When was your house built?

[bruceha2000]

I will start

1917 2x6's are all full 2" x 6" makes repairs fun

Some time before the crash of '29. As near as I can tell, order of build was:
- original house 15x24, 2 floors.
- Wrap around porches added (same time?), enclosed on the front (same time?)
- bathroom added in north side porch
- kitchen added on back porch

The kitchen is where I get the 'before' date. When we rehabbed - 20 years ago, we ripped off all the 'not original house' parts. Had rot in places (such as the bathroom ceiling, I've never seen so many carpenter ants in one place!) and we wanted to jack it 2 feet so I could stand up in the basement. Cheaper to jack smaller unit without porches and wanted to put full foundation under them anyway for more storage. When we started through the kitchen floor we found (in order from the top):
- linoleum
- plywood
- newspapers from Sept 1929 - used to 'level' the floor before adding the above
- rotted painted rug
- 1x6 T&G pin laid diagonally
- 1x6 T&G pin laid diagonally the other way.

Man what a pain that was to get through!

And yes, we have true 2 bys, back when the dimensions were AFTER cutting to finish size, not before.

 

[irvingj]

What a great thread!

For me, it was 1986 that we moved into our new, heavily insulated (R-39), post & beam ... oops! "SIP" house.

I had grown up in a post & beam that was built in the early 1700s and swore I'd never do that again!:laughing::laughing: Still drive by that old house every now & then, it's still goin' strong.

"...when I met this young lovely AF Nurse, and we got married." acme97, boy, does that sound familiar! We met in Japan in 1971, but got married in '75. She's the one who kicked me hard enough in the patutti to go out and buy some land instead of renting. (She's still hangin' around, after 36 years....)

niemeyjt- Yep, it's a whole different ballgame over there! When I was travelling in that part of the world, I remember seeing a commemorative stamp in Tøsnberg, Norway celebrating their --1000th?-- year anniversary when my hometown was making a big deal out of its 200th birthday....

 

[grsthegreat]

We recon about 1500 - 1550 for the right hand bit - possibly 100 years later for the left hand bit. Hard to say exactly (no newspapers) - but looking at the architecture, the timber size, the over-engineering, the joints it is about then.

J

YEIKS.....nice place. Must cost a fortune to heat though

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Started in '78. Still working on it.

Sound like my grandfather! :laughing:

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Our house was built in 1958...Bought in 2001...Was added onto by the previous owner.

 

[Gordon Gould]

We started in the spring of 2000 and were basicly weather tight by Christmas. We moved into the unfinished basement in Aug of 2001 and lived down there for 2 years while we worked upstairs. Then we moved up one room at a time as they were done. My wife and I drove every nail. Also the electrical, plumbing and landscaping. We subed out the dirt work, foundation, and chimney. Finished in 2005.

 

[ultrarunner]

^^^ Looks like you are living in a park... lush and green with forest backdrop...

 

[riptides]

...The kitchen is where I get the 'before' date. When we rehabbed - 20 years ago, we ripped off all the 'not original house' parts. Had rot in places (such as the bathroom ceiling, I've never seen so many carpenter ants in one place!) and we wanted to jack it 2 feet so I could stand up in the basement. Cheaper to jack smaller unit without porches and wanted to put full foundation under them anyway for more storage. When we started through the kitchen floor we found (in order from the top):
- linoleum
- plywood
- newspapers from Sept 1929 - used to 'level' the floor before adding the above
- rotted painted rug
- 1x6 T&G pin laid diagonally
- 1x6 T&G pin laid diagonally the other way.

Man what a pain that was to get through!

And yes, we have true 2 bys, back when the dimensions were AFTER cutting to finish size, not before.

Sounds so familiar. In my dining room, I have the original unfinshed floors. They have newspaper imprints from that time. Towards the walls, since the linoleum did not go wall-to-wall I had layers of stain and paint.

So if you can picture where the linoleum was, it is original wood from the 1920-1930's will the newspaper prints on it.

The floors are the last thing to finish in the house, need to get around to it.....

 

[Lloyd_E]

Some one mentioned they needed proof/pictures. Here's a few. Other than some professional help - furnace install, rewiring, gyprock and crack filling, I did all of the renos myself(with help from the wife). I also made most of the furniture and all of the cabinets along with the reproduction stuff including the forge work. We re-clapboarded the house using rough sawn pine - I hand planed a weather bead on each of the boards on the front facade for authenticity... The last two files are of the world's smallest bath reno I am just completing - floor space(under stairwell) is 27"x88". The brick is the back of the fireplace/bake oven. There will be a shelving unit inserted in here.

lloyd

 

[bruceha2000]

The left half is the house, the right is the grist mill. The miller could walk to work, without going outside.:thumbsup:

COOL!

 

[bruceha2000]

My wife and I drove every nail.

And your wife is a lefty. That can be very handy if you are a righty, some times you just can't get in from the right side.

I couldn't drive a nail left handed with a hand sledge. My dad was born a lefty but broke his left arm when he was 7 so he learned to write right handed. Eats right as well, golfs and bats left though and he doesn't care squat which hand he uses to hammer. How I envy that ability!

 

[bruceha2000]

Some one mentioned they needed proof/pictures. Here's a few.

Very nice! out of curiosity, are the dips in the top of the sides of the shelf purely decorative, or were they designed to a specific function - like keeping one's muzzle loader handy?

 

[clemsonfor]

Oh i forgot, i put window trim around the windows that i had installed. Previously they were aluminum framed "insulated" (ha) with nothing the paneling just ended adn in the sill there was a strip of panneling and they had that little corner bead over the edges.

And something else i just dont remember?

 

[D33r3 6r33N]

My dad was born a lefty but broke his left arm when he was 7 so he learned to write right handed. Eats right as well, golfs and bats left though and he doesn't care squat which hand he uses to hammer. How I envy that ability!

I'm the same way except in reverse! :laughing:

 

[Lloyd_E]

bruceha,

It's called a whale shelf - Nantucket origin. If you look at it sideways and horizontally you can see the whale outline... but ,yes I can imagine many a muzzle loader being stored there or hanging a black powder sling off of it.

 

[txdon]

2009 for us. We built on the land we bought 15 years prior on the intentions of building a retirement house with a big window with a hilltop view. Done. With the downturn of the housing market the contractors had no problem with the long distances they had to drive.

 

[clemsonfor]

Oh, went to replace one termite eated board on a porch, it ended with the roof overhang resting on 2x4s and jacks as i had torn out the 2 exterior walls to get the rest of the wood i found, plus now was the time to put in new windows i wanted on there (florida type porch, we dont use it, have cat boxes out there and cat door to it). Wife came home and i told her to come here and look "she was like what did you do!" Fixed it better than before, doors have been sitting on another porch for about 2 years, never got around to installing them? Also on this porch it had some rot in the ceiling (tin roof over head). I replaced 2 rotted joists i think and put new ply up for the ceiling.

Im sure i will think of more

 

[ronjhall]

Forgot to post a picture.

 

[clemsonfor]

Here is just one room. This is the front guest bedroom. The last pic is before the window trim was even up!

 

[clemsonfor]

Here is a pic of the Living room (first pic) as it looked when we moved in/bought it. Now the floors are 3/4" 3.5" wide red oak, that i laid myself. I didnt have a pic handy but you get the idea, of what it did look like. The walls were painted to. The second pic is the kitchen as it looked when we bought it. The next pic is after apliances and a wall was removed to get the larger side by side fridge to fit, first pic dont really show it. Excuse the mess on the counter, we were living in the remodel and this was one of the few flat areas. It served as a tool keeping area/workbench. At this point i prolly was still working on stuff in the kitchen anyway. in this pic you cant see it but at some point i took the box floresent light down and replaced it with a nicer fixture and then small moder track lights as well around the perimeter of the cabinets on the ceiling. Also now we just painted the backsplash to breack up the wood look. One day we will tile it with something and new countertops are on a wishlist as well. These pics were over 3 years ago though. The last pic is the back bedroom behind the previous posts bedroom, they have a jack and jill bath between the two that they share.

See what i mean as this place looked like it was right out of the seventies early 80's!