Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1974 the standard new American house was long, low and entirely on one floor, and the plan it was built to did specific things on purpose.
All…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Above the door there was a second, smaller window, hinged along the bottom or the top, with a brass arm beside it or a long pole leaning in…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Between the back door and the kitchen there was a room that was not quite a room.
It had a concrete or linoleum floor, a mat, a row…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
There was a small door in the hallway wall, about waist height, hinged at the bottom or the top, usually metal, sometimes with a little catch.
You opened…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
It was a stack of horizontal glass slats in a metal frame, each one held in a little clip at both ends, and a crank at the bottom…
Everything that happened in a room is recorded in what you are standing on. Here are fifteen.
1. Board Width Dates the House Roughly
Very wide boards generally mean early…