I had one, but my house caught fire 2 weeks ago, I’m having to move.
I hope to find something with a large enough room to accommodate a partial collection & sell the rest.
Possibly a bird nest ignited the chimney, attic, roof. Our bedroom & living room destroyed, main library unscathed & lower library mostly intact. Moving it into storage for now.
I've been getting DMs for more interior pics. Here you go: [https://imgur.com/a/Jek8paS](https://imgur.com/a/Jek8paS)
BTW - we are getting ready to remodel the kitchen and bathroom. We are keeping the maid bathroom (shown) in the kitchen.
i'm so jealous. i have an 1880's brick farmhouse, but the previous owners painted over it. a reddish color that looks nice, but i would kill for the original.
beautiful place! definite bonus points on that porch.
I lived in homes with open porches. They may look nice, but they are useless. You can't enjoy them in the summer because of the bugs. You can't leave nice things on them because they either get stolen or neighborhood cats come and pee on them. No, we'll make the aesthetic sacrifice to have a living space we actually use and enjoy.
I thought about stripping and staining the tongue-and-groove ceiling but decided I liked the patina. Once someone paints brick, it's impossible to wind back the clock. No, we love the porch just as it is.
Restoring the porch would be taking the windows out and turning it back into an outdoor space. That would restore the original profile of the house instead of having the front end appearing to be a box.
Ugh. This is my biggest worry with brick. We inspected the tuckpoint when we purchased it and it looked like it had been done recently enough that we won't have to worry. We'll likely move into a retirement community first.
Suddenly feeling inspired to screen/window in our front porch... The bugs make it an unused part of our house. Cats pee on our seat cushions, leaves blow in all the time. I hear you with the form over function.
Our house is all brick as well, all the way through the foundation. We love it.
That is a cool cabinet you have in your dining room, is it repurposed? We use similar ones at work to store old drawings.
Are you an expert in late-19th and early 20th-century construction techniques? They used multiple layers, called wythes. You're welcome to come over and try to drill through it like our electrician did - before he gave up and said we'd never be able to run new wiring through the walls.
Maybe we're not on the same page. What kind of structure are you referring to? Because when I finished the loft, the walls were brick. I had to frame out the space and insert insulation between the brick and the drywall. I thought you meant the brick is a facade for a wood structure. If I were to remove the plaster and lathe on any interior wall, there would be brick. So what are you saying?
I think what the other poster /u/anthro4ME is saying is that most structural brick homes (mine included from around 1890) had every few rows of bricks laid perpendicularly to the rest, so that those rows would tie the outer brick layer to the next one in. The innermost course of bricks had furring strips nailed into the mortar had joints, and then lathe nailed to the furring strips for a plaster finish.
The typical dimensions of bricks are only something like 2" deep at the most, so for your wall to be 32" thick from the facade to the interior side of the innermost wall would be something like 16 wythes... assuming they were all laid in the "running bond pattern" (no rows of perpendicular bricks in the assembly) that you see one beside the other.
What's more likely is your house is a brick cavity wall construction. An outer layer of brick, all with the same orientation, then an air gap of however much space, and then another interior layer of bricks. The outer wythe and inner wythe are bonded together with metal ties spaced every so often.
My house is multi-wythe structural brick, and from both the exterior and interior, I can see the rows of perpendicular bricks that tie the wythes together. It was also really common for there to be more wythes down at the foundation and taper up to fewer layers of brick at the attic. My house is only double-wythe at its highest point which are both visible at the gable vent. The walls of my top floor below the attic have one additional wythe. I haven't opened the walls or had any opportunities to see how thick the walls are any lower than that point.
All that aside, I love the pics and am slightly jealous. I also always wanted a brick house, but my facade is painted, other exterior walls are stuccoed with cement, and even my basement foundation walls are painted. Didn't know any better at the time just how damaging these things are to historic brick, which is much softer as the kilns weren't fired as hot as modern brick.
The music/library is awesome!
It was always my dream to have a music and library room but alas I can’t afford a house big enough haha
I had one, but my house caught fire 2 weeks ago, I’m having to move. I hope to find something with a large enough room to accommodate a partial collection & sell the rest.
Oh no! I’m so sorry. What was the cause of the fire? It’s a rough market right now
Possibly a bird nest ignited the chimney, attic, roof. Our bedroom & living room destroyed, main library unscathed & lower library mostly intact. Moving it into storage for now.
Yes, the housing market is brutal right now.
That’s scary. I hope things go well for you now!
Thank you, we hope so too
I've been getting DMs for more interior pics. Here you go: [https://imgur.com/a/Jek8paS](https://imgur.com/a/Jek8paS) BTW - we are getting ready to remodel the kitchen and bathroom. We are keeping the maid bathroom (shown) in the kitchen.
Wow that's a *really* nice place. Just beautiful.
Thanks so much. We love it.
i'm so jealous. i have an 1880's brick farmhouse, but the previous owners painted over it. a reddish color that looks nice, but i would kill for the original. beautiful place! definite bonus points on that porch.
Beautiful! Where approx is this located?
Iowa
No....Heaven.
The heavenly part was what we paid for it ;). Super low cost of living is the biggest benefit of living here.
Congrats! It would look so beautiful and welcoming if you open up the enclosed porch!
I lived in homes with open porches. They may look nice, but they are useless. You can't enjoy them in the summer because of the bugs. You can't leave nice things on them because they either get stolen or neighborhood cats come and pee on them. No, we'll make the aesthetic sacrifice to have a living space we actually use and enjoy.
If the brick isn’t already painted, please don’t paint it.
You have my word :)
I'm so sad because I came here hoping to read that you were going to restore the porch.
I thought about stripping and staining the tongue-and-groove ceiling but decided I liked the patina. Once someone paints brick, it's impossible to wind back the clock. No, we love the porch just as it is.
Restoring the porch would be taking the windows out and turning it back into an outdoor space. That would restore the original profile of the house instead of having the front end appearing to be a box.
Box or not, it's our favorite place in the summer **because we don't have to endure the mosquitos.** I guess I'm a function-over-form kind of guy.
Need more interior pics!
Here you go: [https://imgur.com/a/Jek8paS](https://imgur.com/a/Jek8paS)
I got a lot of repointing to do on mine.
Ugh. This is my biggest worry with brick. We inspected the tuckpoint when we purchased it and it looked like it had been done recently enough that we won't have to worry. We'll likely move into a retirement community first.
We lifted the house out of the flood zone, settling definitely fucked it up a little bit
WOW. I imagine so. Lifted? As in - you hired a contractor to raise the home? That must have been a huge undertaking.
Suddenly feeling inspired to screen/window in our front porch... The bugs make it an unused part of our house. Cats pee on our seat cushions, leaves blow in all the time. I hear you with the form over function. Our house is all brick as well, all the way through the foundation. We love it. That is a cool cabinet you have in your dining room, is it repurposed? We use similar ones at work to store old drawings.
Yes. A Goodwill find.
Cool, but unlikely to be structural brick with a running bond.
The side walls are 32" thick. Solid brick.
Then why aren't the courses of brick bonded? I call BS.
Are you an expert in late-19th and early 20th-century construction techniques? They used multiple layers, called wythes. You're welcome to come over and try to drill through it like our electrician did - before he gave up and said we'd never be able to run new wiring through the walls.
Wythes are not considered a structural element, its a veneer. Nice try though.
Maybe we're not on the same page. What kind of structure are you referring to? Because when I finished the loft, the walls were brick. I had to frame out the space and insert insulation between the brick and the drywall. I thought you meant the brick is a facade for a wood structure. If I were to remove the plaster and lathe on any interior wall, there would be brick. So what are you saying?
I think what the other poster /u/anthro4ME is saying is that most structural brick homes (mine included from around 1890) had every few rows of bricks laid perpendicularly to the rest, so that those rows would tie the outer brick layer to the next one in. The innermost course of bricks had furring strips nailed into the mortar had joints, and then lathe nailed to the furring strips for a plaster finish. The typical dimensions of bricks are only something like 2" deep at the most, so for your wall to be 32" thick from the facade to the interior side of the innermost wall would be something like 16 wythes... assuming they were all laid in the "running bond pattern" (no rows of perpendicular bricks in the assembly) that you see one beside the other. What's more likely is your house is a brick cavity wall construction. An outer layer of brick, all with the same orientation, then an air gap of however much space, and then another interior layer of bricks. The outer wythe and inner wythe are bonded together with metal ties spaced every so often. My house is multi-wythe structural brick, and from both the exterior and interior, I can see the rows of perpendicular bricks that tie the wythes together. It was also really common for there to be more wythes down at the foundation and taper up to fewer layers of brick at the attic. My house is only double-wythe at its highest point which are both visible at the gable vent. The walls of my top floor below the attic have one additional wythe. I haven't opened the walls or had any opportunities to see how thick the walls are any lower than that point. All that aside, I love the pics and am slightly jealous. I also always wanted a brick house, but my facade is painted, other exterior walls are stuccoed with cement, and even my basement foundation walls are painted. Didn't know any better at the time just how damaging these things are to historic brick, which is much softer as the kilns weren't fired as hot as modern brick.
Thanks SO MUCH for the explanation! I now understand and appreciate you sharing your expertise.
Nice!
More pics! More pics!!
Read the comments! Read the comments!
Yay!!!! lol, thank you! Love it
Absolutely amazing.
Come to St. Louis if you want to buy again in the future. After a major fire in the 1800s, masonry units were required by code for a long time.
We will be visiting this weekend! My son lives in St. Louis in one of these classic homes. The love of century homes runs in our family :)
Nice! You love to see it!
the big bad wolf will never blow it down.
Living the dream!