Our (New) 1897 House

Posted Wednesday, March 18, 2009 9:21 AM

Having grown up in an old Victorian, I'm naturally drawn to older houses, with high ceilings, wood trim and plaster walls. So it was no surprise that when wife-to-be and I started looking at homes, I was drawn to the older ones.

After looking at several flips, in may different styles and price ranges, we found one that we were both comfortable with, wasn't too large and fit into our price range. It had a certain old feel (or as Honey noted, it looked a bit 'barn'-ish with its silo-resembling turret and mansard roof) but it also was updated with new wiring, appliances and a redone bathroom & kitchen.

We  nervously started the application process, having been burned already by losing a house we both liked, and in hindsight; liked maybe a bit more. But, we set our sights on this one as a starter home, and decided that it wasn't our favorite in any category (house, neighborhood, proximity to work) but it had most of what we were looking for and felt that it was a good starter home. It smelled right.

Like I've said - we've been burned before. So, it wasn't too hard to take a cynical look at this one and decide, 'we're not going to get our hopes up'. Especially since it would mean more work, less enjoyment in comparison to other places we liked (or fell in love with). But still, there was an intangible something about this place. Perhaps it was the new kitchen. Or the old bones. Or the pocket door. 

So, when the day came to have the inspector cast his critical eye on it, I admittedly, was a bit nervous. He was an older, affable fellow  -with a good, stolid name of Chuck. And as he made his rounds, we fell into a guy bonding session, discussing merits of BX cable versus the old ceramic wire and post systems, flange vs carriage bolt type chat. It all seemed to be going smoothly - nothing requiring more than a twist of a screw or the application of hammer to nail to make things right.

That is when our real-estate agent flushed the toilet upstairs.

And it leaked into the kitchen.

And my fiancee's face fell.

And I saw (in my mind's eye) our sturdy old house fall like it was made of wet matchsticks into a pile of damp smoldering cinders...

We re, of course, buying the house anyway.

- Groom