[VoiceOfReason]

I broke one of my toes over the weekend, and the pain stopped me from hitting the checkout button with a K3.

[Jean Poitiers]

Ditto. I think that pic just talked me right out of going to the Louvre. Holy crap, that's crazy! No wonder they are having such a time with pick pockets. They're jammed in there liker sardines! That is definitely not my idea of how to properly view fine art. Is it always like that?

Salut magkelly,

No, it's not always like that ... We went at the peak of the tourist "rush" ... July/August. Off season is much, much calmer.

When we lived in Paris eleven years ago, the Louvre was free admission on Sunday mornings. So, Mrs JP and I would get up "early" and spend many a morning there, eat lunch nearby and head home which was only about ten stations away on the same Metro line (n° 7). The Louvre was almost "empty" on those mornings ... like having it all to ourselves!

Those were the good ol' "young couple" days before the arrivals of the 3 girls. C'est la vie ... J

[Joel B]

I broke one of my toes over the weekend,

Ouch! Hate broken toes! Not much can be done for those!

---------- Post added 08-13-14 at 09:49 PM ----------

Holy crap, that's crazy!

Speaking of crazy... The Iowa State fair!!

Rare open area!

But the food is good!!!

[monochrome]

When it was all said and done I may have been better off to have simply sold the place and moved into a new home.

Our first house was where I came to the realization that I don't do plaster. It was 100 years old when I was thirty. And that was thirty years ago. If there was a horizontal, vertical or angled surface, interior or exterior, or water, gas or electricity ran thought it, I did something to it.

This house was young

When I bought it.

[Racer X 69]

Our first house was where I came to the realization that I don't do plaster. It was 100 years old when I was thirty. And that was thirty years ago. If there was a horizontal, vertical or angled surface, interior or exterior, or water, gas or electricity ran thought it, I did something to it.

This house was young

When I bought it.

Old homes are really cool. They have history, and often you will discover some of it when working on them or poking around in the deep, dark crevices that time has forgotten. The house I mentioned had been my parents last home that they had bought before divorcing. Mom got it in the split, and when she remarried and moved out I took the place over. It was a small hobby farm, had a barn and other outbuildings, all very old, but nothing as old as the homes that are in your area.

Mom's house had started life as a chicken coop (or so they were told when they bought it in 1970). The property had been part of a large family farm and as the children grew up then the property was divided up and "homes" built for them. The coop was raised and a basement dug under it. Then it was finished off inside with the lath and plaster, a bedroom and bathroom added on the rear and a kitchen on one side, all the interior walls had been finished with wallpaper.

There clearly was no electricity when the house was first built, as the knob and tube cloth covered wiring gave a bit of a story there. The plumbing was lead pipes, and when the local water district brought a line down the road the house was connected, and the dug well was then turned into a cesspool (yuk!).

After mom divorced her second husband I moved out and she returned. There was some remodeling going on and a sliding door and a porch added to one side of the house. When we were tearing the wall apart we found newspaper had been used for insulation, and old license plates had been used to cover up holes in the inside of the exterior wall.

Mom finally retired and sold the place about 7 years ago. Her and dad bought it for $17,500 in 1970. It was 3.5 acres, and she had picked up a 1/2 acre piece on one side at a tax foreclosure auction sometime in the late 1980's.

The developers gave her $2.3 million for it, and bought up all the other property in the area. They came in with all manner of machinery and completely removed everything, even regraded the landscape, and built "Ticky Tacky Little Boxes" all with "Zero Lot Line" postage stamp yards.

It was sad to see the neighborhood I lived in as a teen and then lived in for another period in the late 80's and early 90's be completely obliterated, and transformed into the blight that is there today.

It is probably the work of the livE hociR!

[monochrome]

I discovered the flue for the coal - or possibly wood - stove in the kitchen (I always wondered what that extra chimney was for), the places where gaslights had been mounted (in some rooms the pipe and nipple assy. was still there), an un-plumbed, non-insulated room on the third floor separated from the accessible area (accessed by pull-down stairs), presumably used by other than household help, and 30+ long arms behind a false panel in a space adjoining that room. Since the stairs were in the ceiling of a closet I wondered whether that was an early safe room. It was built for the daughter of a St. Louis shoe baron as her wedding present.

Sale of those bought a new furnace / airco and complete tuckpointing.

There were 8 Murphy Beds in that house - all in a row along the wall of a room that ran the length of the back of the house on the second floor!

Really net old place - had the original blue prints.

[stevebrot]

There were 8 Murphy Beds in that house - all in a row along the wall of a room that ran the length of the back of the house on the second floor!

Murphy beds? Eight? In one room?

Eccentric?


Steve

[monochrome]

Murphy beds? Eight? In one room?

Eccentric?


Steve

Lot of grandchildren?

That just scratches the surface of eccentricities in that house (indoor / outdoor marble koi pond was another) - it was a lot of fun but sucked money out of our accounts and really wasn't in a great place to have a family.

[nomadkng]

sadly, I must announce my retirement from this thread.

I have just purchased a K3 and it will arrive Tuesday. I have enjoyed the camaraderie and friendships I have forged in this thread. I shall miss you all.

[Parallax]

sadly, I must announce my retirement from this thread.

I have just purchased a K3 and it will arrive Tuesday. I have enjoyed the camaraderie and friendships I have forged in this thread. I shall miss you all.

No need to leave. We have a few others who, in a moment of weakness, succumed to the siren song of the hociR.

[savoche]

sadly, I must announce my retirement from this thread.

I have just purchased a K3 and it will arrive Tuesday. I have enjoyed the camaraderie and friendships I have forged in this thread. I shall miss you all.

No need to leave. We have a few others who, in a moment of weakness, succumed to the siren song of the hociR.

Indeed no reason to leave! Just don't admit that you failed and nobody will think ill of you.

Well, they will, but they won't say it.

Or maybe they will.

But those of us who did give in to the sweet, sweet song of the hociR will understand perfectly well.

[tim60]

sadly, I must announce my retirement from this thread.

I have just purchased a K3 and it will arrive Tuesday. I have enjoyed the camaraderie and friendships I have forged in this thread. I shall miss you all.

Long ago someone said that was a reason not to buy one.

[Joel B]

The only person in exile from this thread is the op. And that was self imposed! He probably bought one and just can't face the cat calls he would get! Although I still subscribe to the theory that he been held captive in his basement by Otis's squirrel army!

[monochrome]

The only person in exile from this thread is the op. And that was self imposed! He probably bought one and just can't face the cat calls he would get! Although I still subscribe to the theory that he been held captive in his basement by Otis's squirrel army!

He was grounded from the internet by his mother after she started reading this thread.

[stevebrot]

No need to leave. We have a few others who, in a moment of weakness, succumed to the siren song of the hociR.

Yes, we are here, but continued membership requires twice daily self-flagellation and still the lure and thrall of the hociR is strong.


Steve