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!