Homestead history contest 2007:
Tristan Schmid, host, List-en Up!))
Schmid:
Welcome to the third episode of List-en up! I’m Tristan. Thanks for joining us!

In the August issue of the Angie’s List magazine, we profiled the history of the buildings that the Angie’s List staff works in. We also began our Homestead History Contest and asked our members to share stories about their homes for the magazine’s December cover story. We received nearly 100 entries and narrowed those down to 12 winners. I spoke with several of them.

One of our winners, Scott Miller, began his contest entry with the words “Every home has a story.” I know my 1925 bungalow has at least one good story: the previous owners found a grenade underneath the old oven when they moved in, as well as spent slugs and rounds of ammunition that the prior owner had fired in the crawlspace.

Judging from the contest entries, Angie’s List members have also had some interesting goings-on in their homes. Seth Dewey of Philadelphia artfully refurbished his home, a loft formerly inhabited by crack addicts.

Seth Dewey:
In Philadelphia there are a lot of abandoned homes and neighborhoods that people have given up on. I saw potential in the house that I could work with, and when something is that far gone, basically you can do whatever you want inside of it. I’m an artist and I also do architectural salvage, taking apart houses. So it’s kind of a reverse to put it all back together. The windows were all out of various homes in Philly, some of the architectural stone pieces, I found things in auction, found things that people had that I could incorporate into my house. There were these really cool old pieces of metal, bolts and things, and I had the idea for a long time to have those stuck in concrete in the back of the sofa. I actually slept there when my parents came, and it’s quite comfortable with the pillows.

Most of my inspiration for my house came from traveling a lot, and from different parts of the world because people live in all sorts of different types of environments and styles. So the Japanese gardens got started in the backyard, and kind of the Spanish colonial idea of living around the center of the house and having a courtyard. It’s blocked off from the street, so it’s a nice and quiet environment to come into. The tile floor is easy to clean, and with the industrial kitchen with concrete countertops.

It’s kind of a mix of all the experiences I’ve had traveling, and when I’m at home it feels like I’m on vacation all the time.

Schmid:
Like Seth Dewey, Angela Dallo hopes to incorporate elements of foreign lands into her recently purchased storybook home. Last year, Dallo moved from New York to Irvington, a historic neighborhood east of Indianapolis. I asked her why she chose her house.

Angela Dallo
This house was built around 1930 and it has lots of character and charm that the others didn’t have.

It’s unique simply because of its appearance. It really looks like a dollhouse from the street. It’s like a cottage Tudor style with the original cedar shakes. The center gable with stained-glass windows, that’s very unique. There’s no other house like it in the neighborhood - it’s pretty unique.

I have some Venetian plaster on the walls. With the arched doorways, I’ve made it look like an Italian courtyard. And with that on these wonderful old windows with mahogany trim, I have some little bears perched on the windowsill. If you look at the inside of the house, I’d like to make you feel like the three bears could live here. That’s what I kind of like. It’s making me feel at home, anyway.

Schmid:
Ruth Housman feels at home in her Newton Center, Massachusetts Georgian Revival. Housman’s friends find her name fitting: her home was once a boarding house.

Ruth Housman:
I think it’s unique in terms of the beauty of the house. Built in 1837, it was very solidly built with very unique features like beautiful leaded glass windows and little touches like a torch on the outside. It’s unique on the inside with arches that are kind of Spanish, and fireplaces all around downstairs and in the bedroom, with a kind of Victorian charm.

It’s unique because of its history, built by a bicycle maker in the 1830’s who actually wanted to bring a little bit of Europe here, so he put little touches in like a fleur de lis on top of the fireplaces. Unique because Timothy Leary, known for his LSD experimentation, lived here, and there were a lot of wild parties here. It has a history in terms of a woman used it as a rooming house, with decks on the lawn. A lot of people lived here because of the rooming house.

Schmid:
A piano-playing ghost may have also called Housman’s house “home,” according to her and a friend.

Housman:
We were upstairs, and it’s funny because we were talking about ghosts, and suddenly I swear we both heard this piano playing. So we tiptoed down the stairs, and when we got to the bottom it was silent.

Schmid:
I asked Housman if she considered calling Ghostbusters.

Housman: Well, if I’d heard it more often, I probably might have considered. But if there are any ghosts now, they’re not playing a piano or even an imaginary piano because I haven’t heard that. Usually when I hear people upstairs, it’s people who’ve come to repair some thing.
Schmid:
Like Housman’s possible piano-playing poltergeist, Scott Miller of Kent, Wash. has a passion for music. For his Homestead History Contest entry, Miller submitted lyrics to his song, called “Our Homestead,” about his and his wife’s home.

Scott Miller:
I sat down at about 2 in the morning in August and just received everything that’s there. It kind of flowed right out. I’ve written a lot of other songs though, probably 350 full songs and another 200 in progress.

Schmid:
Several Angie’s List employees got together and put Miller’s lyrics to music. Dubbed “the East Washington Street All Star Band,” the group recorded the song with the help of Angie’s List backup singers the A-Listers.

(Short clip of song)

Schmid:
You can listen to Scott Miller’s entire tune at podcast.angieslist.com, and also view additional pictures of the winners’ homes that we couldn’t fit into the magazine.

You’ve heard from us, so now we’d love to hear from you! If you have ideas for future episodes or questions you’d like answered, please email us at podcastangieslist.com.

Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to List-en!