08/30/2026
🏡 Week 10 Restoration Update | A Little More History Revealed
Week 10, and Hillhead House is slowly beginning to feel like a house again. ❤️
Work on the front exterior continues, although there’s still a little more to do before we can finally install the new windows. We’re getting there… one board, one nail and one very long to-do list but it’s starting to take shape!
Inside, the floor joists are being reinforced and the walls are beginning to go back up. As we’ve been working our way through the rooms, we’ve uncovered some wonderful pieces of the house’s past.
✨ Four fireplaces!
Sadly, one of the original chimneys had been removed many years ago, and during the roof work we had to remove another chimney for safety reasons. The fireplaces themselves will need to be decommissioned, but their beautiful original facades can remain and the plan is to restore them.
The fireplaces may never warm a room in the traditional way again, but I have a feeling they’re going to bring plenty of warmth in another way.
It’s one of the things I love most about restoring Hillhead House - the stories we are uncovering along the way.
I look at these fireplaces and wonder: How many stories were told in front of these hearths through the years, how many pillowcases were embroidered, how many socks were knitted and darned, how many cups of tea shared, and how many family celebrations took place around these fires?
And perhaps the faint smell of a pipe lingering in the air.
I can imagine families gathered in these rooms, surrounded by the soft glow and warmth of the fire, children playing nearby, hands busy with knitting or needlework, and generations turning ordinary moments of everyday life into beautiful and everlasting memories.
Those fires may no longer burn, but their stories are still here.
And now, we have the privilege of giving the story of Hillhead House a new chapter❤️🏡
