Old Member...new name!

[TechieTechie]

Well, I sold the smelly house this spring and moved cross country to be closer to family.

Luckily, I made a tidy sum on the sale (gotta love Boston area home prices) and am now looking at homes in Greater Cleveland. Amazing amount of turn of the century homes out here. Haven't found one yet though...trying to find the right combo of yard size, home size and price point has been tricky thus far.

So, Jen is back. Smelly Jen is gone. TechieTechie has surfaced in her place Luckily, Techie is renting a veddy nice c1920 gambrel with HWF and a WBF for the winter, so it's not too terrible. Hey, at least I have a full kitchen and 1.5 fully renovated baths. Much better than the Smelly house

Happy 2020 everyone.

[Gothichome]

Jen, welcome back. You were missed. What are your plans for a new old home?
I was viewing your blog a few days ago(along with other blogs).

[phil]

I remember driving around cleveland and ogling all the big beautiful old homes, so many needed attention and it was not that long after the big recession. the old downtown was pretty derelict and the new downtown was nicer but vacant of people. I saw a lot of brick buildings in urban decay. we have an area like that here in vancouver as well. I could also see how beautiful the area must have been in it's heyday.
I bet things have picked up. I guess they had sort of a shift of people leaving the city and the city was giving away houses to those who would fix them. bankruptcies.. what I saw was street after street of beautiful historic homes but no new paint anywhere. hopefully those areas are springing back now. Ive been to Boston too it was nice there. a bit crowded but I did see some beautiful houses and they have a lot of history. a friend took us to little Italy and he was italian. It felt like stepping into a gangster movie. He took us to a little delicatessen ( his uncles) that had so much variety. the cops walking the beat said "hay tony", with an accent that just fit. the guy in the deli took us in the back and fed us some liqueur. It was fun.

In Cleveland I got to drive to Columbus and west from Cleveland to some little town, I guess near Toledo. I had gone there with tools to set up a big machine but they got busy so I ended up getting called upon to go fix various machinery. I had no idea where I was driving but GPS helped and I saw a lot of sights. some really neat old places. I tried to look at as many antique stores as I could find. I found a cool place that had all these old lamps , like Tiffany, expensive but cool to see. I did find some old house parts places. I dont remember the street names but I guess it ran north to south just south of the old downtown. I saw a lot of old wrought iron gates and things that I don't often see here since Vancouver is young by comparison. I found one old radio but despite packing it with all my clothes wrapped around it the airport baggage grunts smashed it. one thing I liked was all the old houses that were really big, craftsman style but quite big compared to here. I can see how restoring one would be fun and to see the area reaching the point of almost breaking and then coming back to being nicer must be rewarding and provide a lot of opportunities. I could just imagine what it looked like with all the steel and auto manufacturing and city busy with development. It must have been magnificent in the 20's. Now there must be a lot of people restoring all those old homes and giving them the love they deserve

[Gothichome]

I to have cruised the back roads of the NE from Toledo to the finger lakes region to southern Pennsylvania. Was amazed at all the grand old homes in these small towns that once were thriving concerns. Sad to see most in various states of decrepitness. Ever town has a small antique shop it seems, some better than others. I could never pass one by.
Jen, you are almost straight across the lake from Gothichome, next time I am on the roof I’ll wave.

[GinaC]

Two of my great aunts lived in Cleveland, because that is where my family settled when they came over from Italy in the 1900's. I always loved their small old houses as I was growing up, probably built in the 20's or 30's. I used to spend summers there and slept in the attic bedroom. My little house here in Vermont reminds me so much of them, and maybe that's why it was love at first sight when I saw the bedroom with the slanted ceilings.

[TechieTechie]

Thanks all...sorry I've been MIA. Between unpacking, moving my mom to a new home, house hunting and new job (and you know, a bunch of stuff happening nationally) the last 6 months have been very hectic.

Closed on a new house yesterday, will start a new thread. Lots of fun to be had with the updating. And will need everyone's sage advice