Backstory…

There are many ways a writer can reveal a backstory.  I’m going to do it in the most direct and simplest manner just to get it out of the way.  It’s contribution to the ‘story of our new old house’ is relatively unimportant but certain themes and values, in our decision making, reoccur and this backstory may help explain them (just in case I don’t later on).

I was raised by my paternal grandparents (both born between 1901-1909).  Their anecdotes, about life during the Great Depression and World War II, explain some of the attitudes and values they passed on to me.

We lived in a 10-room, circa 1901, vernacular Victorian farmhouse style home, in Jamestown, NY (Chautauqua Co.).  It had a wide wrap-around porch from which we would greet and chat with our neighbours as they walked by.  Our walks would take us past theirs, too.  It facilitated a sense of neighborliness and ‘community’.

http://www.oldhouseweb.com/style-gallery/victorian-houses/folk-victorian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown,_New_York

When I was about to start 6th.Grade we moved to a smaller, eight-room, Four-Square built in 1906.  It had a front porch, too, as well as, dual gas/electric lights and a bedroom converted into its only bathroom.  I have no clue what they did before the conversion…used the basement laundry?

http://www.antiquehome.org/Architectural-Style/four-square.htm

I majored in Drafting and English, in high school, but didn’t have any clear direction on what to do afterward.  On the day of orientation for college, I received a follow-up call to a job interview for an architectural draftsman position.  The unemployment rate, at the time, was about 10% so I took the job.

Five years later, after changing careers (temporarily) and moving to Minnesota, I would return to New York State and attend that college orientation in the hopes of transferring to a four-year architectural school.  However, none of them would take me so I changed majors for my next degree (Political Science).

Political science is usually the first, obligatory step to law school.  I took the Law School Admission Test but my heart wasn’t really into it.  I had enjoyed the rigors of several political campaigns and worked for a local, county, and federal elected officials but didn’t really want to become a lawyer (as most successful politicians are).

While volunteering at a United Way (UW) agency I started proofreading, then writing, grants and other materials for my political contacts and their connections.  I did this for about 10 years (1993-2003).  For various reasons I always maintained a “real job”, too; often with those for whom I wrote or through a temp employment agency.

For fun, I worked on restoration projects (historic homes, museums, public buildings, etc.), as well as, building sets for the local theatre, and participating on a number of community/economic development committees and Boards.

In 2004, I moved to Levittown, NY (on Long Island) to be with my future wife; whom I met the year before through Match.com.  We’ve been married since 2006.  She was born in Buenos Aires (BA), Argentina but raised in Wantagh, NY (also on Long Island).

In BA most homes tend to be concrete and stucco and similar to what one finds in her familial hometown of Vibo Valentia, Calabria, Italy.  Most of Long Island’s residential housing stock is post-WWII “Levitt-esque” suburban sprawl and McMansion cul-de-sacs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_New_York

She doesn’t have much familiarity with traditional, turn-of-the-Century homes so this was the first thing she agreed to let me teach her.  There’s a big difference between authentic traditional residential architecture and the contemporary interpretation of it.  Most magazines and websites depict the interpretation.  Eventually I found one that depicts the authentic, “Old House Journal” http://www.oldhousejournal.com/

This is enough of a backstory about us (and maybe too much about me).  I think next time I’d like to briefly relate our nearly two year search for a home and how that led us to decide to do a remodel.  Then the ‘fun’ begins.