The Lean-to
The Lean-to
When we bought this house we didn’t love it. We looked at several in our “you’ll never find a house in this town at that price” price range. One house we had to walk through the only bedroom to get to the only bathroom and another we walked out with fleas. When we saw this house we saw a house with two whole bedrooms and no varmints. Sold! Our friends and family told us it was a fine “starter home” and that it could be something with a lot of work.
The lean-to got its nickname from its leaning floors. Drop a marble anywhere and it will roll to a corner. Instead of a foundation, the lean-to was built in 1906 using a post and beam foundation. If you look under our house you can see posts resting on large boulders. Apparently, this is a quick and cost-effective way to build a small building. But after more than 100 years of the soil settling beneath these boulders and the floor above will tend to become uneven. Thus, the “lean.”
In the ’20s a covered porch was added along with an extension to one of the bedrooms. These west-facing, front areas were adorned with large multi-paned “muntin” windows which gives the lean-to a bright and cozy look. Painting and cleaning notwithstanding, I love these windows. I love the old glass that distorts the world beyond. I love the fractals that arrange themselves on each pane during a cold spell. In the summer the front porch heats up behind these windows, creating an oven-like effect and in the winter the single panes let in all the cold, causing more of a refrigerator effect. But in the fall and spring, you will find me curled up in our overstuffed loveseat having the coziest nap.
The one truly classic and wonderful part of the lean-to is the leaded-glass accent window in the living room. It is small and sits high. Certainly, these types of windows were commonly added to larger houses of this era but I have wondered many times how this extravagance came to be during the construction of this small home.
The other living room windows are not original, I’m sure. They are large picture windows. One looks out upon the front porch and the other the south-facing side yard. I love how they fill the living area with light but I don’t love how they don’t open.
Other windows in the home are all single-hung, single pane sash with pop-out storm windows. The weights are old and it takes a strong arm to open these windows. Because one must pop out the storm to get the effect of the breeze...
When we first moved in there was a wood stove in one corner of the living room. We replaced it with a gas stove which for many years was the only source of heat in the lean-to. A house of this era was designed to be heated with wood. This small house had two chimneys at one time. The one in the living room was removed above the roof and below the ceiling but was left in the attic area. When we discovered it, it was leaning terribly and being propped up with a two-by-four. The kitchen chimney was taken off above the roof but otherwise left. The stove was removed and the chimney was sealed off with a plate. The bricks are old and crumbling and the chimney itself stands defiantly in the way of a good kitchen layout for this day and age, but what can I say? I love some good-old-fashioned defiance.
Nestled on either side of this defunct chimney is our large refrigerator and electric stove. They sit conspicuously in their spots like large shiny vehicles parked in compact spaces. The cast iron, porcelain, double farm sink with double drainboards sits under a single-hung window. I love this sink. It has chips and it is difficult to find a drain that will plug them up. But they work well for everything. Above the sinks is an old glass light fixture with a pull chain that is nearly always on. Underneath these sinks are metal cupboards and drawers that are old and in need of paint, well, probably replacing. On either side of the sinks is a small counter (the only counters in the kitchen, each with cupboards over them and under them. A few years after we moved in and before our second son was born I negotiated to have the large drawer for grains removed (not a big bread maker) and a dishwasher installed. In the cupboard above the dishwasher, I put the food and in the cupboard on the other side behind the glass doors went our dishes. Besides having little storage or counter space, the kitchen itself is actually quite large. For many years we had our table in the middle and then we moved our table to the living area and put in a kitchen island we got at K-mart and two stools. The kitchen floor, we were told by an old neighbor was fir, same as the rest of the house, and was painted often by one of the women who used to live here. When we moved in that floor had been covered by a cheap vinyl floor which was in bad shape At some point we replaced that floor with another cheap vinyl due to budget constraints. The piece of vinyl also runs into the bathroom since it is adjacent to the kitchen. Since it has a pattern of squares, the installers lined these squares up with our bathtub and rolled it out. By the time they got to the end of the kitchen, the cupboards, the lines did not match up at all. They had to ask us which part of the floor we wanted to look bad. We rolled our eyes and shrugged our shoulders. Such is life in the lean-to.
The bathroom was given a very cheap remodel, probably in the 1980s. The window was covered, a cheap tub and surround brought in, with brass fixtures and a plastic sink. I would have loved to have the cast iron tub that was no doubt part of this original house. But when it came time to update this room, you guessed it, we really didn’t have the time and money to do it well, so we updated the tub and shower as well as the sink with an only slightly better one, We did, however, put in a window, which was a big improvement.
The lean-to came with two bedrooms. One bigger, with a bed nook (part of the addition in the‘20’s). The large west-facing windows gave the room good light but made the room very hot in the summer. And, until we had insulation blown in we could actually feel the north wind blow through that room. The room has a small cedar-lined closet with a cupboard above it that connects to the other bedroom. The boys used to love to sneak into the other room using this passage. The other bedroom is smaller. It has a tiny closet and a window that faces north. This room is quiet and cozy. Both rooms come with only two outlets each, which can be very challenging in this day and age.
The electricity in the home is knob and tube. This old system is considered unsafe nowadays. It cannot be grounded nor can it take on the demands of electricity that TVs, fans, heaters, and other electrical equipment requires. It is an expensive endeavor to rewire an old lathe and plaster house like this.
Our interior walls are not made of drywall but of construction of strips of wood and plaster. Apparently, this is how interior walls were done until the 1940s. It is a very sturdy construction but there are problems with an older house with this type of walls. One is that they lack insulation and even when it is blown in, as it is in our house, there can be pockets of a wall that are difficult to get the insulation to. We had to have our insulation crew come out numerous times. Also, chunks of plaster can break off as the house settles and collect at the bottom of stud spaces, making rewiring very difficult. In our house, many of the walls and ceilings have been papered over and painted. Periodically a buckle will appear or a tear and we will have to do a repair with plaster and paint.
Our living room is long. It appears that it used to be two rooms. It had a stove in it. I can see where the plate has been papered over and painted. At some point (the ’50s?) a drop ceiling was put in. And wainscoting was added. We have been reluctant to remove these items due to what we might unearth such as asbestos, or walls that need to be completely covered. We have also never refinished the fir floors that cover both the living room and the bedrooms. We haven’t done this because fir is soft and the children have been hard on it. Now that they are grown refinishing them is on our to-do list.
As with any old house, lead paint has been a concern for us. When our first son was born we had our house tested and it actually wasn’t too bad. We had painted wood floors on both the front and back porches. We covered the front with a laminate that I have never liked and the back with vinyl which I did not like but it did the job.
Our original back porch was a utility porch with a large concrete utility sink and a washer and dryer that did not fit. There was a small closet on the back porch which we used for a pantry/linen closet. It had the same charming muntin windows as the front porch. These were cute but not well-insulated causing the back porch to be very cold.
Cold and drafty is often a chief complaint of the occupants of old houses and we in the lean-to are no different. At some point, possibly the ‘50s, baseboard heating was put in. By the time we moved in half of these heaters didn’t work. We found that if we kept the bedroom doors open, the gas stove in the living room would mostly heat those rooms. The kitchen never really heated using this method. I found that cooking was a great way to warm the kitchen up and became quite the baker!
The final room of the lean-to is not a room at all but just a small alcove off the kitchen. It must have been either part of the original bathroom or possibly a pantry at one time. We stuck a desk in it and have always called it the office. It has a sweet single-hung window that does not open easily but allows me to keep an eye on the neighbors.
In 2004 we broke down and did some work on the lean-to. We put in a furnace and replaced the back porch with both a proper laundry and storage area and another bedroom. We also added attic access through the big bedroom which helped us relieve storage problems.
Now that our children are grown we are looking to this old house with gratitude. It has been the center stage for nearly every scene of our lives for the last 24 years. It has withstood storms and earthquakes, not to mention the daily battle that slammed doors, loud music, and raised voices that wages with the raising of children. All this and we are but the latest chapter of its story. In the coming years, we will finally turn our attention to such things as updating the electricity and refinishing the floors, but with gratitude and respect will be careful to not ask too much change from our beloved Lean-to.
I can almost hear the “Garage of Wonders” calling out for its own tribute...
