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ngdawg · 09-24-2006, 04:23 PM

The house I live in was built about 1915; the owner/builder owned this entire block save for two other houses.
It's a very basic house, 6 rooms. When we bought it, it had steam radiators, woodcasing windows, and one electric outlet upstairs. Our bedroom furniture didn't fit in one room and we had to cover the windows of the room we slept in with plastic and blankets and even then, with a good wind, the blanket would sway. We replaced the heating, the windows, put in electric, expanded both rooms upstairs, from each 10x10 to ours 10x16 and the other, 10x14. There's still a lot of things that need to be done, but it's home.
I realize some people can't 'do' old. What really gets my blood boiling is not only the tearing down of fine old houses and buildings, but the destruction of land. NJ has a farm preservation department and a Greenacres fund as well, but not much in the way of saving or preserving woodlands. Even the Pinelands, one of the most important ecosystems on the east coast, allows some clearing and building;
there are many 'lost' villages within the Pinelands, towns that once were booming and have long been abandoned. We are in danger of losing them entirely. Six Flags-Great Adventure was built on a filled-in cedar lake in the Pinelands and the resulting boon to the area has decimated many village clusters.
My passion for these old things is both aesthetic and connective. No concrete and steel has half the appeal and charm of old carved wood, old paint and buccolic atmosphere.

09-24-2006, 04:23 PM	#7 (permalink)
ngdawg peekaboo Location: on the back, bitch	The house I live in was built about 1915; the owner/builder owned this entire block save for two other houses. It's a very basic house, 6 rooms. When we bought it, it had steam radiators, woodcasing windows, and one electric outlet upstairs. Our bedroom furniture didn't fit in one room and we had to cover the windows of the room we slept in with plastic and blankets and even then, with a good wind, the blanket would sway. We replaced the heating, the windows, put in electric, expanded both rooms upstairs, from each 10x10 to ours 10x16 and the other, 10x14. There's still a lot of things that need to be done, but it's home. I realize some people can't 'do' old. What really gets my blood boiling is not only the tearing down of fine old houses and buildings, but the destruction of land. NJ has a farm preservation department and a Greenacres fund as well, but not much in the way of saving or preserving woodlands. Even the Pinelands, one of the most important ecosystems on the east coast, allows some clearing and building; there are many 'lost' villages within the Pinelands, towns that once were booming and have long been abandoned. We are in danger of losing them entirely. Six Flags-Great Adventure was built on a filled-in cedar lake in the Pinelands and the resulting boon to the area has decimated many village clusters. My passion for these old things is both aesthetic and connective. No concrete and steel has half the appeal and charm of old carved wood, old paint and buccolic atmosphere. __________________ Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.