He said what we pretty much knew.

Our house inspector looked in the chimney and said it was bricked off.

Much later I was thinking about the pocket doors that were stripped from the house when the PO's were closing on the house in the 1960's, and wondering how a door slid into the wall on the left of the fireplace, since a chimney should be in the way. Which made me investigate. Leading to the realization that the chimney is offset to the right, it connects to the tiny chimney coming up from the basement, and the bricked off looking part is actually open on the right. The cobwebs were dancing in the breeze when I opened the flue. The bricked off looking part had soot on the brick.

Initially the chimney sweep even thought it was bricked off, then realized how it diverts to the right. Then he asked if the old lady that lived here had a day care. He was remembering our neighbor 2 doors down, who has the same wacky chimney. Guess they were only built on our street? He said because of the way it's set up he can't even look in it to tell us anything, and didn't charge us for the visit. He recommended a cap for keeping animals out, which we knew it needed.

But the best part is that he said it should be no problem to put in a pellet stove and vent it up that chimney, a very different answer than the house inspector saying it was bricked off and completely un-useable. And a pellet stove would be greener, which is awesome. He also noticed how perfect our stairs are set up to carry heat from the fireplace upstairs and said we could probably heat the whole house with stove, and that his highest heating bill last year was just over 100$. All in all, perfect. The fireplace is TINY, and could never heat the whole house in the first place.

Unfortunately we have to get over $10,000 worth of electrical work done on our 1920's Firetrap. And raise the porch. And get a truckload off fill to divert water from the foundation. And replace the porch floor.

Then again even with the electrical work and the porch and the stove, the house would still be under $70,000. And being able to resell it with NO knob and tube wiring, or scary spliced parts, or burn marks on the wall above outlets and everything electrical being up to code will pay off with no problem, and so would the stove. (And who doesn't love an un-rotted porch that's not painted with chipping lead under rotted carpet?)

Maybe today we'll go look at pellet stoves...

Wheee! The entry is not finished, but it feels so much better! And we have hardwoods we can see in the bedroom!

The entry was white, with granny curtains, and the bedroom carpet was faded ugly rust colored. But not anymore! We won't be refinishing the floor till the rest are uncovered. The floor in Amelia's room was already exposed, and I've looked at most of them. My craft room has white paint slopped all over the hardwood floor under the carpet because they apparently didn't give a crap when they painted, knowing they were putting in carpet. Not surprising considering the overall condition of everything. Under the carpet in the entry/hall area upstairs and in the dining room the wood looks like it's never been walked on, it looks completely unworn, it is BEAUTIFUL, (then again, so is the worn stuff in the bedroom) but it has some ancient adhesive stuck to it that needs to be removed. And the stairs have 2 layers of ugly brown paint on the top of the steps that has to go.

I'm pretty much ripping the carpet out in sections with a box cutter, rolling it up, and putting it in the basement, then it leaves on trash day. I did the bedroom in a couple hours, but it didn't have the strips of tacks or padding like the rest of the house, so it was faster/easier. The rest is slower to remove, since I'm scraping away at the old adhesive before moving to another section. It's slooooow, but feels rewarding. For now... (the adhesive is under the padding and has NOTHING to do with the current carpet, but I found a piece of ooooold black looking carpet stuck in it. Did old carpet have adhesive?! We just got the internet today, so I'm going to research what it is in a few minutes, but it's OLD, whatever it is.)

The cable got hooked up today, the TV has to be plugged into one of the only 2 grounded outlets in the kitchen, and so do our laptops when charging. But we FINALLY got an electrician to come by and look around. Till today they don't call back or don't want to do the job. He pronounced our house a firetrap. I am quite sure he's right, or why call him in? We need the knob and tube (house-wide) cut off. New wiring throughout, overhead lights in rooms that have none... He quoted us $12,000. Basement, attic, top to bottom, everything. (And he advised me not to get a disposall because nothing should go in the drain, but we compost and have a strainer and things STILL go in the drain sometimes, so why can't I chop it up?!?) There's a lot of creepy wiring that isn't up to code. And things are wired into the knob and tube improperly, and it's insulated around... Basically the house is priced like it is because of the electrical work needed. Joe is talking to the bank to see if a piggyback loan is possible, or else he's spending his day off tomorrow talking to banks about a loan. It will cover the porch too hopefully, which would be awesome.

We did lead tests and almost all of the paint that's chipping badly is the top 2 layers that are NOT lead, and the lead underneath is firmly stuck and not chipping! All good news for prepping the walls and trim for new paint. BUT of course the worst spot that has lead is in Amelia's room, her windowsills reacted with a crazy bright pink lead test, The top layer is apparently still lead, and if you pick at it, it chips. Tomorrow I'm getting to work on it while Joe's off work. I hope the chipping part isn't bad, maybe just the lower part... Regardless, I want her to have lead free windowsills and build a window seat, not put up a baby fence around it forever! For now, she just doesn't realy play up there, she's with us downstairs and barely old enough to really realize she HAS a room. Luckily, I guess, if she was a bit older a determined 2 year old shut out of her room would be a hand-full!

Entry Before-


Entry Now-


Entry Before-


Entry After-


After-


Entry Floor-


Functional (unfortunately) K&T Firetrap Push Button Lightswitch-


Ugly Bedroom Carpet, much uglier than you can tell in this picture!


Bedroom Floor Now!






Bedroom Door frame where the door fell off on me in the middle of the night-


Ancient Adhesive in the landing/hallway at the top of the stairs, outside our bedroom-


Awesome drywall job in the bathroom. The ONLY bathroom- (try telling a toddler not to splash the drywall touching the tub when they play in the tub... Can't wait to rip this out!)


Can we say firetrap? This is in the bathroom-


I can't wait till the wiring is done. It makes me nervous.

The less orange entry pictures are more accurate, it was sunset and not really light enough for my camera. Tomorrow I'll try for daylight pictures when it will focus better, and maybe take some pics of our firetrap wiring...

(yes, we hate the siding too)

note the slope from water eroding the ground under the porch and around the house, and the lovely green carpeting. the railing will just get a coat of paint for now, as we need to raise the porch, fill in the dirt, and get gutters on the house and just deal with water/porch issues first. Before winter and next snow-melt. And the skirt part needs to be ripped out without disturbing the peeling sure-to-be-lead paint, and then replaced. On the other hand, the only larger expanse of original wood currently visible on the exterior is the porch ceiling. And the soon to be visible porch. So We will be happy to at least have mostly wood there very soon after moving in
don't get me started about the landscaping. that will wait till next spring, since we'll move in in late summer, almost fall. And REALLY don't get me started about that siding. And the horrid shutters that go with it.

We have a foursquare next door, and 3 across the street, possibly more, and we're constantly comparing them to ours and wondering what's under our siding... someday...



under the front porch which we need to re level-



Does anyone know where any floor plans for foursquare kit homes are online other than sears? It doesn't seem to be any sears kit i've seen, and it'll be a couple weeks before i can check the frame for marks. i'm so curious to see if it's a kit house.

we are jen, joe, amelia, and bloomer. i am jen. joe is the hubby, amelia is a 1 and 1/2 year old, and bloomer is amelia's 9 week old puppy. who won't house train. moving into a new house.

we are waiting. seems that closing on the house will take forever. the bank didn't give our lawyer a paper he needed so he never started the title search. Then everyone was ready to roll except for that, and he hadn't even started and said it would take 3 weeks. joe tried calling everyone involved to see if those online title search in 24 or 72 hour things would be acceptable, and no-one said no, but everyone passed the buck and said it was up to someone else, who never had a problem with it, but why throw away a few hundred dollars to find out they all have no idea what they're saying?

Meanwhile... we are trying to get an early occupancy agreement. the owners are the 5 sons of the last occupants who have now both died, and they are willing, but waiting for their lawyer to decide about liability issues.

we have knob and tube wiring throughout, and it's not a problem to insure in utica,ny where we live, but we need grounded outlets put in, and there's no overhead lights in the 4 bedrooms upstairs, just ton overhead at the landing at the top of the stairs, and in the bathroom.

With the early occupancy we hope to get the electrical done, see about gutters (house has none), we need to rip out carpet up and down stairs, and raise the porch. And add dirt to run water away from the house. Pressure wash the back porch. Rip the green carpet/astroturf off the front porch and see the flooring. Rip out 60's or 70's walpaper. put in cork flooring in the kitchen, get rid of the zbrick in the kitchen, and tear out the cabinets, and paint EVERYTHING. or so it seems.

we'll settle for grounded outlets and lights at move-in, and hopefully have the carpet out, so we're not ripping it out while our furniture is already there.

Still need to decide if we want to test the "vinyl" for asbestos in the kitchen, or just ignore the possibility of what lies beneath (besides poison) and put down cork. Which seems safest with a baby.

And we need to do all this with a baby and a puppy.

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!