I was planning on posting about biking by consent today. I had the whole post planned out in my mind. Then a funny thing happened and I find myself blogging about the joys of living in an older home.
I love my older home. The floor plan is well thought out in a way I haven't seen in newer places. I love that it was built in a time where we didn't care about harvesting old growth forests and the 2x4 construction (which is ACTUALLY 2x4 not the new 2x4s that are now about 1 3/4 x 3 3/4) is so solid that you have to pre drill your nails holes when going into a stud. Really, I can't even use my drill, we have to break out T's uber drill.
I love the older trees in the neighbourhood, even if we only have one old giant cedar in our yard. The rest of our trees have died since we moved in 2003. The birch in the front got a disease. The two pine trees had wind damage and were threatening the house and the weird shelter belt someone had planted in the backyard was just... wrong. Since the big cull, we have planted a bunch of fruit trees. They are still seedlings, but we have three dwarf sour cherry and two dwarf apple.
There are lots of parks, schools and amenities within walking distance. It is a really nice house in a nice neighbourhood. I would encourage anyone to buy and older home and stop urban sprawl.
However, it has some quirks. The big one is that at some point some one had done some home brew wiring. We have had most of the house redone. Except the storage part of the basement. Now the out door outlets are not working and neither is the back porch light. They have been fine since we moved in and none of the breakers in our newly updated breaker box have tripped.
Time to call an electrician.
We have one we like. We have had one we didn't like before we found this one.
It just seems like we are being hit with home repairs we shouldn't have to worry about lately.
Ah, the joys of home ownership.
I was thinking the other day that our house felt a lot like a home, which was comforting. It's the 70's era and also made with real wood. There are nice big trees everywhere and we love that. I don't think trees even fit on the lots in new neighbourhoods, it's like they need to cover every inch of property with house!
ReplyDeleteOur back screen door was replaced today and although it had to be, and it's a much nicer door, it's another expense. This year we're biting the bullet too and adding onto the mortgage in order to get some stuff fixed. I'd say so far it's about 1/2 surprise fixing and 1/2 planned fixing, which isn't bad.
I've always wanted to watch that 80's movie "The Money Pit", about a couple who buys a house. I think I could relate.
Is that... Tom Hanks and Shelley Long? It was worth checking out on Netflix
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