September 30, 2020. San Antonio, Texas. Old Houses.

The house that Suzanne and David bought was built in 1918. The kitchen and bathrooms have all been redone and the kitchen is open to the family room which was what they were looking for. And the old house has a screened porch. Without even going upstairs, they knew they could own that house because of the kitchen and the porch. Fortunately, the upstairs was fine. So they bought it. But they wanted to make some changes. When the contractor was demolishing the small office on the second floor, he discovered trhat at one time the space was a full bathroom, complete with tile floo and pipes for water. The master bedroom was always built with it's own bathroom, but at some point, the other two bedrooms had small full bathrooms added. At one time, the two bedrooms shared the hall bathroom. Then the original hall bathroom was turned into an office and a laundry added in a closet next door, which will now become a closet. The original bathroom will become a laundry room. No one suspected that a bathroom had once been in the same spot in what now was an office. We have wondered where clothes were washed in 1918 and decided that it was probably sent out to be laundered. Or perhaps in the space that became the guest house. In order to get the plumbing to the third floor, the contracr was required to open a space adjacent to the fireplace in the master bedroom. He discovered that the original tiles are still around the hearth, covered up by fancy slate. At some point, David and Suzanne will open up that fireplace but not on this go around. But with old houises, you never know what you will find. This afternoon we were at the house meeting with the construction coordinator. On the way home, we decided that everytime we see the house we like it better. This old house has character and lots of surprises.