‘ Many Historians use the poem now known as Twas the Night Before Christmas to mark the point where American Christmas began. Christmas has been celebrated in North America since Europeans began to arrive, but it was in the 19th century that uniquely American innovations and combinations of older European traditions can be clearly demarcated. […]
“I had not been seated many minutes by the comfortable heath … before I found myself as much at home as if I had been one of the family.” Old Christmas, Washington Irving 1819-20 For me, one the most enduring enticements of the year, stretching all the way back to my childhood, is the enjoyment […]
The Wild World of Flipping The best house I’ve ever inspected was flipped. The worst house I’ve ever inspected was flipped. In both cases, the work was done by a person proclaiming to be a flipper, but this is also where the similarities ended. One house was a 1930s Craftsman in which every single mechanical […]
The mountain – valley juxtaposition as a metaphor is, well, as old as the hills. It’s very accessible and can be readily experienced, and it exploits a meaningful ambivalence. As Winston Churchill put it, “Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them”. In other words, a different challenge and reward can be found in each. Valleys […]
“I mean, that’s why they put in extras.” – An explanation I was once given as to why having multiple broken trusses wasn’t a problem. When I write a home inspection report, most of my recommendations are limited to a sentence or two – maybe three of four if especially egregious damage was found. My […]
“The silence, which again reigned, made her ashamed of her late fears, and she believed, that her imagination had deluded her, or that she had heard one of those unaccountable noises, which sometimes occur in old houses.” – The Mysteries of Udolpho, Anne Radcliffe Historic Homes: When I write a blog, it is often the […]
“Faith, we may put up our pipes, and be gone” – Romeo and Juliet, IV.V.2756[1] It is easy to forget that washing machines weren’t standard appliances until the 1950s. The dryer lagged behind a bit, but could be found in most homes by the 1960s. The days of spending a majority of the morning scrubbing […]
How long should a house last? Fifty years? Ehh. That seems a bit short for something that comes with a price tag of several hundred thousand dollars. One hundred years, maybe? Not bad. This is longer than the average life expectancy. A couple hundred years? This is the goal, right? Shouldn’t a house last as […]
The image is iconic. An old fashioned wood frame window, miniature snow drifts neatly cresting in the bottom corners of the panes, the rest of the glass artfully decorated by Jack Frost, all juxtaposed against warm reassuring radiance from a cozy living room or den. In visual depictions, the wintry window is the plane that […]
Appearance For home inspectors, it is always Christmas. … and Halloween …and the Fourth of July Really any holiday you can imagine. For those of us who amble through attics and creep through crawlspaces where folks file their holiday furnishings, it is not unusual to find ourselves between an inflatable Grinch and a sheaf of […]