[NA] House pictures

saracelica

saracelica

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saracelica
Went to a seminar yesterday about how to research the history of your house. My local auditor makes searching easy on the website. I know who lived here and when. Googled and found the first owner (house built in 1964,) lives nearby.

I want to send a letter asking to see if they have any pictures of the house back when it was being built for historical purposes.

If you got a letter from somewhere you use to live what would you do/think?
 
I'd answer such a letter. I used to write a bunch pre-internet, for genealogy searches, and used to receive them. More related, there was a murder [still unsolved] in the house that I own; that's an interesting history.
 
I would answer as well. Finding the original owners still alive would certainly be a fun advantage of new housing (defined by me as houses built after WWII LOL).
 
Kenny Phillips said:
I'd answer such a letter. I used to write a bunch pre-internet, for genealogy searches, and used to receive them. More related, there was a murder [still unsolved] in the house that I own; that's an interesting history.
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Tell me more about that Kenny. :) Got any ghosts?

I think I found the ex wife of the first owner. The husband died a couple years ago
 
saracelica said:
If you got a letter from somewhere you use to live what would you do/think?
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Turn the scamsters in to the police.






I built my current house. ;)

For what you mean I'd be happy to send them pics or info.
 
A couple of years ago I actually wrote the guy who is the current owner of the first plane I owned...I'm still waiting for his response.:(
 
Funny you should mention that. My '67 Cherokee was purchased new by a college in the mid-west for use in their flying club. Got a letter a few years ago from a gentleman that took lessons and passed his private in the plane. He was cleaning out some old stuff and found the original key and a Piper fob. Tracked me down by N-# and sent the key, fob and some pictures of the time in the college flying club. Pretty cool history.
 
I'd answer.

As a matter of fact, I did the reverse. My ancestors built a house once. I discovered some old blueprints and knocked on the current owners' door to present it to them.

Now that I think about it, I did it twice. When I remodeled a bathroom, I took a bunch of pictures and hid them in the wall.
 
I'd think twice, might do it, depends on tone and my own follow-up. If I thought you wern't fishing for proof of improvements, doing some kind of leg work for a civil or criminal action, or tags number of cars that might have been in the photo, or simming the metadata off the image I sent you. . .I think I talked myself out of it. . .
 
Gary said:
Funny you should mention that. My '67 Cherokee was purchased new by a college in the mid-west for use in their flying club. Got a letter a few years ago from a gentleman that took lessons and passed his private in the plane. He was cleaning out some old stuff and found the original key and a Piper fob. Tracked me down by N-# and sent the key, fob and some pictures of the time in the college flying club. Pretty cool history.
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I bought a Cardinal once and it came with an extra logbook for a PA-28. It was the original from the factory, and hadn't been written in for 15 years or so. I researched the current owner and mailed it to him with a note on how I came across it. It was delivered a few days later (I tracked it). It was probably worth at least a couple of thousand to him at resale and cost me an hour and a couple of bucks. Very disappointing to not get so much as an acknowledgement, let alone a thanks.
 
saracelica said:
I want to send a letter asking to see if they have any pictures of the house back when it was being built for historical purposes.

If you got a letter from somewhere you use to live what would you do/think?
Click to expand...

Our former house was built in the mid 1910s, and my wife was able to track down the one surviving resident. She is currently (or at least was back then...) in her 80s and living in a nursing home in Montana. She sent us photos from the house in the 1930s and 1940s. It was cool to see how it looked the same, yet very different.
 
The children of the original owners of my current house stop by every 5 years or so to see what we've done to the place.
One of the sons told us "If I had known how nice this place would be I would have never left."
I thought that was a pretty nice compliment.
 
My current home was built in 2001 and we bought it in 2016. When we did renovations, we removed some stained glass windows that were simply not our style. They looked like something the original owner paid serious money for. I contacted the original owner who had moved to Florida some years earlier and offered him the window panes. He was thrilled. His wife had commissioned them when they built the house but when they sold, the realtor failed to put them as an exclusion. As they are attached to the house, they conveyed to the buyer. His wife was very disappointed when she couldn't take them.

After we talked, he sent an art shipping company to pick them up and had them installed at rheir FL place as a surprise for her birthday.

Some time later he and his wife came by during a trip to the area. They pointed out some design features and easter-eggs that I didn't know about (incl. a roughed in elevator shaft and a bedroom with 8 Cat5 jacks). He also gave me some rather valuable bottles of wine and a folder with the stamped plans for the home and 100+ construction photographs.
 
Gary said:
Funny you should mention that. My '67 Cherokee was purchased new by a college in the mid-west for use in their flying club. Got a letter a few years ago from a gentleman that took lessons and passed his private in the plane. He was cleaning out some old stuff and found the original key and a Piper fob. Tracked me down by N-# and sent the key, fob and some pictures of the time in the college flying club. Pretty cool history.
Click to expand...

Nice! We had a similar thing with the club's old straight-leg 182, N271G. It had a plastic placard in it that said N9271G, with the 9 colored black with a sharpie (the placard was white-on-black). I always wondered what that was all about, until the original owner contacted us and told us the story.

The airplane had been in their family for many years, from new in 1971 they had it on their family farm strip for about 30 years, then there was a second owner who only had it for a year or two before the club bought it. The guy who contacted us was the son, his dad was a pilot too. He had been about to take his private checkride in it in the mid-1980s when it was parked at an airport tie-down and a storm came through. The 182 was tied down properly, but there was a nearby jet that was not that was blown enough by the storm that it knocked the tail off poor old N9271G. It was still new enough at that point that insurance paid for an entirely new tail to be attached to the rest of the fuselage. In the meantime, the family had purchased a Baron as well. They wanted their tail numbers to be similar, but the closest they could get was for the Baron to be N271S. When the new tail (and mid-1980s Cessna paint job) went onto the 182, they changed the number to N271G.

Sadly, N271G fought with another thunderstorm and didn't make it. We paid homage to our beloved bird by renaming its replacement, an R182, N271RG.
 
Over Christmas I visited my 10th great grandfather’s home in England, built in 1633. The owner was nice enough to let us look around. I asked him if strangers showing up was to be expected when you buy a home on the historical register. He shrigged. I need to send him a thank you note.
 
Update to this posting. Sending a letter probably would've been better. I decided to stop by, she lives in a pretty nice part of town (about 10 minutes from my house her original house)

First time I stopped over house was pretty dark 1030a. Thought maybe she's a snow bird walkway was icy. Rang the bell and nothing. Left and ran sone errands. Swung by on the way back to my house and curtains were open and was different from just the hour prior. Rang the bell and stepped back so I wouldn't look intimidating saw she was in the kitchen. Came to the door looked through side window and I smiled she opened the door and I said I know you don't know me but I live in the house you did 50 years ago and she look befuddled. We c invited me in as it's chilly. I showed her my Id proving it was was true.

She says what are you hoping to get from me? I said pictures or something what do you still have from the building of it? She claims she gave her share of the pictures to her son in Virginia. I asked for contact information and she opened the door and said sorry I don't have anything we only lived there for 5 years. Basically go away.

Disappointed think I may go ahead and write a letter. She does know where I live so I guess if she changes her mind......
 
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