House Update

Last weekend, Ashley and I went back and looked at that house again (see last post) with my parents since they were in town. Dad's opinion was, if you're looking for a handyman's special, you found it. He was satisfied that the basement was dry, the attic was dry, but the roof not only needs to be replaced, but it will probably need new plywood too. The current roof is installed on top of the original wood shingles. It needs new gutters and needs to be rewired. The fuse box and wiring are a little scary but they still work. Luckily I married a guy and have a brother-in-law who do residential wiring for a living.

I also learned that no one has lived in the house for over six years. The parents have long since died and the kids are slowly cleaning out the stuff left in the house. It was built in 1920 and is almost 1600 square feet. It's a Sears and Roebuck house which means it was ordered from their catalog back in the day. I had no idea they sold houses, but aparently so. I did some research online and the best I can figure is that this house is "The Clyde"

Click here to see the original catalog page. (scroll down a little bit on the sears page)

Most people could probably care less, but I'm facinated by the history and the details of old houses. The house has all its original brass doorknobs. Although some of them have been painted over.

It also has a built in china cabinet in the dining room, the original windows with diamond shaped panes of glass, and a fire place in the living room and in the master bedroom.




The kitchen needs to be updated and so does the bathroom, but both are functional and overall you could live in the house while you worked on it. The plastar walls are in good shape with the exception of a crack in the living room wall near the fireplace (which could be patched) and a dent in the living room ceiling (cause undetermined and it might need to be taked down and replaced with drywall).


The hardwood floors are hidden under carpet, but they peek out in some places and appear to be a thinner plank and nice warm color. The original hearth is still in place, under carpet in the living room fire place and it is already piped for gas.

Dad thinks we should look at some more houses before we make a decision. But none of the other houses we've looked at made my heart skip a beat like this one. I know it's the house I want to buy, it's a gut feeling. But we'll probably look at some more houses in the meantime just to make sure.