I wouldn't want this job

[Paula]

Very nice house, Mermaid. Looks great with snow on it and must look great surrounding by flowers/plants as well. Much as I love the beach, I must say that a good snowstorm is lovely as long as the house doesn't leak and you don't have to go to work and just watch the snow fall. Our house was supposedly built in 1912 and we've had the same ongoing maintenance problems (roof leaking, basement flooding, old windows letting the cold and hot air come in, etc.). Just about everything seems to be fixed now except we have a few old windows left to do and the house walls themselves aren't insulated. The temperature of this old house goes up and down all winter -- no consistency.

To show how beautiful the snow (and people playing in the snow) can be, I've attached a photo of one of my girls and her friends on the first snow day of the year. They do snow day "voodoo" the night before a good snowstorm -- they throw ice cubes down the toilet and dance with their pajamas on backward (or is it inside out?) in front of the open freezer door while making a wish for a snowday. It seems to have worked last week.

 

[Rudyjohn]

LOOOOOVE your house, Mermaid!! When we moved here we searched for an "old" home. There are several older, vintage neighborhoods here. We searched for over a year. Finally, my husband, being the practical man that he is, said it would just cost us too much. And he is handier than most men - that's why he could tell that it would've been a money pit! So we settled on a different kind of "vintage" a mid-70's home, complete with orange shag carpet, turquoise bathroom, oak paneling. It looked just like the Brady's home! The previous owners kept everything in pristine condition. So, 5 years later, we've totally redecorated almost every room and brought it up to 2005. (Every wall in every room had 30 yr. old wallpaper!!!) It's been a lot of work, a lot of expense. I can't imagine what the cost is in keeping an older home in running condition!!

 

[Landlocked]

My mother lives in Lowndesboro, AL and her home was built in 1846. That is too old. That is the coldest house in the United States. It is actually colder inside the house than outside in the winter time.

 

[kathydwells]

Beautiful house mermaid, I love it. God Bless those roofers. I hope all will be well when they are finished with the repairs!

 

[Mermaid]

I look at that picture and I STILL can't believe the ladders didn't slip in the snow. Those guys were real pros with nerves of steel.

LL, I have to laugh at your "colder inside than out" comment because that's what this house is like. The house had the standard replacement aluminum storms on it when we bought it and Merman promptly took offence at the insult to historical integrity and removed them. He promised to construct storms that duplicated the originals (some of which we still have) but years have gone by and we still don't have any. Typical!!! We sleep with fifty million blankets on our bed in the winter.

I like living in our old house but when the sewer backs up and floods the basement, as it did two days before Thanksgiving, I wonder if it's not craziness to live with 80 year old plumbing. Or when the circuits blow when our daughter is running the hairdryer AND the flat iron together, I curse old wiring while hoping it will hold on just a little longer, like the ancient furnace. But on the other hand, it's a house of the kind they don't make anymore, and that's pretty special.

Oh Paula! Great sledding picture. I'm envious. The one sledding hill in Indianapolis, on the campus of Butler University, was leveled this summer to make way for new dormitories. I am sad, sad, sad. No more neighborhood winter fun on the slope.

 

[audie]

i saw on the news how the butler hill was having dorms built on it - that is my alma mater, haven't been back since i was set free !

 

[Mermaid]

i saw on the news how the butler hill was having dorms built on it - that is my alma mater, haven't been back since i was set free !

Great school, audie. We're within walking distance to it. We go all the time to their concerts and lectures. No more sledding though. You wouldn't recognise the place. Only Hinkle Field House is the same. Everything else--including the sledding hill-gone.

 

[audie]

Great school, audie. We're within walking distance to it. We go all the time to their concerts and lectures. No more sledding though. You wouldn't recognise the place. Only Hinkle Field House is the same. Everything else--including the sledding hill-gone.

it probably won't be too long and they will be doing something with hinkle too. i haven't been back on campus since june 1992. have you ever been to the planetarium there? we have thought about checking it out sometime. i never went while in school - didn't have time !

 

[Paula]

"Oh Paula! Great sledding picture. I'm envious. The one sledding hill in Indianapolis, on the campus of Butler University, was leveled this summer to make way for new dormitories. I am sad, sad, sad. No more neighborhood winter fun on the slope."

We are lucky enough to live in a neighborhood within walking distance of the elementary school (probably built around 1920) and the middle school, so these middle-schoolers were heading out to "magic mountain" a little (really little) hill at the elementary school about 2 blocks from where we live. They may get another snow day tomorrow because we're expecting another storm. It's very sweet and we chose to live in this neighborhood because it has such a small-town neighborly feel. You can see why I don't mind the houses close together in SoWal because we have the same thing here where we live.

 

[Jdarg]

Real snow! I can't show this to my kids. They even watch the weather on TV now! :shock: