House history update-November 2014

Pete and I spent a good part of a day researching the ownership of the house at the county Department of Real Estate. We stopped at 1864, records go back to 1788.

It was verboten, but Pete took some photos anyway.....

We were both relieved none of our deeds were in book 666.  

This is the deed from 1903, when crippling arthritis was inevitable for many civil servant clerks

This is the map on the deed from 1864, (36 years before the house was built) when one Samuel Duff willed 160 acres to his six sons. Each son got about the same amount of land.  The U shaped double line at the bottom is the local creek. The map from the deed is upside down with north on the bottom. 

I found several Samuel Duff's who were living around this time, so at this point I'm not sure what this guy did for a living. Hopefully by the next post I will have read through all the deeds and completed more research in the local archives. The land was transferred twelve times from 1864 to the present. 

November 2014

Preparing for work in the cold

 I went to several NYC thrift stores looking for a pair of  insulated work pants, without success. My dad, who is about 5" 6", now buys his jeans in the boys "husky" section in department stores. "Its great, I don't have to get my pants hemmed!" He told me.  My last stop was KMart, where I got these $18. coveralls in the children's section.

My morbid disposition assumes these tags are to help identify bodies that are lost in avalanches. The last line should be the line to fill out next of kin.

Up yours, REI and your $110. fancy ski pants!

Before and after photos

I was lucky to receive photos taken in the 1960s from the former resident I correspond with. Before/after photos always being a crowd pleaser, I took my own hack versions. Full disclosure: Some of the before images are Photoshopped to completely remove the people in the images.

Getting a bit off subject, my favorite before/after images are by Nick Stone, who takes photographs of  WW2 post-blitz England and collages them with present day images. 

More of Nick Stone's work can be viewed on his Flicker page, here.

Creepy books, third installment

The shopaholic in everyone can be nurtured with Ebay.

Getting the pipes inspected

At the suggestion of our inspector, we hired a plumber to inspect the mysterious open ended pipes at the swampy end of the basement. The guy brought his endoscope pipe inspection camera, and I watched the live feed with fascination on his attached Ipad as he pushed it through the lines, expecting something dramatic to happen. I was so transfixed with the equipment I forgot to take pictures. So picture a guy sitting on an empty plastic bucket pushing a hose through a pipe, scratching his head saying. "I don't know what these are."  Not a good sign, but they don't go anywhere, so we can rip them out before we pour a new cement floor.

The camera looked something like this, but not as clean.

We had a few other mystery pipes looked at as well. In the end he told us the basement is probably wet because the earth is sloped downwards towards the house and the gutters don't extend far enough away from the house. We bought some plastic hose to divert the water as far as possible from the house. 

Take THAT, foreclosure!

Under the crawlspace where those two American flag pillows were insulating the house we found this, a terracotta cut pipe filled with cement. We heard the owners in 1981 poured a little gift down all the drains before getting their house repossessed. The man that bought the house after them was a plumber, so he ran all new modern waste lines throughout the house.

Oh Craigslist, how do I love thee?

I am always amazed at the kinds of things I can give away on Craigslist. Every time we work on the house we rent a dumpster, so trash costs us money. More importantly, I hate being wasteful.  I posted mismatched plates and dusty books, taken by a woman who needed them for a retirement home. A woman in her early 20s took the 1970s disco records for her aunt, who she described as a "record enthusiast". I was told by someone at the local law university library that I should throw out a collection of law books, only to have them taken by a lawyer who I can only assume was sentimental for old timey jurisprudence of a bygone era. Some hipster took a collection of 8 tracks tapes as well. Amazing.

Yes, someone even took all the encyclopedias.


Yet one mans trash may still be just another mans trash 

On the second day of our visit we arrived to find these chairs on our back porch. We asked our next door neighbor if he had seen anyone dump them there. He told us he saw someone from two doors down bring them over. Two doors down is where the neighborhood gossip lives. You know, the type who starts talking shit about everyone around them two minutes after you meet them?
Not sure what his intentions were, but we gave them to another neighbor who is going to reupholster them.



Peeling back the many layers of the back porch.

We started really tearing up the back porch during this visit. There are so many layers of floor and wall that the room will certainly be bigger when we are through.

Interior design throughout the ages. This is what was above the tub in the downstairs bathroom. Part renovation, part archaeological dig.

A few of the many layers of the floor.

Pete slaving away pulling up some fancy molding used as a spacer.  If you noticed, yes, that is electric light. We had the power turned on. Our electrician bypassed all the code violating death trap wires running through the house and ran a temporary line for us directly from the meter.  

The second signature found behind the wall

This is the second signature we found behind sheet rock. These names are two of the residents that lived in the house when they were children. What a great dad this guy must have been, engaging his children in everyday tasks, creating a time capsule and planting a bit of magic in their spongy little brains. 

Evidence of another stove

Behind the tub and a few dozen layers of sheet rock and plaster, we came to this hole tapped into the chimney, used to vent out a coal or wood stove.  This is directly behind the fireplace in the kitchen. This side must have been where the chimney was first used, which means the back porch is original to the house. The pathetic state of the mortar is unnerving, although I wanted so badly to clean out the debris in the pipe. 

Evidence of a fire?

This wood was used as a spacer under the back porch wall. This is the second piece of wood we've found in a wall that sustained fire damage, the first one being the fence post top in the wall above the staircase landing:

Maybe these are from the same fire. These people put my scavenger skills to shame. Back in the 1900s, fire spelled opportunity. These guys flocked to free stuff like vultures to a warm carcass. 

"Hey John, I heard the Smith house burned down."

"Lets go check it out, my wife's been bugging me to finish that carriage house.

Flora and fauna

We cant figure out how this happened, but some dumb bird built her nest and laid her eggs inside the wall in the maids bedroom, trapping and killing her babies in the process. The wall is sealed from the outside, so how she got in is a mystery. 

Noteworthy debris

Found this Guitar Center card in a pile of papers. It has $11.37 still on it. Score!

The phrase "God bless you" has double meaning with this cross embroidered hankie.

I wanted to send this photo of exploded cranberry sauce in time for Thanksgiving, but its the thought that counts.

Throwing out the encyclopedias in the front hallway closet was quite a surreal experience

These acetate cross sections really take me back.

Cant wait to plug this in. There's a 5" floppy disc in there too.

House history update-October 2014

I'd certainly like to dig deeper, but I managed to find these documents online after a quick search.

This map is from 1905, produced by G.M. Hopkins Map Company, five years after our house was built. The plot is the same. Its safe to assume the Grahams built the house and were the first ones to live there. My next step is to search the county property tax records, which must be done in person. I'd like to search the US census as well, but I'm having difficulty finding 1900 and 1910 online.

This document is from the 1924 city directory. The person who lived at our address is identified as Wm F Graham, although I'm confused as to what the "Wm" is referring to, being that half the Grahams listed have Wm before their names. This directory lists the professions of the residents, and Mr. Graham was the manager of Pine Lumber Company.

September 2014

Moving things from home

We got a free upgrade from the car rental company for this visit. We had a mini van, and were able to load it up with things from Pete's shop.......

.....including this couch we got free on Craigslist a few months ago. I'm looking forward to seeing it restored!

We brought more books for our creepy themed bookshelf. Here's the collection so far.

A few creepy spots in our neighborhood

Speaking of creepy, I was finally able to get a decent photo of the local Staab Funeral Home sign, since they just trimmed the bushes. 

This video does not do it justice, but this seems to be the life sized version of Pete's cemetery on a hill ring. It just needs a better fence.

Panoramic view 

Here's the view from our attic window. If you listen closely you can hear me breathing like Darth Vader through my respirator mask.

Roof repair

One of the urgent issues we needed addressed was the leaky roof. We've had pretty good luck with contractors so far-except for roofers. I called about 10 companies, some too disorganized to send someone to complete a house call and many others not returning my calls at all.  I managed to get two estimates last month, the first in the mid range price and the second way too cheap not to be concerned. By September no one was returning my phone calls, and the one guy I had an appointment with cancelled. 

We have no idea how long the roof has been leaking, but learned that getting water/ice in your roof  can damage the structure once its starts freezing/melting/cracking. 

Apparently people in our city are real procrastinators, waiting until right before winter to get their damaged roofs repaired. 

In desperation we bought a tarp and were going to beg anyone to secure it over the leak for the winter. Pete's plan C was to cut out where the roof hatch was and put the tarp up himself, which seemed like a horrible idea.  We have no safety harnesses and no hatch to close up any hole he would have cut through. And as most of you know Pete is not exactly graceful.

 Luckily we met Ed, who was introduced to us via a neighbor. He patched the roof for $25.!! 

 "Its a temporary fix, but it should hold for the winter. Call me back if there are any problems" Maybe Ed thinks its 1933, and is charging depression era prices. We tried to give him more money, but he refused. 

Thank you, Ed!!

Another fireplace!

Certainly our most noteworthy find of this trip, Pete took down the wall in the maids bedroom to reveal this sixth fireplace, located directly above the kitchen fireplace. On the other side of the wall to the left of this photo is the really small bathroom, which we are going to expand into this room. The awkwardness of this dividing wall shows that this house was obviously built pre-indoor plumbing. We now plan to put a gas fireplace in here, how nice it will be to have one of those warming up the bathroom in January!

Dining room demolition

Pete finished pulling down the drop ceiling in the dining room.

He opened up the small doorway to reveal the original pocket door entryway.

Here is the right side low tech stopper for the pocket door. This was all that was left, there's no hardware installed anywhere.

Plaster is heavy. Heavy and exhausting.

It's sort of like shuffleboard

This is my new friend, the tile pry bar. I don't know how anyone could remove cemented down tiles without one!

Goodbye, cold slippery floor. This photo shows the cement board. Under that is the original wood floor. I'm sure some forensic sundial astronomer weirdo out there can tell what time these photos were taken by the sunlight filtering through the window. 

The basement

 In spite of fixing the gutters last month, that one corner of the basement is still muddy, an area I am now referring to as the swamp. Those two pipes, which we have yet to figure out what purpose they originally served, seem to be the root of the problem. Stumpy, filled with water, and cracked, I tried to thread a wire through one of them to see where it went, without success.

After pulling down the aluminum siding that was covering the swamp wall, we discovered another vertical wood "support" beam, not touching the ground, severely damaged by the water and just dangling from the top post. We installed four support jacks. Although the house has been in this state for a prolonged amount of time, it was pretty unnerving seeing this damage. My heart was racing when Pete tightened the supports, the house creaking with every turn of the wrench.  We plan to make an appointment with our structural engineer for a consultation on our next visit so we can address this issue properly. I'm hoping he has one of those endoscope type cameras that the Roto Rooter guys have, so we can see whats going on with those pipes!

A total hack job, this is the support jack in the thick of the swamp. It sits on two blocks of wood, on mud.  It was the best damage control we could complete, given our time constraints. I'm expecting it to be submerged on our next trip. I'm going to start a betting pool as to how far it will sink by our next visit in late November. $2. to place your bet, winner takes all. Contact me via email if you would like to place a bet. 

That black spot in the upper right of the frame is Ebola.

Here's the post that was attached to the work bench. Someone got really pissed at that beam.

More noteworthy debris

Will the fun ever end? Here's some random finds from our September trip

I could have very easily missed this notation on the last page of this paper. From what I could tell it was something from either the former owners law studies or his civil service job. Unfortunately the author of this gem is not identified, nor is the context explained. 

Well, hello ladies!

At first glance we thought this was the fur coat the former owner bought and never paid for. (The one resulting in a $3000. lien on the house, for those of you just joining us.) I guess this was the starter coat, being that its faux fur. We washed it, along with the other clothes left behind, and donated it all to the city homeless shelter. This coat will certainly keep someone warm, it feels like its about 15 pounds.

Is this a collectors edition? Does it have any resale value?

Cheap eating in 1952. This was taped to the inside of a promotional desk calendar

A union-esque plumbing manual. I like the design of the cover.

The third, and most pathetic set of encyclopedias in the house.

This party invitation from 1906 is the oldest artifact we have found so far. Looking good for being 107 years old.

I'm baffled as to what these could be. We found them in the kitchen. Slantfin is still in business, they manufacture boilers.UPDATE: Disappointingly, these are baseboard radiator end-caps.

Found this new in the box, with the note taped to it. Very 1975

These sweet church lady hats were upstairs in the bedroom closet. I had a hard time throwing them away.

Found this old school respirator mask in the basement. 

I should just toss this old wrapping paper, but cant bring myself to do it, probably because it reminds me of Christmas when I was small.

We are holding on to this to see what will happen when we plug it in.

We've been bringing home these records little by little. So far we've listened to some of the 45s in the pile. All 1960s soul, and every one that plays is amazing. Someone had great taste in music.

This is the companion to the other teal cabinet found in the basement. This one is in better condition.

These colors generate a horrible response in me, somewhere between acid reflux and nausea.

Too bad for Lory! This was written on a beam in the attic.

Pete didn't think so, but this sounds pretty raunchy to me.

 These stickers were stuck above the fireplace in the maids bedroom. The Dracula sticker is pretty cool.

Hey, tough guy! 

Found this obscure martial arts training book. I'm sure the conversation went something like this:

"Krav Maga? Don't bother with that crap. I study Seisan Kata, of Isshinru Karate"

Here's an old school weight training vest, because carrying their own body weight around is just way too easy for some people. 

Newspapers

Pete found several newspapers in the house, two in the ceiling of the dining room and a few more in the attic.

Gender wars

Listen up, kids, a phone in your room is status, so be sure to nag your parents for that land line party line for your room.

More cheap meats.

That's right ladies, spend all your time pleasing your husband. 

The headline on the left seems like its right out of The Onion

I don't get the point of the cream sandwich in this ad. 

Jeez Rose, its not like you are curing stroke or Parkinson's disease. It's hair. You can aways shave or pluck it. Stop exaggerating.

Our first mail delivery

Our friend Amanda told us it really sinks in when you get your first piece of mail delivered to your house.  Our friend Matt sent this very appropriate Halloween card to the house from New York. We were there when the mailman delivered it to us.

I'm dreading this 

Wayne, who has been mowing our lawn, brought me this. Its the impending reminder that I have to learn how to drive. I'd like to get a phony "student driver"sign for my car and keep it permanently displayed, even after I get my licence. People seem to stay away from student drivers on the road. 

I started practicing with Wayne's tractor mower. Maybe I will have Pete build me a go cart, and work my way up to golf cart.

Flora and Fauna

More living and dead things found in and around the house. 

WHAT is THIS? I found this critter in the basement, in the work bench drawer. 

Pete found this half mummified half skeleton-ized bird in the attic.

This is what survived of the once thriving gardens from the 1960s. There were bees pollinating the tiny flowers in this bush in spite of the fact that half of the bush was dead.

Our poor tree stump, adorned with cement slabs for reasons unknown.

Unidentified berries growing from a large bush.