Ran into Justin, a fellow Truxtonite heading to work on the Green Line and we got to talking houses. We, I’m saying “we” because I don’t remember exactly who said what (it was early in the morning, I’m not awake), came to a conclusion that the tale we tell ourselves that these old houses have solid bones is bunk. Well, unless you’ve actually seen those bones, Justin pointed out. It’s amazing what you find behind the walls of old houses.
Don’t forget that after the riots portions of Shaw were slummy. Slumlords, the owners of slum housing, are not well known for their maintenance and desire to fix things right. Over time, bricks don’t get repointed, problems are painted over, and burn damage is covered up with drywall. When I discovered my house had mainly been rental housing for 100 years my heart sank. I have very little faith that in those 100 years the landlords did anything to bolster the building structure.
7 thoughts on “Solid Bones My Butt”
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I told myself that lie too. I remember telling friends about my place such things as “well, it’s been standing for 100 years, so it’s probably not going anyplace”.
Afterwards I learned that portland cement hadn’t been invented until about 30 years after my place was built so the bricks were held together by lime and sand. Which, when wet, I can *literally* dig out of the joints with my finger!
When my contractor was leveling my kitchen floor I saw the floor joists (the semi rotted joists) before he fixed them and wondered how on earth the floor stayed up in the first place because that wood did not look good. Oh and yeah on the brick, I got a lot of red powder in my basement from crumbly party wall bricks.
Have you thought about joining the webring at houseblogs.net?
It’s a lot of people (like us) who deluded themselves into buying old houses and fixing them up.
I think I win the prize. When my ceiling caved in, the roofer came out and informed me that (1) a fire had completely burned 60% of the beams (2) the owner “replaced the 165 foot beams with 14 foot beams that didn’t even span the width of the house!!!! and (3) that the drywall in the ceiling was the only thing supporting the entire roof. And the seller (who lived there for 15 years), who still, two years later has not forwarded her mail, came by a while ago to demand he mail that I must be secretly hoarding, and denied knowing anyhting about it. Uh huh, yeah.
THat’s supposed to say “16 foot beams,” not “165 foot” beams
To gts- YIKES!
Homeimprov…- Nope. As I haven’t done anything major lately and the next project is ‘paint bedroom’ (involving 3 guys 1.5 gal of paint and 1 case of beer), not really exciting stuff worthy of being in a webring.
I like beer!