Kitchen bitchin'

Since we're still in Drywall Dullsville, here's a little trip back into history.

My neighbor sent me this photo when she was starting her own renovation. It's her house in the foreground (it now sports a very snazzy addition); mine's in the background.

She bought her house from the original owner's son, who passed on this photograph during closing. Both of our houses were built in the 1930s and by the look of the car in her driveway, I'm guessing this was taken in the 1940s.

At this moment, I'm typing this in what used to be thin air, atop the screened-in porch on the right of my house. The awful '80s renovators responsible for the atrocity of the kitchen did us a favor by enclosing the porch and adding a second-story bedroom; these additions give us some modicum of space in what's essentially a very small house, but the construction and architecture were both compromised in the process. They're here to stay, though, so enough about them.

There's probably not a whole lot of interesting history to this house, much as I wish there were. For years I've been meaning to visit the local history room of our public library for more information and one of these days I'll get there, really. In the meantime, here are a few little bits of information I've gleaned from various sources.

• Our house was built pre-WWII, so it's very sturdy.
• It's a mirror-image twin to the house next door.
• The owner of the house next door, an elderly admiral who has rented it out for many decades now but sometimes pops in, once told me that the bricks used for his house were more expensive than mine. (They look identical to me.)
• The admiral also told me that both of our houses changed hands frequently when they were first built -- most likely due to Depression-era and wartime issues.
• It has the original coal chute, which we only noticed after we'd been here for several months. A very slim criminal (or crafty rat) could easily have slid through to our basement at any time; we tied it off and sealed it with caulk. Why didn't any of the former owners seal it up, since it's likely the house has been on gas heat for decades?
  
• The house that used to be two doors down -- it was razed to make room for two McMansions late last year -- has very rich soil because sheep used to graze in that particular yard. The rest of us have the regular red Virginia clay. Is this true? I don't know, but my neighbor Valerie has observed this rich soil herself.
• Interestingly, the house with the sheep soil is next door to an estate long owned by a famous Presidential family; it's likely that the sheep-soil yard and the rest of the neighborhood used to be part of that property. (But why didn't the sheep make their way here, so I wouldn't have to pay for good planting soil by the sack?)