'Houses with History': Rustic, 19th century Barnstable House gets a facelift

Mike Lemieux, Rich Soares, and Jen MacDonald work together on renovating one of the oldest houses, that was built on a portside in West Barnstable
Mike Lemieux and Jennifer MacDonald in 'Houses with History' (Instagram)
Mike Lemieux and Jennifer MacDonald in 'Houses with History' (Instagram)

Houses with History’, the popular home renovation show on HGTV, takes us to West Barnstable. The Barnstable House is one of America's oldest, vintage houses, built at a time when the house's coast served as a port side for a successful trading market. 

On the episode that aired on October 27, History geek, Mike Lemieux, and professional carpenter, Rich Soares, looked at some of the oldest, vintage houses in Massachusetts, while they take a look at the properties and decide which house will be their next home renovation project.

RELATED ARTICLES

'Houses with History': Who is Mike Lemieux? History buff is crazy about old houses

'Help! I Wrecked My House' Season 2: Release date, spoilers, and all about HGTV show

'Houses with History' is an up-and-coming home renovation series, based out of Plymouth in Massachusetts. This house transformational series looks at houses and barns built by early Americans in the New World. For this, the producers research fascinating backstories of America's oldest houses. 

Mike and Rich finally take a call and decide on the Barnstable House, which is a little rustic cottage type of house, that was built in 1800. In 1630, West Barnstable was a popular port town for trading, and people would come here to sell fish oysters, and all kinds of agriculture. 

The Barnstable House is quite cozy and adorable at first glance. Mike points out that the builders put a lot of thought into it, as the roof was slanted; to have the snow slide off easily. Moreover, there was a perfectly built chimney, to keep the inside of the house warm enough for a fireplace. There was also a completely shattered wall on the inside, left for them to fix, it seemed like! 

A still from 'Houses with History' (HGTV)

Having said that, they noticed that the outside of the house needed some serious repair work since the cedar shingles were literally falling apart.

Mike and Rich talk to Jen about their plan, after which they get to work. The team decided to tear down and remove a wall in the kitchen so that there's more space for a nice bar area and will give the kitchen a dining space as well.  

A still from 'Houses with History' (HGTV)

Here's a clip from Jen's Instagram of the Barnstable House.



 

'Houses with History' airs every Wednesday, at 9 pm ET/PT on HGTV.

GET THE BIGGEST ENTERTAINMENT STORIES
STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX.

MORE STORIES

The finale and Prime Video's titling of the series leave the door open for a possible second season.
2 hours ago
'The Testaments' Season 1 finale features Agnes going through multiple hurdles to save her friend's future.
3 hours ago
Tom Weaver, aka Chris Mulkley, was first introduced in Episode 4 as a character focused on establishing the Weaver ranch.
4 hours ago
‘Spider-Noir’ stars Nicolas Cage, Lamorne Morris, Karen Rodriguez, and more in pivotal roles
6 hours ago
Series co-creator and showrunner, Ryan Condal, states that he has a set timeline in his mind about 'House of the Dragon.'
6 hours ago
After a tragic incident, Ben hangs up his suit, but a series of bizarre events now threaten to pull him back into his vigilante past
8 hours ago
Chris D'Angelo faces off against Chenfei Lu and Rebecca Joseph in his fifth game of 'Jeopardy!'
11 hours ago
Moore portrayed the character of SSA Derek Morgan on the original 'Criminal Minds' for 11 seasons before leaving the show in 2016.
19 hours ago
Sophia Bush's 'One Tree Hill' co-star has completely ruled out playing a doctor in ABC's medical drama for a hilarious reason.
20 hours ago
‘The Running Man’ and ‘The Long Walk’ are among the latest Stephen King adaptations, but these five films remain the very best.
20 hours ago