You have a really old house when...(please add)..

[Frosted Rabbits]

It is summer remodeling and fix-it time, so lets make a list--

You know you have a really old house when.....

1. The bathroom was retrofitted over the center of the living room.

 

[Dood]

2. Animal mummies are the main component of your wall insulation.

 

[Random Rabbit]

Nothing is Square... Nothing is Plumb...

Studs and / or rafters that didn't quite reach... have shims tacked on to Make them fit....

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Your cat learns how to manipulate the slide locks on the "milk door" and uses it as a cat door instead.

2. Animal mummies are the main component of your wall insulation.

:rotfl:

 

[MaggieJ]

4. The floors slant and creak and the place is riddled with 125 years of rodent damage. Your house has more non-human visitors than human. We've had several kinds of snakes, three weasels, a mink, assorted rats, mice, shrews and chipmunks, bats, and tons insects and spiders.

 

[akane]

Every heavy rainstorm the drainage pipe in the stone basement, which shouldn't be attached to anything, leaks sewage from the septic tank.

 

[Sagebrush]

Akane.... just eww

 

[PSFAngoras]

... During a recent remodel you find that your bathroom used to be the front porch, (which explains the poor insulation and constant pipe freezing problems....) and you also find enough animal bones under the floor to reconstruct their original owners...

 

[akane]

Yea 5yrs of that every spring is one of many reasons we moved. The furnace died due to the water I said we needed to do something about getting in a circuit board. The wiring ate several space heaters and light fixtures. I kept complaining about stuff but I kept getting told it had all been replaced before I moved in. Had flashlights for the no longer lit basement, a clip on lamp so you could see in the shower (outlets worked, just not light fixtures), and a tarp stuffed down the pipe. Also the outlets in the basement could run things that wouldn't run in the rest of the house. I plugged this old circular saw in to every outlet upstairs with no results and then I ran an extension cord to the basement. Worked perfectly. It was a great example of everything you should not let happen to an old house. <br /><br /> __________ Tue Jul 01, 2014 8:09 pm __________ <br /><br /> Oh yea the coax cable ran through a broken section of the basement window which was insulated against the cold using water softener bags.

 

[the reluctant farmer]

The only bathroom in the house was a retrofitted closet, and the "bean crocks" you saw tucked away in the cellar were actually chamber pots. (No, I didn't find that out after baking beans in them, I was a kid and my mom told me what they were when I pulled one out to look at it. )

 

[Miss M]

2. Animal mummies are the main component of your wall insulation.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

You put a marble on the floor, and follow it as it visits every room in the house.

 

[3mina]

The stairwells are at a 45 degree angle and 18" wide.
All your doorways are 5' 10" and the above mentioned 18" wide

 

[akane]

The shower is under 6' making everyone much taller than me have to duck to use the shower head. For reasons unknown the shower had a dropped ceiling from the rest of the bathroom. Space for pipes? Some structure in the attic I never saw? Dead body hidden storage location?

The house was considered big at the time it was built with 2 rooms and a strip of kitchen to the door.

While cleaning to move in you find 3 wood stoves, a butter churn, and a double bladed ax that requires 2 people to remove it. After of course nearly killing yourself pretending to swing it.

The house has 3 different basement types and 3 add ons on the first floor made over 3 generations.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

This thread is so funny and so true..
You make a good fire on a windy day.. so the draft in your house moves the heat around.

 

[jeannie]

When you have to go out to the rabbit pen for some cool air... nothing works right in the house, lol...

...aahhh... country living isn't for city folk!
(wouldn't trade for a new home in the city for anythin')

 

[akane]

You go to replace the old dial thermostat and your drill will not go into the wall because of the concrete like plaster.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

You go lift up the old shagged rugs that was done back in the 60s .. to discover there is another rug underneath...

You strip off the old wallpaper off the walls.. to see there is like 7 layers under it.
Rip up the old flooring in the kitchen... to see there is a nice wooded floor underneath.
Put a hole in the wall to find out there is newspaper for insulation
Try to put a dryer vent outside through the wall.. To find it is so thick will layers ,that you think you will never get through.. and when you do.. You are not sure that your dryer pip is going to be long enough.. lol

 

[Marinea]

Our house isn't that old, but it DOES have a history...it was built for someone in the Witness Protection Program

 

[Miss M]

Our house isn't that old, but it DOES have a history...it was built for someone in the Witness Protection Program

Neato! Any weird features?

 

[Marinea]

Well, apparently this person REALLY traveled light...there was not a single solitary closet in the entire house! And...let's see, there was a door from a bedroom into the kitchen.

We are friends with the contractor who built the place. He told us that the man who moved in was from New York and spoke with an Italian accent, so going by stereotypes, mafia related. He was apparently used to getting his way, and was quite...bossy. He didn't live here long, he missed the "city life".