Buying in Bulk

Back in September 2008, I made my first set of bulk head doors but they only lasted a few years. It seems that wood doors in this location are subject to wet and dry rot fungus. I made a second set and treated the wood with linseed oil. The fungus gets into the tongue and groove and takes hold. This second set of doors would not have survived the winter so I broke down and spent money on this.

Today I painted them, so now they look like this.

Third time lucky I guess!

The Upper Deck is Done

For many years our upper porch deck has looked awful. There was a roof leak and gutter issues that caused sections of the floor to rot out. There were also no railings around the upper porch. Well, it has been rebuilt by yours truely and I have made screens to keep the mosquitos at bay. Here is what it looks like now.

The next project is to replace the wood bulk head doors with metal ones and to build a metal shed in the back yard.

Remember When?

If you have been following this site for any amount of time then you may remember the images of the house we lived in before finally moving into the Old Crack House in 2009. In case you forgot, here is a link. Then in 2016, after renting it for 7 years. This happened. Well, I finally got it all fixed up and we sold it in May 2022. Here are some pictures of how it looked in March when the photos were taken.

The front of the house.

The entry hall and living room

The dining room

The kitchen and butler pantry

Staircase to 2nd floor

The bathroom

Bedrooms

The finished attic

The basement

Rear of house and garage Now the one thing I did find that puts a date on the house was this little medallion that was covered in paint and nailed above the front steps to the porch.

It reads "Board of Review" and dated 1911. Now I am back to working on projects at the "Old Crack House" since I am now 21 years into my three year project.

My Number is Up

 Back in 2014 I was doing this. Then we had issues with the box gutters at the front of the house and water pouring down on the front door feature. That forced me into doing this and over time the paint on the upper door feature peeled. So, this week I sanded, scraped and repainted that part with a new addition. Can you see what it is?

A few times this month my daughter has door dashed food and with no number on the house, well, it causes confusion. Now there won’t be any more of that!

Time For Change

 Long awaited update is happening at "This Old Crack House". It would appear that the web hosting service that I have used since 2005 when I started this blog has gone "Kaput" and much of my early material is now lost to the world. When I started this blog in 2005 I used AOL's web hosting service for links and to host images. That was called Hot Dog Express if I recall correctly. I had to learn HTML code and had several web pages at the time. They shut that down and I transferred all my material to a friend in the neighborhood who hosted my images for free. This year it appears that that all ended. I have some time on my hands and will rebuild some sites. Fortunately I have good photo records. So I have to review all my 2005 posts and re insert some photos that are missing and rework some posts since the links no longer work. I started that today. Hence the new appearance to the blog. That may change again but at least you can archive all the posts back to 2005. Unfortunately my original website from 2001 is gone along with my Walnut Hills history site and my miniatures page. So I will start rewriting some of that material and figure a way to link it here. Stay tuned. There will be more work done this year on THIS OLD CRACK HOUSE!

Other Things

 Back in 2014 through 2016 I wrote a series of posts about “Helen’s House” which was built in 1900 by Leonard Volkenand. We turned it into a short term rental and market it through the AirBnB platform. It has been very successful being so close to the University of Dayton and we offer a unique experience because the house is not your typical Ikea furnished, grey wall, minimalistic AirBnB listing. The link is here. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13246834?federated_search_id=64134272-c9bd-461a-ab86-a3d0f5843328&source_impression_id=p3_1615434075_9wO3hKBYfMQIfkQ3

So if you need a place to stay while visiting Dayton, Ohio or live here, have family visiting and don’t want to tidy your place. This may be a good choice.

Back in December 2005  we bought an old farm bell. It had been sitting in my basement for 15 years. I finally put it to use last spring. I built this in the back yard.

When I rebuilt the bulk head I was smart enough to equip it for a future electric socket and line out to the yard. So there is an outdoor socket box attached to one of the legs. When we ring the bell, our friends can hear it 4 blocks (1/2 mile) away.

One of the joys of this place has been anticipating future needs years in advance. 

Other than this I got another room in the basement re plastered over winter and spent most of last year renovating my old residence that got trashed several years ago so that I can sell it this year. I will post pictures later this year of that renovation.

And .... I’m running for mayor again.