STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS????
If color was available, that question would have been in red!

Just a note on the supposed structural problems the investor (s) found in this house that provoked its virtual destruction to ‘save’ it.

Now I’ve shamelessly bragged on this blog that I did my first work in Historic preservation when I was 10, about 60 years ago. I’m certain you’re all plainly tired of it, but 60 years does have its advantages.

As typical of me, I have used nearly 500 words, when perhaps several dozen should have sufficed.

I just reviewed the very good photographs in the first listing, both outside and in. I do not see a single indicator of structural problems. I’m certain all of you noticed that as well.

Outside:

If there has been significant structural problems in the frame’s beams or walls, the impact would have been visible in the ridgeline and the walls.

In the photographs, every horizontal and vertical was just as it should have been. The ridgeline looked just about perfect, and considering the age of the home’s structure, that’s pretty good evidence there wasn’t anything seriously wrong. Look at the porch. The posts were also vertical, without rotten bases. The deck was nearly flat, the boards without any serious problems.

The windows had been replaced, indicating that the family had not neglected the house. Few people replace windows in a house in danger of collapse.

Interior:

The interior provided better evidence of a home in good condition.

In the portion of the building that preserved 18th century interiors, if you look at the thin gaps above and below the doors, they were all very nearly even and straight. The doors had not been trimmed to accommodate significant slopes in the floor, and then rehung to disguise the problem. In photographs 26 and 28, the overmantel panel had cracked, and there were other minor flaws and gaps. In summary, the very handsome 18th century paneling, inexcusably lost in the rebuilding, and I hope sold rather than lost to a dumpster, was very nearly straight and true.

Where there were cracks between the edges of the Victorian interior enrichments and plaster, they were thin. There was nothing that would indicate the structure had shifted.

The ceilings were in good condition, without any staining from leaks. There weren’t any significant cracks of the sort that are common when the frame of a house shifts due to structural problems.

This was a home that was, at the very least, in acceptable condition; it was probably in good condition. Perhaps the investor (s) photographed the extensive demolition required to reduce an historic home to a bad copy of a motel 6 lobby, which would have recorded the structural problems that cannot be seen in the level and well preserved structure shown in the first set of listing photographs.

This was a wonderful home, combining 18th and 19th century architectural fittings of much better than average quality. Based on the evidence in those photographs, this was a handsome home in move-in condition, worthy of full preservation.