I'm disgusted

[countryford]

We lived in a 1949 brick home that had a closed floor plan. We both loved it. Last year we moved into a newer home that has an open floor plan. Even though the new house is bigger by about 600 sq feet, we still don't have enough all space. We like hanging things on the wall, which is hard when there isn't as much wall space. One other thing, my husband likes to watch tv while cooking in the kitchen. If I'm in the living room watching tv, because of the open floor plan, it is difficult for the two of us to be watching different things.

 

[dartman]

Dave, sounds like a bigger version of our old rental

Yep, whoever built it used whatever cheap crap they could get, maybe even used stuff from other houses.
Every drawer was falling apart and the tracks were junk, they fell off and apart every time you opened them. I tack nailed and glued them all back together and we tried to be careful when opening them.
I replaced the bathroom and kitchen faucets as they constantly made noise and leaked. The toilet always plugged and water hammered. I put 3 rebuild kits in it over the years. The water heater leaked about 2005 so I talked to the owner and bought a new one from Home Depot and installed it myself, he took it off my rent. A pipe blew out in the wall about 08 so talked to him again, cut a hole in the wall behind the dishwasher, cut out the bad part and soldered in a new section. Took a couple tries because it was down by the bottom of the framing but it finally held and I put a cheap peice of wood paneling over the hole a week after everything dried out. Put the dishwasher back in place and nothing showed plus now there is a access cover if it blows up again.
Both repairs were still fine when we moved in August 12. Did it because he kept our rent cheap and it saved time and hassle dealing with owner and like that.
Idiot finally gave us a no cause notice in may of 12 after jacking our rent 300 a month 3 years ealier then not paying the property taxes. Tried to buy it and he wanted 50k more then it would ever be worth so we bought this much bigger place for less then our rent was.

 

[letsgoblues]

Stan

The red knobs in your kitchen really make me smile. I like the door knob on the door and the table is so charming!!! Love that cheerful kitchen.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

re: Kitchen Lighting & More on Design:

Well glad that contrary to the title of this thread, that there are a lot of good kitchens talked about and shown!

One other annoying feature about my kitchen design is that it is used as a pass-through to get to the den...  And at night, I can usually bear w/ the darkness... 

 

But my wife: she will turn on the light! The drum one over the fridge--and leave it on for a long time...  We have a fairly high-wattage (7-watts, actually) night light over the fireplace, which lights the way for me but my wife needs the kitchen light on even though her passage is momentarily... (Those two lights go on separately)

 

So I like the light from the sink turned on, especially when I come in the house after work--the light is viewable from even though the big picture window in the foyer, even though that would make too many lights on (besides, when I do my dinner/midnight snack/"4th meal" I usually have that light on, anyway & w/o the drum; I work the late-afternoon/evening shift at work, and do like it!)...

 

But it is nice seeing that light--both on, or just the one over the sink rather than a dark cloud I get if just the drum which lights the main area is on... Maybe the other one needs to be more discreet--it was hard to find a good CFL for & incandescents were pretty useless if I could only go ONE 60w Max. whereas the drum can use TWO 60's... (I have 75CFL's: 1 in the singular-base, 2 in the drum, respectively; plenty of good lighting now!)

 

 

-- Dave

[this post was last edited: 11/3/2015-11:22]

 

[lordkenmore]

>Yep, whoever built it used whatever cheap crap they could get, maybe even used stuff from other houses.

I lived a few months in a house built using a healthy dose of "found" or "recovered" materials. There were things (like some doors) that dated back many decades. And part of the flooring apparently had come out of a grocery store.

Although the quality of construction was quite good. One of the more solid places I've lived. So the corners that really mattered were NOT cut.

That place was built by a Depression era couple--I assume that the fact they lived through the Depression might help explain the frugality of reusing old materials.

 

[dartman]

Well the builder of my old house was building them as dirt cheap starter homes clustered together on a flag lot, probably so he could sell them as a package deal to a slumlord looking for rentals.
They were glued together in 81 and my landlord bought all of them sometime in the 80s for 32k each.
I moved in in about 89 and paid 395 a month.
The owner was a cheapskate who thought he was a house and business genius so he hired crappy contractors that worked cheap and would install any crap he wanted them to.
My bedroom door frame was so out of square there was a 3 inch gap by the knob.
BUTmy rent stayed cheap so I fixed everything I could that was cheap enough myself out my own pocket and he pretty much left us alone.
I tried to buy it about 10 years in but even then he wanted quite a bit more then it was worth and my mortgage would have been 900 a month which didn't pencil out when I was paying 600 to rent it.
Eventually he outsmarted himself, pissed off his wife and raised the rent to 900 but I got hurt so had to shut up and stay.
House was no longer worth what they were asking, then 3 years later we got a no cause eviction as he'd been keeping our rent, not paying the property taxes, plus a million dollar construction loan was due and he didn't have the money.
Turned out to be the best thing he ever did to us because we bought this much bigger nicer house for less money then he wanted for our old one. Plus it was just when housing and interest rates had bottomed so best and cheapest time in recent history to buy.

 

[stan]

Guess I'm fortunate

in 1930s and in this part of Ca, Redwood was common for building. Most of the floors are Oak. I'm also fortunate in that both my house, and the house next door were built by local lumber Barron's. They did all of the milling for the homes built here in town during the late teens through the 50s.
House has all of its original doors and windows. Including the hardware, and skeleton keys.
Through the years I've done my best to keep things repaired and maintained. Just fixed the first and only window that the rope holding the sash weight broke.
House still has the knob and tube wiring, (has never failed) original furnace, and original phone, and wires! (not to the pole) original cast iron plumbing is still working with no leaks ..with the exception of the laundry sink, (plumber was a idiot and cracked the old cement sink) so that's relatively new.
A ounce of prevention can go a long way to keep these old house in good working order.
Maintaining roof, gutters, down spouts, repairing cracks, to keep water out, re painting wood windows, replacing glaze, oiling sides dose a lot to keep them solid and operational.
There's one bad spot that water was getting through and I didn't know it...leak is fixed but hope I wasn't too late.. We'l see

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Looking at my pic & w/ more thoughts, once again:

The singular light needs to be more discreet, as in over the sink & behind a facade...  That is often how you see it in most kitchens... (Including the one I grew up with, though in the case only I would still use it...)

 

That way the drum will be more centered, but I still get irked over how it's over-used, since there's no efficient way to get to the den w/o it having to be turned on--my wife will flick the switch for it just walking over to our dining table, by which there is another passage to the den & more direct to a step that leads to the almost sunken-room, but we seem to cut corners running diagonally through the galley...

 

 

-- Dave