Re: [MBZ] OT dishwashers now old houses

[Kaleb C. Striplin via Mercedes]

I forgot about the woodwork. That house I was talking about that got gutted was 
filled with all that beautiful wookwork. It was all torn out and filled with 
regular modern sheet rock and trim. It was very very sad to see. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 4, 2016, at 6:55 AM, Rich Thomas via Mercedes  
> wrote:
> 
> That would have been a very cool house.
> 
> I restored/renovated an old Victorian (1884), was not a "high" Victorian but 
> still had some style.  My neighbor around the corner still lives in an 1850s 
> Victorian that was pretty much all original inside except for a 1950s kitchen 
> redo and a new bathroom she put in but the old original bathroom is still 
> there as is all the woodwork, plaster, etc.  It had some minimal electrical 
> installed probably in the 20s, she had a few new circuits run but that is all 
> mostly "original" too.   It is an amazing gorgeous house.  The town was full 
> of them as the first "commuter" railroad was built up to the town from Boston 
> in the 1850s so wealthy people bought lots there and built houses starting 
> about that time period.  If you drive around the town you can see the 
> original farm houses from the 1600-1700s which had maybe 10 acres or so, then 
> the subsequent houses of different eras where the land was subdivided over 
> the next 300-400 years.
> 
> Right after I finished school and got a real job, a buddy said we should go 
> look at this row house in Charlestown MA (across the river from Boston) that 
> was up near the top of Bunker Hill.  The first floor had been carved up into 
> 3 or 4 little rathole apartments but the 2nd and 3rd floors were still pretty 
> much original though they each had a kitchen and bathroom installed at some 
> point to make them separate apartments.  Guy wanted $70k for it, which was a 
> fair chunk of change but running the numbers it made some sense.   The scheme 
> was to keep the 1st floor apts for some rental income while we redid the 2nd 
> and 3rd floors into condos we each would then have, live in one while redoing 
> the other, then moving into the new one, then redo the first floor and sell 
> it as a condo.  Problem was there was no parking except on the street and it 
> was a bit rough area with all the Townies being ignernt so I passed.  Fast 
> forward to present day, This Old House has redone buildings in that area, and 
> condos as we were going to do are going for $1M+.  Sigh...
> 
> --R
> 
>> On 4/4/16 5:28 AM, Dan Penoff via Mercedes wrote:
>> Not long after we were married, we had the opportunity to buy an Andrew 
>> Carnegie library built in the 1930s in the neighborhood where the wife grew 
>> up.  Beautiful place, brick exterior with columns, huge interior, etc.  Here 
>> is a link to a Street view of it on the right:
>> 
>> https://www.google.com/maps/@39.4816306,-86.0526114,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s304l4nek7OJ4GpnO5H0Gbw!2e0!7i3328!8i1664!6m1!1e1
>> 
>> City wanted to sell it and couldn’t find a buyer for over two years.  The 
>> price in 1980 dollars was $40,000.  It was in great physical shape and was a 
>> huge space inside, with the main floor being pretty much one giant open room 
>> and the lower level being separate rooms with a big kitchen in one of them.
>> 
>> Wife wouldn’t go for it.  A few months later the city sold it to a developer 
>> who made $150k condos out of it.
>> 
>> Dan
>> 
>> 
>>> On Apr 4, 2016, at 12:15 AM, Kaleb C. Striplin via Mercedes 
>>>  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Boy I would sure love to hear some Wilton stories about restoring mansions. 
>>> I have always wanted to do that. In fact many years ago we had the chance 
>>> to buy an old mansion like house that belonged to a local dr. Was an early 
>>> 1900s was not Victorian, but it slips the mind what style they called it. 
>>> Colonial maybe. We could have picked it up for something like 60k, had the 
>>> loan all lined out etc but for whatever reason we didn't do it. It's main 
>>> issues were pluming to the upstairs bathroom.
>>> Several years before that there was and old Victorian that was for sale for 
>>> a long time that belonged to a school teacher that died. At the time is was 
>>> pretty much original, had all original hardwood floors all thru the house, 
>>> original interior walls, bathrooms and such. I think it got down to like 
>>> $85k and was finally sold. This was in the late 90s when I knew nothing 
>>> about buying real estate. Whoever bought it completely gutted the interior. 
>>> I mean completely gutted, all interior walls torn out, everything. It went 
>>> back on the market I think they got foreclosed on or something. I went and 
>>> saw it then. A few years later it was back on the market after somebody had 
>>> completely redone it. We went and looked at it and it was priced in mid to 
>>> upper 200s but the floor plan inside was completely different, it was just 
>>> like walking into a brand new cookie cutter house. They 

Re: [MBZ] OT dishwashers now old houses

[Rich Thomas via Mercedes]

That would have been a very cool house.

I restored/renovated an old Victorian (1884), was not a "high" Victorian 
but still had some style.  My neighbor around the corner still lives in 
an 1850s Victorian that was pretty much all original inside except for a 
1950s kitchen redo and a new bathroom she put in but the old original 
bathroom is still there as is all the woodwork, plaster, etc.  It had 
some minimal electrical installed probably in the 20s, she had a few new 
circuits run but that is all mostly "original" too.   It is an amazing 
gorgeous house.  The town was full of them as the first "commuter" 
railroad was built up to the town from Boston in the 1850s so wealthy 
people bought lots there and built houses starting about that time 
period.  If you drive around the town you can see the original farm 
houses from the 1600-1700s which had maybe 10 acres or so, then the 
subsequent houses of different eras where the land was subdivided over 
the next 300-400 years.


Right after I finished school and got a real job, a buddy said we should 
go look at this row house in Charlestown MA (across the river from 
Boston) that was up near the top of Bunker Hill.  The first floor had 
been carved up into 3 or 4 little rathole apartments but the 2nd and 3rd 
floors were still pretty much original though they each had a kitchen 
and bathroom installed at some point to make them separate apartments.  
Guy wanted $70k for it, which was a fair chunk of change but running the 
numbers it made some sense.   The scheme was to keep the 1st floor apts 
for some rental income while we redid the 2nd and 3rd floors into condos 
we each would then have, live in one while redoing the other, then 
moving into the new one, then redo the first floor and sell it as a 
condo.  Problem was there was no parking except on the street and it was 
a bit rough area with all the Townies being ignernt so I passed.  Fast 
forward to present day, This Old House has redone buildings in that 
area, and condos as we were going to do are going for $1M+.  Sigh...


--R

On 4/4/16 5:28 AM, Dan Penoff via Mercedes wrote:

Not long after we were married, we had the opportunity to buy an Andrew 
Carnegie library built in the 1930s in the neighborhood where the wife grew up. 
 Beautiful place, brick exterior with columns, huge interior, etc.  Here is a 
link to a Street view of it on the right:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.4816306,-86.0526114,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s304l4nek7OJ4GpnO5H0Gbw!2e0!7i3328!8i1664!6m1!1e1

City wanted to sell it and couldn’t find a buyer for over two years.  The price 
in 1980 dollars was $40,000.  It was in great physical shape and was a huge 
space inside, with the main floor being pretty much one giant open room and the 
lower level being separate rooms with a big kitchen in one of them.

Wife wouldn’t go for it.  A few months later the city sold it to a developer 
who made $150k condos out of it.

Dan



On Apr 4, 2016, at 12:15 AM, Kaleb C. Striplin via Mercedes 
 wrote:

Boy I would sure love to hear some Wilton stories about restoring mansions. I 
have always wanted to do that. In fact many years ago we had the chance to buy 
an old mansion like house that belonged to a local dr. Was an early 1900s was 
not Victorian, but it slips the mind what style they called it. Colonial maybe. 
We could have picked it up for something like 60k, had the loan all lined out 
etc but for whatever reason we didn't do it. It's main issues were pluming to 
the upstairs bathroom.
Several years before that there was and old Victorian that was for sale for a 
long time that belonged to a school teacher that died. At the time is was 
pretty much original, had all original hardwood floors all thru the house, 
original interior walls, bathrooms and such. I think it got down to like $85k 
and was finally sold. This was in the late 90s when I knew nothing about buying 
real estate. Whoever bought it completely gutted the interior. I mean 
completely gutted, all interior walls torn out, everything. It went back on the 
market I think they got foreclosed on or something. I went and saw it then. A 
few years later it was back on the market after somebody had completely redone 
it. We went and looked at it and it was priced in mid to upper 200s but the 
floor plan inside was completely different, it was just like walking into a 
brand new cookie cutter house. They totally ruined the charm of the house, it 
was very very sad.

Sent from my iPhone


On Apr 3, 2016, at 10:53 PM, WILTON via Mercedes  wrote:

While I was restoring the two 1875 mansions 30 years ago, I found that everybody who 
"came along" wanting a job swore that he was the best painter anywhere.  Almost 
all of 'em were FOS, to put it bluntly.

Wilton

- Original Message - From: "Scott Ritchey via Mercedes" 

To: "'Mitch Haley'" ; "'Mercedes Discussion List'"