Exploring and old house

[wdfifteen]

MrsWD has had her eye on this house since we moved to the area. She finally tracked down the owner and got permission to explore it.



We don't know when it was built or why it was abandoned.



It was a magnificent place in its day.






The floors are in incredible condition. Joints are still tight and they are still flat.



Someone put a lot of effort (and money) into the woodwork.

[kach22i]

Dude, that thing must be haunted.

[wdfifteen]

The balcony was too rotten for me to step out onto. The view from the balcony must have been magnificent when the fields are green.



Every room has a fireplace and some built-in cabinets. The finish on the wood is in remarkably good condition.



Part of the roof is so rotten some of the corbels have simply fallen off.



Passageways in the basement made it look like catacombs.



The "thermostat" for the coal furnace is in the main hallway. A continuous chain runs through the control, and down to the damper on the furnace.

[wdfifteen]

There was weird, random stuff sitting around all over the place.







A large grotto on the landing had a creepy, purple angle-doll thing in it.

[wdfifteen]

There is a large summer kitchen behind the house. You can see the remains of the huge cooking fireplace.



The spring still runs in the large springhouse near the house.

[Racerbvd]

That is cool.. Are you going to make an offer on it??

[Sooner or later]

Nice

[jwasbury]

Cool photos. Shame to see a beautiful place like that abandoned and left to rot.

[kach22i]

If it was part of the Underground Railroad maybe some funding can be found to save it.

Do you think it's that old?


Ohio Was Not Home-Free For Runaway Slaves
https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/citywiseblog/cincinnati-curiosities-runaway-slaves/

Cincinnati has earned its reputation as an important way station on the Underground Railroad, but we must remember that slave traffic flowed both ways at the Ohio River. Some of the slaves who passed through Cincinnati were not headed north to freedom, but south to bondage.

[LWJ]

Very cool!

[herr_oberst]

What a cool old place. I'm sure someone has their eye on all that woodwork for the high end remodeling market.

(I double-dog-dare you to explore that at midnight!)

[stevej37]

The shingled roof doesn't look too bad. Someone must have lived there in the last 30-50 years or so.

[Jims5543]

Do not watch the movie The Haunting of Hill House.

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[stomachmonkey]

Nice house.

They can be found and had for practically pennies.

Making it liveable again, that’s gonna cost ya.

Not a project I’d entertain during retirement.

[HardDrive]

Sitting here thinking through what it would cost to make it liveable. Sort of depends on how original you keep it. I'm thinking $250-300k depending on how original and the level of trim in the kitchens and baths.

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Nice house.

They can be found and had for practically pennies.

Making it liveable again, that’s gonna cost ya.

Not a project I’d entertain during retirement.

I'm a long way from retirement, and I would not take that on. If it had some kind of family history, maybe.

[ckelly78z]

That house looks like the old house in the movie "IT" where the crazy clown lives !

[look 171]

I rebuilt a Greene and Greene about 14 years ago that was in similar condition. The area turned into a rat hole and the owner rented to a lot of people all living in there at the same time. New owner bought it during early stage of gentrification and hired us to redo it. Fun, but lost lots of hair over it due to the historical folks getting in the way.

After so many years I still get a little excited restoring a mess like that. A project like that must have the right crew who like taking apart the little sihts, rebuilt them and putting them back. Not many trades guys like to do that. If that house was in LA, once restored, it would be sold within a couple weeks.


Hey, I know, sell a couple of early cars and sink it into it and drain your bank account too.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by look 171

I rebuilt a Greene and Greene about 14 years ago that was in similar condition. The area turned into a rat hole and the owner rented to a lot of people all living in there at the same time. New owner bought it during early stage of gentrification and hired us to redo it. Fun, but lost lots of hair over it due to the historical folks getting in the way.

That was the first thing I thought off. I know someone who went through this. No one gives a rip if it falls apart from neglect but the moment you purchase it and try to make it livable, all the historic and environmental wackos will be coming out with legal documents to tell you what you can't do. PPI of the legal side of things is a must.

[look 171]

Those fukers came out and begged me to let them be involve. I pushed back with a vengeance. I want them off my tail but they kept telling me that my company name will be in this and that publications. Screw that, but the dumb ass owner's wife wanted fame so they let em' in to document the built. I researched so much about those architects and did as much as I can out of my shop to build windows and a couple of simple doors. Still I can't seem to satisfy them. They complained about the thickness of the door casing and base board. They btiched about the metal drawer slides instead of old fashion wood on wood slides. We bought 4/4" stock and ripped the to a specific width to match, but those guys wanted a true 7/8" instead of 3/4" so they gave me a hard time. I said, if you are willing to pay for it, fine, I can mill out whatever will make them smile, by then the owner was tired of them so we stuck with 3/4" base and case. WE changed out the typical turn of the century faucet to a modern one. One that you can actually use. The old was a hot faucet on the left, another on the right. Not very user friendly. This older lady caught that and was just about had a siht fit over it. She demanded that I have those siht#y faucets rebuilt and re-chrome. What a bunch of jobless, useless people. I don't think any of those guys any mentioned my name anywhere. Thank goodness for that or else all the nut jobs will be calling me to fix their leaking turn of the century toilets or their period correct switch.


Keep em' away as far as you can