Old Houses

I'd like to hear from those of us who own older homes, that would be approx. older then 75 years. I think it would be interesting to post some of the stories and pictures of work you have done or unusual situations you've encountered.

I have lots of pictures, some are slides I would have to scan, but since digital photographs arrived, I'm more camera happy then ever.

Of particular interest would be houses build using "outdated" techniques like mine (Post and Beam), which predates modern platform construction.

Does built in the year 1790 count? well here a few pictures that I took real quick, pretty much all of the logs are American Chestnut. I'll get some of the outside and attic (manly mans attic), and basement later.

Hi, I own a home built in 1924. It was a pre\fab of it day AKA 4 square colonia. The houses were sold as kits from Sears\Roebuck. I would say that mine was assembles by amish builders though. It was built for a doctor and hi family. Aside from the usual things you run across with an older home such as ( lack of insulation, older wriring etc...) it still has the original slate roof. it is 3 stories with mag in basement level and ducted to 1st floor living area which is also at the base of the upstairway. This allows the heat pouring in to the living room to easily rise to the 2nd floor. I normally heat with oil and use this when I am away for more than 2 days which is often since I travel for work. When I am home I uses the cola stove to heat the house and so far it does a pretty good job. I know when the temps sat consistantly in the low 20's then I may need to run both ot put some logs in the wood stove in the living room. ( I dont like to use the wood stove to much as it is a small vigilant and get to about 800 degrees quickly - afraid she'll blow.

The previous owner was an engineer who did some quality renovatons to the attic(master suite) - warmest room in the house when using the radiators, a very nice sun room on the entire back of the house which encompassed the old outdoor basement entrance, so can easily get in out of lower level by just a few steps - made it easy for dealer to bring in stove this way. The kitchen was renovated and incidentally I have 3 chimnesy anfd the one that the kitchen used some time ago was blocked but the flue exisits with a concrete cap. The unused chimey is about 15' above roof line and at different angles looks as though it is leaning outward ( hate to see what would happen if it were to topple).

I will post pix at soem time for you to see some of the work that was done.

U235a4 wrote:Does built in the year 1790 count?.... haha I'll post pictures in a bit

Looking forward to the photos.

jimbo970 wrote:Hi, I own a home built in 1924. It was a pre\fab of it day AKA 4 square colonia. The houses were sold as kits from Sears\Roebuck. I would say that mine was assembles by amish builders though. It was built for a doctor and hi family. Aside from the usual things you run across with an older home such as ( lack of insulation, older wriring etc...) it still has the original slate roof. it is 3 stories with mag in basement level and ducted to 1st floor living area which is also at the base of the upstairway. This allows the heat pouring in to the living room to easily rise to the 2nd floor. I normally heat with oil and use this when I am away for more than 2 days which is often since I travel for work. When I am home I uses the cola stove to heat the house and so far it does a pretty good job. I know when the temps sat consistantly in the low 20's then I may need to run both ot put some logs in the wood stove in the living room. ( I dont like to use the wood stove to much as it is a small vigilant and get to about 800 degrees quickly - afraid she'll blow.

The previous owner was an engineer who did some quality renovatons to the attic(master suite) - warmest room in the house when using the radiators, a very nice sun room on the entire back of the house which encompassed the old outdoor basement entrance, so can easily get in out of lower level by just a few steps - made it easy for dealer to bring in stove this way. The kitchen was renovated and incidentally I have 3 chimnesy anfd the one that the kitchen used some time ago was blocked but the flue exisits with a concrete cap. The unused chimey is about 15' above roof line and at different angles looks as though it is leaning outward ( hate to see what would happen if it were to topple).

I will post pix at soem time for you to see some of the work that was done.

I've heard of the Sears house kits, but I never actually talked to someone who owned one. Looking forward to the photos.
Sears sold pre-fab garages also, and a car at one point, the "Allstate" which actually was a Henry J.


http://www.kfnut.com/1952models/page2.html

mine was built 1887, I'll post some pictures later. My house has owned by the Phillips family, originally they had a 100+ acre farm and a small post and beam house and barn (both are still standing as of today), when the oil rush hit in the late 1800's they drilled about a hundred wells and built this place. A lot of the original window and door hardware is still in place, they are heavy brass ornamental pieces that you don't find anymore. Obviously they had some extra cash when they put this place together. It's old and kind of outdated but we love it.

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far.

Good subject....we bought ours a year ago this Dec. 6 and starting to restore it. It's a 1890 Victorian, with a lot of detail on the outside and some on the inside. Some updates were done in the 40-50's (we think), It has been insulated, I replaced 23 windows so far, new electric, added a bigger garage out back, new roof and a lot of other little things to make it look a bit nicer. We have started painting the front with 7 different colors....slow but sure!

(last winter's pic)


new colors we are working on...

Thanx WNY, I really like your house as well.
As I mentioned, I have a lot of slides of work I've done on our place, taken before I got the digital camera. I have to scan them with an old scanner I have that has a backlight for that purpose. It is a slow process, so I'll try to do some this week.
Some of the renovations I've had to do are the result of rather extensive termite damage, which was basically ignored by the previous owners. I have slides of some of that.
I think the grade around the house was lower when it was built, when I excavated for a dry well I dug up a lot of really big rocks, similar to those used for the foundation, much more then I would have expected to find in one area.

I grew up in a 1765 hip roof colonial, it was the Glebe house for a church down the road. Massive post and beam construction. I remember it was impossible to drive a spike into the beams in the attic they were so hard. Every single one would bend. I'll try to scan some pics if I can find some. It has two huge chimneys, a monster fireplace and Dutch Oven in the great room.

WNY: WoW! I love old Victorians and yours is a nice one. They are building some today but most of the replicas have vinyl siding which doesn't go, imho.

U2345: I love how rustic the interior walls are. What is in between each timber? How do you deal with heating and plumbig with those walls?

Ours was actually a foreclosure, bank owned for over a year and vacant. Luckily, they left the electric and heat on, so nothing go damaged.!! We were at the right place at the right time.....

Thanks all! I am even going to clabboard the garage with all the details around the windows , so it looks like it matches the house.....That my winter project to create all the wood details.

There are alot of old houses in our neighborhood....and everyone keeps most of them up to date and looking pretty good....

coaledsweat wrote:I grew up in a 1765 hip roof colonial, it was the Glebe house for a church down the road. Massive post and beam construction. I remember it was impossible to drive a spike into the beams in the attic they were so hard. Every single one would bend. I'll try to scan some pics if I can find some. It has two huge chimneys, a monster fireplace and Dutch Oven in the great room.

I would like to see the oics. I have the same situation here, the timbers are hand hewn with wooden pegs. It is almost impossible to drive a nail into them. When I was running wiring on the cellar the cable staples would just bend. I had to skip those timbers and drive them into the beams that were added later. I've also found some timbers that still have bark on them here and there.

Some of the damage I have repaired.
I'm using the Spectracide spikes in the ground all around the house. I have become an expert on termites.
I can't find any after pictures of the repair, I know I have them. I'll post them later.