Tag: Old house
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2019 Wrap-up
To our home’s successor, The second half of 2019 was both slow moving and eventful. In June of 2019, after a particularly difficult week at work, Matt suggested we go up to the roof and watch the sunset over a beer. We came back down those narrow widow walk steps as a newly engaged couple.…
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First big yard cleanup
To our home’s successor, 2019 was the year of low-budget street appeal. With some major electrical work underway, we decided to commit ourselves to tackling the yard. The entire property was and still is extremely overrun with invasive species. The hedgeline along the street was extremely overgrown and consisted of some MAJOR bittersweet vines that…
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Electrical Work
To our home’s successor, In May of 2019 we started our “big dig”. Our first concern with the house was the outdated wiring. There are, of course, conflicting opinions on knob-and-tube but we are of the opinion that it should be removed as it can be considered a fire hazard. We were lucky to find…
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Downstairs bathroom
To our home’s successor, We spent the first couple years exclusively using the downstairs bathroom as it was in a better state than the upstairs bathroom despite it’s inconvenience. After showering several times, we started to notice the state of the walls. There was (and at this time, still isn’t a ventilation system in either…
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Primary Bedroom
To our home’s successors, We started making mistakes in May of 2019 by gutting the horsehair plaster walls. Let me back up just a bit, and share why we started in this room… Need I say more? Our experience was extremely limited, so we started by taking down wallpaper… this was a waste of time,…
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Getting Started and Moving In
To our home’s successors, The list is long, but we had to start somewhere. I took the train in from Boston and started to clean one weekend while Matt was away. I felt it was essential to clean as much as I could prior to our move-in and unpacking. A few of the rooms were…
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History Part II
What began as generic research as to who lived in the house turned into a fun investigation… McGrath Henry McGrath (1846-1915) held various jobs but we believe was primarily in the Coal industry. Census records during the McGrath ownership: 1900- Henry McGrath, headMarie D Jordan, servantStephen A Cronan, servantSophia Larson, servant 1910-Henry McGrath, headStephen Cronan,…
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History Part I
To our home’s successors, We’ve spent countless hours trying to research what we could on the history of this house. To save you from the work, here’s a download of what we’ve discovered so far. We were previously told the house was built in 1870- this was incorrect. After drafting this letter and reconfirming a…
Letters to our House Successors 