Posted on 04/11/2009 9:50:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It had not been properly maintained and the dust was unbelievable.
[I have “dust allergy”]
The final plaster coat was also painted with ancient “calcimine paint” in [not] lovely shades of green-black and blue-black.
As you probably know, painting over calcimine just makes it flake off and I would have lost my freaking mind if I’d had to sit in those dark rooms for more than 20 minutes, let alone 20 years.
The upstairs bedroom and spare room still have the hair walls, simply because I don’t want to go through removing that stuff ever again....:)
The “new addition” [circa 1900] which is now the ‘inside kitchen’ [the smokehouse was the summer kitchen] has one of those enclosed, steep, shallow treaded “break yer dang-fool neck” staircases.
The yellow pine steps are so center-worn and super smooth that it’s a wonder I’m still alive, 20 years later.....;-D
For about a year, I actually used the old Monarch wood stove for heat and cooking.
It was a total PITA to master but boy, did the homemade bread ever taste good.
There was no indoor plumbing and my “sink” was a tin-lined box with a hand pump that came straight up through the floor.
[my step-granddaddy and his kin were cheap and not much on installing any of that “modern” stuff”]
There was no phone line and the electric wiring [what there was of it, any way] was old 1930s silk-cord wires tacked randomly here and there around the house with sockets on the ends.
The “quaint novelty” of taking a bath in a galvanized tub on the kitchen floor and using an outhouse wore off after the first year.
Thankfully, the second hubby was not an inept, lazy slob like the first so now we have all’a them there newfangled modern conveniences like telephones, real electrical outlets, showers, tubs and toilets.....LOL
You should get some of the hair and take it to a lab and find out what it is.
Ours was painfully obvious spring-shedding red Hereford cow hair....very fluffy and LOTS of it.
Possibly the most interesting bit of trivia is that the logs in my house [and the other one across the road] are the logs that were tied behind the wagons for “drag brakes” as they came down the mountain to keep the wagons from running over the horses and oxen pulling them.
[it’s a very steep mountain]
Ours was the blacksmith’s house.
The house at the end of our lane was the wainwright [wagon wheel repair] and the old Indian Springs Motel was just a hundred feet west of here.
The Indian Springs General Store and post office is east about a hundred yards.
The old one room school house/church is at the end of the lane.
I guess this area was sort of like an 18th/19th equivalent of a truck stop/7-11/Motel 6....:)
It’s got its good points and drawbacks but it came with the 230 acres of mountain that my dad bought and when he said “Wanna free house?” what was I gonna say?
“No”?....LOL!
[”free” became “The Money Pit”...if only I’d known then what I know now]....;-]
I haven’t seen any on my screen doors...yet.
As long as they politely keep themselves in the dungeon....I mean, root cellar, we’ll all live in peace.
They come up here, though and it’s war.
Bad enough that I get wolf spiders and some kind of HUGE black, velvety spiders zooming across the floors in the fall.
The wolfs I catch and take out.
Those big, aggressive black ones, I call the ol’ man in.
ac aint my strong suit...obviously...8^}
we are currently about 50% finished on our 3 yr project that we started in 03'...lolol...
money pits from hell, but worth it if you have the vision for em...I love the 'elbow room' in this old house...
ours was the 'rich' folks house from the old days...it was the first to have all the newest fancy gizmos...til the elder gent died and the mrs ouldnt keep up with it anymore...
it had stayed in the original family from land grant deed in 1810 till the 1980-90s when sold to a 'builder' who was gonna doze it...
he was convinced to carve out 1.00 acre[s] and the house, and sold to a couple who couldnt handle the renovation...
then we happened along...8^}...
I wished we coulda got the land, we have command view of 400-500 acres of rollin hills, but such is life...
thanks for the info, and dont feed the spiders...
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