I restored/renovated a 100 yr old Victorian, and while it was a very
nice house, and well-built, when they say, "They don't build 'em like
they used to" that ain't always a bad thing! I found lots of shortcuts
in my house, when I opened up walls and stuff, from when it was
originally built. And the "upgrades" over the years looked like they
were done by cheap morons, which I am sure was the case.
I did find some interesting porn stuck in the floorboards from a 50s
bathroom redo, and some from maybe the 60s in another wall . Too
funny. Most of it was no worse than today's newspaper. I found some
original 1884 newspapers from when the house was built. Classified ads
(Boston paper) were looking for (under separate headings) Italian girls
(Catholic), Irish girls [Catholic/Protestant] . Some general ads
specified "No Irish" and "No Negroes" but Italians generally seemed
acceptable unless otherwise specified. Kinda shows what the pecking
order was then.
If anyone is interested, here is my web site chronicle of the
transformation http://www.constructivity.net/victorian_restoration.htm
--R
