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

[skysthelimit]

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

So you understand why I don't cook? I can't see how it's possible to fit a fridge, stove, and sink in this room and be able to turn around.

The attic entrance is in the bathroom.

Or try having a full sized barn next to your house in the inner city, minutes from downtown? Probably the oldest house on the block.

 

[akane]

When we moved in the person was still using a wood stove for cooking and had no fridge. We had to pull out a bunch of counter space and block off the chimney (insurance wouldn't pay to have a working chimney) to put in a regular stove and fridge. Only one person could walk through the kitchen to the other side of the house at a time.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

i Love all these--

The attic has old bank account statements in it- Handwritten! The studs are oak, not pine... The cell phone won't work becasue poultry wire is how the plaster is held up!

 

[akane]

Our outbuildings were oak. The wood oat silo had a hardwood floor I polished up with linseed oil before bedding it down for chickens and my aunt wants to burn the thing down. People would pay $100s if not $1000s for all the hardwood barn boards and tongue and groove floor boards.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

yes, they would.. I have a large barn that has the square old tin on the roof and sides.. people take those and use them on there ceilings.. I go yuk.. I just have to look outside.. I hate them

 

[3mina]

The house Hubs grew up in is about two hundred years old, it has joist braces in the cellar that are trees about a foot in diameter set on flat stones. It also has 'crew quarters' in the attic for farm hands around the chimneys

 

[Schipperkesue]

...when you remove the carpet and the Lino beneath is in better condition than the carpet!

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

...when you remove the carpet and the Lino beneath is in better condition than the carpet!

That's because that linoleum has asbestos in it!!!

 

[Zass]

...when you remove the carpet and the Lino beneath is in better condition than the carpet!

That's because that linoleum has asbestos in it!!!

And underneath the vinyl siding, there is a very nice layer of asbestos siding too :lol:

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

And underneath the vinyl siding, there is a very nice layer of asbestos siding too :lol:

yeah-- Had one of those houses-- WWII tract housing- we covered the asbestos siding with the vinyl! Under the asbestos-- tarpaper, lathe, and all kinds of other stuff--the walls were 18 inches thick! And they still leaked cold air!!!!

 

[Zass]

And underneath the vinyl siding, there is a very nice layer of asbestos siding too :lol:

yeah-- Had one of those houses-- WWII tract housing- we covered the asbestos siding with the vinyl! Under the asbestos-- tarpaper, lathe, and all kinds of other stuff--the walls were 18 inches thick! And they still leaked cold air!!!!

I had one with asbestos, tarpaper, and all the layers :roll:. Just as drafty and cold. The basement was built of huge flat unmortared stones, and the place was still operating on a fuse box!

 

[Miss M]

Well, apparently this person REALLY traveled light...there was not a single solitary closet in the entire house!

Armoires (a.k.a. wardrobes)! Portable closet space.

 

[akane]

We looked at an old house that had no built in closets. There were just free standing wood cabinets/wardrobes. Couldn't figure it out from the pictures until we saw how it was setup. Alongside the stairs across from the exterior door was this huge piece of wood furniture with a large oval mirror on it and doors that opened to hanging space. That's what all of them were like with just variation in shelves and hanging poles. I suppose someone could have taken all of those with them if they felt the need.

 

[Marinea]

Well, apparently this person REALLY traveled light...there was not a single solitary closet in the entire house!

Armoires (a.k.a. wardrobes)! Portable closet space.

First thing we did was add a wall to wall closet in the master bedroom. I found a great antique armoire for the guest room later on. My mom threatens to take it with her every time she comes to visit.

 

[Miss M]

I found a great antique armoire for the guest room later on. My mom threatens to take it with her every time she comes to visit.

:lol: They can be so gorgeous! I don't have an armoire, but I do have my great-grandmother's furniture. A couch, a footstool with a needlepoint top she made herself, and her bedroom furniture except for one chair. Double bed, highboy, and vanity.

I did have a stool of hers, too, until one leg broke. I took a good look at it, and realized that it had been repaired decades ago, probably by my great-grandfather, who died before I was born. If you looked carefully at the painted, turned-wood legs, you could see the outlines and texture of duck tape, painstakingly wound around the leg and spacers, at the very least. Where the leg broke, the wood was practically gone -- just about the only thing left of the stool was the seat, duck tape, and paint!

 

[akane]

The number of outlets and whether they have a ground is random and has nothing to do with room size.

The tangled up electrical system made of various parts over the decades is more complicated than rabbit genetics.

Several connections like coax cables are shoved through holes in the floor.

 

[Bigrig]

Put a hole in the wall to find out there is newspaper for insulation

How about cutting in new receptacles and finding NO insulation! I can see the old tarpaper that is underneath the original wood-lap siding (now covered with awful 60's metal siding the color of mud).

 

[akane]

The side of the pantry toward the dining room still has original wood exterior boards.

 

[hucklekree]

You have to dig a foundation for it!
The floor and the walls are made from the same material (tongue and groove)
The lean-to meant to be a pantry has become part of a bedroom
The back wall was extended out past the septic tank which you found while digging out the foundation.
Secret doors and passages
It is haunted
There is one plumbed sink and two outlets
Hand pump well
There is an outhouse and no toilet indoors
No showers but a self serve tub
The stairs to get up into the bedrooms (converted from attic space) are located inside an old broom closet.
When accessing the crawl spaces you find letters from 1890-1937.

I could go all day (or evening)

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

my husband went to put in duck work in the basement.. and found out there is a double floor in my kitchen .. but it is small at one end and really deep at the other end.. still cant figure out why that was done..