Our house was built in 1940, back when some of the roads in that part of Arlington were still packed dirt. Today, the house, along with the others on our street, marks the transition from the high density development of the orange line "strip" to the older neighborhoods of Arlington. We've met almost all of our neighbors now, and they've all been so happy that we are not builders planning to tear the place down and put up another million dollar home.
Our house has its original bathroom, kitchen cabinets, double hung wood windows, radiators, doorbell (my favorite!), and a mysterious red button in the kitchen that looked like a direct line to the White House, but turned out to be the old oil switch. We bought the house "as is" from it's second owners, who bought it themselves in the 1960's. They left their own marks on the place, including some spectacular wallpaper, a second bathroom in the finished attic, a new washer and stove, a perfectly fine dryer and fridge, window air conditioning units, lovely plants in the garden, a lot of fake wood paneling and linoleum, a moldy semi-finished basement, and a thick layer of nicotine coating every surface. This house, while not an eye-sore, was an appalling nose-sore. Linton's enthusiasm for the house from the beginning can probably be partially attributed to his not-nearly-as-subtle-as-mine sense of smell!
Here's a little tour of the place as it looked when we bought it. Sorry, no smell sample available! We've already done a lot of work on it, mostly aimed at making it smell if not nice, at least neutral. More updates to come!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
home sweet home
We are still pinching ourselves--did we really get away with buying this little cape in our dream neighborhood?
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