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Post by Bonobo on Feb 9, 2011 20:11:28 GMT 1
I think we're okay. Our house was well-built in the 1960's by a reputable builder who did not skimp on good materials. It is a "Cape Cod" style house with a rather steep-pitched roof. 
The next big boom in Cape style houses came in the 1950s and early 1960s during a building boom that resulted in street after Cape lined street in new neighborhoods. This was the last period when solid, quality building materials were a matter of course even in starter homes – plaster walls, hardwood floors, and fully tiled baths. The cape at right was built in Arlington in 1957.Yup, that's my house! Except we have an attached three-season room (we call it a porch) on the right end of our house. In the front, we have three windows together (no spaces between) to the right of the front door, and two windows together to the left of the front door. On the left side of our house, on the first floor, where this house has three windows, we have two, and upstairs, we have the two windows like this one, but the windows are next to each other with no space between them. I love my house! It's both cozy and practical! |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 9, 2011 20:18:59 GMT 1
Yup, that's my house! Except we have an attached three-season room (we call it a porch) on the right end of our house. In the front, we have three windows together (no spaces between) to the right of the front door, and two windows together to the left of the front door. On the left side of our house, on the first floor, where this house has three windows, we have two, and upstairs, we have the two windows like this one, but the windows are next to each other with no space between them. I love my house! It's both cozy and practical! The right side porch like this?:  Windows without spaces like here?:  What about the neighbourhood? Are there other houses around or is it in the wilderness? Is there a street? What facilities? |
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 13, 2011 14:19:07 GMT 1
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Post by jeanne on Feb 13, 2011 18:02:59 GMT 1
Yup, that's my house! Except we have an attached three-season room (we call it a porch) on the right end of our house. In the front, we have three windows together (no spaces between) to the right of the front door, and two windows together to the left of the front door. On the left side of our house, on the first floor, where this house has three windows, we have two, and upstairs, we have the two windows like this one, but the windows are next to each other with no space between them. I love my house! It's both cozy and practical! The right side porch like this?: It is very similar to this one, but more "porchy" because we have many large windows. When the house was originally built, the porch was actually a carport . The original owners enclosed it by simply putting 2"x4" boards directly on the asphalt of the carport, then building "walls" of plywood about a yard high, then many large plate glass windows. They obviously did it illegally, following NO building codes. After we had lived there awhile, the walls began to rot and sink, and the windows were warping. In 2001 we had it torn down and rebuilt the correct way. Since it was a carport, it is at the head of our driveway, so it has a door in the front and a window on either side of the door. Along the side are 4 large windows, and in the back another door flanked by two windows leading to our backyard. It is well-insulated and we could easily winterize it by adding a heating system out there, but right now it's just a 3-season room. It's my favorite place to be in the summer. Yes, like those windows to the right of the front door. Our street is a dead-end street with one short dead-end lane off of it (the lane has only 1 house on it.) The houses along my street and the lane (10 in all) are mostly similar to mine (capes) or they are ranch houses (all rooms on one floor). Our road runs from Main Street down to the banks of a major river, so it is a lovely spot. All the houses on the road and lane were built during the same time period (early to mid-sixties) except for one house that was built right at the end of our road (in the 80's), right on the banks of the river. Because it was built in a flood plain (bad idea) it has a tall cinder block foundation, built in a manner to allow the flooding river to simply flow under the house and not flood any basement, or cause structural damage. It's a large, expensive house compared to all our other rather modest homes in the neighborhood, and the issues caused by the flooding are major. The river has flooded about 3 times in the past 10 years and those people have to evacuate when it does because their electricity must be turned off for safety reasons. Since the land rises gradually away from the river, my house has not yet been threatened too severely by the floods, but who knows what will happen in the future. Most lot sizes in my neighborhood are about one quarter of an acre. Zoning laws in recent years have greatly increased the size lot needed to build, proportionately increasing the cost of homes in my town.Since we are so close to the river, town sewerage systems were put in place during the 70's when the federal government was channeling money to clean up the river which had been polluted from the hayday of the New England textile and shoe factories built along that river. Most homes in the rest of the town have septic systems, not town sewerage. We also have town water where we are, while much of our semi-rural town has private wells. Some homes in our neighborhood have natural gas for heat and cooking, while others, like mine, heat with oil and have electric stoves. Our trash is picked up weekly, paid for by our town taxes, and the recyclables are picked up every second week. All-in-all, a very pleasurable place to reside! |
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