We tracked down the the original owner of our new place and had him over this past weekend. He built the house himself 56 years ago. He's 94 now, drives a new SUV, and seems to remember every nail he drove building the house and the shed way out back. (Another guy owned it for about a year before we bought it, and he was neither friendly nor knowledgable.)
He answered several questions we had, like where the well is and how deep it is. (Just a few feet in front of the walk to the front door and 163 feet deep.)
Now we know that the switch in the garage
that was connected to something powers up the shed way out back. The plugs in the old circuit breaker box (we upgraded)
WERE used as generator feeds. Now, we have a transfer switch.
Yep, there is a separate underground tank for the washer discharges, as well as a huge crushed stone pit way out to the right of the house where the sump pumps discharge into. He only had measurable water in the basement once in 53 years. (On Sunday morning, I upgraded the original sump well, discharge pipes, electric connection, and replaced the pump and added an alarm. Then, I cut another hole in the basement floor and installed a second sump pump and alarm in the laundry room near the washers - just in case.)
Seems this place (the house and the yard) has more than a few other hidden features that we wouldn't have found in a month of Sundays.
Let's just say that the gentleman thinks like most of us here do.
He showed us where the rabbits live near the stone wall way out back, where the two groundhogs still reside, and where the deer usually come onto the property at night.
More than two acres of the property is still mostly overgrown. He showed us where the pasture was, where the garden (with GREAT soil) was, and explained that those two stainless steel barrels buried way out back with covers on them and pipes way at the bottom were for hot and cold water for the cattle (25 head) and two horses he kept 'till around 1990.
He asked if he could come over when we plant the garden next spring.
I took three pages of notes, and got answers to 19 questions I had typed up before he arrived. What a nice old gentleman he is.
His favorite restaurant is a hot-dog/fish-and-chips place about two miles from my office. He goes there twice a week with his 96-year-old brother. They sell gift certificates (actually, plastic gift cards - at a hotdog joint) so lunch will be on me for the next year or so.
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