Life goals

"If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee) 07/16/2019 at 22:43 • Filed to: None

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My hometown has neighborhoods full of these beautiful Victorian homes with turrets and balconies and wrap-around porches and I just want to buy one and paint it an obnoxious color and have it be my forever home. These are two of the tamer ones.

smobgirl > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 07/16/2019 at 22:54

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Me too. I have a “Victorian” house but it’s a dollhouse size compared to those. Someday I’ll pull the asbestos siding and put something obnoxiously period-correct up.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > smobgirl 07/16/2019 at 23:02

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The backup plan is a traditional colonial farmhouse like the one I grew up in.

AestheticsInMotion > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 07/16/2019 at 23:25

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The interior layouts of those places are so weird. For a literal box, the number of strange hallways, nooks and crannys, and staircases never ceases to amaze me

MrDakka > AestheticsInMotion 07/16/2019 at 23:31

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All the better to repel British home invasions

smobgirl > AestheticsInMotion 07/16/2019 at 23:32

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There’s an instagram with historic floorplans that I follow and yeah, there’s some weird stuff. My favorite game is trying to guess where more recent owners would have installed more bathrooms.

shop-teacher > smobgirl 07/16/2019 at 23:33

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Just cover the asbestos with real siding. You don't want to mess with removing it.

smobgirl > shop-teacher 07/16/2019 at 23:35

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There’s already another layer of siding beneath it, I don’t want the moisture problems of installing yet another’s layer on top. Asbestos siding isn’t that bad as long as you pull off the shingles whole. (I’ve been through basic abatement/testing training)

AestheticsInMotion > smobgirl 07/16/2019 at 23:43

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Ohhhhh do share. That sounds like a great way to kill some time! 

shop-teacher > smobgirl 07/16/2019 at 23:45

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Gotcha :)

ranwhenparked > AestheticsInMotion 07/16/2019 at 23:46

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The really old ones that have to squeeze the rooms and stairs around the  gigantic central chimney are especially interesting inside.

AestheticsInMotion > ranwhenparked 07/16/2019 at 23:48

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They always seem so big inside, and as if you could live there for a month and still find new secrets 

Deal Killer - Powered by Focus > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 07/16/2019 at 23:53

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They are supposed to be painted in bright colors. When they were built, paint was expensive, so you showed how much money you spent on your home by painting it in fairly vivid colors. Blues, reds and yellows were the most common. Only in the past 6 0+ years have these homes been painted dull white.

ranwhenparked > smobgirl 07/16/2019 at 23:54

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I thought I was the only one who did that. Sometimes its a fun creative exercise to see where you could maybe fit in the required bathrooms without taking away too much living space. Fortunately, a lot of the  larger late Victorian homes often had a nursery or sewing room next to the master bedroom. 

Forrest > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 07/17/2019 at 00:53

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What town are the houses in the picture located in?

smobgirl > AestheticsInMotion 07/17/2019 at 01:22

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https://instagram.com/floorplans_of_the_past  

I think that’s it, if it doesn’t link the account is floorplans of the past.

(My ONLY bathroom was almost certainly built as  a pantry - our neighborhood didn’t have running water until several decades after the house was built)

arl > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 07/17/2019 at 06:56

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Love those old old houses.

They are, however,  a major black-hole of time and money.

Sovande > smobgirl 07/17/2019 at 07:35

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My parent’s house (and about 4 others on their street) is a catalog home from Montgomery Ward. Basically a kit home where all the lumber and supplies were packed at a factory and then shipped by rail to the town where it was to be built. A local builder would then assemble all the pieces and your hom e would be built.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Forrest 07/17/2019 at 13:04

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Ware & Hardwick, MA. Mill and farm towns,  respectively.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > AestheticsInMotion 07/17/2019 at 13:09

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There’s a whole two story wing in back that’s not visible that was added about a hundred years after the house was built. It has a different ceiling height than the main house, so walking into the addition from downstairs you step up, and walking into th e addition from upstairs you step down.

There’s also a bathroom upstairs that you have to step up into, I assume it was added after the fact and they just raised the floor to make all the plumbing fit easily.

AestheticsInMotion > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 07/17/2019 at 18:45

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These are exactly the kinds of thing I expect to find when viewing these types of houses.

I wouldn't personally want to live in one of these, but I'm glad they exist.