WILTON – Glen Carlow Sr. used a hammer and a pry bar in the biting cold Monday to pull up the wide, pine floorboards from a circa 1800s house on routes 2 and 4.

Carlow of Harmony plans to use a large portion of the old house, including posts and beams and wood planking, to build a duplex for him and his wife, Rosie, and their daughter and son-in-law. The house will be in Harmony.

A brick-chimney still loomed high above the floor Monday morning but was slated to come down later.

By the end of the day, Carlow said he only expected one wall to be left standing, along with the floor.

He’s been at it since November.

The owners of the house, Bob and Toni Bowering, gave the building free to Carlow to dismantle and haul away.

Carlow said he was told it was one of the first houses built Wilton.

He pointed out the name “George Butterfield” and “1916” written on a floor board.

Just by the squared-headed nails, he said, he could tell the house was built in the 1800s.

He also found evidence that a husband and wife worked together as carpenters on the house, he said.

It was known as the old Frecker Farm, the Bowerings’ son, Marc, said later Monday.

The back of Carlow’s pickup truck was half-full of old, dark rough-cut timbers.

“A lot of people have stopped and tried to buy the wood flooring,” Carlow said.

They’ve even asked to buy the flowers but Bob Bowering plans to come and dig those up and replant them, Carlow said.

The task of dismantling farmhouses, barns and other buildings is not new to Carlow.

He started as a child and worked with his father for years. He returned to it a couple of years ago after a 25-year hiatus. Both and he and his wife, are auctioneers and run Carlow’s Countryside Auctions.

He built a garage from another place he dismantled and is now dismantling the Wilton home and a former barn in Whitefield.

“These are the last two and I’m done,” he said.