We lived behind the store, in 4 rooms on the first floor. The living room opened directly to the store. It sounds kind of crowded, having 4 people living in 4 rooms, but we had the store, cellar, and backyard. Second and third floors had 5 rooms each (one extra room above the store). Family lived on 2nd; other long-time tenant on 3rd.
Picture shows one of the fireplace mantels that I saved, before selling the building. I am using it in my house now. I live just around the corner (adjoining backyards) in 2-family house which our family owned, also. It's also an old house. All the woodwork is the same in both buildings. I have removed the paint and refinished the wood. Very long process, working on 15 doors and 12 windows on each floor.
These two old buildings (c. 1893, best I can tell) had very small bathrooms and pantries. I renovated one floor to make one larger bathroom, eliminating the pantry. I also like to wallpaper the rooms--actually, one of the easier jobs to do. I am currently working on a kitchen floor. Took out the linoleum, and painting the floor. The wood was not good enough to polyurethane, and I didn't want to put in laminate floor, so I decided to paint. Not as quick and easy as I had hoped, though.
