A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Pictures of the house we're looking at

The house is just over 100 years old and is made of plank construction (you'll have to Google that if you don't know what it is). Anyways, here are some pictures of the outside of the house. We have the home inspection for the house on Saturday morning and I'll be taking pictures of the inside then. The inside needs some work, but we tend to like older houses and have kind of fallen in love with this one.

The front of the house...


Another of the front/side of the house


Looking at the garage from the front of the house


Looking at the back of the house from the garage


Small patio at the back of the house. The roof would be torn down so that we can fence in the yard for the dogs.


If you look at the 2nd and 3rd pictures you'll see 2 rather large bushes. I think they are Rhododendron or Philodendron or something. I don't like that they are soo large and I think they are way too large to trim back without killing them. So, I need to figure out exactly what they are and then figure out how large the root structure is because I'm pretty sure I want these bushes gone. There is a nice flower bed that goes around the front of the house and down this side of the house and around the back where the little patio is. There are bleeding hearts and tulips coming up right now. I'd probably modify these beds eventually because they are kind of blockish in style. They basically come out about 2 feet from the house and are totally straight down the side of the porch. I tend to like beds that more roll around houses and that is probably what I'd do. Not this year tho...the kitchen needs remodeled and the back yard fence needs to be put up ASAP.

Very nice house, Jenn--I like older homes too--the rooms are larger and I think they are well built as well.--and they yards ar well established--as are the trees.

I will pray all goes well.

Ooo, that's cute Jenn, I like it!

Praying that you get it!

Old houses were built to last, ours is 110 years old....

Lots of remodeling in old houses, but it's worth it.

After walking through the house we could tell that the house has been added on to at least twice. Just wait until I get pictures of the kitchen posted! LOL....the original kitchen is about 8'x10' and then on the other side of the wall is what the owners did to add on to the kitchen. The stove is in the original kitchen and the refrigerator is in the other "room" of the kitchen. LOL....I did my best not to laugh when we saw this because we are going through the buying process privately and the executor of the house was the person who was showing it. The electric in the house will need to be redone and we'd do that in July when Stephen's dad gets back from his 4 weeks of work in Alaska. So, until then we'll be putting up the fence for the dogs and will start working on the kitchen. We want to tear out the wall that separates the two parts of the kitchen. We're going to be asking the home inspector if it is a load bearing wall...if it is we'll have to put a post in somewhere. Anyways, for counter tops, we are looking into making concrete countertops. They can look like granite or marble depending on how you treat or dye the concrete.

yea got to watch out for the load bearing walls---but if all else fails you could make a double or triple wide doorway--to kinda open up the rooms to each other.

the concrete countertops sound intersting.

Here is a link that has pictures of what some concrete countertops can look like.
Concrete Countertops

very nnice, Jenn--thanks for the link.--are they costly?

It can be costly if you have them made, but it depends on what all you want it to look like also. We will be making our own. We have been doing research on making them for the past 3 or 4 months and we will be making some "samples" before we tackle an entire section of countertop. The samples will be 1 sq foot sections and I'll be able to use those in the gardens when we are done....or maybe as a back splash. I think we have figured out that it will cost about $500 to make the new counter tops....much cheaper than getting marble or granite put in.

sounds good--and you will have the satisfaction of knowing you made them as well.

yup. We are planning on putting a cutting board/chop block into part of it and also a built in trivet near the stove. I didn't look at the sink that is in the kitchen, but the way Stephen described it to me it sounds like an old farm sink and if that is what it is then we are going to keep it and use it.

In regards load bearing walls. If it is and you don't want a column you might look into having a steel I beam to support the weight. Just a thought.

I hope everything goes well with your remodel.

Thats cool.On the flat an easy access......You have my wrap around porch also .

Good luck..

TK, we had also thought of the steel beam. On Saturday we're going to move a tile of the drop down ceiling that is there right now and look at what the original ceilings look like. We may have an option of putting in an old barn beam that a family near us has. They tore down an old barn that was on their property and the beams were still in very good shape.

Joclyn...do you want them??? I'm just not a fan of large bushes like that. I see you live in philly...that is only about 3 hours from the house. :)

I have rhododendrons and you can cut them back to any size you want. They really do have pretty flowers. It doesn't hurt them to cute them back. I cut mine back almost to the ground if I decide to and they still look ok but if you don't like them you don't like them.

I just love the house Jen,older homes have more character,my home is over a hundred years old,and It has a lot off great woodwork in It,I dont even mind polishing It all. The yard looks really nice too. Hope you get It,and making the house your own.

The pics are to large to load for me. Congratulations though.

WOW! I love that house! I find (though I'm still young...) that the newer the house the smaller they are. The older houses here are all so large (square footage and yard) and the older houses usually are better built methinks. Congraulations on such a beautiful find!

Where we are living right now, there are vacation homes with them. A friend's family has a cabin up here and when the bushes flower they are very pretty, but then when the flowers come off...or maybe it is something else that comes off the bush...they are sticky and get tracked into the cabin horribly. I just don't want to have to clean up all sorts of sticky plant stuff from the inside of the house especially with Maddie crawling and #2 coming. I also don't like how big they are....I feel like the dwarf the side of the house. I had decided to at least watch the bushes for a year before I decide to do anything to them.....but my offer still stands. If you find a way to take one or both of the bushes you are more than welcome to them. :) ....I'll even give you a tour of the house.

Kenny, where we live it really depends on why the house was built when it comes to the size of it. There are many many old houses around here. Where we live right now, the next town over has houses owned by what we call 'old money'. The people who own them are heirs to fortunes and only come for the summer...sometimes only for a couple of weeks in the summer. Those houses are pretty large and old...maybe about 60 or 70 years old. The newer houses being built in that town are also pretty large...most people are buying lake property and want to "out do" the other 'lake people'. Then there are other houses that were built as farm houses or lake cabins and those houses are on the smaller side. The newer lake cabins are decent sized but some are really huge and others are really small as well. The newer farm houses....well.....lol...there aren't many. When a farm gets sold the house is usually kept the same. :) I'll have to try to get some pictures of the older houses around here for you...you'd really find them interesting.

The houses in the town that we are looking in are all pretty good as far as size. They are mostly on the older side and are being either remodeled or restored at this point.

Would like to see the photos also.. What Ken is saying is true.......Newer homes are smaller, mostly because they want new and cant afford a giant new.

Mostly new ones in my area also.....But I don't care.. They spend all their time chasing the kids outside to play, to keep the house clean.

One kicked out the 30 year old son cause his job made dirty clothes.LOL

b

I don't know if we'll be able to get to the next town over (called Eagles Mere) tomorrow, but while we are out tomorrow I will take pictures of the town we'll be in and some of the houses around the town we are living in also.

Very good ........We will look at all......Any choo choo trains/
In our areas trains still roll thru.........

Folks come far and near to take photos.

b

Beautiful house! I'm so jealous of all that yard space, and that is a wrap around porch? Congratulations!

Here is a slide show of the rooms of the house and the flowers that are already planted around the house. We didn't have time to get pictures of the older houses today...sorry.

Cool pictures! At least there are already some established plants there, that's great!

And plenty of room in the back of the yard if you decide you want a swingset or something like that down the road.

It's cute.

Loz said it all=--I was smiling to myself thinking I know what drew her to this house---

I too love older homes-----and I truely love your yard--did I say that already???