Rab and I are learning quite a bit about owning an old house. When Rab was sharing some of our discoveries, one of his co-workers asked him if we'd actually looked at the place prior to purchasing it. Yes, we did. We're just a bit naive.
Here's what we've learned so far:
- Houses built before the turn of the century tend to expect double beds are the largest bed you'll ever move up the stairs. If you desire to have a king or queen sized bed upstairs, plan on buying a split box spring or sawing your box spring in half.
- Rab's office has absolutely no electrical outlets. This is presenting an issue with his
computer set up. - The on-off switch for the dining room involves pushing buttons and utilizing 100 year old wiring.
- The outside door in the basement is siliconed shut. The cellar-like door outside that complements it is locked with a Masterlock that no longer has an identifiable key. These realities impede accessibility and impair the doors' abilities to serve as fire escapes. Not to mention the fact that it gives us 2 washers and 2 dryers downstairs because the seller couldn't talk her movers into moving her washer and dryer up the rickety interior basement stairway.
- We have a defunct cistern in the basement. It's not causing problems or anything, it's just kind of unique...after all, how many people can say they have a cistern nowadays?
- Our "carriage house" garage has a fireplace in it.
- Getting your internet and cable provider to wire your upstairs family room in a non-intrusive, aesthetic way could prove challenging.
- The weird hallway downstairs is angled in such a way that our couch could not make it up the stairs. Luckily, the couch was a seminary hand-me-down. Anybody need a couch?
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