We purchased an A-frame house in the suburbs of Boston (yes, that's right), in December 2003. At the time it was ideal--walking distance to a commuter train, priced decent given the peak market conditions, and a desirable neighborhood. This is our first home aside from a rental property we had owned in Maine--a log cabin that we rented to ski vacationers. I don't know many people who would have purchased our house. It had been on the market for a little more than 2 months and had a significant price drop (the price we paid was ridiculous but the original asking price was ludicrous). Our options were limited--the first house we looked at in town had a cess pool rather than a septic system and the train literally ran through the back yard. The A-frame had the most potential and I talked my husband into buying it.
I have a true love/hate relationship with this house. Many days buyers remorse hits me--what if we want to move and we are unable to sell it? What am I supposed to do with all of these angled walls? But there are many days, too, when I just love it. I'm pretty sure ours is the only A-frame in town, and I like that we possess something truly unique. The house is also pretty sound--snow slides right off the roof, the deep eaves mean little to no maintenance on the siding, and if a tree were to fall into the house it would probably lay snugly against the roof rather than crashing through it. We have 28 ft solid beams supporting the A and they are impressive.
Fixing up an A-frame house is tricky. We needed to get rid of some of the paneling first, however there was no way we, as DIY'ers, would be able to drywall the front of the "A." We decided to paint the paneling instead, which turned out to be difficult, too, but the result was good.
Not only does this photo show the wonderful exterior color paint job on the house, but it depicts probably the nicest bit of landscaping on the lot at the time of purchase. The blocks are granite, and we have since made use of them elsewhere, but we pretty much removed everything else. And by everything, I mean we had a loader come in and rip out the entire yard. The shed has been replaced, we've added a patio, and the house has been painted.
When we purchased this house, the interior was truly hideous. The tongue and groove, which can be seen on the left and right side of the photo, is in pretty good shape. But why did the previous owner have to add paneling to the flat walls? The photo shows the loft area of the house, which is the master bedroom. We currently have our bedroom here, but we must wind our way down the spiral stairs (again, hello seventies) to get to the bath, and there is little privacy as the living room is just below.
This picture shows what the house looked like when we first previewed it. We probably should have run from the place given the amount of cosmetics needed, but the structure of the house was sound, it had 220 amp service and it had lots of space.
Our personal favorite memory of this house was the chimney. Sky blue!
