I never expected to receive so many emails after writing this column about my anxieties and my hopes regarding my in-laws’ old house that my boyfriend inherited, which I call “the Usher house”.
Thanks for sharing, wishes of happiness and advice. Lots of advice, all sound. For example about the hot water heaters that scared me, and that you have to make “pee” or “bleed”, according to you. I’m going to have to ask how to do it, because this new vocabulary for me makes me afraid of dirtying the floors.
“Know that we are always someone else’s fool,” wrote Julie, to encourage me. “Only establish the essential stuff. Your in-laws lived there happily and pass on this gem to you with the happiness that must be felt. Enjoy them as they would have done for years if they were alive. I have a weakness for old things that have lived. »
I had no idea either how much you loved old houses. When you talk about it, it’s with a lot of warmth, and even poetry, even a little esotericism.
Like Sylvain. “Don’t worry, this house will take care of you like you will take care of it. She will soon tell you what she needs to be happy, but in my own experience she only needs happy inhabitants to be happy, genuine and true inhabitants to be authentic and true, warm inhabitants to be warm! A house is not an object, a thing: it’s alive, and it transmits life! It takes care of life! It’s part of the energy flow of Life! »
Poetry, I swear. I feel that a reader, Micheline, is like many of you “inhabited” by her old home. “This ‘Usher house’, it’s lined with love, its walls echo with laughter, she writes. If you look closely, you’ll find dreams written on the ceilings and maybe a heartache or two that’s been hiding under the baseboards. But no new house, condo or castle will offer you a more comfortable or warmer nest! »
It gives the impression not only to enter a house, but in religion, and I smiled a lot reading your enthusiasm.
I’ve dreamed all my life of a condo rather than a worrying century-old house, and wasted hours and hours staring in vain at pictures on the Centris site. Several of you farted my baloune, in particular Chloé, carpenter-joiner by trade. “I’m in a good position to see what kind of quality we build today. We build with the cheapest, noble materials give way to pretense and cardboard moldings. I have seen unimaginable horrors on the vast majority of sites I have worked on. Never buy a condo, that’s my advice. »
One thing comes up often: old houses have “a soul”, you are sure of that. A story. “They please us from time to time, says Robert, who took over his father’s house dating from 1912. Slowly, we got around the problems and there are still some, but 30 years later, we have no regret. »
“If it’s been there for 100 years, it’s because it will still be there in 100 years,” says Claude. Only intervene if something is a problem for you, and not for others. »
Concerning period copper pipes, for example, Julie reminds us that it is worth its weight in gold. “A plumber might suggest you change it and you can’t imagine the price he’ll get for reselling ‘your plumbing’. »
“Above all, ESPECIALLY, avoid the ‟renovators”, stars or not, who would crash their hammers and their cameras to redo everything RONA or IKEA style”, insists Thérèse, who adores her imperfect old house in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. I promise you, Thérèse, that not one of them is going to come home. I hate cameras.
“Never touch the pipes or electrical wires to level it,” recommends André. Your house is like an old person, so don’t try to change its constitution or replace a worn hip. »
“I didn’t know anything about it and now I’m in my third house,” Huguette wrote to me. We learn day by day and above all: listen and believe those who know it. »
Sincerely, a big thank you for all your messages that galvanized me. I couldn’t answer everyone, but I read them all (taking notes). I needed it, because I am very sorry to leave an apartment that I love, which has been my refuge during the pandemic, and especially my beloved neighborhood, where I have always lived. Reading your emails to my boyfriend, exasperated by my worries, he said to me, “You see? YOU SEE ? »
I believe you and I will listen to you, as Huguette suggests.