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ebinmaine

Do you live in an unusual house?

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ebinmaine

I clicked in the What are you listening to thread and @AMC RULES had posted a couple of his excellent pics, one of which shows a caboose.... And my first thought was, Man I could live in a caboose.

 

So then I'm wonderin'... What do you all live IN that might be a little interesting or unusual or not quite set to society's norms?

 

Descriptions are great but of course ....  :wwp:

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SylvanLakeWH

No pics unfortunately, but back in the day (30 years ago) I lived in a converted chicken coop on a local farm. It was actually very nice and the rental rate was right...

 

Boy did I get some ribbing from friends on that choice of housing...Why did Jim cross the road?...There he goes running around like a Jim with his head cut off...Fox in a hen house... You get the picture... 

 

It's long gone now - rows of cookie cutter houses...

 

Great idea for a thread - look forward to the responses!

Edited by SylvanLakeWH
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Sarge

No pics, plenty of photos of my herd. But, I live in an old Catholic school - 3 story brick monster built in 1903 by the Chicago Diocese. The nuns slept in the attic, the kitchen was in the basement and students that attended here were still living in our small town when I first moved here. They got their full education in this building and at one time there was a large gymnasium out in the back lot that had burned down shortly after being built. I met one of the grads when we were putting on a new roof about 20yrs ago - she had graduated here in 1920 and gave myself and the owner a good idea of the layout back in the day. The first renovation that was done to make it into an apartment building was back in the '30s and another major one in the '50s. Current owner has had it since the '80s, the place is getting beyond its point of paying for itself and any major repairs are going to be it's demise. Probably one of the most overbuilt structures in the Midwest - the foundation walls are 30" thick up to the 10' elevation on the first floor. Above that point, the walls are 24" thick with a dead air space between the inner and outer layers with thousands of iron ties holding the two together. It was built into a large L configuration with a central entryway and the stairwell being in that core area. I doubt an F5 tornado could do much to it other than blowing the windows out - it's that heavily built. All the wood in here is red oak, very thick and nice grain to it. Floor and roof joists are insanely heavy, the floor joists are one single, long piece that extends into the outer foundation. Other than the stairwell, it needs no interior walls anywhere. First-floor joists are 14"x4" solid span rough sawn wood, some are quite long too. The materials in here could be used to easily construct a nice bridge, not to mention all the beautiful hardwoods that in many places have been painted over - which boils my blood to look at it.

 

Rent is very cheap - but I maintain the property and do repairs within the building when needed. I'm sure when we leave it that will be the end of the place - only 2 units rented right now and it would take an insane amount of work/money to make a viable property again, which isn't worth the effort. Across the street was one of the Midwest's rare Opera Houses, torn down about 15yrs ago when it's structure was failing from neglect. A lot of odd history around here, most places are long now.

 

Sarge

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