My house cannot be improved....it is beyond repair. It's too big, too old, too termite damaged, too crudely built and generally...... too far gone.
I'm too old, too over worked, too physically broken down and too poor to do a dang thing about it and would need a professional consultant to even know where to start.
So I'm out front doing yard work one morning in the late 80's, before my night shift and a older gentleman approaches me with pictures of his father building my house in 1910 and pictures of him building the front porch in the 30's. The gentleman told me he was born in my front room in 1933. A yellow rose bush can be seen in the pictures of the front yard. It's still there. There were 13 kids in his family, housed in a 1900 sq. ft. 3 maybe 4 bedroom house. It's basically an old farm house. Jesus...
A few details are in order. The main beam of the house does not support any walls of the first or second story. Instead it lies about 6 feet form the load bearing spot where it needs to be. This beam lies almost in the middle of the dining room floor. Floor joist spacing is random.......14-18". I found 1938 newspapers stuffed around the door frames when I had them replaced. The stairway to the basement and second story are on top of each other and a series of 10, 2 x 4's, are responsible for holding up the East end of the house, not the main beam. The 10, 2x4's were set in to the dirt in the basement before any concrete was poured. Termites ate heck out of them resulting in about a 3" dip in the center of the house. Funny how the inspector overlooked the termite damage when I bought the darn thing.
That's just the beginning of the troubles. The furnace will not heat the whole house effectively, no central air and I'm too broke down to muscle window units anymore. Wiring won't support more the one AC unit on second floor. Knob and tube wiring. Concrete block construction on the first floor. 2nd floor is wood framed, lathe and plaster. The plaster is old school. A scratch coat of a material similar to concrete, complete with pig bristles in it, covered by a thin coat of plaster. No insulation on the concrete block walls. It sometimes gets down to 48 degrees F in the master bed room. Dirtiest dang house I've ever seen, wipe a surface off and a few hours later, the same spot is filthy.
Not enough light in the house, natural or other. Not enough closets, no storage, no flow to the house, antiquated kitchen, bad sketchy plumbing, poor electrical, no rain gutters, poor drainage, yard is higher than side walks. I can identify 22 varieties of weeds in my yard. the garage is unusable and an eyesore, the houses 2nd story has cedar shakes with peeling paint. Weird, steep small, steps to the second story. Technically story and a half. Interior walls have pulled away from the exterior walls 2-3", fire place chimney is in danger of collapsing, it has pulled away form the house 2". It's putting stress on a second story window as it collapses destroying it as it goes. Ancient wood frame double hung windows with wavy glass so if you look out at something, it's all distorted. So really I use about 900 sq. ft. of this 1900 sq. ft., albatross, the excess sq.ft. is like a yoke around my neck... I feel I'm too old to move and the real estate market is crazy now any way.
This houses problems have basically ruined my marriage and my life for 38 years...
A couple good things about my house....New roof, it's 15 minutes from darn near everything around here, a big church across the street which provides quite a bit of privacy. A fragrant yard in the spring. Starting with Clove bush then Lilac and Lily of the valley and finishing up with 90 year old wild yellow roses around June that smell up my whole yard. Being concrete block on the first floor makes it fairly resistant to stray bullets. You just never know anymore.
I use my dining room as a living room. It has 4 single doors and a set of french doors. This only allows furniture to be arranged one way and is cramped. Funny thing is, many times the wife and I will be watching TV in this room and get up to look out the window, to check the weather and find that it's storming really hard and we had no idea. What a sturdy, cave like, central room.
Best thing about this house is my long suffering, beloved wife lives here with me and the 3 cats that own us. I grew up in an old farm house so it feels a lot like home, thanks to my wife's labors. We really, really want to downsize and move.
I'm too old, too over worked, too physically broken down and too poor to do a dang thing about it and would need a professional consultant to even know where to start.
So I'm out front doing yard work one morning in the late 80's, before my night shift and a older gentleman approaches me with pictures of his father building my house in 1910 and pictures of him building the front porch in the 30's. The gentleman told me he was born in my front room in 1933. A yellow rose bush can be seen in the pictures of the front yard. It's still there. There were 13 kids in his family, housed in a 1900 sq. ft. 3 maybe 4 bedroom house. It's basically an old farm house. Jesus...
A few details are in order. The main beam of the house does not support any walls of the first or second story. Instead it lies about 6 feet form the load bearing spot where it needs to be. This beam lies almost in the middle of the dining room floor. Floor joist spacing is random.......14-18". I found 1938 newspapers stuffed around the door frames when I had them replaced. The stairway to the basement and second story are on top of each other and a series of 10, 2 x 4's, are responsible for holding up the East end of the house, not the main beam. The 10, 2x4's were set in to the dirt in the basement before any concrete was poured. Termites ate heck out of them resulting in about a 3" dip in the center of the house. Funny how the inspector overlooked the termite damage when I bought the darn thing.
That's just the beginning of the troubles. The furnace will not heat the whole house effectively, no central air and I'm too broke down to muscle window units anymore. Wiring won't support more the one AC unit on second floor. Knob and tube wiring. Concrete block construction on the first floor. 2nd floor is wood framed, lathe and plaster. The plaster is old school. A scratch coat of a material similar to concrete, complete with pig bristles in it, covered by a thin coat of plaster. No insulation on the concrete block walls. It sometimes gets down to 48 degrees F in the master bed room. Dirtiest dang house I've ever seen, wipe a surface off and a few hours later, the same spot is filthy.
Not enough light in the house, natural or other. Not enough closets, no storage, no flow to the house, antiquated kitchen, bad sketchy plumbing, poor electrical, no rain gutters, poor drainage, yard is higher than side walks. I can identify 22 varieties of weeds in my yard. the garage is unusable and an eyesore, the houses 2nd story has cedar shakes with peeling paint. Weird, steep small, steps to the second story. Technically story and a half. Interior walls have pulled away from the exterior walls 2-3", fire place chimney is in danger of collapsing, it has pulled away form the house 2". It's putting stress on a second story window as it collapses destroying it as it goes. Ancient wood frame double hung windows with wavy glass so if you look out at something, it's all distorted. So really I use about 900 sq. ft. of this 1900 sq. ft., albatross, the excess sq.ft. is like a yoke around my neck... I feel I'm too old to move and the real estate market is crazy now any way.
This houses problems have basically ruined my marriage and my life for 38 years...
A couple good things about my house....New roof, it's 15 minutes from darn near everything around here, a big church across the street which provides quite a bit of privacy. A fragrant yard in the spring. Starting with Clove bush then Lilac and Lily of the valley and finishing up with 90 year old wild yellow roses around June that smell up my whole yard. Being concrete block on the first floor makes it fairly resistant to stray bullets. You just never know anymore.
I use my dining room as a living room. It has 4 single doors and a set of french doors. This only allows furniture to be arranged one way and is cramped. Funny thing is, many times the wife and I will be watching TV in this room and get up to look out the window, to check the weather and find that it's storming really hard and we had no idea. What a sturdy, cave like, central room.
Best thing about this house is my long suffering, beloved wife lives here with me and the 3 cats that own us. I grew up in an old farm house so it feels a lot like home, thanks to my wife's labors. We really, really want to downsize and move.
