Tag: Millbrook NY

  • Polarized Light Sockets (John Foreman)

    May whoever who came up with polarize light plugs be consigned to an eternity of trying to plug them into old fashioned extension cords. Since my old house was equipped with only 4 light sockets for 38 rooms – only kidding, sort of – we have a lot of extension cords.

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  • Un-modernized, Grand, And Spacious

    One of my favorite things about big, old and preferably un-modernized houses are the bathrooms. They are so grand and spacious, and the fixtures to my eyes are really pieces of industrial sculpture.

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  • Thorncrest

    My mother was from the south, and when I was a little boy she filled my head with wistful – and mostly apocryphal – tales of Louisiana plantations. She really hooked me on the big old house thing.

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  • My Haunted Guestroom

    My haunted guestroom is in the upper left corner of this photo

  • Old Houses Make Noises

    Daheim, south facade

    I’ve spent many nights alone in my house, and have never been afraid. It’s like all old houses; it makes noises. As with bats, the best thing to do about late at night noises in old houses is pay no attention. The bats will dematerialize, in the way of bats, and the odd thumps and creaks will go away. too

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  • The First Day (John Foreman)

    It is June the 9th, 2010, the first day of my blog about BIG OLD HOUSES. I have lived in one or another of them for the last 40 years. At one point, my former wife and I used to joke that we had lived in a total of 246 rooms.

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