331 Blanding Road is a
2.2 Acre Farmette with a 10 room house built in1880 and a 2 story barn located on a country road just 2 miles from the center of the rural Village of Sherburne in Central NY.
Sherburne is located on the north south Route 12 and is 30 miles straight south from Utica and 50 miles north of Binghamton, NY. Norwich is the nearest city. Colgate University in Hamilton, NY is 10 miles north.
From photos that follow, you can see much of what I describe about the area and this home. The view from our place is beautiful in all directions. There is often a breeze year around. The house overlooks the Village of Sherburne and even the schools. I used to josh my kids to behave because I could see them at school!
The house is a large 10 room house built in 1880. Originally, it was two homes combined, we were told. It had a flat roof and a widow's loft. The ceilings were 12 ft. high.
Sometime in the past, the house was renovated to include 4 bedrooms up stairs. The downstairs ceilings were lowered to 8 1/2 feet and the the roof was peaked to make the upstairs bedrooms. Each upstairs bedroom has a closet.
The house is set up to include two matching apartments on each side. There is a stairway to upstairs on each side. There is a kitchen, bathroom, dining and living room, and upstairs are two bedrooms on each side. We used the whole house as we had many foster children. We used the living room on the west as our master bedroom, the dining room as a reading room, and the kitchen as the laundry room.
There is a staircase to the cellar inside as well as an outside entrance down cement steps. The cellar has a stone foundation and a dirt floor. There is a crawl space under the back part of the house.
The 160 foot deep gravel well was dug in 1975 and provided abundant water including water to fill our 24 ft. above ground pool for many years. It is hard water. The deep well pump has worked very well for many years. It did have to be replaced many years ago due to a lightning strike.
The roof is intact on the house. (Was intact until a leak noted on the west side spring of 2017). The front roof slanting down toward the road was new in 1975. The rest was replaced twice since then and repaired also.
The hot water heater in the cellar is electric and has worked well for years with an occasional replacement of elements. The hard water is prone to build up calcium deposits.
I'm going to try to be as honest as I can, to save you from having any false hopes. Approaching this place with realistic expectations would be best.
This house needs much TLC or someone may just want to put up a new one. The foundation is strong and supports are in place in the cellar. The dirt cellar floor is partly wet all the time. It may be from water seepage through the foundation. Two rooms have holes in the ceilings from past roof leakage. The front stairwell ceiling also is open at the top of the stairs.
There is a mold issue especially in 3 of the upstairs bedrooms. One needs to be completely redone.
The house was insulated with blown in insulation in 1975. Being an old house, there were many cross pieces to work around. Since then, the insulation has settled. Another words, a complete insulation job needs to be redone. The cellar was never insulated which should have been done when we installed Infrared electric heaters throughout the house to replace 2 oil furnaces. With Sherburne Electric, the heaters were considered ideal in 1976. The heat was really great. There was a lifetime guarantee on the system except that the company went bankrupt. Many of the heaters and thermostats need to be replaced and the heaters can be found especially online. Each room was controlled with it's own thermostat. There is a reliable electrician just down the road.
We supplemented heating with a wood stove in the cellar. There is an outside chimney which the stove was attached to. With the right stove, heating could be more efficient.
I would also highly recommend the electrical service to be updated. Only one 3 prong plug setup has been installed for the washer. heat tape, etc. And that was by the above electrician. There is a circuit breaker box in the cellar which was installed when the electric heat system was installed in 1976.
The septic system is another issue that needs to be done. It may just involve replacing the septic tank. It was last cleaned in 2015 and 6 years before that. The sewage water comes to the surface so it isn't going to the leach field as it should. The leach field entrance to the back yard was dug up to check any blockages, but that didn't seem to be the problem. There is a good leach field in back of the house as well as a huge one that goes clear down to the telephone pole across the driveway. The washer was hooked into that one. My husband built both leach fields.
The bathrooms both need to be updated. The bathroom off the backroom isn't in working order. The toilet jsut needs to be replaced and faucets that will work. Both bathrooms have tubs and showers with them. Both need to be replaced due to age, wear, and hard water deposits.
The water has been shut off since 1/1/16 when we moved and the pipes drained.
My husband replaced many of the windows years ago from tall single pane windows to smaller windows. As you can see, he never finished the project inside or outside.
If you are into flowers and gardening, the soil is a dream to work with. Definitely loam and I grew some very nice gardens. There is plenty of room for all the gardening your heart desires, plus some cash crops if you are inclined.
I was told that many years ago, there was a cherry orchard in the front yard of the house. I could wish at least a few of the trees were still there.
I used NO PESTICIDES in the 40 years we lived there. I hope the new owner appreciates that.
There are 3 beautiful old and very big lilac bushes. A lavender one in front of the house and out back. There is a white one in the back yard. I planted a few daffodils, tulips, lilies, etc especially on the bank of our pool area. The base for the 24 ft. above ground pool is still in the pit that now is full of downed box elder branches. No trees were there when we had the pool in the 1990s.
In fact, I have photos when the only box elder tree was out by the barn. It has spread invasively through the years to what we have now. And I pulled seedlings up by the hundreds that tried to establish in my flower pots, gardening areas, etc.
Since our place used to be a dairy farm, the two story barn still has cement gutters. The stanchions have been removed and my husband used it as a shop and storage for his tractors, etc. And I say ETC. with tongue in cheek. He could pack more stuff into it than you will believe. Some has been thinned out, but much is left for a new owner to sort through and maybe find a treasure or two. He loved auctions and all kinds of bargains and especially freebies. Dumpsters were fair game. The second floor of the barn is still full of all sorts of STUFF, and especially building material that may or may not prove useful.
The barn roof is still intact with a metal roof. Therefore the inside is still in good condition complete with several entrances cut into the sides to get vehicles in. The right owner would appreciate this barn for his hobbies. Horse stalls could easily be built and a good sized pasture would be right outside the door for one idea. There is an electric line to the barn.
One attractive bonus is Sherburne Village electric rates. No homes stay on the market long with this feature.
The school system is Sherburne Earlville Central School. The Elementary, Middle School, and High
School are all located one mile north of Sherburne and a bus picks up and drops off the kids right by our house..
There
are two well developed medical systems operating in the area. UHS out
of Johnson City and Bassett out of Cooperstown. There are many
satalite offices in the area. Chenango County has one hospital: UHS
Chenango Memorial Hospital located 10 miles south in Norwich, NY. It has an Emergency Room, and does still have a maternity unit, ICU, and medical and surgical care.
There are several good nursing homes in Norwich.
I created this blog for several reasons. One to help in the sale of the property. Another reason is to have a photo blog to go to for memories of our home for 40 years.
