Under the Big Top

The house got tented this week.

It's almost mandatory that when you buy/sell a house you have to bring in the exterminators to tent it for termites and beetles. (Does everyone do this or is it just a California thing?) Anyway, this was our week. The house looks like a circus tent.

The Land Down Under

We're getting a new sewer! Yippee!

Old houses don't have modern plumbing, by definition. And this one turned out to be no exception. One of the charming aspects of our little town is that the sewer system isn't very good, so the city makes you inspect the drains every time a house is sold. There's quite a little cottage industry of companies that will videotape your sewer pipe (yum) and quite possibly recommend it be replaced, to the tune of about $3000 or so.

Turns out our little slice of heaven had no sewer pipe: it was connected directly to the neighbor's plumbing, and had been for 100+ years. That's, um, sub-optimal, so the city ordered it replaced/installed. Add in a few complications, and the bill came to over $5000. Here's the good news: the sellers paid for it. So we get shiny new sewer pipes for free.

Here's hoping they last another 100 years.

Two Kitchens Are Better Than One

How much can one family cook?

The house has been modernized quite a bit over the years. The most obvious change is the commercial restaurant kitchen downstairs. A series of very good restaurants have operated out of the ground floor for something like 30 years. That means we've got two kitchens: the gleaming stainless steel restaurant kitchen downstairs, and the "normal" personal kitchen on the second floor.

What's a couple to do? Should we have his and hers kitchens? Cook formal meals downstairs and nuke leftover pizza upstairs? Swap on even and odd days?

We might consider renting the downstairs facilities to the right person. (If you're interested, let us know.) Or we might gut it and return it to... a doctor's office? Er, probably not. How about a cool home theatre? Where did Victorians hang their plasma screens?

The Object of Our Affections

So what's the Hart Mansion and why does it need surgery?

It's a three-story, four-bedroom, three-bath house that sits on the main street. Three generations of Drs. Hart lived upstairs and ran their practices below. The eldest Dr. Hart was an "accoucheur" (obstetrician and male midwife), so it's charming to wonder how many babies were born in that parlor.

Kathy did the math: the world's oldest person is 114 year old, but the house is 116 years old (and counting), so there's absolutely nobody living today who was alive when the house was first occupied. Strange to think that the entire world has been refreshed since that time.

A New Adventure

Today we started packing. We're buying a 116-year-old Victorian just a few blocks away in beautiful Pacific Grove, California. The house was originally built by Dr. Hart, the town obstetrician in 1894. We think it's in pretty good shape, but we're sure we'll find some surprises, which we'll share with you as we go along. In the meantime, wish us luck!