Fogbow

We looked at a house many years ago that we fell in love with. Built in the late 1800s and situated right next to a gorgeous city garden. Close to everything and the right size and price. Downstairs was perfect with all the original brick walls, woodwork, original 1890s linoleum in the kitchen and perfect wood floors. 10' ceilings and 8' windows. Sold (almost)! We headed up stairs to the bedrooms. The stairs were a bit narrow and dark but we could work with that. The first bedroom, all original again and large enough. Same with the second bedroom. Then we get to the "master" bedroom. Oh my. Cedar walls, floor and ceiling. It's huge, with great windows and 2 big dormers overlooking the front of the house. And shelves on every wall. Every. Wall. Floor to ceiling. 10' ceiling. And those shelves were COVERED with scientific specimens of .....animals? We identified snakes (lots and lots) and fetal pigs and weird unhatched birds and god knows what else. We never even made it to the far end of the room where the really big jars were. All floating serenely in formaldehyde. We left so quickly we never did see a bathroom in the house.

Even after fleeing, we considered making an offer on it (it was priced really low) until the realtor told us the formaldehyde was considered an eco hazard and we'd have to pay to have it removed and disposed of. We bought a house down the street and passed it daily for about 2 years. Never gave up on the dream of owning it either. The municipal garden next door to it eventually bought it and tore it down for a parking lot. I still think of that house.

Well, one man’s trash, as they say. We once bought a house that looked like this:
And now looks like this:

Fabulous!!

That's wild. Good makeover.

One of the jobs I had in the 70's while going to Uni was gutting houses like your BEFORE picture. Remove all the trash, take out the plaster lathe, wiring, plumbing, carefully remove the well preserved porceline fixtures clawfoot (tubs, sinks, and toilets), window glass, sash window frames, etc, and try to preserve exterior features like Gingerbread and lap siding. In a week or two the houses would be down to the studs, and sometimes had open floor joists ready for the carpenters and other trades to renovate. It was fun to return in a year to see what the project did.

Great renovation! I've done minor to major work in every house I've owned but floors falling into the crawl space is a hard stop for me.

We were looking for land for a hunting camp. Cabin, no cabin, either would have been fine. If there was no cabin we would have brought in a 5th Wheel.

We found this place. Built in 1967 on 16 acres, adjacent to and downhill from Maybelot. The front half of the house was in reasonably good shape; the back half was in the crawl space. Near as we could tell (from all the old newspapers) the place was abandoned in 1983 or 84). The headline on the newest newspaper was about the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, which was in April, 1983.

We think the pipes froze, and then the pump pulling water from the spring-fed cistern just ran and ran until it failed. You could see where the water shot up along the back wall of the kitchen.

My husband and son are the kinds of people who can fix anything. They did all the work themselves, except for a few things that required a contractor (like the septic and the road). Working one room at a time, they jacked up the house and replaced the rotted rim joists and floor joists. We ended up having to replace all of this lovely long leaf pine flooring. We pulled all the vertical plywood paneling and replaced it with horizontal knotty pine tongue-in-groove. All new electrical, better insulation, etc.

And we came this close to losing it to a fire this week, but all is well.

Great Story!

Mirror, Mirror on the…OMG!


https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/720- ... 2661_zpid/

This may be the first time I have seen a cathedral-ceiling bathroom with a tub, toilet, sink, and grand piano, but no mirrors.

I have seen more realistic rock walls in middle school plays.

How nice. They provided a bunch of nooks and crannies for the mold, mildew, and whatever comes from various splashes, to grow and prosper.

Well I do like a stinky cheese.

northland10 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 7:42 pm How nice. They provided a bunch of nooks and crannies for the mold, mildew, and whatever comes from various splashes, to grow and prosper.

Are you thinking it results in Blue Cheese?

Electrical code? What code?

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3629 ... 7435_zpid/

Description: Do not trespass or ask to see the interior of this property. It is being sold as-is with occupants in the home. There has been no visual inspection of the interior of this home what information is provided is from county tax records and previous listings. Offers are to be made to the seller directly.

Translation: Meth heads with guns are living here. Don't approach if you don't want to get shot. Haven't paid rent in ages and we haven't been able to get rid of them. You can't see the inside and judging by the outside you don't want to see the inside. It's not worth anywhere close to the price even at the $150K discount off the Zestimate. If you're stupid enough to buy this pile of crap you're on your own because we're washing our hands of it.

Shizzle Popped wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 3:08 pm d397ff946826bca255dd3b9dd73e3d24-uncropped_scaled_within_1536_1152.webp

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3629 ... 7435_zpid/

Description: Do not trespass or ask to see the interior of this property. It is being sold as-is with occupants in the home. There has been no visual inspection of the interior of this home what information is provided is from county tax records and previous listings. Offers are to be made to the seller directly.

Translation: Meth heads with guns are living here. Don't approach if you don't want to get shot. Haven't paid rent in ages and we haven't been able to get rid of them. You can't see the inside and judging by the outside you don't want to see the inside. It's not worth anywhere close to the price even at the $150K discount off the Zestimate. If you're stupid enough to buy this pile of crap you're on your own because we're washing our hands of it.

But it's only $422,094!