February 24, 2009

12:33 a.m.

Eating Too Many Carbs Late at Night and Hanging around on Facebook Not Going to Bed Yet

I went to Rose's to do laundry and tax stuff, and when Marc got home from work it was pretty close to dark. We procured flashlights and went out into the bitter cold for an Empty House Next Door Recon.

He told me the guy who owned it for many decades was in the drycleaning business. The house originally was built by the main street like the others, but in the '40s he had it moved back up the hill. He had to do a lot of excavation to level and clear some of his woods, and the earth he dug up was brought up the hill to make a place for the house. He planned to erect a commercial building on the cleared part, which would be more accessible from the main street, and there he was going to build and expand his dry cleaning empire.

And then the town denied his permit.

All that work and money, and he couldn't do it.

"That's enough to make you bitter," I commented.

We couldn't see much in the semi darkness, and most of the windows had shades pulled down, but we did get some details from the outside and I got a couple of peeks into the house. The place is a wreck inside -- stuff just everywhere. But Marc said the lines of the house outside are straight and the roof looks good -- and the front of the house, which neither of us had seen before, was magnificent.

Under the sad, peeling paint, there are pillars and carved detail work that are really breathtaking. And leaded glass windows on either side of the front door. Marc pointed out that all the molding and carved work and beadboarded corners are original -- maybe from 1860 or so.

The main part of the house is the same plan as Rose and Marc's. Like theirs, an addition was put on at some point, but it's a different kind of addition so we don't know what exactly is in it, except a bathroom I could spy through one window, with an original claw-footed bathtub.

He surmised that nothing had ever been updated inside, and that it probably needs insulation. There are no storm windows either. And the outside looks pretty sad with the old paint. All these things could work in the favor of someone wanting to buy it, of course.

That's about all we could see, except that Marc suggested the knoll it's on should be regraded so that the land slopes down from the house a bit. He thought there was probably an issue with water pooling around the house because it sits in a bit of a hollow and we could see where he'd dug a little trench and put a pipe in to drain the water away. There were newish gutters around the roof.

They're going to keep their ears open with certain people in the town who are in the know about things, and hope that they're among the first to know what the guy's son decides. The son lives in Tennessee so he probably won't be moving in. If it takes a year for the estate to get sorted out that would be just fine.

It's a beautiful property.

Now, very tired and boy, my lower back is aching from all the driving last weekend and sleeping in shifty beds.