Alright. I’m going start a This Old House sort of thing in my blog. Your host will be the generally unknowledgeable, usually bumbling, definitely procrastinating, marasm. Ta da.
Background on the vict… er, house. Built in 1912, it is the pinnacle of human achievement in the art of architecture. What would that be, you ask? Balloon construction. At least, I’m pretty sure it is balloon construction. It might not be. I guess I don’t really know. Some parts say yes, some don’t. Dunno.
Anyway, yeah, it’s an old house. With a whole whack ton of old house problems. A lot of things have been done to it over the years that are either questionable, or downright dangerous. A lot of things haven’t been done to it over the years that should have been done.
But it was a great deal. That’s usually how these sorts of things work out.
So, to begin we must go back several months.
This is what the kitchen looked like shortly after purchasing the house in the beginning of January, 2019:
There is a small bathroom off the kitchen:
Which I completely gutted to the studs:
While doing this I learned several things:
Thing the first, this house has active knob and tube wiring. Mixed with more modern (read: 80s) Romex or NM wiring. Fun.
Thing the second, the bathroom, rear entrance room, and a room I’ll dub the office, are a sort of addition added on to the rear of the house at some point. Almost certainly when the main house was built, based off the type of construction and materials used.
Thing the third, the place between where the addition and the house meet wasn’t sealed correctly, and at some point it leaked, for a very long time. The leak was fixed with a metal roof, which stopped the leak. But the damage was done, and it was never fixed. The leak had rotted the main structural beam along the back of the house between the first and second floors.
Ruh roh, Raggy.
Stay tuned for the next action packed episode.