house!

[boxofdelights]

So, I have a house! Have I mentioned that I have a house? And I've been spending a lot of time there, catching up on what they call 'deferred maintenance', and saying "What the hell?"

If you've ever had to maintain legacy code, you know just what tone of voice I'm saying it in. Not just "Why did you do it that way?" but "I can't even guess what you were aiming for here."

For example, I've been going around the house, removing plants to give the painters access to the walls. In the top-middle of this image you can see the original stone foundation. To the left of that is the cinder block foundation of the addition. Nailed into the cinder block is a small piece of plywood. What? What the hell? Why?

Comments

[aedifica]

Woo, house!

[oursin]

How lovely!
I just paid off the last remnants of the mortgage on our place and occasionally look up and go 'Mine! all mine!'

[lookfar.livejournal.com]

No picture - but I can picture it in my mind. Well, this was the house with false thermostat, right? I just want to be notified when you find the secret passage and the smugglers' gold.

[boxofdelights]

Fixed picture pointer. This house has a painted-shut door at the back of a wardrobe. Will upload photos soon.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Does it go to Narnia?

Yay, house!

My house has some very neat and professional-looking additions and some plastering that honestly would have been neater if they'd employed a two-year-old to stand several metres away and throw it on in handfuls. I'm presuming they weren't all done by the same owner, unless they had a heck of a DIY blind spot, but the effect is somewhat peculiar.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

What?! What the hell?

I feel like I say this every day.

I want very much to see you and your house. Someday! Before another year. Etc.

[boxofdelights]

Wish you were here.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Myeh.

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the house!

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Yay, house!

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

hurrah, house!

weird pieces of plywood usually protected from something that used to sit in front of it. good luck in figuring it out, *chuckle*. there are a few things here where even the people who built the place no longer know why they did that.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! How wonderful!

The treasure map is behind the plywood, which was originally hidden by a bush.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Just guessing, I'd guess the plywood was put there either to block off a hole or to keep something like a TV antenna mast from touching the house. Are there any similar spots higher up the wall where there might have been other stand-offs?

Also, I'll be in your neck of the woods the 14th, 15th, and 16th, flying back here on the 17th. Let me know if you'd like to have dinner one night.

[boxofdelights]

Oh my goodness, yes! Will you be in a Denver suburb again?

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'll be in Aurora. Reservations are at the Residence Inn on 40th, just off Pena Blvd. I'll send you a note.

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy you have a house of your very own. I wish you joy. And I have to laugh about the "what the hell?" because that was exactly how this house was when I bought it, in fact, it was so weirdly renovated that it might not have been in my price range in its original state. It was comically cheap and it was clear that the bizarre alterations were the reason.

May I ask, are the dogs moving with you?

[boxofdelights]

Yeah, everything that's wrong with my house is what put it within my price range. I'm going to spend ~$15K on rewiring, painting the outside, gutters, insulation, improving the drainage, and miscellaneous, and after that I'll still have a bargain.

The dogs will come with me. The horses will stay with Hugh. The children will decide for themselves how to divide their time between the town house and the dacha.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on achieving house!

Our previous house had a LOT of "what the hell" spots. It was built in 1907, and in 1981 we were just the second family to own it. The man who had grown up, raised his own family, and grown old in the house was a tinkerer, and there was a lot of weirdness.

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

What the hell? Why?
I'd guess that there might be small cracks between the new and old foundations, and some plants' vines or roots were trying to pry their way in.

[muridae.livejournal.com]

Hee! We have a lot of deferred maintenance, too, and we have those moments nearly every time we do something in the house. There's the right way to do it, and then there's the drunken moron way, and, uh, we've got a lot of drunken moron work here.

Congrats on having a house! Yay house! Fixing broken stuff is so satisfying, isn't it?

[toad-hall.livejournal.com]

a belated congratulations and best wishes for your new house. the what the hell made me laugh. the previous owners of our house tried to tell us there were no quirks and I said HA! lady, this house was built in 1864, it is probably now made of quirks!