You think you have seen everything in real estate until you see a table leg holding up a foundation of a house. Yep, that was my morning in Ballard. Started the day off by picking up my super awesome Diva Dweller for a pre-inspection this morning with our super inspector Jess Nelson. Jess was going through the nuts and bolts of the house and as in all inspections headed eventually headed into the crawl space. Jess came back from the crawlspace and slowly started to describe the last 40 years of the houses life. And yes part of that history is that you can use a table leg to hold up the foundation. That and a bunch of other DYI goodies that were probably fine at the time but forty years later not so good.I tell this story not to scare people out of buying a home and those inspections can end in disasters. I tell this story because I find the lives of homes are as rich and diverse as our own. Think about it. This 1900s house was originally built as a bare minimum Ballard fishermen’s house. They added a bathroom to the back porch and enclosed the area. Over time they added electricity. Sometime in the 1960s they did an update to the home and took out all of that “old stuff” fixtures, trims, etc. And sometime in the last 40-50 years, they replaced one of the foundation posts with a leg from an old table. At the time it probably made sense to the old guy while he was digging around the foundation of the home. We all know it was not a good idea but back in the day the guy used what he had on hand and “took” care of his house. What a story!
What are we doing with our homes that will last forty years? A Diva Dwelling is a special place on earth our Diva Dwellers “stewards” of this space for a short time in comparison to the life span of the home. It is where we create memories. It is where we make a fix that at the time is temporary but might last another 40 years.
What are you doing that is a good fix to your home that will last 40 or so years? Planting a garden? Bringing back the historic features of the home? Taking the effort to make the home energy secure? Whatever you do think about making improvements that will last 40 or so years. What a legacy!
