How old is your house?

[green papaya]

AtomicEraTom

thats a nice house and location, and no lawn care or yard work to worry about

 

[Rathdown]

A question for those in the U.S.: how many of you fly a flag with fewer than 50 stars?
(BTW I'm taking my first look at this thread-- maybe flags were mentioned previously.)

My flag has only three stars (okay, this is a bit of a cheat-- when I am home I fly a flag with my arms on it). On Lee-Jackson Day I fly a flag with 11 stars, and the rest of the year a 50 star US flag.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Ha! You have a good point, there. My dad owns the building and runs his store downstairs, so with him as landlord, I'm allowed to do whatever renovations I want, upstairs.

AtomicEraTom

thats a nice house and location, and no lawn care or yard work to worry about

 

[ButteMT61]

A question for those in the U.S.: how many of you fly a flag with fewer than 50 stars?(BTW I'm taking my first look at this thread-- maybe flags were mentioned previously.)

Hmm. We have some 48-star US flags, but they're collectable and I'm not sure about flying them. Have to say though, never thought of that! Interesting idea...I like to have the flag up year 'round, but it drives my wife nuts. She prefers the holidays and some summer days, but not like me

 

[Rathdown]

I'm with you, Old Glory flies pretty much every day of the year here at my place in Virginia.

 

[sheeplady]

Our current home was built in 1942.

Our next and cocurrent project was built between about 1850 and 1860 based upon historical maps of the area and the change in value of the property in the Ag census from 1850 to 1860. We'll probably never know for sure.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A question for those in the U.S.: how many of you fly a flag with fewer than 50 stars?
(BTW I'm taking my first look at this thread-- maybe flags were mentioned previously.)

I have a 48 star flag flying right now. All flags that have ever been Official US Flags are still official under the Flag Code, and can be flown any time, for any reason.

 

[Espee]

48 covers Our Era well (1912 to 1959) but the 50 is now the longest-used design.
I wonder what percentage of 49-star flags went to Alaska? Not a lot of people need to get a new flag in any given year, in this example July 4 1959 to July 4 1960 when Hawaii was added... but Alaskans would have wanted them!

 

[ButteMT61]

I may pickup a new 48-star flag. I honestly never thought of that, which kinda surprises me. But I only buy US flags made in the US, and they need to be all-stitched, no phony printed flags.These look nice. http://www.americanflags.com/48-star-us-flag.html

 

[Carl Miller]

The paperwork should be done in a month or so and I will own a 1/4 acre of the American dream. The house was built in 1989.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I have an advertising piece hanging in my house with a 49 star flag. I thought it was pretty neat.

 

[Espee]

At a "1960s" page (which sometimes features photos which could be slighty outside the decade) someone posted a shot of long-haired hippies and a US flag. With a note, "Definitely not the 1950s."
I replied, "You figured that out from the 50-star flag, right?"

 

[DonnaP]

1903 American Foursquare. There are wood floors downstairs and radiant heat, which I love. I'm not too crazy about the modern bathroom, I wish it had an old huge bathtub. The kitchen was remodeled as well, and while I like the counter space and cupboard room, I hate the pressed wood. I would have loved an old kitchen as well.

I have a question about my house that maybe someone can answer--there are two staircases downstairs, one from the front room, and one from the kitchen. They meet on a common landing, and then there is just one staircase leading upstairs. I had heard this was for a servant that would live on the third floor and would use the kitchen staircase. My husband scoffs and says the house isn't grand enough to warrant a servant, I say back in the early part of the century you didn't have to be wealthy to hire a newly arrived immigrant woman as a live-in domestic. However, a friend suggested the back staircase might also be so you could shut off the front of the house in the winter and conserve heat.

 

[ButteMT61]

Lots of older homes had hidden servants stairs that went to the kitchens. Many were very modest homes. Some of them were hidden behind a moving shelf, etc. I love those. Maybe some pics?Friends of ours redid a four square near us. Awesome home!

 

[DonnaP]

I don't have pictures right now, but will try and get some to post. It's a feature I've seen in a number of homes in our area--I am in Northeast Ohio. The staircase isn't hidden, but it's a more modest, narrower staircase than the main one from the front room. In our house they are parallel, a wall separates them and then they meet at the landing.

 

[ButteMT61]

I don't have pictures right now, but will try and get some to post. It's a feature I've seen in a number of homes in our area--I am in Northeast Ohio. The staircase isn't hidden, but it's a more modest, narrower staircase than the main one from the front room. In our house they are parallel, a wall separates them and then they meet at the landing.

Yes, they're often narrow and not very nicely done. Must have been making a point

 

[AtomicEraTom]

We had a grand old farmhouse, very, very upscale for being a farm, which had multiple staircases.

Lots of older homes had hidden servants stairs that went to the kitchens. Many were very modest homes. Some of them were hidden behind a moving shelf, etc. I love those. Maybe some pics?Friends of ours redid a four square near us. Awesome home!

 

[sheeplady]

Servants weren't always traditional servants that we think of. Often they were family members or local families children that were taken in, fed, and expected to earn their keep. They were free to live there as long as possible (given their contributions) until they were married or another event happened. During a time when parents often died of illness or their families were too poor to raise their children (and there was no formal adoption) this is how families took care of each other.

During the depression, my grandmother was taken in to be a maid from 12 to 14 by an undertaker and his wife because her family couldn't afford to keep her at home.

Our new home has two staircases as well- one in the front (grand) and one in the back (narrow). The house I was raised in had three. Even if you didn't have servants, the family often used the back staircase, while guests used the front. Typically the back stairs led to smaller rooms, which would have been appropriate for servants, smaller children, or hired hands (in the case of a farm). They also often used these areas for storage.

 

[BigFitz]

Servants weren't always traditional servants that we think of. Often they were family members or local families children that were taken in, fed, and expected to earn their keep. They were free to live there as long as possible (given their contributions) until they were married or another event happened. During a time when parents often died of illness or their families were too poor to raise their children (and there was no formal adoption) this is how families took care of each other.

During the depression, my grandmother was taken in to be a maid from 12 to 14 by an undertaker and his wife because her family couldn't afford to keep her at home.

Our new home has two staircases as well- one in the front (grand) and one in the back (narrow). The house I was raised in had three. Even if you didn't have servants, the family often used the back staircase, while guests used the front. Typically the back stairs led to smaller rooms, which would have been appropriate for servants, smaller children, or hired hands (in the case of a farm). They also often used these areas for storage.

How are the renovations coming, sheeplady? Sorry to be nosy, but would love to hear how it's going and see maybe a pic or two.

 

[sheeplady]

How are the renovations coming, sheeplady? Sorry to be nosy, but would love to hear how it's going and see maybe a pic or two.

Slow... We had the two large Norway Maples taken down (you can see them sticking up over the back of the house in the pic below). We put on a new roof because the old one had a bad active leak (hired that and watched the last of our bank account go...) and are working on demolition. They had carpeting throughout the house. When the bank took it over they ripped up the carpeting, because the previous owners had kept animals in the house which they never let outside. So a bunch of plywood needs to be ripped up, and they nailed it down good. We're about 10% done with the plywood, which considering it takes 4 hours to get up a piece without damaging the floor underneath, is pretty darned good. We were hoping to be able to reuse the plywood as flooring for a woodworking shed, but it stinks really, really, really bad.

Here is a picture of the house from the front:


They dropped the ceilings in the dining room, kitchen, and the entire back part of the house (which will someday consist of a laundry room, mudroom, tiny bedroom, and family room- right now it is chopped up really bad) so those will be next after the flooring. There are animals living in the dropped ceilings, I swear it's raccoons but my husband say's it's squirrels. My husband broke his foot so he's off demolition right now. We also need to take out the 3 kitchens from the apartments. Here's the main kitchen (and actually one of the most flattering pictures of the inside of the house, it doesn't get too much more mucked up than this):


We're still working on trying to get someone to do geothermal for the heating. We'd like to get that in this fall or at the latest next spring, but we need to know the load so we can replace the electrical box and see if we need upgraded service (we have 200 amp, some geothermal systems require more.) We'll hire the box, but the husband will do the wiring.

We did uncover the original back stairway. It's steep and narrow, but we're going to keep it because I like it. While I was working on that, I swear I smelt strong old perfume. Let me tell you, there is nothing in that house that smells that good right now. They had covered it with boards, making it steeper and narrower. I almost cried when I uncovered the stairway, there is so little original in that house.

Does anyone know if there is a show us your home renovation/restoration thread? I was looking for one and couldn't find one. There's show us your home, but that's not appropriate at this point.

ETA: in that kitchen picture, we haven't done any demolition yet. Pretty bad, huh?