If you were so inclined, would you be able to draw the floor plan of the home that you lived in when you were ten years old? You don't have to actually do it in order to answer the question, of course, although I suppose I'll try it tomorrow. Since I lived in the same house until I left for college (during which time it burned), I think I could do a pretty good job of it.
Yup. I wonder if it's easier for those of us who did not move a lot. I lived in the same house until I was 9, and then then next house from ages 9 through 18.
Yep, it was a small house that my dad and grandpa built when I was 2. It started out with only 3 rooms; 2 more rooms were added on later. We moved from there when I was 10.
Yes, and the floor plans of the houses my girlfriend, 2 of my cousins, and both grandmothers lived in, when I was 10. I've always loved floor plans. And maps.
My folks bought the house where I grew up before I was 5 years old, and they lived there for the rest of their life. I not only can draw the floor plan, I often dream that I am still living in that house, although at some indeterminate age, not as a child anymore. Since it was a small north Idaho town, people almost all had a large garden, and some houses had livestock out back. Our house had a garage, a barn, chicken coop, and a root cellar where we stored things like apples and carrots over the winter. We had fruit trees, apples, pears and prune-plums, as well as rhubarb, raspberries, grapes, and blackberries. Grandma Bailey (who lived in the house next door) canned a lot of the fruit and made applesauce and jams that both families used. The cellar had a double wall and was insulated in the walls and the ceiling with sawdust, so even in the cold Idaho winters, nothing froze in the cellar. The house had originally only had one bedroom, but someone had enclosed the back porch and made two small rooms out there, one of which was my bedroom. The house had no insulation, so in the winter, I slept in my warm clothes and in a sleeping bag with blankets over the top, and the inside of my windows always had that patterned frost in the mornings, and sometimes for most of the day,.
I can do better than draw a floor plan, I have today's recent pictures of the same house. There was a back porch that was totally closed, no screens but wrap around windows from side to back to side, and my bed was there on the porch. Of course it was just another room that had been modified at some time in the 40s. I think it was the coldest room I have ever slept in due to having all those doggone windows. There was one small space heater and it was turned off when we turned in.
Don't you find it interesting how many homes in the 'good old days' were not insulated? We took out the wall board from the 50's in my little barn house and found only tar paper against the outer walls. And yet, I had the feeling of love and happiness from the first time I walked in there. There had been a woodstove. And they could have kept animals in the adjacent garage to help keep things warm. The hay mow was on the other side of that space. I had it much better growing up with central heat and two indoor privies.And yes, I remember the floor plan. You can google my address and see what the street view looks like now. Much changed.
All I remember about it was that in the morning, when I and my adopted sister got up to have breakfast and then wait for the school bus, my Aunt would put a blanket over two doorways to keep the heat inside of the dining area and kitchen. Other than that, I don't remember anything about it, and basically, don't want to.
The house we moved to in my 10th year had three bedrooms upstairs in a converted attic. Poor insulation, so it was chilly up there, especially when the wind blew. We slept in flannel gowns or pj's under heavy blankets and quilts and the second we got up, we'd dash down the stairs and stand on the hot air floor register. I'd usually get dressed under my nightgown before I'd take it off. Mom and Dad had the only downstairs bedroom. Of course, the upstairs was hot in the summer but we kids usually slept out on the screened porch on bunkbeds dad would set up. It was much cooler out there.