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I am currently taking a class in vernacular architecture, which is simply architecture of the common-folk. Most of these kinds of buildings won't have much widely-available research on them because they're usually not famous. The purpose of this kind of study is to find out how the average joe lived in the past, whether it be slaves in Virginia or farmers in the Midwest or whomever.Anyway, I live in an apartment from the 1920s and in looking through it, I can see a few features of ages past. For example, there are cupboards in the common-area hallway for each apartment which is where I'm guessing the milkman used to place dairy products. These cupboards are sealed up now, but the one for my apartment is directly on the opposite side of where my refrigerator now is. Also in the hallway is what appears to be a kind of copper hatch (also sealed up, see photo below) for an incinerator which has a faded inscription on it. I can see the words “Kerner Incinerator” of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on it. I looked up Kerner and can't find much, except that it was in existence before mid-century.Anyone have anything cool in your house which reflects the period in which it was built?
My house has a coal chute to the basement that was used when it was first built for the coal-fired boiler, we now have a natural gas boiler. It also has a sump in one corner of the basement that I have to periodically pump out when the groundwater table gets too high, I am having a backup valve installed that will hopefully solve that problem. Lastly, I have two chimneys, one for the boiler and another that is currently sealed but was formerly used for a woodstove in the living room, we are going to reopen that chimney and use it for a wood stove again. I dislike sending my money to the Russians for their gas so we will try to heat as much as possible with wood next winter, it will also make us less vulnerable if the Russians cut the gas off again, at least one room will be heated. Our electricity is nuclear so the only thing we need gas for is heat.
My great grandfather's house is still standing and occupied. It was bulit in 1868. It has a detached kitchen and dinining room which was common back then in case the kitchen caught on fire. The house connects to the kitchen with a covered porch. The boards used in the construction came from an earier house that was torn down. They turned the boards over and they are painted on both sides. The construction of the sills was done with wooden pegs. In doing some work there I had to bore pilot holes for nails because the wood was so hard
My house has a coal chute to the basement that was used when it was first built for the coal-fired boiler, we now have a natural gas boiler. It also has a sump in one corner of the basement that I have to periodically pump out when the groundwater table gets too high, I am having a backup valve installed that will hopefully solve that problem. Lastly, I have two chimneys, one for the boiler and another that is currently sealed but was formerly used for a woodstove in the living room, we are going to reopen that chimney and use it for a wood stove again. I dislike sending my money to the Russians for their gas so we will try to heat as much as possible with wood next winter, it will also make us less vulnerable if the Russians cut the gas off again, at least one room will be heated. Our electricity is nuclear so the only thing we need gas for is heat.
Sounds like your house was built, when? In the 1960s?
My great grandfather's house is still standing and occupied. It was bulit in 1868. It has a detached kitchen and dinining room which was common back then in case the kitchen caught on fire. The house connects to the kitchen with a covered porch. The boards used in the construction came from an earier house that was torn down. They turned the boards over and they are painted on both sides. The construction of the sills was done with wooden pegs. In doing some work there I had to bore pilot holes for nails because the wood was so hard
Buggfuzz sounds like your grandfather's house is pretty historic, one which historians should study if they have not already. Have you ever looked at old photos of the house around the time it was first built?
Yes my house was built in 1963 in the middle of the West German Wirtschaftswunder. They definitely build them different over here, it is in much better shape than houses of similar age where I grew up. I think it is because of the masonry construction instead of wood-framing.
