The Old House

When I was fourteen we moved from the house that we had lived in since I was a month or two old to another house on the same property but a little farther from the highway. The plan for the old house was to use it as storage and a shop.

The old house being so close to the new house had some interesting effects. Mainly we moved piecemeal and not everything all at once so there were a lot of things that were left in the old house that would have gone with the move or been thrown out if we were moving farther away. Over time as we starting living full time in the new house a lot of the things that were still in the old house were forgotten and just replaced as needed in the new house.

The storage plan didn’t work out too well. Initially, an attempt was made to organize things but, at some point, project began piling on top of project. The buried projects were forgotten about or procrastinated and had no action was taken on them. Then the packrats moved in.

The packrats or wood rats (Neotoma cinerea) made an awful mess of things, urinated and defecating on everything and moving small items around that were once part of a larger, whole assembly.

Years ago, my aunt Nora told me that there was another house on this spot and that an Indian lady died in it during childbirth. The baby died too. I was never told what the lady’s name was. The story goes that they left the bodies in the house and burned it down to cleanse it of evil spirits.

Aunt Nora told me this after we had moved out of the old house which is a good thing because the old house bumped and creaked a lot as is cooled down at night. I remember, as a young kid lying awake in the dark listening to creaks spaced out so regularly that they sounded like footsteps on the stairs. If I had known that story then, I wouldn’t have gotten much sleep because the footstep creaking was a frequent occurrence just as frequently accompanied by loud random knocks and bumps.

I don’t think the house is haunted. It was framed with 2x4’s on 2 foot centers so I think there is a lot more unsupported surface area that would flex quite a bit as the house heated up and the boards expanded or cooled down and they contracted. Also, I have spent a lot of time in that house after we moved out. Our well pump and pressure tank are still in it and, during the winter, you have to go over there to turn on the water for the cows, usually well after dark. Our cats often accompanied me on these cow watering forays and went into the house without concern or they went on their own. From what little I know about the supernatural, if you believe in this type of thing, supposedly cats are very sensitive to ghosts and evil spirits so they wouldn’t have gone in the house. Finally, dad told me that the house that was burned wasn’t on the exact spot where our old house is. It was very close but not on the exact site.  

The house was built during the depression so not all of the building materials are of the best quality though many exceed the building materials available today. My dad cursed the guy who built it, claiming that he only had one eye and consequently nothing in the house is square. Given the way it was built, with smaller framing boards spaced farther apart, I would not be surprised if the house was square when it was built but settled and warped over time. When I was in the U.S. Navy, I was on a ship that was commissioned in 1944 and nothing on it was square due to all the years it had been in the water flexing and working. And the old house still remains standing and isn’t sagging too much despite not having been lived in or heated for better than 30 years, which, I feel, says a lot for whoever built it.

At this point, it would be important to note that while this house is comparatively old for European American buildings in this area it isn't even close to being old for buildings on the East Coast of the U.S. and not even a blip compared to many buildings elsewhere in the world. 

The house definitely has problems now. The mud sills and support pillars are beginning to rot away. Unfortunately, when we tried to have a look to evaluate it, it was so full of stuff, that we couldn’t get to critical areas to determine the magnitude of the problems.

I spent most of my time when this last winter, when I wasn’t dealing with family emergencies, cleaning out the old house so it can be evaluated to see if it is worth saving or not. Believe me, I would have a lot rather been doing other things, only the family emergencies were more worrisome and unpleasant. But I feel it is my responsibility to take care of the situation and not leave it for my kids or the next person who comes along. I even gave up my first free weekend of this summer when I could have been getting in shape hiking to move the clean up forward.

Cleaning out the old house has been a strange, difficult experience. It was kind of equal parts, disgusting, debilitating and fascinating. There is a lot of nostalgia and a lot of family history but most of it is covered in rat filth and much of the stuff is thoroughly disgusting. I came across many stuffed animals that my sister and I had played with when we were kids. The sight of them brought back warm memories but their present condition was disgusting beyond saving. As I put them into a garbage bag I had a thought that I was reliving many of my best childhood memories only to have them dirtied and tarnished. It was the same with boxes of old Christmas decorations, once shiny and pretty, now tarnished with rat filth. It was a very demoralizing experience, kind of like murdering your happy memories. I had a lot of these experiences.

It seems we held on to almost everything. Everywhere there were vignettes of a life gone by. There were empty Tareyton 100 packages that my dad used to smoke and the reason why I’ve had a smoker’s hack since I was twelve (this was long before the day when it was frowned upon to smoke indoors with kids); statistic books from Marblemount Little League baseball and the parent’s consent forms for the kids to play the 1979 season; the uniforms for the Newhalem Little League team which went to Marblemount when the Newhalem team disbanded; the second hunting license I ever bought; books from the 1800’s and early 1900’s through the 1950’s that my grandma had written her name in; Star wars trading cards; old grade school assignments, math and english and essays; old letters; old toys that were once my favorites; old furniture; cards and the guest book from Grandma’s funeral in 1952 and Grandpa’s funeral in 1963; a Ford Model T that, at one time comprised a complete vehicle, now in pieces that the wood rats spread all over the house; every book Barbara Cartland probably ever wrote, tracing her career on the backs of her books from young woman to Grande Dame of romance novels, lots of other romance novels as well as other books, both classics and books just for sheer entertainment; school art projects; baby stuff, the cradle and bottles my sister and I used and much more.

The old house is loaded with representations of American culture during the years that we lived there; issues of magazines from the early ‘60’s to late 70’s, Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Day, Popular Mechanics, Mechanix  Illustrated, Western Farmer along with furniture and fixtures and clothes patterns from 60’s and 70’s. Also quite interesting were things like parenting books and magazines and women’s professional development books for the era by Amy Vanderbilt among others. These all showed, at least in part, what majority of Americans were thinking and doing at that time or at least what the “experts” were suggesting they do.

Every day, sometimes, many times a day, cleaning the old house, I came across things that were really cool, that, up to the point of discovery, I had either forgotten or didn’t know existed. And, with a lot of that stuff, I would have been just as happy never knowing it existed because then I had to make a decision about it. Keep it or throw it out and, if I was going to keep it; Where was I going to put it?

There were things that were no-brainers, either junk, which would be thrown away or important, which would be kept. The hard things that didn’t fit in either category were hard to deal with, like a lot of retro stuff. This retro stuff is pretty cool but probably doesn’t have a lot of value. So if it doesn’t serve an immediate purpose; What to do with it?

A lot of this stuff is a good representation of the culture at the time but probably isn’t old enough to be worth much, besides so much of it being in poor condition. We can’t store it anymore so much of it was recycled or taken to the dump. I saved a few well preserved issues of each magazine as sample and I did manage to save any potentially unique issues that I stumbled across like the 1969 Apollo 11 Popular Mechanics Special Issue but I didn’t look at the cover of every single magazine. I had stacks and stacks of stuff to go through and no time to peruse it all thoroughly.

There was also a lot of local history in the old house; cancelled checks issued by The State Bank of Concrete which no longer exists (though building still does) made out to Vail’s Grocery in Marblemount, of which neither the business nor the building still exist and a North Cascades Traveler’s Guide from 1971 showing the businesses in the upper valley that sponsored it, most of which no longer exist. Even the buildings that housed many of these businesses are gone.

Of particular local interest that I discovered: In a time book from the sawmill that my family operated was the name of the man that the small tributary to the west side of Corkindale Creek is named after (See Lesser Known History of the North Cascades Vol. IV). His name was Perrault, the one French spelling that I didn’t think of. The initial of his first name was E. I haven’t found the full name yet. My mom remembers my grandpa talking about him. And the name of the man that Germain Creek is named after (See Germaine Creek) was Ernest, not Herman, Germain, without an e. There is a title for some land that my Grandpa bought from a man named Charles Hicks who, in turn, bought it from Ernest Germain.

From what I have read, a lot of the things I have been coming across in the old house are the type of everyday stuff that archeologists and historians love to get their hands on many years down the road. Because these items tell the story of everyday life for average people, not the rich ones who could afford elaborate funerals or to have their stories recorded or their things preserved. Evidently the everyday stuff of many eras is much more rare because so little of it still exists.

Of course most of the stuff in the old house isn’t old enough yet to make the grade as historical. The mass produced stuff like magazines probably isn’t rare but some other things might be. Trouble is, a lot of the stuff that would be valuable in a couple hundred years will have to be stored for another hundred years or so to become valuable and we are not operating a museum. I have thrown lots of interesting stuff away. Without a doubt I have thrown things away that had value either monetarily or historically but again we are not a museum. We need the space either to live in or to tear down to avoid liability. This is kind of a metaphor for life. You can’t keep everything and if you hold all history sacred and require yourself to preserve it, you will run out of money and room rather quickly.  

I do plan on contacting some historical museums to see if any of this stuff would be of interest to them. Supposedly the second rocking chair ever to come to Skagit County is in that house. Good luck identifying it amongst three or four other antique rocking chairs, I don’t think there is anyone alive now who could identify it. Even if it could be identified, good luck proving it was the second rocking chair ever to come to Skagit County. But there is probably a lot of stuff that can be more readily identified or verified that is of historical value.

It would be nice to save the old house. It has a very efficient floor plan, even if it is a little on the small side. A wood furnace in the basement heated it in the cold months through convection with no need for fans. And despite years of abuse, it is still standing which is a testament to the guy who built it.

However, it has a lot of problems. On the good side, according to the samples I have sent in for analysis, there is not much asbestos in the house. The shingles on the outside are asbestos but the material is very inert in them and shouldn’t present much of a problem. It does, however, without a doubt, have a lot of lead paint throughout. It also has problems with rotting structural members.

To make it livable again it would have to be stripped to the frame and rebuilt. This might be cost prohibitive. The lead paint is also a serious issue. It would be a big mistake to put a lot of money into the house if the end product wouldn’t be worth the amount invested and, on top of that, it wasn’t healthy to live in. It might be best to tear it down.

Time will tell. I still have the basement to clean out. That will hopefully happen this coming winter.  Then we can see what would be the best to do with the old house.

This is another post that should have been done in a series, but, honestly, it was so depressing while I was in the midst of cleaning the house out that I didn’t think I could to do posts on it regularly. So the reader will also find a lot of photos below. I would encourage the reader not to feel obligated to look at every one, though, if it suits your fancy to look at every one, be my guest.

The front of the house. 

End of the house with the kitchen and utility room. 

Back of house and back door. 

West end of house and access to basement, now mostly filled in. 

Asbestos shingles on the side of the house. Fortunately the asbestos in these is relatively inert so it shouldn't be too dangerous or too much of a problem to remove them. These shingles probably save the house because they are nearly indestructible and they protected much of the house. The shingles pictured here are about 80 years old. 

We didn't move out all at once so a lot of stuff was left in the kitchen cupboards and nobody got around to retrieving it or it was forgotten. While much of this was quite disgusting, there were also some interesting things. There was a lot of old style packaging on some of the things. The spices especially had some really old packaging since spices last longer than many other food items and many of the packages were pretty old when we moved out. There were also a lot of things in here that were made by companies that are no longer in business. 

View from kitchen through dining room. The dining room had been partially cleaned out at this point. 

Living room. I spent a lot of time on the blue sofa that is now on edge when I was growing up. I had to cut it into pieces to get it out. 

My old bedroom. This has also been partially cleaned out and used for storage of Model T parts. 

Attic and upstairs bedroom. Much of this became storage for books and magazines for recycling. Only they didn't get recycled till just this year. There were books and magazines from the 1980's and 1990's here. 

Attic, bookshelves and an organ. The organ is undoubtedly junk at this point since it has been subjected to extreme temperatures and humidity for 30 years. 

More attic. 

Basement. 

Wood furnace in the basement. With a little imagination, one might see a large face on this furnace, the octagonal piece being a giant nose with eyebrows and eyes immediately on either side. When I was a kid, I had a lot of imagination and was scared out of my wits by this thing. To me it was the monster in the basement and a was afraid to go down there alone. Fortunately, at that time, the insulation was still intact so it didn't also have great bunches of pink hair. That would have been completely terrifying. 

Cellar and canned fruits and vegetables in the basement. All of this stuff was canned in the late 1970's. Surprisingly, a lot of it still looks good. I guess this could be considered a testament to my mom's canning abilities but you couldn't get me to eat any of it on a bet. 

Stacks of recycling on the way out. The stack of popular mechanics in the front center dates from the late 1960's and I think the National Geographics do as well. 

More stacks of recycling. Harlequin romances etc. Barbara Cartland and company, National Geos and Popular Mechanics. The small green garbage can is full of metal recycling. 

Pickup load headed for the dump. 

Another load at the dump. I probably took a dozen or more loads of garbage and recycling to the dump this year. 

Living room cleaned out. 

Dining room cleaned out. The piano and refrigerator will go later. 

Attic and upstairs bedroom cleaned out. 

My sister's old room. Cleaned out. 

Posters. The two guys pictured were on TV as the Hardy Boys in the late 1970's. The guy to the right  holding the test tubes is Shaun Cassidy, a big 'tween heartthrob in the late 1970's.

Donny and Marie Osmond in the late 1970's.

Report cards from the winter trimester of my Freshman year in high school.  I never did better than a "C" grade for citizenship, typical for squirrely teenage boys. What also isn't shown, several cards down I got an "X" or failing grade for wood shop, the only failing grade I have ever gotten. I did much better in shop classes before and after this trimester. 

This mouse was drawn on the wall of my old bedroom by one of the people who lived in the house before us. 

On the wall in the attic. It says "Frist day of snow Nov. 14, 1958. This was also before we lived in the house. I don't know if the "frist" was an accidental misspelling, I often get letters scrambled myself when I write things out, or it is a spoonerism, frist being close to frost on the first day of snow. 

Some of my old toys. A good washing with bleach and alcohol and I'm sure my kids will get some use from them. 

Yours truly at 2 or 3 years of age. 

Old newspapers from 1927. The Seattle Post Intelligencer pretty much went out of business a few years ago. I don't think the Seattle Star has been published for many years. 

Old photos. I think these are relatives of my grandma's. The two women on the left were here cousins I think. The name on the back says Bakken (from South Dakota...I wonder...). The woman on the right might have been my grandma's mom or grandma. At seem point, I need to do some investigation to see if I can find out who these people were. 

Old salt shaker and spoon. 

Silver plated spoon pictured above. The engraving on the handle says "C. H. Bradford". Charles Henry Bradford was my grandma's dad and the man my oldest uncle was named after. 

Old vacuum cleaner and crib. This was my crib when I was a baby. 

Late 1960's or early '70's vintage football helmet. When I was in junior high they were throwing a bunch of these away because they were outdated and I got a couple of them. 

Padding inside the helmet. Much inferior to today's helmets and we still have problems with concussions today. Though I have heard that the increased technology of pads and helmets today actually enables players to hit much harder than in the past. 

Old piano in the dining room. The carvings on this piano are pretty cool. Unfortunately, the instrument has been sitting in an unheated house for over 30 years and is probably damaged beyond the point where it would be worthwhile to fix. Maybe it can be repurposed for something else. I would be a shame to lose the artwork. 

A report by my dad from 7th grade. It is about his hobby. He started out collecting matchboxes and then changed to collecting stamps but was thinking about going back to collecting matchboxes. I came across both collections in a box. Some of the matchboxes had some really interesting cover art. Almost all of them were from businesses that ceased operating many decades ago. 

One of my essays from about 3rd grade. 

Also from about 3rd grade. 

Time book from the saw mill my family operated. The year might look like 1903 but is actually 1913 I think. It looks like a "1" has been scratched over the zero. This was done for most of the entries in the book. At the top of the book is E. Perrault whom the western tributary to Corkindale Creek was named after. I don't know what the "E" stands for. 

Warranty deed for sale of property from Ernest Germain to Charles Hicks. My Grandpa bought the property from Hicks which is how we ended up with the deed. 

Inside of deed with Ernest Germain's signature. Much of the handwriting in those days was excellent. 

Mysterious papers. They state that the person named was not in the State of Washington on May 1, 1922.  These statements were made in Newhalem and are all signed and stamped by a notary public named Campbell. I don't know or remember what event could have caused such a flurry of legal documents to be created.

There are a dozen or more of these documents. Most are from July, 1922. Early in the month, they were hand written. Later in the month they had been typed up and mimeographed. All have raised seals and the notary public's signature. 

Close up of the first paper I found. 

Some of my grandma's detective magazines. The woman on the cover of the magazine on the top left looks to me like the actress Laura Linney. If you look closely at the magazine on the lower left, the many has a Hitler mustache and looks an awful lot like Adolf Hitler. This magazine was for the month of June 1944. On June 6, 1944 the Allies invaded Normandy. 

My grandma was also a member of the Detective Book Club. 

More detective paperbacks of my grandma's. These were called pocket books. The cover art is really cool, if a bit macabre. 

The backs of the books pictured above. These are maps of the areas where the stories in the books occurred. I understand some of these can be collector's items now. They were cheap throw away books when they were made. 

My grandma also got Railroad Magazine. Again, really cool cover art. I briefly browsed some of the stories inside and they looked like they might be interesting. Another thing I would like to pursue, if, and when, I get the chance. 

Excavating the basement access which has slumped in. 

A large enough space to move things out was excavated and a ramp left so I could move things out. I seeded the bare soil with grass seed so hopefully it won't turn into instant mud if I am working on the basement when it is raining. I will also lay down some plywood which should help keep things from getting too mired. 

More artifacts discovered while excavating the basement access. 

Another load of stuff going away. Most of this is the Model T parts that were stored in my old room but I was able to pass along a lot of other things as well.