Old, small houses
September 18th, 2006
I can’t find blogs about old, small houses like ours. There are plenty of blogs written by folks who are restoring sprawling, B&B-sized Victorians (big, old), and there are plenty of blogs about redos of gigantic modern homes (big, new). There are even quite a few sites about new tiny environmentally-friendly houses, and the Tiny House movement and the Small House Society (new, small).
Where are my peeps? I am craving a glimpse into another house like ours, 1200-sq.-ft. and under, circa late 1800s or early 1900s—preferably one occupied by folks like us who can see their house’s potential, but don’t have the financial means to actually do anything to their house except vacuum up dog fur and paint over wallpaper.
There is no Old, Small, Leave-It-As-Is-For-Now House movement that I can find. And there should be. It’s so disheartening to pick up a “shelter” magazine that promises fabulous low-budget renovations inside, only to find out that their version of low-budget differs from our version of low-budget by at least $15,000.
I want to love what we have, and have what we need, and most of the time I think we’re doing pretty well in those departments—until I hit the magazine aisle at the grocery store, or come across “Our Gorgeous Soon-to-Be a B&B Queen Anne Victorian” blogs.
I want to hear about the aging mutts of the house world, old houses of indiscriminate origin and architectural style. I want to hear about houses with strange spooky spiderwebby corners. Houses with tiny bedrooms and no storage space. Houses that had very bad things like aluminum siding and fake wood paneling and terrible 60s wallpaper happen to them, but that may have wonderful treasures like shingles or clapboard or tin ceilings hiding underneath the bad things—treasures that the current owners can’t possibly get to or restore without loads of cash in the bank.
I want to know how other people live anachronistic lives in their old houses, i.e., how they can bear to look at their yucky, buckling Ikea furniture in the same space as old pine floors that deserve to be refinished and loved for another 100 years.
And if they wrote about their ghosts, that would definitely be a bonus draw.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized, Pretty flowers. (Berkshires), Not right now. (Money)
46 Comments
1. Edmonton Jenn | September 18th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Oh. My. God.
You could be describing my life. Especially the bit about buckling Ikea furnature, pine floors that deserve love or something…
My house is just over 700 sq feet, and it has SUCH potential….unfortunately we just haven’t got the cash to help it realize said potential. First thing I want to do is take the nasty 60’s marbled mirror off the wall above the mantle of our fake fireplace that used to have a natural gas heater in it…
2. Antonia | September 18th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/article024.htm - an English website, I’m afraid, but one that addresses the labour of love involved in old houses.
My mother still lives in the 1841 cottage I grew up in. I remember the elderly neighbours from my childhood who wouldn’t modernise their cottages to have toilets inside because the toilet most definitely belonged in the garden. The family next door had about six kids who all slept in one room; the mother washed them in a tin bath in the back yard - this was in 1971.
I hate other people’s ideas of low-budget as well. I think they’re just showing off.
3. bee | September 18th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
That’s us, though! 1895 built, on the site of an old factory, lots of 1950’s relics, no storage, except for our wonderful attic!, umm..a few flourishes from the 1970’s, original front door and windows, (with sash stays), and a whole bunch of neighbor people with too much money fixing their similar houses up all at once. BAH! We do a tiny bit at a time. A new stair rail here, painting the freakin’ deck there, upgrading electric outlets here…my aim to put in a tin ceiling will not be expensive, though. Because the faux kitchen has a faux wooden ceiling all ready to get tin nailed in! Seriously, there are tons of inexpensive cosmetic things that can be done that improve things vastly. Oh, and the ghosts? Got ‘em. Lately they’ve been really helpful! Finding lost things and all…
4. Amy | September 18th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
that is so my life! our house was a screaming deal and we bought it to fix it up and sell it. We were going to stay here long enough to not have to pay loads in taxes when we sold it. That was five years ago. We’ve managed to move a staircase and talk big about what else we want to do. It’s so hard to renovate when you have to nickle and dime your way through it.
oh and my blog is mostly used to write cutesy doings of my kiddos. No remodel talk. If i used it for remodeling talk, I’d only be posting once a year.
5. kelly | September 18th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
I whinged the same bloody thing to my husband this weekend about Shelter Mags…haven’t even thought of looking for blogs. We’re in a small house built in 1920, adequate storage for most, but not for us, and a desire to do something special with the place but no money and no ideas. Bleh.
6. Bethany | September 18th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
My house doesn’t meet your square footage requirement (2650 sq. feet) but can I join your club anyway?
We have faded, ugly yellow aluminum siding over what is rumored to be either wood siding or stucco (my bet is stucco). We have oak and pine floors that occasionally give us splinters and are desperate for refinishing, but the other wood work on the lower level is in incredible shape — tall oak posts, an open staircase, and beams on the ceiling.
We have a laundry room with plaster walls that resemble that “cracked” painting technique, though it hasn’t seen fresh paint in I’m guessing 20 years. There’s a huge (like room sized) cistern in the basement that you can’t see into because its walls are so tall.
Our house is old and shabby, yet the bones are strong and beautiful. There’s no way we can do it justice at our current level of finances, and by the time we can I worry we’ll just buy a newer house. In the mean time, we patch and tend and love.
I’d love to discuss ideas with you. If you email me I can send you pictures of what we’ve done — We’ve never spent more than a thousand a room (except for Pergo in the kitchen) and usually much, much less. hergrace01 (at) yahoo (dot) com.
7. Deb | September 18th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Hey Jenn, apply for one of those fixer upper shows on HGTV or DIY or whatever channel!! My favorite isn’t on anymore, it was called Surprise by Design and had the coolest designers. It was awesome.
TLC has some too I think…apply to them all !!!
8. MoMMY | September 18th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
I’m like Bethany in I fit all the requirements but the size (around 2400 sq. ft.) We’re definitely no B&B as the 4 boys we have require the room and the money to fix the rooms.
I’m thrilled because my father came and closed up a wall, pipe & ceiling that have been open for FOUR. YEARS. It took him 3 trips (ie. about 6 mos.) but hello - we have drywall!
The sad thing is, the first 2 years I was just so happy to see the bright, shiny PVC sewer pipe that replaced the cracked, cast iron one that leaked sewerage into the plaster & lathe that I didn’t even mind the fact you could see the bottom of our bathtub.
9. Tonia | September 18th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Take a look at my blog. We just bought a home from the 50’s. It has approx. 1300 sq ft. After purchasing the home we have very little $$ for repairs. I feel your pain. We are moving from a home with 1000 sq ft and only 1 closet! So the new place is bigger with closets, but still tiny compaired to the victorians and new homes of these days.
Maybe we can bounce $$ saving ideas off eachother.
10. Spot the Wonder Dog | September 18th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
It’s just supply and demand.
People who live in those kinds of houses can’t afford magazines.
11. anon | September 18th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Here in lies the problem, summarized nicely by Amy in comment #2, as to why there are no SHNB (Small House - No Budget) blogs
“If i used it for remodeling talk, I’d only be posting once a year.”
12. Vikki | September 18th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
Our house was built in 1913 and had 1252 square feet until we added on this spring (cheaper than trying to buy a new house and I just couldn’t sleep in the same room as the baby anymore - I needed sleep!). Anyway, we still have a small house though now we have a whopping 1636 square feet!
We love our old house but it has many flaws (including fun house floors in the upstairs). The best way to redo things is to paint and spend a little money on the small details (new knobs/pulls for the cabinets, for example). For hiding flaws, I like low wattage light bulbs : )
13. Raehan | September 18th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Don’t you dare talk about IKEA furniture like that!!!
: (
Great post!
14. JustLinda | September 18th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
I lived in an old small house that I couldn’t afford to do anything with for 15 years.
Well, it didn’t see that small at first. It was 1384 sq ft. That was plenty for me and my two girls. But then there was the 2nd husband and then his father moved in and then we went and had two MORE girls and either we had to move or I would have culled the herd (don’t ask how).
So I have some experience… I do know that every repair you do is extremely complex. I mean, you plan on putting a new $80 range hood and next thing you know, you discover cloth-wrapped wiring and you have to redo all the wiring to make it up to code and keep your family safe.
Every picture I tried to hang resulted in cracked plaster (you’d think I would have learned, huh?) We could not shop for any standard doorknobs or replacement window screens… everything we tried to fix took twice as long and cost four times as much as it should have.
But, damn, did that house have character. I miss it dearly some days. We loved our old house, we simply outgrew it.
Maybe I’ll drive by it again tonight….
15. kirsty | September 18th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
And here’s the stinger - we sold our last house after painting and titivating it on a shoe-string. The new people have thrown BUCKET_LOADS of cash at it and now all our friends tell me, “I drove past your old house. WOW it looks SO good. You should see whta they’ve done! blah blah blah” Yeah, well we would have done that too…
16. margalit | September 18th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Me, pick me! ME. I have a house like yours. Mine is from the turn of the century, and it has the most hideous stucco on the outside, much of which is starting to crack and peel. It’s really a sight to see. We do have brand new windows and back doors, but our front doors are old victorian thick oak doors with an oval beveled glass window. Unfortunately, we have no front door lock. Our bedrooms are TINY. Mine is the smallest, and it fits my bed in the middle, and 2 dressers at the foot of the bed. Period. I have one bedside table. I can almost reach the side walls from my bed. The kids have slightly bigger bedrooms and they both have 3 windows, to my two.
Our wood floors need to be redone desperately. EVERY celiing in the house is peeling from that weird stuff Victorians used to put on the ceilings. We can literally watch the paint falling off in big flakes in our living room. It drives me nuts.
Our kitchen is partially redone. New floor and appliances, painted, but ancient useless cabinets and counters from the 50’s and it is UGLY. I put in a huge shelvng unit on one wall that holds extra pots & pans, bowls, foods, and small appliances. The bottom shelf is cookbooks. Because, and this is the saddest part, we have 2 undercabinet cupboards, and 4 above cabinets. That’s IT. We do have a pantry.
We have bookshelves in every room of the house including hallways becasue we just don’t have enough wall space in the living room. The rooms aren’t tiny downstairs, but they’re small, and cramped. There is almost no place to hide. No alone space at all. But we do have HUGE bathrooms. I don’t know why, but we do.
We do have a finished attic for storage, and our basement is dry and has brand new stairs. New bulkhead, too.
We live here for the privacy and the land. We have a lot of land, and we’re way up on a hill, so it’s very very private and secluded for the middle of the city.
17. KeriS | September 18th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Ah, to have a house that one could imagine has treasures under its bad wrapping… Mine, built in the 1950s like every other ugly Ranch in Oklahoma, has no promise. Except for the promise that the electrician who is coming tomorrow to help us replace the faulty square canister lights that cannot light the dark panelled “den” will find thousands of dollars of electrical work that needs to be done… in our “attic” whose bracings are too weak to actually put your weight on as you explore the place while slithering through rotten old insulation on your belly…
No tin ceilings in our home. There was not that much style in 1950s Oklahoma. I know… my fault for moving to Oklahoma. I guess I did not have much say in who I was fated to fall in love with. Ugh.
But dear, sweet little Alex loves his corner of our 1950’s hell so much that he thinks he will live here forever… raising HIS children in the same place that is so dear to his heart he cannot even stand it when we rip up carpet with horsehair padding underneath. Too much change in his slice of paradise. If only we could see our 1960’s wallpaper through the eyes of our children.
18. sbmeepers | September 19th, 2006 at 3:11 am
Hi! I come by here from time to time and always enjoy your entries. However, this one touched me right in the…wallet. (Thin, despite much work) I talk a lot about re-doing (well…DOING) our tiny, barren, earth-cursed yard on my blog, but I don’t even get into what I need/want/dream of doing to my house. Here’s our house, in a (longest comment ever):
1933 California Craftsmen cottage. Strange L-shaped (pre-TV) living/dining room that does feature a killer original built-in bar, yet makes sure we always have dead space. Lots of dust/spider sheltering windows with lots of panes, hung on old rope/pulley system.Two tiny bedrooms, orginal closet size 2.5 x 3.5. WTF?
Fun “project” features include:
-External paint that is starting to peel, in boring, my husband was a bachelor white/gray/deep blue.
-Tiny galley-style, appliance-free (not even a garbage disposal) Kitchen with patched, not painted walls, incoherently ugly countertops and cabinets that need a lot of help. Stove needs a hood and microwave rests atop the fridge, such is the dearth of space. Saltillo tile that I haaate (but won’t tell my husband) for their grime-collecting abilities and intensely ugly track lighting complete this scary picture.
-Original (no refinishing possible, need to be re-done…pref. in ecologically friendly bamboo, laid on the diagonal) floors.
And I’m not even going to GO there about the tiny, (6 x 6) bathroom. That someone tiled over in hideous peach. With no external venting and/or windows, which makes it a mold haven.
Are we having fun yet? Thanks for the new post ideas.
19. robin | September 19th, 2006 at 9:26 am
okay, our house isn’t small, but we only live in half of it (we rent out the upstairs). it’s a “georgian” i’m told, and i figured out that it was buit in 1865. but we can’t possibly bring it to the grand status it deserves in our lifetime. it has this fabulous oval window in the yucky attic, and the paint and the glazing is falling off in chunks, but where would we come up with the funds, and besides, it’s LEAD paint, of course. sided, lots of ikea furniture (though not buckling at least), so much potential, and so few rich relatives. laundry list: reseal front porch (3 years out); paint porch posts (4 years out); take out broken window which is slowly sagging and waiting to decapitate someone (5 years out); landscape entire weed chocked yard (by which i mean go to school for a landscape architecture degree and THEN landscape yard); etc. etc. etc.
fear not — you are not alone!
20. Jenn | September 19th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Ooh, this is good, good, good. Feed me more! More!
And anyone who has a room-sized cistern of torture in their cellar can definitely be in the club. I spoke too hastily about size requirements.
21. Edmonton Jenn | September 19th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
All these stories are bringing tears to my eyes. Thank you Jenn, for letting me know I’m not alone….
Our nasty little house (which I love, please don’t fall down around my ears!) was last redecorated in the 1950’s. Our bathroom and kitchen have this nasty, faded teal coloured plastic tile all over the walls. Last Christmas instead of celebrating the holidays, we spend several thousand dollars on fixing the plumbing…The main stack into which every other pipe drains into at some point had rotted clean through (it was cast iron). We still have a giant hole in the tiny bathroom wall which we have covered with bristle board, duct tape and plastic wrap. Our kitchen is so small that it is impossible to cook anything much due to lack of space, and when we got a new fridge, we had to get a tiny one, because our doors are so small that we couldn’t fit the first two that we tried to buy into the house. Ditto with the new stove. Oh, and we don’t have a dining area. We had to put our table in the teeny tiny living room.
We’re going to sell it in a year or so. Anyone want a lovely little doll house which needs some TLC? It’s a character home!
22. Spot the Wonder Dog | September 19th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Aye. Ye cistern ‘o torture be the perfect place to throw yer “Talk Like a Pirate Day” party. So scuttle yer little bilge rats down there and clap ‘em in irons till they be swaggering like Long John Silver ‘imself!!!
Arrrr…
23. jo | September 19th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Maybe I qualify?
I have a small-ish 1800 or so sq, 1935 bungelow
Plus, I solo parent two young kids
It has lovely wood floors- but they are scratched and pitted and I love them anyway. I just cleaned them with oil soap. BUT in my house before, I did pay to have my wood floors sanded - it was pretty cheap- under 500 bucks
My plan lately has been a room at a time. Literally..the rest of the house is what is, while I paint and deal with THE room.
Love your family
Tolerate your house..
24. bee | September 19th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
We have a cistern! Although when I first was told of it I thought they were saying “sister”. Sister Cistern is going moooo-te-rin’…
25. ceece | September 19th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
i beg to differ. we have an 1800 sq ft 1875-ish house that has lots and lots of WONDERFUL plans, but so far plans are all we have.
I do have pictures of the house on my flickr and site. please check it out and know you’re not alone.
26. CrankMama | September 19th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
The notion that a budget remodel costs $15,000 is what pisses me off about mags like “Sunset”. Who ARE these people? I love teeny little cottages where you can feel the breeze in the winter and still find spooky fun old things in the attic. Houses with HISTORY. I think you should start a movement yourself!
27. lena | September 19th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Well, hell. I think you just described your second blog.
28. Contrary | September 19th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
I wish I could help. I live in a newish (only 30 years old) ranch house in a suburb where all the houses look like mine, with the only differences being brick color and landscaping. I have tons of square feet and every bit of it irritates the crap out of me.
We’re planning a move to N.H. in a few years and we’ll be looking for a house like yours. One that needs us. One we need. I can’t wait.
29. the Mater | September 19th, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Hey, Contrary … Jenn can sell you hers, the ghosts come with the property - no extra charge.
There were a lot of 30-something folk in a stew
The houses they lived in were so not not new
Paint was peeling from doors
Wood was buckling on floors
Yet these homeowners to their properties were true
They lived and loved amidst the decay
Little kids ran around and did play
But the ghosts were aghast
Their former glory days had passed
The new residents endured disarray
Makeovers only happen on TV
Jenn and her fellow blogsters don’t see
Any chance of redemption
No matter how pure their intention
What’s sagging and peeling will just be
Find an old house and dream on
Without money and time it’s no fun
You don’t know what’s in store
Without blueprints galore
There’s really not much that can be done
Tonight, in my humble apartment, I’m quite content to not be holding a mortgage :>)
30. Momish | September 19th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
I feel your pain! And, I feel your desire to find out just how other people (normal people, that is) are doing it or dealing with not doing it, when it comes to their beloved old homes. We, unfortunately, are ones in the “not doing it” category. It KILLS me and I have posted about this in the past.
We live in a row home that was build around the turn of the century. It has great character and so many nice little touches, especially for a row home. I had such BIG dreams when we bought it, all resting on small spare change! It’s heartbreaking. I used to have a section on our family web site for before and after photos. Two years later, I had to remove it since the shots looked almost the same (just different colors on the walls here and there). Please, if you find a site or blog to help us weary home owners out, share! I’ll do the same, promise.
P.S. Thanks for the post, it’s always nice to know so many other people out there share your woes. Here is a link to the post I wrote complaining about my old pine floors (actually, they are the original subflooring). Oh, how I would love to have them put back to their natural glory!!! Our house would come alive with new floors! See, you are NOT alone!
http://momish.squarespace.com/blog/2006/8/29/a-nice-glass-of-whine-before-bed.html
31. Anna | September 20th, 2006 at 12:51 am
Ooh, that’ll be me soon-ish! I’m moving from my characterless modern flat in London (complain, complain, I know) back to Minnesota (where I grew up), and I’m going to be looking for a house built around 1900-1930. And, looking at my budget, it’s sure to be small!
I’m hoping for a place with salvageable woodwork. Bonus points for beautiful built-ins. Points deducted for basement ‘Cedar Closets’ that are actually ‘Spider Closets.’
32. Elizabeth S. | September 20th, 2006 at 5:35 am
Jungle palm-frond printed wall paper in my daughters 10x10 no-closet-in-there room. Check.
Salmon colored laminate counter-tops in the kitchen with very little cabinetry. Check.
Defunct chimney taking up half the pantry space. Check.
Outlets that may HAVE three prong entry, but aren’t actually grounded. Check.
Floor finish that looks like someone poured it on let it harden in it’s oil-on-water configuration. Check.
No ventilation in the not-original to the house bathrooms. Check.
Peeling lead paint in the window-sills of a house containing a toddler. Check.
No central A/C. Check.
Porch that was added long ago and that covered over the front door transom. Check.
Now if i just had a check that wouldn’t bounce to actually cover the costs of all of the above I could do more than just love my house. I could ADORE it. I could keep it in the manner to which I would have no problem becoming accustomed.
But my kids do adore it, love their no concept of style little hearts. I hope we never move.
33. Poppy | September 20th, 2006 at 10:02 am
I live in a 1917 Tudor Revival, a/k/a My Teardown. I love our house, but the kids’ bedrooms are tiny. The closet space is a joke. The basement is just gross. The living has so many radiators, french doors, arches, and doors that there is no place for a sofa, and the piano is stuck against a wall in an awkward position. I bought all our living furniture at rummage sales because nothing new was the right scale.
In nine years we put in a new kitchen and a new bathroom, painted the entire exterior and interior, carpeted the stairs and master bedroom, and landscaped 3/4 of the yard.
Two of the bathrooms are in desperate need of a complete rehab; the basement laundry room is falling apart because the old tub in the bathroom above it has no exit valve and we’ve managed to fill it to overflowing so many times that water has poured through the cracked bathroom tile floor and destroyed the dropped ceiling in the laundry room below. Half the windows won’t open and close … moss is growing all over the cedar shake roof.
I’ll shut up now, but the list GOES ON AND ON.
I live for Old House Interiors magazine. Even though I can’t afford to do what those people do, at least they show small, old houses.
Also the forums here are useful:
http://www.oldhousejournal.com/index.shtml
and here:
http://www.oldhouseweb.com/
Good luck! I feel your pain!
34. Katie | September 20th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
We live in a crappy suite in an early 1900’s type house, does that count? Probably not, but when I see home magazines I feel the same way you do, except worse beacuse we don’t even own our own mess! Good luck!
35. Bethany | September 20th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Spot - Only you would remember that today is “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” Kudos!
The cistern of torture of which you speak is mine. I can’t attest to any torture, but I can say that most of my friends refuse to enter my basement because of it, and most every time I talk to my friend Amy she asks, “Do you still have that THING in the basement?” Also, one time when we lost our cat we thought he may be stuck in it. Other than that, we pretty much ignore it and make a wide berth whenever we go down there.
Jenn-Thanks for letting me in the club!
36. Mom101 | September 20th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Oh I would love to read about this all too. Only I don’t know if they let “small NYC apartments shared with too many people and animals” dwellers into that club.
37. kris | September 21st, 2006 at 9:54 am
there’s this show, I think it’s on HGTV, its called “Small Spaces Big Style” that I find intriguing. They all have budgets MUCH bigger than mine, but they’re great for harvesting ideas. Let me see if I can find you a link…
Here you go: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_988/text/0,,HGTV_22056_34459,00.html
38. Kristin | September 21st, 2006 at 1:11 pm
You are describing our life as well. 1911 Sears mail order house. beautiful woodwork, beautiful floors (if only we could afford to refinish them) tiny tiny bedrooms (8x8, 9x10, and a weird 8x16 or 17) ridiculous 60’s mod kitchen complete with green tinted mood lighting along the ceiling. We have a moldy basement and that leaks water every rainstorm due to a sunken window well (from some gutters that were leaking for probably 20 years before we moved in…our answer to this was to place a piece of plywood over the window well to divert the water). Ahh, but our kids attend a nice Montessori. I wonder what we will do when the boiler dies….
39. Paul | September 21st, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Yeah, I bought a 1910-ish, 1600-sq foot house for my “first” house … 18 years ago. That was when we had one child (who is now one of four, and a sophomore in college). Since then I have learned to do my own major demolition (can you say plaster and lathe?) carpentry, floor installation and finishing, electrical work, minor plumbing, insulation, fixture installation and more. If I can’t do it myself, it generally doesn’t get done because I can’t afford to hire people except for roof work.
Worth it? Yes! I know every nook and cranny of that house. But I really don’t want to be there for the rest of my life!
40. J | September 21st, 2006 at 10:04 pm
I’m here!* jumping up and down with hand in the air* We just moved into a house Saturday that was built in 1915 and it we have no closet space.
The previous owners had an inordinate love of sponge painting. Both my husband and myself have heard footsteps in the attic- while we were here on our own painting. I flew up there thinking the baby had somehow gotten out of the playpen we had him napping in to find him sound asleep…
The movers couldn’t get my daughters bed, our box springs or the chair and a half up the stair case so they are in the garage. Which is out of plumb. I’ll stop now. just to say I’m here to join the movement. Will there be snacks?
41. penelope | September 23rd, 2006 at 11:37 pm
ooh yeah, that’s us. We’re at the new end of old (70+ years), and bought it for all sorts of potential that we can’t afford to uncover.
Like our original, totally cool built-in kitchen units, that hang above the cheapest, ugliest counters and floor you’ve ever seen.
and the original pine floors? So awesome! So creaky that I wake the baby when I go pee!
And the original gumwood trim that is everywhere, but painted white? purty.
And the original, least environmentally-friendly, freezing cold doors that need to be specially sealed - better put on a sweater! hazaa!
Unfortunately, our improvements are currently limited to very necessary repairs, but seriously, we do love it; we hate new construction, and our baby was born here, so we won’t be leaving anytime soon.
42. Tina | September 26th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Our 900 square foot house recently got siding and now I doubt that we will be able to pay for our son’s braces. Great look on the house, too bad our kid looks like a circus freak..(well, not a REAL freak, just a minor freak…)
When I was digging up the front lawn to make it flower bed, I found a coin from Norway from 1907, which is the year the house was built. That, so far, has been the coolest part of our house.
Sigh…
43. geogirl | September 26th, 2006 at 11:37 am
Well, I don’t even own a house so I guess I can’t join the club. I had to live through a complete house renovation when I was younger though. I have stripped enough wallpaper and painted enough walls to last me a lifetime.
All but two of the rooms were completely redone. My room was never finished so I lived for 5 years with old, cracked plaster. I thought I would be clever and hasten the process by giving my friends magic markers and letting them write all over the walls. Turns out we sold the house the next year. Oh well.
44. Pam | September 27th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
You took the words right out of my mouth. My thing though, that totally rubs me the wrong way is to read about, see, hear about all these so called “starter homes” that are hundreds of thousands of dollars and over 2000 square feet…”perfect for couples just starting out”. Oh please. What did ever happen to little cottages with old wood floors and velvet wallpaper in the bathroom with 3 bedrooms all the size of small closets? Those places have the BEST fireplaces in them and make for the coziest and fondest memories:)
45. Robin | October 1st, 2006 at 9:56 am
Hey Jen,
You are SO not alone. Let’s see…there is the big hole in the bathroom wall upstairs that we started redoing in MARCH. It’s still there….along with the big hole in the kitchen ceiling so that we could fix leaks from bathroom redo. It’s still there! The ceilings in our dining room and family room are peeling in sheets. The sample piece (about four feet) of crown molding is still tacked up…by itself.
Greg just started residing the house…it’s the only time of year he isn’t working 80+ hour weeks… and we can afford the labor of real honest to god contractors. If we get one side done before fall ends I”ll be thrilled. Good thing through, he’s hugely embarrased by the peeling paint and it’s his best motivator!
46. Mom of 1 | October 15th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Totally with you! I don’t think we have even 1200 sq ft. My BR is actually kinda big, but that’s because there’s only one other and it’s miniscule, no space for guests at all and we have a LOT of family that likes to visit foir a week, even if they sleep on my couch. There’s only one bath, which we did redo ourselves when we first moved in and I was pregnant, it’s clearly a first DIY project. BUT, we just re-did the kitchen, or actually, PAID someone to redo it. It is amazing. Can we say second mortgage? But, it’s worth it. Mind you, we lived 3 years with 2 drawers, 2 cabinets, floor chipping up, hole in the ceiling, mutiple other water damaged spots on the ceiling, and shelves falling off the wall. Jenn, I’ll send you the link to the Kodak Gallery page, I can’t seem to get a URL to paste here. I have countertops! And storage space! And a desk in the kitchen from which I’m typing right now!
So do I bask in this? No. I walk around complaining about the chipping ceilings, and how you now have a really good view through the kitchen window of the falling-down garage and those evil weeds. Sigh. It’s always something. I try to remind myself to enjoy it!
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