My husband and I purchased 25 beautiful acres in the mountains of
Arizona.  We overlook a 480 acre horse ranch.  The view is truly
beautiful.

We have brought in our electric to the land, put in a septic system
and are on our final pour with our foundation.

Next month is  what I have been waiting for right about a year now.
We also purchased a Historical Log Cabin that we will be moving to
our land. It was orginally  built as a brothel.  She is not as old
as some of the homes I have read about here, but she has real
character.  The smell of the wood, and the cozy stone fireplace makes
her a dream come true.

Not everyone can understand the excitement we feel.  She is going to
need much work.  Electric to code, plumbing to code, and of course,
those logs will have to be sanded with a nice fresh coat of log oil.
I call it my labor of love. The land and my cabin.

How nice it is to belong to a group that understands what this means
to us.

By the way.....Does anyone have experience in moving homes?  Any
advice would be appreciated.

Dear Group,
    Being quite impressed with some of our members' historic homes, I
took the liberty of adding links to their picture pages on
our "Bookmarks Page"
    Please visit our group's page
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/historichomes and click on "Bookmarks"
at the left column to view some fine homes. Everyone is welcome to
add links here.
Thanks, -Moderator

Thanks Liam, We are still pinching ourselves over this house. My husband
"coveted" it for about 35 years (we live in his hometown and he still
remembers the first time he saw it!) Unfortunately, it was colonialized in
the 1920's and lost a lot of its details, also. The mantles are not the
original marble coal bunring ones and the light fixtures were very plain. We
have replaced some of the fixtures already.On the whole though we are lucky
it was taken such good care of and appreciate the original touches it still
has! Speaking of the bathrooms, the toilet in one of them has a handle on
the side that says "Lift" and that's exactly what you do to flush it! I
absolutely love that for some reason!
Also, we are very lucky that NC offers a tax credit for residential
restorations. We are working under there guidelines and live in the
certified historic district of our town, so we will get 30% off our taxes
for five years! I wish the Feds would come up with something similar. Jewel


>From: "Gray, Liam" <Liam.Gray@...>
>Reply-To: historichomes@yahoogroups.com
>To: "'historichomes@yahoogroups.com'" <historichomes@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: RE: [historichomes] Introducing myself
>Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 17:01:23 -0400
>
>Your house is amazing!!! It has everything I would want in an old house. I
>love the tile baths. We have a Greek revival built in the late 1800's, but
>alas most all of the period details have been swiped over the years...
>Liam

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

Your house is amazing!!! It has everything I would want in an old house. I
love the tile baths. We have a Greek revival built in the late 1800's, but
alas most all of the period details have been swiped over the years...
Liam

-----Original Message-----
From: carolinajewel@... [mailto:carolinajewel@...]
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 4:48 PM
To: historichomes@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [historichomes] Introducing myself


I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Jewel and I live in NC
in an 1883 Victorian. We are currently getting the exterior painted.
(The painters arrive Thursday the 17th) and have lots of projects
planned for years to come! There is not alot we HAVE to do, but lots
we WANT to do. My husband and our daughters and I are all history
buffs, so the architecture, the history and the lifestyle of the
times is all appealing to us. The house was built by one of our
town's leading families and has only had three "ladies of the house"
including me. We are the first non-family members to live in the
house. I have two albums of pictures
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293951817
<http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293951817>
This is the house right after we bought it.
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4292833777
<http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4292833777>
This album shows what we had done up to March 2001.
I hope in about 6 weeks I'll have an album of the exterior painting!
Thank you for letting me share with this group. Jewel Sauls




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of this message.*****

I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Jewel and I live in NC
in an 1883 Victorian. We are currently getting the exterior painted.
(The painters arrive Thursday the 17th) and have lots of projects
planned for years to come! There is not alot we HAVE to do, but lots
we WANT to do. My husband and our daughters and I are all history
buffs, so the architecture, the history and the lifestyle of the
times is all appealing to us. The house was built by one of our
town's leading families and has only had three "ladies of the house"
including me. We are the first non-family members to live in the
house. I have two albums of pictures
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293951817
This is the house right after we bought it.
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4292833777
This album shows what we had done up to March 2001.
I hope in about 6 weeks I'll have an album of the exterior painting!
Thank you for letting me share with this group. Jewel Sauls

Greetings:

What a great house!  Please keep us posted on your
progress and NHR status.

We are realizing a longtime dream of restoring an 18th
century home.  Actually, the original 'keeping room'
was built in 1690 -- it was originally one or two
rooms and was actually moved from the next town.(It
was not uncommon to move buildings and add on to
them).     For that reason, it has a First Period
structures of Massachusetts designation, and is also
on the National Historic Register as one of its
residents was in a local militia in the American
Revolution.

Regretably there are few tax incentives or grants for
preserving historic structures --IF they are private
homes-- here in Massachusetts.  While I support the
vital work of the National Trust for Historic
Preservation(which in itself is supported through
membership and private individuals -- I was just
reading an interview with the director recently who
said that obtaining government funding each year was
SO cumbersome that the agency decided it wasn't worth
the return!), I myself have questioned the value of
the designation.  Perhaps someone with more experience
could discuss this, if there are restrictions on
altering Register properties.  It does carry some
weight with people, it lets them know that this is a
building worthy of preserving, although the
designation itself does not save it from destruction.


Let us know how it's going --  we look forward to
hearing about your adventure!

Sincerely,
Leigh M.


__________________________________________________
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http://auctions.yahoo.com/

Jean,
    It does sound like a great house. I, for one, am glad for you that
it was not designed by F.L.W. I have never been an admirerer of his
work. It seems to me that the primary focus of his designs WAS NOT to
design and build structures to last many generations. Maintenance
costs have been outrageous to preserve these buildings. (My opinion).
    As far as I know, there are no tax incentives, on the national
level, for residential historic structures at this time - only for
income producing/commercial properties. Legislation is always being
introduced to allow further tax credits, but I have not heard of any
successes to date. I also know from working with clients in our area,
that there is little interest from the State any more to nominate
historic properties to the National Register on architectural merit
alone. They seem to only give priority to properties linked to
historic persons or events.
    Pride of ownership and authentic restoration exhibited by caring
owners means more to me than a brass plaque!

I hope we can be helpful here and good luck with your restoration.
-Wm.

--- In historichomes@y..., "Jean Block" <blockjean@h...> wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> We recently purchased a 1914 (I know, that's quite young for many
of you!)
> prairie-style home.  We have the original blue prints and are
starting to
> put it back to the way it was when it was built.  No, it was not
designed by
> Wright (the architects were from LaCrosse, WI)
>
> It's such a great house, though - 2880 square feet, 69 windows (37
of them
> are leaded glass), a number of built-ins, etc - that we have been
thinking
> of trying to get it on the national register - or, at least, the
state (WI)
> register.  I have all the info for applying to the state, but I get
the
> impression from them that I shouldn't even bother (nothing
specific - they
> were simply not very helpful and rather lukewarm about the idea
when I was
> asking for their opinions).
>
> Has anyone jumped through all of the hoops required for this?  Is
it worth
> it for some tax relief and/or to preserve a historic home?
>
> Jean
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

Hi all!

We recently purchased a 1914 (I know, that's quite young for many of you!)
prairie-style home.  We have the original blue prints and are starting to
put it back to the way it was when it was built.  No, it was not designed by
Wright (the architects were from LaCrosse, WI)

It's such a great house, though - 2880 square feet, 69 windows (37 of them
are leaded glass), a number of built-ins, etc - that we have been thinking
of trying to get it on the national register - or, at least, the state (WI)
register.  I have all the info for applying to the state, but I get the
impression from them that I shouldn't even bother (nothing specific - they
were simply not very helpful and rather lukewarm about the idea when I was
asking for their opinions).

Has anyone jumped through all of the hoops required for this?  Is it worth
it for some tax relief and/or to preserve a historic home?

Jean
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

Greetings:

I would definitely have a inspector who specializes in
antique homes do a preliminary inspection for you and
give you an assessment as to what kind of cost you are
getting into -- this is before any kind of offer is
made.  We did this with an 18th cent. home we were
interested in -- to be honest, the $30K investment in
reinforcing the sills is what prompted our decision to
keep looking.  The inspector was terrific though and
he assisted us with our antique home that we decided
would be the one.

Sincerely,

Leigh M.
--- William <asiedydd@...> wrote:
> [snip]
> "This home could be a dream-come-true. Or it could
> be a nightmare.
> It's the sills that will determine this I think. The
> rest of the
> place is sound. Any advice??? Will this home sit on
> those sills for
> years to come, or will this be a can-of-worms that
> will never end?
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Dave"
>
> Dave,
>
> All of the conditions you described are very common
> for an 18th
> century home. This does not mean that the sills and
> joists do not
> need some attention.
>
> As a home inspector that specializes in pre-19th
> century buildings, I
> have inspected at least 8000 structures built before
> 1800. I have
> never evaluated one that doesn't need some type of
> reinforcement or
> repair to the structural members exposed to a
> basement or crawlspace.
>
> I would suggest a more complete probing of ALL
> joists and sills.
> Rather than a nail, use an 18 to 24 inch long
> screwdriver to reach
> all sills above the foundation. Probe with force all
> joists and sills
> to determine the depth of the soft wood. Be sure to
> include all areas
> of the crawlspace, no matter how difficult. (I wear
> coveralls, knee
> pads, gloves and a respirator!) If the soft wood is
> only on the sides
> of the timbers, then I wouldn't be too concerned. If
> you can probe 1
> inch or more at the bottom where the timbers rest on
> the foundation,
> then some compression has alredy occurred and will
> likely continue
> without some corrective action.
>
> I always find some type of repair/reinforcement is
> needed in at least
> a few areas. This usually involves reinforcing sills
> and joists and
> only rarely actually requires replacement. To
> prevent or at least
> reduce further softening of the wood, the dampness
> in the basement
> and crawlspaces needs to be remedied. This can
> usually be addressed
> by proper grading on the exterior, improving
> drainage away from the
> stone foundation and installing or correcting gutter
> systems. Also,
> if there is exposed soil in the basement or
> crawlspace, it should be
> covered with a vapor barrier.
>
> When I have completed an inspection of an 18th
> century home, the
> buyers are rarely scared off by my findings. Most
> old home buyers are
> aware that the house always needs more attention
> than newer
> structures and look to me to prioritize repair and
> maintenance needs.
>
> Finally, I strongly recommend a professional
> inspection of the
> property that evaluates all structural componants
> and all systems
> added to the home. I will look for an article I had
> published on
> finding and selecting an experienced professional
> and post the
> article here.
>
> I hope this is helpful. Please keep us posted.
>
> Best of luck, -Wm.
>
>


__________________________________________________
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Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
http://auctions.yahoo.com/

That, my friend, is a potential can of worms. It is addressable but could be
problems. Moisture also brings termites and carpenter ants which can
exponentially compund your problem. I would say the out of square doorways
are probably nothing to worry about. That house is over 200 years old. 200
years of natural settling alone could put things that out of square. My
house is "only" 108 years old and there is not a 90 degree angle or flat
floor in the whole place.

For you, I would say the bigger issue is the source of the moisture. You
have to cut that off. After that the issue of "will sills hold up" becomes
moot. Listen to what you are asking. So if my sills continue to be neglected
how long could I gamble on thier water rotting condition not affecting the
structural integrity of my dream home? Methinks you might want to take a
more proactive path with your dreamhouse and or life savings.


Good Luck!
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

[snip]
"This home could be a dream-come-true. Or it could be a nightmare.
It's the sills that will determine this I think. The rest of the
place is sound. Any advice??? Will this home sit on those sills for
years to come, or will this be a can-of-worms that will never end?

Thanks for your time,
Dave"

Dave,

All of the conditions you described are very common for an 18th
century home. This does not mean that the sills and joists do not
need some attention.

As a home inspector that specializes in pre-19th century buildings, I
have inspected at least 8000 structures built before 1800. I have
never evaluated one that doesn't need some type of reinforcement or
repair to the structural members exposed to a basement or crawlspace.

I would suggest a more complete probing of ALL joists and sills.
Rather than a nail, use an 18 to 24 inch long screwdriver to reach
all sills above the foundation. Probe with force all joists and sills
to determine the depth of the soft wood. Be sure to include all areas
of the crawlspace, no matter how difficult. (I wear coveralls, knee
pads, gloves and a respirator!) If the soft wood is only on the sides
of the timbers, then I wouldn't be too concerned. If you can probe 1
inch or more at the bottom where the timbers rest on the foundation,
then some compression has alredy occurred and will likely continue
without some corrective action.

I always find some type of repair/reinforcement is needed in at least
a few areas. This usually involves reinforcing sills and joists and
only rarely actually requires replacement. To prevent or at least
reduce further softening of the wood, the dampness in the basement
and crawlspaces needs to be remedied. This can usually be addressed
by proper grading on the exterior, improving drainage away from the
stone foundation and installing or correcting gutter systems. Also,
if there is exposed soil in the basement or crawlspace, it should be
covered with a vapor barrier.

When I have completed an inspection of an 18th century home, the
buyers are rarely scared off by my findings. Most old home buyers are
aware that the house always needs more attention than newer
structures and look to me to prioritize repair and maintenance needs.

Finally, I strongly recommend a professional inspection of the
property that evaluates all structural componants and all systems
added to the home. I will look for an article I had published on
finding and selecting an experienced professional and post the
article here.

I hope this is helpful. Please keep us posted.

Best of luck, -Wm.

_______________________________________________________
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Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca

I can see no reason why the archives should be private. Public archives for
all!
_________________________________________________________________
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-----Original Message-----
From: William [mailto:asiedydd@...]
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 12:33 PM
To: historichomes@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [historichomes] Public or Private Archives

Dear historic homes group,
A member sent me an e-mail asking about our message archives being
public and not private for the group only. I never gave it any
thought. Let me know if I should change them to private.
Thanks, William





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Dear historic homes group,
A member sent me an e-mail asking about our message archives being
public and not private for the group only. I never gave it any
thought. Let me know if I should change them to private.
Thanks, William

Thanks for your comments.

We're relatively sure the termites are gone - the inspection passed and the
inspector showed us where the damage is and you can tell it's old.   Of
course, this part of the house is not over a basement, and the crawl space
underneath isn't big enough for an adult to get into, so we won't know for
sure until the floor is actually picked up what all is down there.

We have been told that there is/was probably a dampness problem at some time
- drawing the termites, of course, and possibly causing some damage to
everything that's down there.  That's why we're thinking we might just want
to take up the whole floor and make sure there's no problems under there.
We were also told about the dryness of wood factor and given some possible
solutions other than picking up/replacing the whole floor.

We still haven't made a for sure decision although talking to the 2
inspectors and 2 contractors have made us feel better about what all is
going on there.  We're having more meetings over at the house tomorrow night
and as long as everyone there concurs with what we've been told so far,
we'll probably make an offer.  How exciting.

Thanks, also for your recommendation on the book.  I just had picked this up
and skimmed through it at the library this past weekend, and had told my
husband that I thought we needed to put this on the list to get! :)  Hmm..is
that a sign???!!! (heehee!)

Jamie

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I would worry more about WHY the floor is not level. In most cases, you do
not need to level a floor and the springiness is due to the wood drying and
shring over time. Spend a good deal of time in the basement looking around.
Is the floor not level because the house/foundation settled over 90 years?
If so, you probably only really need to fix the termite damaged part of the
floor. I would guess if they made it to interior floors, they were chewing
on other things for wuite a while before they got to your floors. Is the
floor not level because of broken joists or beams? If so then you want to
look into repairing things. Are you sure the termintes are gone? I would
start with Orkin and see what they say. If you get a clean bill of health,
then I would look long and hard in the basement to see if you can find any
problems with you joists and beams etc...From there get several carpentars
estimates for the cost of leveling and repair. Have the estimate broken out
by time and materials. That way you will have a fair idea of the cost if you
do the project yourself.

If you are a newbie, I strongly recommend the Old House Journal Guide to
Home Restoration book. You should be able to get it at
www.oldhousejournal.com
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

Welcome to the group Jamie.
    I hope we can provide some usable advice, or at least some
encouragement.
    Regarding termite damage: In real estate transactions in our area,
the contract requires any termite damage to be repaired by the
seller. Also, mortgage companies require a termite certification.
Even if the infestation is not active, any structural damage must be
repaired before a loan is approved.
    If it becomes your responsibility to repair the damage, the cost
of the repair is difficult to estimate without viewing the extent of
the affected area. I would advise getting a couple of estimates for
repairs from experienced contractors. Typical repairs to floor
structures usually consist of reinforcing damaged joists
by "sistering" (adding new boards along side the damaged ones and
securing with bolts) and the floor boards/subfloor is either
reinforced or replaced if necessary.
    When an agreement of sale is written, it is best to have a home
inspection clause included. This allows you to have the house
inspected and provides for negotiating with the seller for any major
concerns discovered. When you get to this point, I can advise on
chosing a qualified inspector.
    I hope all goes well for your old house quest and keep us posted.
-Bill

--- In historichomes@y..., mamakilg@h... wrote:
> Hi everyone.  I just stumbled upon you this morning and hope you're
> all still here - it's been a while since anyone has posted.
[snip]
> Thanks in advance,
> Jamie

Hi everyone.  I just stumbled upon you this morning and hope you're
all still here - it's been a while since anyone has posted.

My dh and I have also always wanted to buy an old home and restore
it.  We have to start small and hope to work our way up to a real
nice victorian or something like that.

We live in NC, and we have finally found a house we can do.  It is a
bungalow built in 1910, is actually below our price range (so we'll
have some cash to get that restoration started), and has so much
potential.  The people who are selling it actually had started the
restoration but have been transferred and are letting it go real
cheap.  The home has been in their family since it was built, they
owe no money on it, but are the last branch of the family with no
children and have decided to let it go since they're moving out of
the area.

We are almost ready to make an offer, but we have one question.  The
floor in the living room (one corner) has some termite damage from a
past infestation.  There is no current termite population.  However,
I think we'd want to repair the whole floor in there b/c it
is "spongy" (to use my husbands words) and it really needs to be
leveled and of course, that termite damage will need to be fixed.
This is the only major problem there is.  The rest is cosmetic or our
choice to change.

So, our question is this:  How can we estimate the costs of
repairing/leveling the floor and then doing the flooring?  We know
what we can reasonably expect the home to be valued at after the work
is complete and we don't want to spend more than it will be worth.
My husband and I will be able to do some of the floor work, but it
might be easier for us to contract the repair/leveling out to a
contractor.

I don't know...we would appreciate ANY advice you would have for us.
We're very, very excited about the whole thing, but we don't want to
get in over our heads!  We're also specifically looking for a website
or software that provides estimation tools that we can use to help
plan our job.

Thanks in advance,
Jamie

Dear historichomes members,
Just in case you didn't know, we have a homepage for this group at:
http://www.geocities.com/asiedydd/index.htm
The village where I live is linked there. Historic Fallsington PA.
Does your community or historic district have a website we can add?
Thanks, Bill

I don't know what I love the lifestyle of 100 years ago but that said, my
wife have and I have played with living by candle light as the people would
have when my 1892 home was build. We have also played with heating the house
to some degree using the two fireplaces. We have never turned the heat off
completely, and burned coal but we have turned the heat down and tried to
compensate by burning wood. I am too scared about the fumes dirt and the
ability of my 100 year old firebox to handle the extreme heat of coal. No,
we have not pretended to live without indoor plumbing.
While owning an old house can be a headache, costly and stressful, we both
agree that we will neve again live in any thing but an old house. The
history, the romance (whether real or imagined), the attention to detail
etc... is rarely matched in a newer house. Also being part of the ols house
community gives you a sense of belonging.
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

--- In historichomes@y..., sumac6@e... wrote:

  "I'm not one to gamble. First question: do you all love your homes
for the architecture, or for the lifestyle?  Or both?  By that I mean
do you restore the house for the beauty of the architecture and
fixtures or do you also dig the "way of life" of people in the past?
Do you feel a kinship with your house's "history" and what do you
find yourself doing to be in tune with your home, so to speak?
(Sorry if this sounds weird--I just love this stuff!) Susan"

Susan,
    It doesn't sound weird to me at all considering I would answer yes
to all those questions.
    I spend my days working with people who are buying or restoring
old homes and find all of them would be more comfortable and happy in
an old home. From 1920's bungalows to 300 year old farmhouses, these
homeowners have a special feeling towards their homes that people
living in modern buildings will never experience. Maybe it's the fact
that you are just one of the families that have been sheltered in the
home and many more people in generations to come will call it home
too.
    When most homes were built (prior to 1940), real craftsmen took
pride in their work and knew it would be viewed daily by people for
many, many generations. Most building componants were handcrafted and
installed by a crew of workers that worked only on that home from the
digging of the foundation until helping the family move in. Todays
construction industry uses mass produced products installed by
seperate crews to acheive the quickest profit. It's hard to find
individuality and character in these newer properties.
    As far as my experiences with my own home, well, I could go on for
pages. Maybe in later posts I'll give you some details. I will say
that we had to make some sacrafices, were uncomfortable for a while,
but we would do it again and again.
    I hope the folks here will give you some additional encouragement.
Best of luck.
-Bill

Hi.  My name is Susan and I joined your group a week or so ago but
haven't posted yet...maybe a little shy because I don't actually own
an old house yet to restore. (snif!) But I've wanted to do this all
my life, (49 with kids) and am beginning to finally see enough
economic stability to maybe do it in a few years!  I have about a
zillion questions, but I'll put off for the time being the obvious
one of how you managed to find one and pay for it in the first
place.  I live in an extremely high-priced town (Austin, TX) for real
estate and have recently taken over my Dad's business with my sibs
(and they don't want to move it to another town) so finding a
reasonable-priced place might take some real creative financing--and
I'm not one to gamble. First question: do you all love your homes for
the architecture, or for the lifestyle?  Or both?  By that I mean do
you restore the house for the beauty of the architecture and fixtures
or do you also dig the "way of life" of people in the past? Do you
feel a kinship with your house's "history" and what do you find
yourself doing to be in tune with your home, so to speak?  (Sorry if
this sounds weird--I just love this stuff!)
Susan

Well, thanks for the comments. I didn't know that the 3 "step windows" along
the stairs were all that unusual. In my area (Elgin, IL) these type of
windows are reasonably common, however my style of house is reasonably
uncommon in my area. The actual design of my house seems quite unique. I
have not seen another much like it in town or anywhere else.

Interesting that you would point out how my original details are intact and
then next comment on my step windows. What is not clearly evident from the
pictures on my webpage is that the "step windows" are just foggy
plexi-glass. The original bevelled, leaded glass windows were stolen in the
70s. Additionally, in the same theft, in another room of my house (front
parlor), a large stained glass picture window was torn from the house,
casing and all, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the house. All this
occurred while my house sat empty for about 4 years. Evidently there was a
large theft of historical details from various Elgin homes, all taking place
within a few weeks during the late 70s.

Everybody, please do review our neighborhood website
(http://www.gifford-park-assoc.org ). If you liked my house, please note
that in my town, my house ranks about a C+ at best. There are many great
houses that have been restored and many more are waiting to be restored.
Because the neighborhood is on its way back up, most of the homes are very,
very affordable.
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It's great to see another Yahoo!Group with old homes at heart.  I've
recently started a group called Historic Preservation Advocacy
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/historicpreservationadvocacy - sister
group to a Yahoo!Club called Historic Preservation Radicals
(http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/historicpreservationradicals).  Please
feel free to stop in and participate in either club.

I had a chance to "tour" Sean's home today at: http://www.gifford-
park-assoc.org/544_S._Liberty/index.html
I was rather impressed with all of the original details not only
still present, but in such great condition. Many of the homes of that
style and vintage in my area are often cut up into two or more
apartments, completely obliterating the interior details.(Walled in
stairs, etc.)
What I found of particular interest was the triple window over the
stairwell. I know in this area it is common for that period to have
an odd sized or odd shaped stained glass window at the stairs, but
I've never seen the triple. Maybe a regional thing?

I'll be checking out the rest of the community at the website
http://www.gifford-park-assoc.org and will be sure to add a link to
our group's homepage.

Sean, thanks for letting us in for the tour. Where's the cup for the
quarters?

Hi everyone,

I had joined this group more to lurk than post. I am not sure if many people
are here yet. I did get your message Mr. Moderator, so I am dropping a post
to let whoever is here know that I am too. You had asked for info, links
etc...Well, I live in Elgin, IL. Home of Elgin watch. We have a pretty good
neighborhood group. It is called the Gifford Park Association. We work to
improve the community and a large part of that improvement if through
regentrification (sp?). The URL for the Gifford Park Association is
http://www.gifford-park-assoc.org/

I personally live in/ sold my soul to/spend my time taking care of an 1892
Shingle Style home. Some people in my neighborhood call it a Shingle Style
Queen Anne. I am not so sure about that. If anyone would like to look and
comment...or just look, the URL for my homes web page is
http://www.gifford-park-assoc.org/544_S._Liberty/index.html

I would find any comments, positive or negative, very interesting.
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I have added a homepage for our discussion group at:
http://www.geocities.com/asiedydd/index.htm  so that we can add any
links that may be of interest. Does anyone have a site that you think
should be added?  Also, anyone have anything to post here? Anything?
How about sharing any stories about an old house.
At your service, Asiedydd

I look forward to discussing historic buildings with you at yahoo's
newest group. Please post any questions, comments, stories,
experiences or images to get the ball rolling.
-Asiedydd.