My house is 109 years old. Still have most of the horsehair plaster walls. Original kitchen cupboards, including one with a mirror inset are Georgia Red Heart pine. Living room, dining room, downstairs hall & staircase are oak, including pocket doors & a full swinging door. 2 archways downstairs. Second floor all wood is Georgia Red Heart Pine. All floors tongue & groove Georgia Red Heart Pine. High baseboards. Only ever replace 2 original poured glass windows. Windows are double hung, tall & wider than normal windows in most houses. Window, swing open, at the bottom of the staircase is pressed glass with a starburst pattern. The front & side porch doors are original beveled plate glass. The slate roof we had to replace due to a bad hail storm, but the original slate lasted 88 years. 9 foot ceilings downstairs, 8 foot upstairs. Original Eagle Claw & Ball claw foot tub. Front porch is open L shaped, goes across entire front & half way down the side. Tall 8 foot columns across front & down the side porch. Tongue & groove porch ceiling. Full attic with 4 windows & one dormer. Basement was mostly dirt floor, but we did have over half of it cemented. We have 2 big chest freezers, lots of food storage units, shelves (loaded with bird food), porch furniture, an upflush toilet, water treatment units, etc., down there. We also heat it in winter to keep the old copper pipes from freezing. Original heat was room stoves (Parlor Stoves), which basically heated one room & were for wood or coal. There were 2 downstairs & a cast iron kitchen cook stove, that heated the kitchen. Upstairs one parlor stove in the master bedroom & one in the hall. They were removed back in the 40's. Coal furnace was put in sometime in the 40's, & removed in the 70's, when an oil furnace was put in. The house is red brick. The back porch was closed in back in the 50's & turned into a mud room, laundry & pantry. Oh and a lot of original tube & knob wiring. The house has so many doors & windows there is barely any wall space. I'd say probably 90-95% of my house is original. It's not overly warm due to all the widnows. So we use drapes & blinds to keep the cold at the windows in winter. Our area has many old homes like these with unfinished cellars/basements. Thirty munutes east of us is the city of Williamsport, PA. They have many huge old mansions that are 3 & 4 stories. Many with windows that go from floor to ceiling, marble fireplaces, etc. I love these big old houses. Only some newer homes here have no basements & are often heated with propane, so those tanks are outside.
So it's going to be here until Wednesday. There still a very faint smell in the basement. But it's definitely a whole lot better then it was before
We have missed you