Calling Owners of Old Homes! Questions ...

[elrohwen]

We saw the house last night! It was completely awesome. I think DH and I had smiles on our faces the whole time we were walking through.

With that said, we're not going to take it It was just huge - I wouldn't know how to use half of the rooms and it would be a beast to heat. We kept finding new little rooms off to the sides if the main rooms (I'm guessing it was added on to many times over the last 200 years). Very fun to explore though! It kept going on forever and the owners had obviously taken fantastic care of it and loved it very much - it looked every bit as pretty in person as in the pictures.

Oh well! We're very glad we went to see it and it was sooo much fun to tour. I can see now why they're selling so cheaply - it would really be a hard house to re-sell since it's such a niche market and not a house for everone (did I mention it's huge?). Oh, and the ceilings weren't low, but DH had to duck in few of the doorways. Haha.

Steal, funny you mentioned fitting furniture through doorways - I didn't think of this, but the one staircase was very narrow (which was odd - it seemed like an afterthought as it came through the back near the kitchen) and it would've been impossible to get almost any furniture up it except very small things.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Aww, I'm sorry you're passing, but glad you got to tour it! It does sound a little impractical if you're spending the resources to heat and cool square footage that you don't need.

Were there two staircases in the house or just the one? Usually the narrow staircase near the kitchen was the servants' staircase. Did it lead up to a bedroom near the back of the house?

You will find a house that you love AND fits your needs! Thanks for sharing your experience, though, I sort of love hearing about people's journey to finding a home!

 

[elrohwen]

Strangely there was only the one teeny staircase leading up from behind the kitchen - it lead into a kind of foyer area and then a few bedrooms lead off of that. I'm wondering if the second story was added later and there was just no where else to put the stairs, so they squeezed them in the back? That was my guess. The first floor had two very small bedrooms (which probably would've been plenty large in the 1800s) and at some point the owners probably decided to add the four bedrooms plus huge bonus room on the second floor. I'd really love to know the history of when it was built and what it looked like at each stage because I'm sure it was built in stages.

It was extremely cool! There was even an old-school water pump right in the middle of the front yard. Haha.

 

[decodelighted]

I'm interested to see what you find when you get back from vaca. I'm in the Hudson Valley also ... in an old house (don't ask!) ... and, for awhile, dabbled in real estate. (Got my license. Didn't do well.) Happy hunting!