The owner of the abandoned house across the street from me gave me permission today to go through it to take pictures. Ergo, my happy butt was over there as soon as possible after work. The house was built in 1876, and apparently occupied until around 1976 (I found an old broken 45 of a Carpenters song released in 1976).
The house is definitely too far gone to try restoring; the current owner has harvested a lot of the old wood. He's just about finished, I think, and plans to let the house collapse naturally. I'm tempted to offer to buy it from him so I can harvest some of the bigger pieces (joists, beams, flooring, siding) to build the tractor shed that's on my list of things to do. It seems like it would be pretty nifty to set pressure treated posts to support my shed then build the rest out of pine that's over 130 years old.
We found some old handmade dresses under a staircase, a rusty old pocketknife, and a small glass bottle imprinted with "Dr. King's New Discovery" (cough syrup, according to Google).
Here are lots and lots of pictures, with commentary.
The front porch was very spongy, and the tongue-and-groove pine wasn't
nailed down, just laying across the joists. There was some question as to
whether we were even going to be able to get in.
Just inside the front door is a small entryway, which opened to both
sides and led to another small room where stairs led to the 2nd floor.
You can see the stud there where a wall used to be.
This is the room to the left of the entryway, looking toward the front
of the house.
We found someone's old W-2. He made just over $4100 in 1973,
and paid about $250 in federal taxes.
The only bathroom in the house --- definitely a later addition, like in
our house --- was originally part of the room pictured above. That fuzzy
toilet is very 70's, no?
This is the same room, facing the back of the house. Many of
the window frames in the house looked like they could be reused
if cleaned up a bit. Most rooms had layers and layers of wallpaper.
The kitchen, whose supports had given out, dropping it about 18 inches
lower than the rest of the house. More 60's - 70's goodness in here.
Evidence of the drop.
Just off the kitchen, I found this old drawer. I don't know what it
belonged to, but...
The house is definitely too far gone to try restoring; the current owner has harvested a lot of the old wood. He's just about finished, I think, and plans to let the house collapse naturally. I'm tempted to offer to buy it from him so I can harvest some of the bigger pieces (joists, beams, flooring, siding) to build the tractor shed that's on my list of things to do. It seems like it would be pretty nifty to set pressure treated posts to support my shed then build the rest out of pine that's over 130 years old.
We found some old handmade dresses under a staircase, a rusty old pocketknife, and a small glass bottle imprinted with "Dr. King's New Discovery" (cough syrup, according to Google).
Here are lots and lots of pictures, with commentary.
The front porch was very spongy, and the tongue-and-groove pine wasn't
nailed down, just laying across the joists. There was some question as to
whether we were even going to be able to get in.
Just inside the front door is a small entryway, which opened to both
sides and led to another small room where stairs led to the 2nd floor.
You can see the stud there where a wall used to be.
This is the room to the left of the entryway, looking toward the front
of the house.
We found someone's old W-2. He made just over $4100 in 1973,
and paid about $250 in federal taxes.
The only bathroom in the house --- definitely a later addition, like in
our house --- was originally part of the room pictured above. That fuzzy
toilet is very 70's, no?
This is the same room, facing the back of the house. Many of
the window frames in the house looked like they could be reused
if cleaned up a bit. Most rooms had layers and layers of wallpaper.
The kitchen, whose supports had given out, dropping it about 18 inches
lower than the rest of the house. More 60's - 70's goodness in here.
Evidence of the drop.
Just off the kitchen, I found this old drawer. I don't know what it
belonged to, but...
I'd love to finish taking it apart.
Da ba dee da ba da...
