More on our very old house.

My blog on houses on the Underground Railroad has some of you wondering about my house. It was built in the 1880’s like a lot of homes in our town. From what I could find on line, this house is one of the oldest, if not the oldest. It started out as a two room house, with additional rooms added as time went on. There is a step up, about 2 inches, to the kitchen and about a 2 inch step down to the toy room/laundry room. Off this room there it a pantry with the door to the basement. The pantry had, at one time, a door to the outside, which we called the sandbox door. I had a giant tractor tire sandbox right out it, which, also, made it right under our kitchen window. Very convenient to keep an eye on four rambunctious girls. An upstairs was added around 1895, going right over the existing window in the dining room, not bothering to change it. Strange.

Stairs to 4 bedrooms

The glass in one of the bedroom  window upstairs, there are four, had 1895 etched in it.B. When we replaced those windows, I had the installer save that piece of glass and I have it framed, along with an picture of the original front of the house.

House with original porch.

We had to replace  the original porch in the 1984 after a tree fell on it. We later converted that into a sunroom.

House with sunroom.

Inside our favorite room, the sunroom.

 The house, at one time, was a duplex with each side having two bedrooms upstairs and sharing a bathroom upstairs. Can you image? No thank you. Because it was a duplex there are  four outside doors. It was a one family home when we purchased it in 1965. Over the years we have done a lot to this house. But nothing to the basement. We never felt like we needed the extra space to warrant the cost. Thus the basement is just like it was years ago. Cleaner now than in the past. Hubby does a better job of that now. Just ask any of my girls. Back then, we had a huge garden that included potatoes. We used the basement as a root cellar. The girls would argue who was going to go down and get potatoes when the potato bin was empty. Too many cobwebs for any of us. Now those are gone, but I still don’t go down if I can help it. Only if it sounds like a tornado is taking aim at my house.

If only this old house could talk, it would have a lot to say, I’m sure.

Rose