Ot about colors

I'm angry? You have got to be joking. I have really serious things going on in my life right now. Being angry or giving any energy like it to you or your opinions is out of the question and completely untrue. You continue to puzzle me.

I am greatly honored that i puzzle you , but i wonder why instead of writing /discussing things with me, that might maybe unpuzzle your ideas about me, you always get angry or deffensive or agressive, or walk away or killfile me ,,,, We are of different cultures , but you claimed several times to have had some relatives [ i think you wrote aunts ?] who came from my background. You told here in long leters how you chose to adopt a non western culture for your religion and way of life. And i chose to deepen myself into the vast Treasures of my birth culture. This might have been a wonderful stage for long fruitful discussions. From which both of us could only learn and widen our horizons. While i am mystified how a Tottal western person can embrace a culture that is so much different than her style of life, i respect your effort in doing so. While i didn`t like and told you as much , the times you tried to preach to others about your new culture. If your conversion to a different culture /belief has brought you the peace of mind and whatever it was you needed/expected of life, i am glad for you, and wish you many happy healthy years. And i hope this new culture will bring you the power and emapthy to be a bit more respectful to other people`s choices, knowledge, experinces of life. Your reactions to many letters [not only mine]. Aren`t always as patient as one would expect from a person in your chosen culture.And excuse me if i will point it out to you. Some people who convert from one religion/culture to another, tend either to convert others [ and by this Justify their own convertion], some are always reluctant and afraid when meeting , discussing or reading , materials related to their former culture[s]. I have metpeople who converted, your reactions are quite similar to theirs. It is very human to behave like this. may you have a wonderful happy life. mirjam

Mirjam Bruck-Cohen wrote: Just somebody here wondered if A/C did affect

Hubby and I are "old house people" and when we were looking for our first home we narrowed the search to houses that were at least 100 years old. You don't find much that predates the 1860's in the Atlanta area (Sherman's march to the sea) but we still saw lots of lovely houses dating from the Restoration Era on up. Most of the ones I saw that had been restored to "original condition" had more pastel colors (peaches and pinks and blues) but they did have some color. If you tour old plantation homes in the south, in addition to pastel walls you will find high ceilings (heat rises), and breeze ways (a long central hallway that has a door on each end for cross ventilation). Just thought I'd interupt the thread to share a little bit from another passion of mine :)

I am also an old house person. Unfortunately they turn into expensive investements!! The house I bought in this tiny town was built circa 1880 (which is old for this part of South Africa) and was built as the town house of local famers who came into town to attend the 3-monthly church meeting. As you said, the ceilings are high, and there is plenty of ventilation.

The house is pretty dilapidated, and I'm short of funds, so I'm living in a rather depressed state right now. The walls were made of mud bricks, but over the years rain and damp have turned them from bricks into mud walls, in some places. One of my first priorities is to prevent damp, as soft walls at the top are not as bad as soft walls at the bottom.

The upside is that the rooms are huge. My sitting room measures 6m x 4m, and the bedrooms are all also large, even the smallest one. It has loads of character, but a small garden, and in the way of the period, it's built very close to the road. So the 2 meters in front of the house are almost public property (but not quite) and that's why I have to keep chasing the cows away from the roses! :-)

Cather> Just somebody here wondered if A/C did affect

Yup. When we were looking, DH kept asking the realtor about Victorians, until the realtor explained to him that we could buy one already-restored, or we could buy a fixer-upper for less, but either way, it would cost us $250,000 in the long run, and I'd told the realtor our budget was nowhere near that. (Furthermore, DH was all thumbs and wouldn't have helped with the fixing-upping.)

We have been at both extremes. The house we own in Oregon is 100+ Craftsman and in good shape. Some slumping, but not too bad. When we finally go home, I'm hopeful we can start some renovations but nothing of a "necessary" nature. Things like covering the linoleum (WHAT were those people thinking????) with wood floors, enlarging the kitchen (which is not small now, but I'd like it wider; it's 11x20), creating a master bedsuite in the basement w/jacuzzi, turning what is now the master bedroom into an office w/built-in bookshelves; fun stuff like that.

On the other hand, we bought a house in VA, also 100yrs old that we discovered, unfortunately AFTER buying, was in not great shape. Anything dropped on the floor on the north side of the house could be found against the corresponding south wall; a HUGE crack in the wall hidden by wallpaper; a rotted-out support beam. I had intended to remove the ash paneling that covered most of the other walls but decided I didn't want to know what was hidden underneath. We lived in it for five years and DH did the necessities (replacing the support beam and installing jacks to level the house a bit) and put it on the market as soon as we had orders out. The house was on the market for a year. We didn't make any money on the deal, but at least got out of it what we'd put in!

So what I would say is, if you want an old house, find a reputable inspector who will actually go into the crawl space, etc., and make an honest assessment of what you can and can't do yourselves.

All the things I want to do in Oregon are cosmetic, so I can let them go if the $ isn't available. DH can do some of the stuff (being a son-of-a-plumber and handy with fix-it things). His first assignment is replacing the fence so we can get dogs. And when it's raining he can tear out the shower and move the sink in the ¾ bath - the room's really tooooo small for all three pieces.

Enough rambling. I do love talking about my house; helps me miss it a little less.

Helen

Amen to that. We got this place for a lot less than comprable houses in better shape, but it also has more space than anything else I'd seen. Our home inspector was great. House had been in the same family for 60 years, nothing had been updated and he was quite clear about it, so I knew what we were getting in to (DH was still in Ohio, trusting me, poor thing!). 6 years later, we have all new electrical, two new bathrooms (one for the apartment, one for us) and are more than halfway done with the cosmetic issues. Floors have been refinishing very nicely and the woodwork is to die for. The apartment, which has been done for more than two years, is really quite lovely. Some days I wish I lived down there!

Every once in a while I have to remind myself that the places I looked at in better shape didn't have this much space (there's an apartment on the first floor and DH and I have 10 rooms on the second and third floors, which with 2 home offices, we needed), but mostly I'm very happy with the beast.

Elizabeth

I love your house and would kill to see the downstairs apartment. I have a ton of room (in theory), but your place is heavenly.

Cheryl

Wow! It does sound like you have a lot to do, but it also sounds like you've got a very neat old house. Keep the faith Catherine, and just do a little bit at a time. Eventually, it will all get done :) Update us on your progress, and if you can, share pictures!

Chris

I don`t think of my house as old, but it is early 1960s, and I am seeing retro colours and accessories from its `new` period--and I am very tempted. I mean, it even has a wall outlet at the top of the stairs for one of those big starburst clocks. Dawne

Ours is 29 yrs old, and it totally looked 29 years old when we purchased it in September. Let's see, my daughter's room had bright BRIGHT orange-with-yellow-threaded-through-it shag carpet (2" crap that was almost blinding to look at). Our room had brown and white shag carpet (only 1/2-1" long or so in this room), and the living room had long (2 1/2" perhaps?) white shag carpet. OH but the best? There was a large square piece cut out of the living room carpet- why? The mom had spilled milk and couldn't get the stink out so she just hacked it out and put a piece of dark green (low pile!) carpet down to cover the hole. Oh and let's not forget the just plain ugly patterned hallway and backentry way carpet, and the computer room - which is a blue and purple variation of the stuff in the hallway.

The strangest part? The carpet was actually in 1/2 decent shape (excluding the piece missing in the living room LOL) - however it totally creeped me out so we ripped out everything ourselves and had new carpet put in our bedrooms. There is nice laminate now in our living room and hallway. Eventually we'll replace that with hardwood (when there are no children running around on it ;)

What a work in progress! Doing most of the work ourselves has definitely saved a ton of $$ (that and the new furnace, woodstove etc. saved us $$ on oil) We also had a home inspection done, which was worth its weight in gold - they are definitely worth the money you spend on them. We also got an Energy Efficiency test done and plan on doing retro-fits to improve our home's efficiency while renovating. I told DH we aren't going anywhere for the next 40 years; it will take that long to get everything finished ;)

Sarah

Hardwood floors really hold up to a lot of abuse. A lot more than you might think. They aren't delicate, and are extremely easy to keep clean.

Dianne

I'll second that. Other than dragging something heavy and sharp across one (which would damage almost any flooring other than perhaps stone) or using certain chemicals on one, there isn't much that will hurt them. It's also much better for those of us with indoor allergies.

I can't speak to hardwood because I have wide board pine, which isn't technically hardwood. I love them, but I will say that you can definitely tell that we have dogs. But that's ok, I wouldn't give up the dogs or the floors.

Elizabeth (floor guys come for two more rooms on Monday)

I had hardwood floors in my Brooklyn apartment and covered them with carpet because my 8.5 lb., hyper dog made marks on them with his sharp nails, the dust bunnies were winning and unless you kept them highly polished and, therefore, slippery they looked dingy. Even with a floor polisher, I found it a lot of work.

I lived in a rental apartment and I don't suppose they were the highest quality wood, but it was too much for me at that time. I think they are much more attractive than most carpeted areas, but lots of work when you have a family.

Lucille

Lucille

Send them over here when they're done. The linoleum in the kitchen (which I never liked) buckled when the dishwasher overflowed, and I want hardwood in there. Or maybe the thing the neighbors got, looks like hardwood but isn't. Either way, modern linoleum and a 1905 kitchen don't look right together.

I doubt many of us have linoleum any more. There are maybe two companies making it and it is not cheap. Most people have vinyl in the kitchen. I have vinyl which looks exactly like wood, even had people think it is wood till they touched it. It have grain and is matte and not cheap vinyl, it takes heat very well, and washes up great.

Once my carpet dies, which is soon, it's coming out and we are going to have the concrete foundation floor under the carpet stamped and stained. First they put a coat of cement or whatever it is down, then it can be stamped with just about any pattern on the planet. You can get huge squares with texture, or it can look like pebbles or bricks or tile or whatever. Then I'll be on the hunt for those area rugs not made in China or by child labor camps. Brazil? I thought someone here said Brazil.

I think you're probably thinking of Pergo. My friend put it in her living room and if you don't have extremely bright light it does look like wood. It's very nice and has just enough bounce to make it easy on the feet. You lay it in interlocking strips, like the new wood floors. It's very easy care but you must be very careful when it's put down to have the seams extremely tight. If any water gets under it, it bubbles and picks up.

I'm stuck here with tile over concrete in my kitchen and family room and it's just too much work, and too much money, to pick that up or I would buy the Pergo too.

Lucille

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You could put laminate over it. It will go over any level floor, they simply lay a layer of felt, then the laminate floats freely on top.