Who are we?

[sooth]

Well I've been a member for quite a while, so I thought I'd share a few personal details.

I'm JC.
I'm 27 (born 1983).
I live in Cornwall, Ontario (Canada).
Single (gay).
No pets.
My first home is a lovely 1923 Foursquare in need of a bunch of cosmetic repairs (mouldings, PAINT, floors, new kitchen and bath, new doors, etc, etc, etc).
I collect and restore fine antique clocks as a hobby (see link below), but I work as a cabinetmaker making high-end custom kitchens and baths (see link to work album).
I also love antiques, early lighting (whale oil lamps, oil lamps, etc).
I have too many other hobbies to list.

Me:


The Money Pit:


Links:

Clock collection (SOME of them):
http://www.angelfire.com/me5/clockman/main.html
Some work photos (which has not been updated in ages):
http://s271.photobucket.com/albums/jj15 ... woodworks/

[cberhomengarden]

We were both previously living in Queens (that's part of NYC to you non-Easterners). We met at our local pub and bonded over the Mets.

Sorry to have lost another OHWer from Queens to NJ, and a Mets fan to boot!

[McCall]

JC
Those Clocks are fabulous!

I am the same way about old sewing machines. I have 39

[KristenS]

Sorry to have lost another OHWer from Queens to NJ

Yeah... we decided we didn't want to spend three quarters of a million dollars for a paved-over front yard, one parking spot, and two shared walls. Once we saw what our money could get us even just a little bit outside of the city, we were hooked. And I can still take the bus from my corner right into 41st Street.

We could have moved further East instead, deeper into Queens or even to the Island (where my man is from originally). But his commute is to NJ. Two or three bridges plus city traffic does not a happy man make!

[Sekhmet]

Hi guys! Since I have been spamming the boards lately, maybe I should introduce myself here.

My birthday is this weekend – I will be 34. My husband and I have been married for 8 years, together for 14 (wow, been a while since I did the math).

We have a little girl who is 16 months old. She was born in Edinburgh, Scotland (on the NHS!). We spent 3 years there with my company, and we just returned here to the St. Louis area in November. We loved it over there and would have stayed longer, but when Lily came along, we really started missing our family. I work for a large medicine & science publishing company, in multimedia production. My husband is certified to teach (history and English), and he’s done a lot of work with troubled kids (violence, drugs, etc), but for now, since moving back to the US, he’s being a stay-at-home dad while I’m playing the part of sole breadwinner. After we close on this house, money will be tight! But we’ll stick it out this way for as long as we can.

In no particular order, I love travel, poker, RPGs, whisky, horror movies, horseback riding, animals... I used to have a 180-gallon saltwater fish aquarium (6’x2’x2’) and was REALLY into those for a few years – talk about a money pit. As is sometimes said among saltwater buffs, “Want to make a small fortune with a saltwater tank? Start with a large fortune.” At least with a house, some of that investment might get paid back some day!

We’ve been living with my mom since moving back from Scotland. We own another house, but we have been renting it out for the past 3.5 years. We have great tenants who love the house and desperately want to stay in it. It’s a great house, in an up & coming “New Urbanist” development (we bought it off-plan, new construction)… But, on a whim, we started looking around for another house to buy, with thoughts of keeping that one as a rental. It IS the time to buy, after all. We had just about given up the search and resolved to kick our tenants out when their lease is up, when this house came out of nowhere, up for short sale… The selling agent told us we stole it from several other buyers and offers (they were actually in the midst of negotiating another contract when we came along). Because we weren’t tied down by another house, making us totally flexible on closing date, and had loan pre-approval, we were in a great position to pounce – we did. We acted very aggressively and decisively, and it seems to have worked out (fingers crossed). It has happened VERY fast because it is pre-foreclosure – we made our offer on April 29th, and we will close this coming Tuesday if all goes to plan (still waiting for the seller’s damned bank to OK the short sale!), so about 2.5 weeks from contract to closing.

This is our third house, and I’m very excited. As there is just the three of us (just how we like it!), it’s more room than we need, which will be novel for us. Hubby is a history buff, and we both love beautiful, quality workmanship, which we think this house is full of. (It once took us months to buy new sofas, because like 95% of them are CRAP – it really amazes me how even most “nice,” aka expensive, new furniture is made nearly as much for planned obsolescence as computers are.) We love brick, and we MUST have hardwood; while house-shopping, anything without hardwood was not even given a second look, unless it was otherwise so awesome that we couldn’t resist AND the price would allow for us to put in our own.

Hmm, I guess those are enough random facts about me. I’m very much enjoying it here so far. I have an obsessive personality, and this house has quickly become my newest obsession!

[nezwick]

Hi everybody, my name is Alan and I am 22. I have always been a lover of old houses (used to drool over the gorgeous Victorians in my home town), old cars, etc etc. We currently live in a cheap 1bed/1bath apartment which we have severely outgrown.


My girlfriend Nikki and I just bought a house which was built around 1880 - I'm hoping to find out the exact date by researching the deeds and tax records. We love cats and have three adults of our own, plus we work with the local humane society to "foster" young kittens until they are adoptable.


I work in IT for a local non-profit which serves three counties. My supervisor and I manage our main office/datacenter, 7 satellite offices, with about 100 computers total. I am an Apple fanboy.


My other project (read: obsession) is a 1991 Ford Escort Pony, which I am still in the process of getting back on the road. I am a huge fan of econoboxes from the nineties, and I probably will never own a new car. As a daily driver, the car gets 41+ MPG. I also plan to participate in autocross someday. I do all my own mechanic work (sometimes with my dad's help) and have done several engine/transmission swaps.


Everybody thinks I am strange and eccentric because I am "so young" yet I hate new things. I have grown to respect and appreciate the craftsmanship and quality of old things. New buildings, cars, appliances, etc. are mostly cheap garbage and won't stand the test of time.


I don't know a whole lot about construction or plumbing yet, but I have been doing tons of research. I have basic drafting skills and a very good understanding of electricity and home wiring.

[catperson]

Hi! My name is Sue and I'm 63. I'm not at all reluctant to tell my age, as I feel I have earned every year! I worked as a social worker for almost 30 years after college, and took early retirement as soon as I was eligible. Just felt the need to move on to something else. I have been fortunate to find a second career that I love. I am an adult education teacher working with people who are studying for the GED test. What a rewarding job to see people change their lives!

My husband Eddie and I have been married 30 years. He has worked in the mental health, social work, and education fields, and is currently retired, but working part time at Lowe's garden center. We both love old houses and have had our current 1898 house for 25 years, plus another built in 1885 which we rent out.

I enjoy reading, history, am a (liberal) political junkie, and love cats, as you can tell from my name at the top. I also love antiques and anything involving old houses. One of my favorite cities is New Orleans.

I have lived in St. Joseph, MO for 32 years. It is a historic city with beautiful old architecture. At the end of the 19th century, St. Joseph was booming, and many wealthy people built homes here. House prices are very inexpensive here, especially for old houses, and we have a low cost of living in general. We are only about 50 minutes away from a larger city (Kansas City) and only 30 miles from Kansas City International Airport. If anyone wants to buy an inexpensive old house, come to St. Joseph. We have several local historic neighborhoods, including three (I think) neighborhoods on the National Register. Our population is about 76,000 and since we are close to a larger city, we can get plenty of culture less than an hour away. Here you can avoid the high crime and traffic problems of a larger city. We have plenty of local amenities and good schools. You should check us out! (I am always trying to get people to move here and help save our old architecture!)

I love Old House Web!

[senegal_jen]

Howdy neighbors...

I am so sorry, I never realized until this morning that I hadn't officially introduced myself...even after mouthing off for a better part of a year on OHW. Pardon my bad manners!

I'm Jen (duh), in my early forties (gulp) and have lived in Boston area for the last 17 years (bigger gulp). Originally a small town girl from the great state of Ohio, but I left my dying manufacturing town when I went to college and haven't looked back. Currently a manager for a Big4 consulting company (IT software), but in my previous lives I've been an Peace Corps volunteer (hence the moniker), opera singer, bike tour company owner, non-profit grant writer, bike tour guide, and catering/resturant manager. Guess you can say I'm easily bored

My love of old houses goes back to my childhood...I was lucky enough to grow up in a smallish city that was the home of Ohio Brass and White Westinghouse, so grew up with gorgeous architecture all around me. We lived just out of town in a turn of the century farmhouse, which my dad rebuilt with his own hands. A great story is that during the blizzard of '78, my parents asked the 4 kids to line up against the wall with our hands behind us. Usually that meant we were in trouble. Instead, they put something in our hands and said 'start hitting'. It was hammers, and we spent the 3 snowbound days demo-ing a wall. Between this, and my uncle being an early 'flipper', I've guess I've been renovating houses forever.

Moved to Boston after living overseas, both because my sister lived here and because I loved the historic nature of New England. My first apartment here was in a c1900 brick building (replete with farmhouse sink and clawfoot tub), then helped my ex-bf fix up his c1930 two family, and finally bought a c1910 condo in Boston proper. It was love at first site (the house, not the bf), even though it had sat empty the better part of 4 years (including ivy growing inside the LR windows). I was lucky enough to renovate the kitchen and bath, but soon grew tired of condo living...particularly since I was an active triathlete at the time and spent most of my time outside the city either swimming or cycling. Plus, I wanted to put all my knowledge (including all the knowledge I gained dating a master plumber for 7 years) on a property that was fully my own!

For over 2 years, I looked for inexpensive, good-boned, houses just outside of Boston. That, for those of you outside New England, is like looking for a needle in a haystack..as they either goregously renovated (and way out of my price range), tiny c.1950 capes, unrepairable dumps, or on busy roads. After having several offers fall through, I found the smelly house..a cute tiny farmhouse on an incredible piece of property just 7 miles from downtown Boston. The catch? It smelled like animal (go figure). I bought it anyways, naively thinking it would be easy to fix. 18 months and $20k later, the smell on the first floor and basement is finally eradicated, and I will most likely be able to move in this month and start the real renovations.

While I'm not working and watching my house give me gray hairs, I want to start training for triathlons again (3 major surgeries in 6 years will throw you off track) and hope to start singing semi-professionally again (with the Boston Symphony's resident chorus). Trying to balance these with home renovations will be tricky, but I am so grateful to have found wonderful people full of expert wisdom on this site.

Thanks all!

Jen

[catfeathers]

Hi, new here. My name is Pam, my husband and I bought this old house last summer. I'm a seamstress for an interior designer and he drives a school bus. When we met around twenty years ago he had a little girl and I had a little boy. He went into the military and we got married and spent 3 years in Germany (saw some beautiful old buildings there). We came home with a VW and a baby boy.
My stepdaughter lives with her grandparents on her mother's side and is helping them raise her aunt. Yep, aunt, not niece, lol. Her grandparents adopted a relative's little girl that they had been raising. My older son lives near us and is training to be an EMT, he has a 4 year old daughter. She's cute as a button and mean as a striped snake, lol. The German baby is still living with us. He's been home schooled for several years and should graduate next year. His transcript will definitely have some home repair related courses on it.
This old house we bought sits on close to an acre of nearly flat land that doesn't flood easily which is rare around here. From looking in the attic and under the house my sons have come to the conclusion that every room in this house is an addition to the original one room shack in the front corner.


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[OldLadyGreen]

Hello everyone!

My name is Tami
I'm 26(27 in Sept)
I'm married, his name is Mat and is 30yrs old.

This is our first home that we have owned together, my first home ever, his second but also his first old home.
We have recently(still in closing) purchased a 1920 or older farmhouse. It has everything we need, space, locations, schools, neighborhood, sloping floors and unlevel rooms!

I have 3 boys from a previous marriage, he has 2 boys from his first marriage and we have a daughter together.

I am currently a stay at home mom, but have an associates degree in Veterinary Technology as a surgical Tech. I specialize in equine(horse) medicine, but also work on other animals too.

The hubby is an adjuster and works as a mechanic for heavy machinery.

We have 2 cats (AJ 17yrs old and a spitting image of garfield in both looks and appetite 18lbs!) and (Tia she is 7yrs old and is the queen of the roost)

We also have 2 Saint Bernards Zane 19months old and 180lbs and Athena 2yrs old at 120lbs.

We too hare homebodies, we love staying home and cuddling on the couch watching all the DIY shows HGTV, House Hunters ect..

I am originally from Michigan and Mat is from Maine.

We are still currently in our 500 sq ft duplex we rent, and we cannot wait to get out of this place lol way to cramped.