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Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
Our house had a sump pump in the basement and it never switched on. The house was built in 1957, a ranch on 1/2 acre corner lot. There were a few true sumac trees (not poison sumac plants) and five sugar maples in the back yard including the "mama maple", which was over 250 years old. She was the "mother" of all the maples in the neighborhood, which was originally a farm. The houses across the street from us were all cape cods on concrete slabs. Our side of the street was mostly ranch homes, plus the original farmhouse next door to us, made of brick and timber. The farmhouse was built in 1912. Down the street from us was a vintage home that had originally been an inn and carriage house. It was listed on the historic homes registry, because Paul Revere was somehow affiliated with it. Maybe he stayed there at some point, or the guy who made his coffin brought wood up from somewhere and stayed there. I don't remember the exact history.
During one winter, our neighborhood got over 6 feet of snow in total within just a couple of weeks. Plows broke, one guy parked his car on the side of the road the day before the storms hit, didn't move it back to his driveway, and the plows didn't realize there was a car there since it was completely obscured by the drifts. His car ended up halfway onto his front lawn, crushed. A few days after the last of the snow that week, everything started to melt. Ice dams on roofs caused massive damage and in some homes, complete roof collapses. There was a lot of basement flooding and foundation cracks in the neighborhood. We got a little water damage to our kitchen floor and some minor damage to the guest bedroom wall. Our basement stayed dry.
One downside to our house was we had no central air conditioning, and the layout was such that we would need an A/C window unit in every room to keep the whole house cool. It was too impractical and noisy and expensive and it'd mean loss of daylight in two of the rooms, since they only had one window each. So we mostly suffered in the summer.
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Interesting history, especially the Paul Revere connection.
The house I grew up in was built in 1924. My grandfather bought it in 1927 after my grandparents were married. It was the only house on the street at the time. My father told me when he was a kid (he was born in 31') that he went across the street and picked wild strawberries.
It was a pretty, old colonial home on an acre of property. My grandfather grew veggies in the summer and beautiful flowers for my grandmother. He put in paths so my grandmother could walk and look at the flowers he planted for her.
The house originally did not have a basement. My grandfather built it himself, I believe with the help of some relatives.
When our neighbors bought there home down the street their kids discovered an extra room. One of the kids discovered an opening of some kind in a closet. When they opened it there was another BIG room. When they purchased the home they had no idea it was there. If those old homes could talk the stories they could tell.