I find it interesting that the word FUN is bigger in my tag cloud than say, Old House, Back Porch, Bathroom….lol. It just shows that I have been goofing off. I need to get to work thereby creating more posts on work completed on MY house.
Andrea
PS I tagged this as Old House since technically I did talk about my Old House!
The carpet under the carpet, of course!
Working on our new bungalow rent house, Steven pulled up the carpet in the bathroom to work on the plumbing and also to see what was underneath in case the floor was rotting or needed work. We plan on putting down ceramic tile in here. Much to his surprise, he found some circa 1960 beautiful green carpet.
Andrea
On Good Friday, I had a wonderful family ask if they could have their photos taken at my house. SURE! I said, flattered that my house was at the top of the list close to Hodges Gardens and other nice areas they were considering. If ya haven’t seen my house in person, you would laugh that my house was anywhere on the list CLOSE to Hodges Gardens! After the photographer crawled over every inch of my house taking photos (and a lot of it wasn’t pretty), I was still dubious as to how the photos would turn out but, seeing them today, I am surprised that they are actually pretty good (because of my house, not the photographer)! I am convinced now that there is nothing in this world that photoshop can’t fix. Flab, double chins, beer bellies? No problem! Rusty houses, poison ivy, dilpadated fence? Got it covered….literally….and here is the proof:
This photographer is located in Leesville.
And, of couse, ole Viv was standing around posing, hoping the photographer would notice…she did. Here is my favorite picture.
Andrea
Courtesy of This Old House
So…I get up early this morning, 7:00 a.m. to be exact, excited that the carpenter was able to come by today and give me an estimate on porch work that needs to be done. Everything was going well. I showed Mike (our carpenter and friend), the porch boards that need to be replaced and the rotted column base that needed to be repaired. He pointed out that the left corner of the porch was slightly sagging and that the column base was at an angle. That made me curious. So, I hopped off the porch to investigate. Sure enough the column base that was rotted was a replacement so that meant work was done on the front corner of the porch. I decided to pull off the fascia board and guess what I found…
Why would you do this on a corner? It needs major support here…not a rig job. This corner has a heavy column resting on it and water drains here. Why in the world would you think that three pieces of junk wood would hold up over time? Argh! Off with their head!!!!!!!!!
Let’s examine the problem, shall we?
For the life of me, I cannot understand someone skimping on the repair job of something as important as a porch foundation. It appears that the original beam (technically called a seal) had rotted. We have had experience with this problem. We had another place where the seal had rotted. We had to have the house jacked up and a replacement put in. It is not that big a deal and not as expensive as you would think. In fact, if you have a little know how, you could buy a jack for $100 and do it yourself.
Needless to say, I was not excited in the least to find this kind of junk. We have to repair this mess first before I can have the carpenter come back and replace porch boards. I was looking forward to spending my holiday off next week sanding the porch so, when Mike was finished, I could prime and repaint the porch. Now my plans have been foiled by a rotted piece of timber and a nitwit of a PO. (For all you non old house folks, PO means Previous Owner. They are the ghosts that we old house folks blame every knuckleheaded idea on). Argh! This is just a typical occurrence though, for old house owners. I laughed this morning (I mean, ya have to! If not, you might go a little crazy! CRAZY! Who you callin’ crazy?) and told my husband that this was not something listed on our home inspection report. Oh well…what can ya do but fix it? I guess you could track down the nut who either did this, or authorized someone to do it, and give them a good kick in the pants (or skirt). That would make me feel better but, it ultimately would not solve the problem. I wonder if one of the PO’s might log in one day and find my blog…..hmmm….I have this peabrained idea narrowed down to a couple of possible PO’s. If you haven’t caught on yet, I am not too happy about finding this. Anytime I think I have it bad, I head over to This Old House and look at the home inspection nightmare pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.
At least we did not find this:
Courtesy of This Old House
Or this:
Courtesy of This Old House
Yes folks, that is duct tape holding together a cracked support beam.
I think that the same guy who “reworked” my porch so nicely also did this:
Courtesy of This Old House
Courtesy of This Old House
My absolute favorite picture is where someone put a suitcase under a major support beam to hold up the porch. For the life of me, I could not find it. It was previously featured on TOH. If you find it, let me know. For more ideas for your lovely home, you can click here.
And lastly, my second favorite photo so far. I guess it is because I can relate!
Courtesy of This Old House
Andrea
“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it”
William James
My family and I have lived in our Monroe Street home for two years now. During this time I have listened, learned, met with neighbors and tried to figure out exactly what it is I could do that would help make my neighborhood better. I looked at other’s failed plans and, although they were good, they all seemed to lack the “How to get it done” part. It seems like everyone was waiting on someone else or, maybe the city, to wave a magic wand over this blighted area and it magically reincarnate into a beautiful thriving community. Unfortunately, this has not happened yet. I am sure if it were within their power to do so, Mayor Roy or other city leaders would have waved a magic wand in a heartbeat. However, I do not believe “Wizardry 101″ was a required course during their years of college education. 
So, that left me puzzled and full of questions. I am not arrogant enough to think that I can conquer where others have failed…but why did they fail? Part of the conclusion I have drawn is: I believe that many people complain but don’t ever offer a solution or offer any personal involvement to tackle the issue. Many people complain about nothing getting done, but when someone stands up to do something, they attack them too. That leads me to conclude that certain people just like to complain and it doesn’t matter what the issue is, they’ll never be happy! There is a certain lady (she no longer lives here) who was also very passionate about a variety of issues. But, when she approached city leaders and the council, she told them: “You are of no use, you have never helped us and you never will.” Well then, she had already help defeat her own argument. This reminds me of a joke, it goes something like this:
There was a man who ran out of gas and broke down on the side of the road in a rural area. He knew there was a gas station close by, but he didn’t quite make it. He got out of his car and looked around to see if there was a house nearby so he could borrow a gas can. Through the woods he could make out the glow of a porch light. So he started walking towards the house. He said to himself: “Hmm, what if they’re not home. I bet they are all sleeping. They will probably be really mad at me for waking them up in the middle of the night. I bet they are going to be mad. All I need is a gas can.” He kept walking and as he got closer he kept getting more and more nervous and upset. “Yup, they probably will tell me to go away. I bet they won’t even have a gas can and if they did, they probably won’t let me use it.” So, he got to the house and knocked on the door and when the door opened the man shouted “KEEP YOUR OLD GAS CAN, I DIDN’T NEED IT ANYWAY!” and stormed off.
The man in this story borrowed trouble and defeated himself before he could even get out the gate. Since living on Monroe Street, several people have told me “the city won’t do this, the city won’t do that” so I decided to give their theory a try. When I saw a code enforcement violation, I called code enforcement. Surprisingly, code enforcement (most of the time) took care of it. When I see a street light out, I call or send an email to First Call, the utilities division comes right out and fixes the lamps. I have reported fighting in the street, the police department promptly shows up and takes care of it. So far, I have proved all of the “that will never happen” folks wrong. It seems they defeated themselves in their minds and therefore gave up altogether.
As I told many city leaders and volunteer groups, I stand at the forefront to volunteer my time to do whatever is necessary to make Alexandria’s West End Neighborhoods a better, safer and nice place to live.
Andrea
I have just not been motivated lately to get a project going or to keep up with my blog. 
I am apologizing more to myself more than to you. I need to get off my tush and get it together. It seems though, that when you fix one thing, another breaks. We should have been tipped off early when we first bought our house that this would be the norm. Right after moving in, in the middle of winter, the heater died, we had to buy a new HVAC unit….our plumbing sprung leaks, our dryer died (ok, this one had nothing to do with the house) and it all adds up. Not that I thought I was going the cheap route by buying an old house…are you crazy? You have to have a love and a passion for these old things.
Sigh… When we first moved in, we were plied with offers from our friends to help paint or “whatever you need”, but those offers are becoming scarce these days — if not totally extinct. My brother used to plan his vacation days/weekends around coming to help us out. I guess we burnt him out too! He got tired of me saying “Oh, one more thing”…”Can you put this up too?” He especially hated “that’s crooked, where’s the leveler? Can you redo it?” Usually after that he handed it all back to me and wished me luck. (I love you Jonathan!!!)
Anybody have some tips to get motivated again? Its fall time, so I know that the winter blahs are about to set in. Sigh….. An old house is just like a child. You think you finally get to a point where you can safely skate through a few days, and then your whole world comes tumbling down when it sends you an unexpected curve ball. I guess I am just tired of trying to work around the bad floor plans, the cast iron vent stacks imbedded in the bathroom walls, the staircase behind a door that leads up to the second floor, no laundry room, no closests for storage — and no easy solutions to any of it. Sigh…
My biggest problem is having to start on the inside first. I much rather would have given the outside a facelift and add immediate curb appeal. However, since winter is approaching, we will not be able to get to that portion until next Spring. Being a woman, the outside of my house and how it looks is just as important to me as the inside. Many people pass by my house and I want them to think how wonderful my house looks rather than see the pink (yes pink) painted trim and the rotted boards and feel sorry for me living in such a dump. Hahaha…..
Anyway, I guess I am done feeling sorry for myself. I am going to get up now, kick myself in the tush, and start on a project. More pictures of the progress to come….
You know, sometimes I have questioned my sanity in buying an old house. I wonder if fixing it up and all is really worth it. Not, only have I questioned myself, but from the beginning, we received strange looks and endured intense questioning from the: realtor, loan officer, friends, appraiser……..who all questioned our sanity as well.
I have come to the conclusion: Life is what you make of it, not what you get out of it. Sure, I could have built a brand new cookie cutter home in the ‘burbs. It would have been full of plastic doors, laminate counters, carpet and eight foot ceilings, as opposed to my house: wood doors, all hardwood floors, thirteen foot ceilings, six fireplaces, decorative molding, original wainscoting and beautiful lead glass windows. Price tag of 1800 sq foot house in a Louisiana suburb: $250,000.00-$350,000.00. Price tag of my house: 3200 sq foot………well, I am not going to tell you that. You will have to ask.
I love my house. I wish that the skeptics would stop by and take a look around. They would change their mind about old houses. My house may not look like much on the outside right now, but give us a couple more years. Things don’t change overnight. Besides, if we don’t do something about these beautiful old houses sitting here vacant, who is? Why do we, as a society, always sit around pointing fingers at what needs to be done, but fail to stand up and point that same finger at ourself and say: “It is my responsibility to do something”. That is what my response is to every skeptic who talks trash about my house and my neighborhood. If it is so bad, why have YOU not done something about it and why are YOU criticizing me for DOING something about it?
I have also bought the house next door to me, I might post pics on it. It looks better than my house. It is a little white bungalow. I just trimmed it in black and painted the door red. After eight months of intense DIY renovation, it is looking “purty good”. I am also not going to stop there, I will buy the next house over and the next…if I have to to do my part in preserving Alexandria, Louisiana’s history. There are beautiful examples of early 20th century houses here right under our noses that just need a little TLC.
I have definitely found out who my “true” friends are. They are the ones who have not questioned, but offered to pick up a paint brush and help. You have to have a vision in life and know where you are going. What is yours?
I am starting a blog for two reasons: 1) to retain my sanity during this whole house rehabilitation process; 2) to show all of the people who said it could not be done, that it IS being done. I keep a journal of all persons who have told me that the rehabilitating of my house and/or neighborhood cannot be accomplished. Once I am finished, I am going to issue them invitations to the grand reopening of my house. I have a special seat saved for them — on the porch, in the middle of one of our scorching Louisiana summers…with no fan.
Speaking of Louisiana, I live in Alexandria. It is quite different from New Orleans. Even though we (I say “we” because I live here now and will defend it until the day I leave) are a moderate sized city and are about ten years behind in preservation, economics and good old fashioned common sense. People around here just don’t “get it” when you decide to buy an old house over a brand new house built right smack in an old corn field. These houses are not built to last, have no trees, no porches (shudder), and absolutely NO charm. Just to give you an idea of how backwards it is here in Central Louisiana, in a recent city council meeting, I was there as a concerned citizen regarding some things that were going to take place in my neighborhood. Later, a reporter questioned me and asked me why preservation was so important. I asked her “Why should be keep building when we have so many beautiful old homes here in need of homeowners.” I said “Besides, my husband and I like to live green. The ultimate way of living green is to rescue an old home.” She looked at me and said “Green?” “What do you mean?” I said “Green, you know, recycling, earth friendly, the green movement?” She had NO CLUE what I was talking about. She was a reporter!!! I was sincerely wondering if she lived under a rock. So, Green is a concept most people here have not yet to “get”. How did I get off on this subject? Well, while I am here I might as well finish complaining! We also wanted to put up solar panels. The kind that during the day wind your meter backwards. It feeds into your system, thereby saving you electricity costs. I won’t even recant that conversation with the utility department. They don’t “get it” either.
I received my new Cottage Living magazine today and I do believe the editor summed up my feelings, she said: “Recycling a cottage (house, home, whatever) is the ultimate green thought.”
Thanks for welcoming me to the blog.
