House in Progress Diary

(Note from JM: Cheryll's Story)...Well...after reading everyone elses house nightmares, I feel pretty darn lucky. We own a 1912 Aladdin Bungalow (ALBANY) and we have our share of problems. I did get alittle scared yesterday when my left leg went though the flooring in the bathroom while I was pulling off the lathe around the bath tub. I pulled my leg out of the hole and found that I had a clear view into the basement below but... I had no injuries and felt lucky. We are RESTORING our house to its original condition and floor plan, so that has meant alot of tearing out in the back of part of the house. When the house was originally built, a stairway to the upstairs was not put in. I guess the owners felt that the 2 bedrooms downstairs were suffient and were trying to cut costs. They also only built 2 of the 4 dormers that were to be on the roof. These people had no intention of ever using the upstairs as anything but an attic. The bathroom is now where the stairway to the upstairs should be. But oh, it gets better... In the early 1960's a family moved into the house and desided they needed the upstairs for the 4 boys they had. What did they do? They took a huge chunk out of the kitchen for a basement stairway (flooring joists cut out etc.)and took the back porch and enclosed it(where the original cellar door was) and they took the walls out of the original pantry and the back bedroom closet and they built the stairway there. They even moved the original back wall of the back bedroom out 2 feet and they blocked up the original kitchen door, that lead out to the back porch, and nailed the cellar door shut. We are in the proccess now of tearing it all out down to the studs, and trying to put it back to the original floor plan. We intend to put the bathroom where it should have been put in the first place and leave the original area open for the upstairs stairway... for my building contractor brother to build for us when he comes from Seattle for a visit at Christmas Time. We also have to redo the diningroom wall that butts up to the kitchen because the idiots from the 60's took the original kitchen cabinet out of the kitchen and built it into the kitchen doorway and then created another doorway to get into the kitchen and to the basement door. We also have to tear off the front porch (not original to the house) because it is dragging down the roof several inches because it is too heavy and the front is sinking into the ground. Lots of brick set on top of lots of concrete and no footers. The house was moved from one side of town to the other in 1927 with HORSES AND LOGS to it's present location on a double corner lot. The present porch was added then and not done properly. The front porch is another project for my building contractor brother. He really likes the house and says it is well worth saving. The house has all the original woodwork, doors and door hardwear, including the archway and bookcases between the livingroom and diningroom. The house also has all the original oak windows, that AREN'T painted shut, that we intend to keep and restore. I am NOT putting a MODERN kitchen in! I am going with a late 1920's kitchen with the sink hanging on the wall (the imprint of the original sink is still visable on the wall)and I am having an Amish man build me reproduction cabinets to match the original cabinet that we still have. I am going with a 1927 electric stove that stands on long beautiful legs that is being rewired as I type. My counter space will be an old work table, just like they used to have. I have a chair for it and can sit while I mix cookies or chop veggies. I intend to DIE IN THIS HOUSE (hopefully not during the restoration process) so I figure if the owners after me want a MODERN kitchen they will have to put it in themselves. So far...we have found nothing DEAD in the house, no gapping holes or ANY BUGS! I have found lots of nut shells inside the walls, so we must have had squirrels in the attic at one time. I am keeping a scrapbook of the wallpaper and linoleum etc. that we find as we tear out. The project we have in front of IS HUGE and we need everyone PRAYING FOR US! Someone could PERISH before it is all over. My lungs are so full of plaster dust, I cough ALL THE TIME! When I blow my nose (which is constantly) black crap comes out of it, and even though I wear leather work gloves, I have 4 or 5 blisters on every hand. I show up at my job on Mondays...completely exhausted and worthless...still picking plaster out of my hair! Sound familiar??? All this for the love of a...HOUSE. I must be nuts... Cheryll

P.S. How do I send you pictures????

Anyone can send us their crazy house pics at owners@ houseinprogress. net (take out the spaces when you type this email into your note.)

We can take anything and the best format is jpeg or gif. If you need to make your picture smaller for sending and you have a Windows Operating System, you can adjust the picture in your "Paint" program. (This is one of the standard accessories that comes with Windows.)

We'll post the ones that we get of your old house craziness. We have to do something to give back to the old house community...might as well spread around that sympathy!!!

take care--

jm