Old Home Ownership

[Eugene]

Strangest tail I've heard was told by an old friend who had refurbished a number of houses.

He purchased a house. Lived in it for a while through several rains. Rained and the ceiling started leaking. Crawled up into the attic and found a bathtub placed under the leak in the roof.

 

[RUSSALL]

Hard to imagine to have to crawl into an attic, but find a bath tub there.
Good that the tub didn't out weigh the ceiling as he was standing under the leak.


Russ

 

[Eugene]

Along a similar line. Counties original court house was built in the 1860/70s. Roof leaked into the court room. County hired a couple of individuals who guaranteed they would stop the leaks. Rainy day, guys got into the attic. The drips stopped one by one. County paid the individuals.

Next rain the drips started again in the court room. Custodian climbed into the attic to find tin cans located under each roof leak.

 

[Jackman]

When I bought our 1927 farm house I found the eves stuffed with old 1940's Farm Journal magazines one of the magazines had a articul "Whats new for 1946" it had a nice pic of pre production Farmall Cub 8)

 

[Eugene]

Grandparents moved into town. Decided to tear down the old farm house, probably built in the 1850's, and original to the property.

Removed the dry wall to discover no insulation, and the inside of the clapboard siding was covered with wall paper. The wall paper covered the siding and the wall studs. Guessing, besides decorative, the wall paper helped prevent wind from passing through the siding.

Tried to salvage lumber, but the lumber was so dry it broke and couldn't be salvaged. Removed the floor boards and dropped the lumber in the basement. Set on fire. You can't do that now.

Parents purchased a house in town. Attic over the kitchen was full of old newspapers. Guessing, some sort of inexpensive insulation.

 

[Stanton]

...Guessing, some sort of inexpensive insulation.

...and imagine the weight, depending on how thick the newpapers were stacked.

My widowed aunt just told me this week that she discovered a leak over her bedroom ceiling. She went up into the attic and crawled the length of the house to lay out a tarp over the ceiling joists, until the roofer could be contacted for repair. It's spooky how people think... :surrender:

 

[Eugene]

First house I purchased was built around 1880 or 1890. Rock wall basement. Only one floor joist was a monster, about 18" thick, 24" wide and 36' long. Had to duck under the joist to enter the two adjacent basement rooms. Rest of the floor joists were full sized 2" X 12". The monster joist was under the interior supporting wall. Guessing the builder wanted to make sure the joist held up the structure.

Current house, 7th or 8th I've owned. Refurbished, rented out, sold, all but the current house. Tore out the lath and plaster in the basement ceiling to rewire the house. Full dimension 2" X 12" X 16' oak floor joists. All floor joists evenly spaced except for the last one on the east wall. Nudged the odd floor joist and it moved. Loose, setting in a 6" space between the brick wall and the correctly placed floor joist. Had to saws-all off about a foot to remove the odd joist. Have no idea why there was an extra floor joist and why it was left in the sub-floor structure.

 

[Scrivet]

..... Have no idea why there was an extra floor joist and why it was left in the sub-floor structure.

You have a spare tire in your car don't you? Maybe it was a spare floor joist in case one went flat! :lol: My guess is they were heavy and somebody measured wrong and miscounted how many they needed. "Just leave it" "or we'll get it in the morning" but then the cows got out the next morning and then it rained and by the time they got back to work on the house they had forgot about the extra joist.

 

[Eugene]

When we purchased house in Linn, Mo., the place was over grown. First lawn mowing took a while, quite a while. Neighbor lady who was related to the previous owner said that I had mowed off flowers and garlic.

Decorative hog tight wire fence on a portion of the fence line covered with some kind of trumpet vine. Vine was interwoven with the wire. Removed the wire and vine from the posts, rolled up into a ball. Let dry and set afire.

There was some sort of barn/shed on the property. Perhaps 10' wide by 14' long and two stories high. Lean on the barn/shed and the building rocked back and forth. Brought son over to push over the barn/shed. We pushed, building would rock back and forth but not fall over. Got out the saws all and cut the studs on the desired fall side direction. Son and I pushed and the bran/shed fell over on the inside the property line. Great, but the barn/shed didn't fall straight, clipped the corner of the garage, bending up the garage roof.

Barn/shed got cut up and in burn barrel on property. Rock foundation was hauled behind the Catholic church were they wanted fill.

 

[Mike H]

we have a old mining house [1900's]
just finished the new metal roof so no more ice damming :{_}:
lots of help from neighbors installing the roof [and keeping me on the ground ]
always finding something interesting in the old construction.

Mike

 

[Eugene]

My wife talked me into replacing a 2nd story window in her aunt's house. I measured up the rough opening and ordered the window.

Month later the window arrived at the retailer. I loaded up the van and construction tool trailer for the 5 hour drive to aunt's house. Arrived at aunt's house, unhooked the trailer from the van. Wife took the van to her mother house, several blocks away.

Removed the window's interior trim to find that the only thing holding the window in place was the window's exterior trim. Removed the window.

Measured up for the lumber needed to build window supports. Called wife with list of materials needed. Lumber yard, 1/4 mile distance.

Son, who was helping, and I waited, cleaned up the area, and waited. Storm brewing up from the west. And we waited, for 3 hours. Wife and mother in-law finally showed up with the lumber. Asked where she had been for 3 hours when we needed lumber. Wife said she and mother in-law had decided to make lunch. Told wife and mother in-law we were not having lunch, we had to get the window installed before the storm hit. Which it did shortly after we finished closing up the opening.

Next time. Got another story about driving hours, hauling my construction equipment trailer, to work on a relative's house.