Sunday, May 21, 2017

Old House Tour

Old

Touring old houses is something we enjoy... and we are house hunting, so we have toured a few old houses. One of the houses we toured had some interesting features and since I know other people enjoy looking at old houses, I am sharing many pictures from one house we toured....


The house had an "old world" look to much of the furnishings inside. The 3 car garage looked great on the outside and had a breezeway connected to it that led to the house and it was beautiful.

The inside of the garage was... a mess! The upstairs was also a mess and there was a huge pile of evidence that a raccoon had been living in there and it was also a mess with old furniture and stuff in the top of the garage... there were also some nice furniture pieces that we could sell to fund the house project.

There was an in-ground swimming pool behind the breezeway. I'm not showing pictures of everything because I am already showing lots of pictures!!!  :)






























We went to see the house because it was listed in our price range... and the pictures on line looked interesting. The front of the house didn't thrill us and we knew it needed work, but we aren't afraid of some hard work, so we took our family to look at this house as a possible new home for us.

We were quite excited as we toured ... it was like a step back into history and we started to dream of what we could do there. The view across the road was AMAZING...  as the next picture shows. We were quite interested! This was a big house with lots of room... and in our price range! Wow!! Also there were several acres of land that went with the property and we really want to get more land and hopefully move to the country, so it all looked possible.




The Great Room was very large.. and had a brick floor and lots of windows.














 The fireplace looked quite "Old World" and I figured we could sell the outside of it to offset some repairs on the house.  It was beautiful, but not our style at all.   We could also sell the bar area and some other things.









This light fixture was in the back entry which was where we entered the house.

The laundry room was in the hall near this.. and right beside the kitchen, but I'm not sharing the picture.... it was a mess and I am already using a lot of pics here. :)











I don't remember where this light fixture was, but it was in one of the rooms.












 The house didn't have any electricity turned on, so we took some flashlights with us, although we could have used more of them.

The kitchen had a hood over the stove area, a pot rack, a pot filler faucet and much more.








There were windows, some nice cabinets, tile backsplash and countertop.  I didn't like the tile countertops... there were deep grooves for the grout and I could just imagine food getting stuck in those... they would be hard to clean!










There were also many containers of food in the cupboards. The house had been empty for a couple of years and the story we heard was that one of the couple had died and the other lived for a few more years and also died.. and the house was empty since that time.

It was interesting.... and sad.






 The dining room had a wall of mirrors and lots of windows... and a wood floor.




 This is the dining room on the right and the living room on the left. Same flooring... and a bay window.














 The entry way had mirrors all over the ceiling. It looked quite gaudy, but I imagined all of the interesting pictures I could take in there because of the mirrors. :)
















 This was the bathroom near the kitchen and great room. It was quite overwhelming with the busy pattern. It was interesting to see though.


 In this bathroom, there were very ornate fixtures as you can see in the next picture!












 The curtains were ornate... so were the light fixtures.. and there was an old alarm system.

These french doors (I love French doors!) led to a garden room off of the 2nd living room.













 This is the garden room those French doors led to. There were water leak problems in the room.














 The door handles on the French doors were beautiful.



 The room that led to the garden room was a second living room and I loved the beautiful wood mantle in it.

We couldn't believe all of the rooms in this house... 2 living rooms AND a Great Room? Wow.












 This is one side of the 2nd living room and the stairs led up to a large bedroom and bathroom and a large walk in attic that still had lots of stuff in it.













 The room was quite a mess from a bad leak in the roof over this room... the evidence of this leak was in the kitchen below also although it wasn't horrible there. We were thinking it was a lot of work, but we were talking about how we could turn this place into a home for us. The work list was getting bigger and bigger.






 I think this was the bathroom up there, but anyway, it was a bathroom SOMEwhere in this big house!




 There were 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms... and the square footage was about 4,000 sq feet! HUGE... and it had a full basement underneath.





 Back down in the 2nd living room, this was the view out to the patio.


 You can see some of the outside doors here... The house had 9 outside doors! I didn't like that! Can you imagine checking and locking 9 doors every night???? 








 This was in the huge master bedroom, which had 2 levels... this level and then one a step lower where the fireplace was.








This was the fireplace in the master "suite"... it was a huge room.

















 This was in the very large walk-THROUGH closet.







 There was even a special door that pulled out and had a scale on it, so it could be used and hidden in the wall when not in use. :)







This was on one side of the master closet....















We all laughed over the tub in the master bathroom... My husband is tall and always complains that tubs are too shallow and he likes how deep these old claw foot tubs are, but we have never had one...  :)  







 The bathroom fixtures in the master bath. Actually, there was another bathroom in the master suite also... this one and another one out in the room with the fireplace.















 I don't remember where these fixtures were.


 The house had many more things not shown in the pictures... one of the bedrooms had lots of ladies' hats left behind. There were also many clothes in the attic and bedrooms.

The basement was BAD and my husband said I shouldn't go down and I didn't... it was really damp, musty and moldy. Yuck! But there were lots of rooms down there... furnished and with lots of stuff left behind.




















There was a 6 foot very old and very heavy safe down there and it had many many jewelry boxes in it, but the ones checked were empty. We had so much fun dreaming in this house... so many historical things... so many glimpses into an earlier time.

 This house was REALLY exciting to us since I have written a Christian Fiction book and an old house is prominent in it... the book is now in manuscript form and out for review to a few people. The things in this house we toured reminded us a little bit of the house in the book I had written, so it was fun for more than one reason.  We are moving toward publication, but it is a long process. I would love to have your prayers about this if you are so inclined.  :) 







 So much potential in this house. "SO MANY REPAIRS NEEDED!" is what my husband kept saying. :)  We did seriously consider this place, but it wasn't meant for us. We did go back to see it another time and took our oldest son who doesn't live at home and who is great with carpentry work. He loved it too... and we all discussed how feasible such a project would be. All of the rest of the family toured the house twice.  :)

It was fun to dream about living here and enjoying the almost 5 acres that went with it. The reality though, was that the house needed at least $100,000 worth of work.... and that was without even seeing the electricity or plumbing on... that would put it way out of our price range. Also, we couldn't move in for quite a while, so it just wasn't meant for us.

The front door was beautiful... and though we would have changed much of the house and removed many of the fixtures (and sold them to help pay for repairs!)... it just was too big of a project. Looking back on these pictures was fun... and my kids will enjoy looking at them again. I am glad that we did not buy this house... it needed a ton of work!  My husband was right... this house would have been a money pit for us.

It will be a treasured memory for all of us though. :)  We are still praying that God will provide a house and some acres for us... in a country setting... though we are not praying for a grand house like this... just a house that will work for our family. We are praying... and waiting on Him. 






Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope you enjoyed the Old House Tour. :)  Have a good week.










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30 comments:

  1. Wow, that is a large house with lots of interesting details. It is so sad it has sat for so long with no one taking care of it. Best wishes in your house hunting!

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    1. It was surprisingly large...so much room.... and it had to be beautiful at one time. :) Thank you.

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  2. This was a treat to see as I like seeing the inside of houses. It's one thing I really like doing. Glad you shared this charmer.
    Blessings,
    d

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    1. I'm so glad you enjoyed it... I love seeing inside of old houses and I thought others would also. :) Thank you for visiting!

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  3. All I could think about as I took the "tour" was your wonderful book. I found it amazing that you toured this AFTER you wrote the book, because I could see the similarities, and what an experience it had to be for all of you to put a live visual with the descriptions throughout the book. I trust God to bring this project to fruition for you and also to bless you and your family to find the place meant for you. :)

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    1. Isn't it amazing that God worked it that way? It was almost like a special dreaming place for us since we enjoy old houses anyway and the book is special to all of us and we love talking about THAT old house. Actually the house in the book is quite different that this one, but the similarities of exploring, finding mysteries, seeing old styles, not knowing the story, etc were there too. I look forward to getting the book into print...so much to do on it. Thank you for reviewing it. That helped get us one step closer!!! :)

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  4. Stunning place, even in need of some work! I'd love to see it when the fixing-up is done!
    Thank you for sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-beautiful-city-of-jaffa.html

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    1. I'd love to see it then too! Thank you for visiting. :)

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  5. What an intriguing old house indeed! It truly did look like a very extravagant home at one time, but so much work because of the water leaks, and improvements that would need to be done. Incredible detail in the sinks, chandeliers and doors! I hope that this sad old home does find a new owner that will be able to afford the repairs. It would be nice fixed up as a bed and breakfast or perhaps as an assisted living home, as a source of income, but an awful lot of work for you to do, to try to live in it! Enjoyed your pictorial tour today :)

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    1. Thank you!... I had hoped others would see the delightful fun in this tour like we did. :) An assisted living home is a great idea since it is mostly on one floor. I imagine someone bought it to fix up and flip it. It really needed a lot of work... too much for this family! :) Loved seeing it though.

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  6. Hi! Very interesting post! Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Loved the house tour. It is fun to go looking at houses and imagine the stories they could tell. I don't like moving, so much, but it is fun to come across some interesting houses when house hunting. And this one was interesting.

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    1. It really was fun for us... and so glad others are enjoying it also. :) I don't like the moving part either... it's a lot of work. Thank you for stopping by.

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  8. It sounds like you made a great choice in stepping away. If I were you that would have been hard because it is so beautiful!
    At the same time you need to know how much you can manage.
    Thanks for sharing the pictures. :-)

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    1. It would have been a TON of work... more that I want to take on... or wait on my guys to do! :) Thank you for visiting.

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  9. It was probably the best decision you made. It might have been the cause of many headaches. Sometimes the romance of the house gets me when we look and I want it right away. Then I realize like you how much work it would be. I loved looking through the house with you. It had such an old time feel.

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    1. It did have an old time feel... especially when we found all of the old hats and decor... so fun.... but I think you are right... it would have been a headache for us! When looking at the pictures as I posted this, I was glad to feel that yes, we made the right decision. :)

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  10. That truly is a fixer upper, but those fixtures and hardware are stunningly beautiful. I love the woodwork! We bought a fixer upper too, and it has taken 10 years to get almost everything done. For us, the acreage and the view was worth it. But houses like that can be money pits!

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    1. Wow... 10 years! That probably would have been us too.. or it would have taken us longer due to way over-busy schedules! It was a beautiful house though and we enjoyed looking at it. :)

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  11. I really like those brick floors. Thanks for stopping by anointedtoday.blogspot.com.

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    1. I liked those a lot more than I thought I would... they were rough, but wonderful.. it was a huge room! So many fun features about that house. Thank you for visiting.

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  12. So many interesting details! Thanks for sharing @Vintage Charm!

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  13. What a beauitful home and I can see all the potential it had to offer but I could also see it becoming a money pit. And what a huge home too!! Something is waiting for you out there and you will know it as soon as you see it!
    Hugs,
    Deb

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    1. It was a beautiful home w/ so much potential, but I am glad we didn't buy it! Thank you for your encouragement also... you're right... God will provide what we need...at just the right time. :)

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  14. I love old homes and this one has so much potential! Thanks for sharing it with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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    1. We love old homes too... and this one was certainly tempting, but the amount of work needed was way too much for us. Thank you for visiting. :)

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  15. That was such fun! I've always loved house tours. But that is waaaaay too much house for one family. I could see dividing the house for three households. But the acreage and the view would make it tempting.

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    1. It was a huge place for one family... although with 7 people, we could make use of a lot of it. I am so glad we did not buy it... it's just too big and needed too much work.

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