistence, he gets his happy ending, and we get an intense primer in the joys and horrors of historic restoration.—KEVIN GARDNER, award-winning author of The Granite Kiss and Stone Building"

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