Preston Stringer knew that the house he had bought in the 1600 block of Waughtown Street was old.
But it wasn't until he cut into a wall in the front room that he discovered that there was a two-story log cabin inside.
"I let out a yell," he said.
He bought the house in March for $12,000, after the city had issued a repair-or-vacate order to the previous owner. Stringer estimates that he will put $30,000 into renovations in order to have it ready to rent by the end of summer.
He said he would consider selling the house if someone offered him a good price for it.
He and his wife, Brenda Spicer, own and manage rental property all over the city.
Not everyone in the neighborhood has been happy with the work he's doing, Stringer said.
One neighbor came by and scolded him for taking down the chimney, installing vinyl siding and using replacement windows.
His choices reflect the trade-offs that property owners face when dealing with derelict properties in neighborhoods where property values have been slow to rise, he said.
The crumbling chimney was a hazard that could have fallen on someone's car.
And the clapboard was so badly damaged that he would have had to put new clapboard on the house, which seemed to defeat the purpose of a restoration, he said.
Sherry Joines Wyatt, a historic-preservation consultant who did the research for the Waughtown-Belview Historic District, characterizes what Stringer is doing as a stopgap restoration. At this point, he is trying to save the house, which is a good thing. The house is within the boundaries of that National Register Historic District.
The choices that a homeowner makes during such a restoration can have an effect on the house's survival, she said.
Vinyl siding can trap moisture and termites, Wyatt said. It also doesn't look like clapboard siding. Newer materials such as fiberboard can mimic the width of the old clapboard and give the owner many of the advantages of vinyl siding.
Windows, especially if they have the original glass, are an important part of an old house.
"The general guideline is ‘Don't take away anything if you can avoid it at all costs,'" she said.
"Then there's still something there for someone to redo."
Stringer said he left the original siding underneath so that a future owner can restore it if he wants to. He might not be doing a preservation-quality restoration, but he said he enjoys showing people the house and learning about its history.
According to the National Register Historic District nomination, the house was built in 1825.
Finding log houses inside older homes is exciting to homeowners, but it's not unusual in historic neighborhoods, Wyatt said.
People often covered up the logs with clapboard when they added onto their houses to give them a uniform appearance, Wyatt said.
The clapboard also signaled a move to a more permanent sort of town and a homeowner's increasing status.
Log cabins were often the homes of early settlers in rural areas, she said.
"It was an expedient, efficient, cost-effective way," she said, "to get a house."
■ Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com
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