Just what I NEVER WANTED!

[BIBBER]

So I get home today after 2 days of rain and to my surprise...I have a NEW OLD STORM CELLAR...our enitre side yard caved in to expose the 12X12X10'nicely red bricked lined storm cellar instead of the nice bluegrass I worked so hard over the past 10 years primping....talk about a PO coverup...still pretty neat looking and I'll do some archeology on it before several dump truck loads of fill in...

 

[Banjo]

On one hand, oh man! that's horrible
On the other, COOL! I wanna see pictures!
Hope it's not too bad a project to repair the damage. Glad you diden't find it personally, or with a car, or riding mower.....

 

[DNK]

Jimmy Hoffa?

 

[tony barnhill]

Wait - you mean you never knew it was under there?

 

[DrEntropy]

Red brick?!?! You can SELL those for enuff money to fill the hole AND re-do th' lawn! Folks are fool enuff to WANT old, weathered red brick. Great "architectural feature" for a driveway. :thumbsup:

 

[TR6oldtimer]

12X12X10'? Sounds like the makings for an underground garage....

 

[Guest]

Hmmmm. Wine cellar?

 

[Steve]

If nothing else, salvage the brick. As Doc pointed out, them's worth money!

 

[BIBBER]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Wait - you mean you never knew it was under there?
[/QUOTE]

Tony...yea when we bought the place about 13 years ago the farmer/owner mentioned there used to be an old cellar around there but it had been "filled io" long time back...
Apparently the only thing I can figure is he had someone grade the top of it down as it suposedly had a large mound of earth with the door on top.... the part that hasn't caved in has about a 15" layer of earth still over it....but clearly open cellar under it....suppose to be sunny all weekend so may dry out enough to venture into it and see what we have...other problem is our propane line comes through the area as well...if I'm on the 10o news you'll know what I found!!!!

BOOM!!!!!!!!!

 

[BIBBER]

what a fizzle that turned out to be....Yes...it is the original storm cellar...what appeared at night with a flashlight as brick ends up being just hardened clay soil with the original shovel marks from it being dug out....did have what appears to be limestone rocks laid down for the floor...and the propane line does go smack dab right thru it...but the closest thing to a treasure was a bounty of uncovered earthworms if only I were a fisherman...so after caving the rest of it in I now have the start of an in ground swimming pool more like 10X8X6....' NOT!

 

[NutmegCT]

Just a thought - how old is the (original) house?

Wondering if that's really a "root cellar". Before there were refrigerators, farmers would store an entire year's supply of their carrots, turnips, beets, etc. in underground cellars. Some were right next to the house, some were under the house, and some may have been out in fields (for stuff that wasn't going to be used often).

Any evidence of shelves, large storage boxes, beams with nails on 'em for hanging cabbages, etc.? If an old cellar was "forgotten", you may have some interesting and/or valuable antiques down there.

Tom

 

[BIBBER]

Tom...I suspect you are right on...the original portion of house of our place has no known date..they classify it as just 1900 on the records..upgrade upon ugrades over the history kept it modern but destroyed the originality...I'm just taking a break but I did find what appear to be original timbers as supporting braces...but did not find anything else of interest...the farmer we bought the place from owned it for 50 years and was pretty thorough at cleaning everything out...at first we thought that asspect was a real seller..old barns and buildings were very cleaned out...but then again dissapointing...we hardly ever find anything of age...the wood itself however on the barns has true value to artist.... but Doc you want some brick our neighbor who lives about a mile up the road from us has an orginal milkbarn entirely made out of red brick...it's nickname around here by locals is the OLD POOR FARM???....not anymore.

 

[tony barnhill]

Maybe the old limestone floor could become a nice flower bed for the wife!! & the original beams, keep 'em & incorporate 'em in your new garage!!

 

[BIBBER]

Tony...the wife already thought of that..I did salvage a few but the timbers were pretty well gone...Banjo..nothing worth pictures but a BIG hole in the ground to fill now...BUT MY NEIGHBORS BRICK BARN...DOC and Steve THAT'S ANOTHER STORY..you want old bricks....I have a pic of it already I'll share...sensational!!!

 

[tony barnhill]

Man, that barn would make a heckuva garage!!

 

[rick_ingram]

Man, that barn would make a heckuva garage!!

Cripes...you could make the second floor and loft living quarters and still have plenty of room on the ground floor for a garage/work shoppe!

 

[BIBBER]

and the good news it's actually on the market...The nelson family has owned it for decades. 16 acres nice winbreaks, brick dairy barn. farm shop, chicken coop, hog pen and grainery all brick. The origianl house is also brick and a second house, white siding, plenty of fenced space and another horse barn....Very nice deal for $495,000...We would love to upgrade but the timimg is not right...

 

[Guest]

16 acres for $495.

 

[Silverghost]

Add a zero for the same thing here in Chicago!

 

[BIBBER]

Peter...yea it's actually a steal even here where prices are still very realistic....but you'd have to move to Fremont NE...hey..there's an idea me..you..we'd have the first Fremont ALL BRITISH CLUB!