New, Old and Redone

Daily writing promptWrite about your dream home.View all responses My "image" of people plotting a plan for a dream house is new construction. While I'm not so crazy about parts of my current home, I do like the lot and location. I have an Audubon sanctuary behind me, and part of the lot is lightly …

Dirty Little Secrets

It's not a secret that many of us are ageing in place. Nor is it a secret in my family that the house we've occupied for the last twenty or so years has a steep and narrow staircase. Built in 1900, no codes in our neck of the woods obliged gentler ascents or broader steps. …

Expectations

We bought a house built in 1900. The nice way to phrase this is that the house had "good bones" but substantial issues. Within three years, we replaced the roof, put in a new boiler, replaced the original 1900-era windows with modern ones, stripped old wallpaper, and removed the tacky shag carpet in all the …