The Historic District

Hello all,

I finally have a couple minutes to say hello from North Carolina. I am new one year to North Carolina and very recently into a home in a National Historic District. My original plan was for a more recent home on a 1/2 acre but the real estate market turned out a bit too crazy and competitive. Many homes in this area are 1950s forward but newer subdivisions exist as well. I had my sights on something 1950's or newer but I've always loved old homes. I happened to look at an early century home in a more quiet town and ended up buying the home.

More on this later as we are headed out to buy a chainsaw! The avatar is of a weekend home I owned some years back in a small Alabama town. It was an 1800s home and had I think the County's first school building on the site.

Very happy to be here.

Welcome, Cajun, and thanks for your earlier message on my introduction. Congratulations on your new house. I hope we can see a photo of it. I don't know about the others, but if it needs work, before-and-after pictures are both interesting and inspirational. Tell us more about the house and what you plan to do with it. Your house being on the national register, it must have some historical significance, which makes me even more eager to see it!

Manalto wrote:Welcome, Cajun, and thanks for your earlier message on my introduction. Congratulations on your new house. I hope we can see a photo of it. I don't know about the others, but if it needs work, before-and-after pictures are both interesting and inspirational. Tell us more about the house and what you plan to do with it. Your house being on the national register, it must have some historical significance, which makes me even more eager to see it!

Thanks. I plan photos soon. The house, as with any house that is not newly built, has things we need to do to it. It was, however, supposed to have been maintained for the price we paid. The house itself is not on the National Register, the neighborhood is. I can do what I want with the interior and exterior of the house. The prior owner sadly took down the garage that was originally built with the house. I would have restored that. The house exterior, as it exists, otherwise contributes architecturally to the District and is listed in the National Register as being part of the District. My plans are to maintain the exterior as best as I can so it can continue to contribute and be a part of the District.

In some ways, my past Alabama house was much more interesting. I wanted to carefully excavate around the property but never got a chance to. Since that house had a very old school house that was approached from the backside of the property (now wooded), it might have been interesting to see what could have been discovered. The house had multiple fireplaces that were blocked off when I bought the house. It had two clawfoot tubs and several chimneys. The town was sadly in an area in which the town government seemed to intentionally stave off any kind of progress that could provide jobs. The area was very financially depressed. I was never able to relocate there and eventually had to sell the house.

The current house has really good bones, a nice simple house. Hardwood flooring, non-functioning fireplace (capped off chimney), one of two chimneys was removed and can be seen in the attic. Another old wood burning stove had been removed and its metal stovepipe removed from the house (all of this prior to my buying the house). For the most part, this is not a house to actually restore. I can discuss projects I have done in the Alabama house and a (I think it was 1940's) house in N. Florida that I helped expose and refinish the hardwood flooring there. As we go along with maintenance of the current house I am hoping to discuss older houses and various approaches to keeping them up.

Hey Cajun_In_NC, welcome to The District!

Welcome! Even if the home you currently have wasn't left in a restorative state in the "it's there but altered/beat up" sense for the interior, your enthusiasm for old homes may likely lead you to make some decisions that modern home owners might not. It'll be interesting to see how that unfolds over time for you.

We do love pictures around here, even modest ones. You might not have had time to explore the site more, but there is a free gallery feature for posting your own images. You can create folders and sub folders from your user control panel.

We lived in North Carolina for three years, mostly in Franklinton. I 'm not familiar with Triad, but you might be near one of the branches of a store I used to work at, Ed McKay's Used Books & More. Fantastic store if you like reading. They also have records, DVDs, and game systems. Darn, when I went to check their locations, it looks like the one I used to work at has been closed just this year (Raleigh). That's a bummer, as I really liked working there.

I'm also looking forward to hearing stories of your past house too.

Lily left the valley wrote:I 'm not familiar with Triad...

That's Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point; there's a McKay's in W-S.

Hello and welcome!

Manalto wrote:

Lily left the valley wrote:I 'm not familiar with Triad...

That's Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point; there's a McKay's in W-S.

When I read this, I remembered hearing on the radio about the "triad area", and had completely forgotten, thinking Triad was the name of a town.

Thanks for the welcomes everyone. We have most of the move unpacked and the lower level ready to accept company. Man, the things I might change if we won the lottery. LOL. We happen to have friends that are a few blocks from us, we didn't even know they lived in this area (town yes, neighborhood no). The story of THEIR house is one you all would appreciate. It is so awesomely beautiful and it was years neglected when they bought it. The husband is a very good craftsman and has done wonderous work to the house. They rent the house out during High Point Furniture Market twice a year. I am hoping to do something similar myself after a little more work.

Lily, I know this is a very delayed response, LOL. Re: the book stores- We are in between Winston Salem and Greensboro. I would love to check out the bookstores.

Lily left the valley wrote:Welcome! Even if the home you currently have wasn't left in a restorative state in the "it's there but altered/beat up" sense for the interior, your enthusiasm for old homes may likely lead you to make some decisions that modern home owners might not. It'll be interesting to see how that unfolds over time for you.

We do love pictures around here, even modest ones. You might not have had time to explore the site more, but there is a free gallery feature for posting your own images. You can create folders and sub folders from your user control panel.

We lived in North Carolina for three years, mostly in Franklinton. I 'm not familiar with Triad, but you might be near one of the branches of a store I used to work at, Ed McKay's Used Books & More. Fantastic store if you like reading. They also have records, DVDs, and game systems. Darn, when I went to check their locations, it looks like the one I used to work at has been closed just this year (Raleigh). That's a bummer, as I really liked working there.

I'm also looking forward to hearing stories of your past house too.