My wife, Barb, and I have really enjoyed living at the N. H. Allen house, and we only moved after Barb's knees gave out: Even though she has had both knees replaced, it still hurts her to walk up and down stairs. So we built a new, mostly single-level home on our timberland.

Living in a home with the history and grandeur of the N. H. Allen house is both a privilege and a responsibility. The home took super care of us, and although we lived there for seventeen years, from the N. H. Allen home's perspective, we were only temporary stewards.

We took our stewardship role seriously. We will pass the home to the next owners in much better condition than we found it, and we have done our best to preserve and document the home's unique history. That explains why we carefully photographed our restoration efforts, built this www.nhallen.net website, and will pass all our materials about the home to the next owners.

Everything in this website, and all the photos in the associated Google Photos folders along with the YouTube videos, are included as attachments to our Oregon Seller's Property Disclosure Statement (ORS 105.465). Here is a link to a Google Photos Album with the eight-page disclosure: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AzzgcxsbCPrjGVVq5.

Whenever a home is sold, the buyers and sellers will inherently have different viewpoints. I'm reminded of my favorite cartoon (I wish I'd made a copy of it ... I saw it only once forty years ago). It showed two contrasting drawings of a classroom. One drawing was from the back of the room: it showed well dressed and attentive students looking at a multi-headed monster at the front. The other drawing was from the front of the same classroom. It showed a man in a suit standing next to the blackboard, and all students were drunk, rowdy or sleeping.

From our side of the classroom, we did our best to carefully renovate the home, and we are worried the new owners will behave more like the Pares or Yeskes than the Larsons or Siemens (please see the Owners page to understand this reference). We know we haven't tried to hide anything; instead, we are worried about how the next owners will treat the house. Will they care about the history and maintain the home ... or will they let it deteriorate? We don't want to visit the home fifteen years from now and leave with tears in our eyes as happened with Richard and Terry Larson in 2002.

But from the buyer's side, people are bound to wonder, "What are they hiding?" From the buyer's viewpoint, our choices may seem dishonest or illegal.

The nearby pictures show two specific examples of how our choices could look nefarious from a buyer's perspective.

1. Photo 1 shows a fascia board on the east side of the house that's over twenty feet in the air. When we were re-roofing the home around 2004, I looked carefully at this amazing board: it was quite wide -- perhaps 16" and made from a single Douglas Fir plank. It just isn't possible to buy that sort of lumber today. But it also had been exposed to a leaky roof, so it was spongy and rotten. I had a choice: I could remove this board and replace it with modern plywood ... that would be what a building inspector would want done. Or because it isn't structural, I could leave it in place as an example of building practices from long ago. I remember thinking about this choice carefully, and I decided that if the board was painted and protected from any further water, it would likely be quite stable ... so that is what I did. Twelve years later, as we repainted the house with a snorkel lift, I had another opportunity to replace this rotten board. But because it hadn't shown any signs of further deterioration, I once again decided to leave it alone.

2. Photo 2 shows the kitchen stove and marble backsplash. When I was installing the marble backsplash, an electrical cover plate was in the way. I could easily have used my tile saw to cut a hole in the marble so the cover plate could remain visible ... and I knew that is the correct procedure to use according to the electrical code. But I didn't like the idea of having that visual distraction behind the stove. So I opened the electrical box and saw it had three 12-2 wires joined by twist-on electrical connectors. Right or wrong, I decided to secure the connectors in a super-sturdy manner, and then I covered over the box. This didn't create an unsafe condition: the box won't ever cause a fire ... but it does hide a junction, and if one of the connections ever stopped working, an electrician would have real difficulty figuring out what went wrong.

When I began buying and renovating historic homes, I took out building permits on everything. But as time went on, I found the rules made less and less sense for historic homes, and the bureaucrats at City Hall seemed to care only about paperwork and not about doing quality work. I don't want to bore you with too many examples, but consider how I approached building my workshop (garage). I knew the Allen House was built from rough lumber that hadn't been planed ... so the 2" x 4" lumber in the walls is actually 2" x 4" instead of more modern 1-1/2" x 3-1/2". I wanted to build my workshop from similar lumber, but you can't buy rough full-size lumber. So I went to the Thompson Timber sort yard, picked out large logs with very-tight ring counts, and had them delivered to a one-man saw mill near Blodgett. This process is described on the Renovations page. As a result of all this effort, I received a truckload of the sort of high-quality lumber that hasn't been available in lumber yards for over a hundred years ... and I built the single-story garage from that lumber. This really upset the building inspector because he couldn't find grading stamps on the lumber so he threatened to shut down the entire building process. In this case I was able to solve the problem by getting my structural engineer to write a letter (shown on the Renovations page), but in other cases, I found it could be nearly impossible to meet the various demands from the "Development Office." I put "Development Office" in quotes, because I believe the proper term for it should be "Antidevelopment Office." For example, one part of the office wants historic renovations to be authentic, and other parts want renovations to follow current building codes ... but those objectives often fight each other: Try looking at the gaps between spindles on the back porch railings ... modern codes require no more than 4-inch gaps anywhere in the railings, but that isn't how the N. H. Allen house was built. So even getting a single consistent answer from these bureaucrats can be difficult or impossible.

Conclusion

I know more about the N. H. Allen house and it's construction than anyone still alive. I've done my best to share what I know through photographs and this website, but I've undoubtedly left out lots of stuff that I know about the house. Because I care about the house, I'd be willing to meet with any future owners to talk about how to deal with problems as they arise. But I don't want to end up in court because some future owner doesn't like how I renovated it while I owned the home. So we are selling the home "as is."

Feel free to hire whatever inspectors or contractors that you want to examine the home. Because the home is 140 years old, they will find lots of "problems", and they will warn you about other potential problems that could be far worse. That's their job.

Then the normal course of events is for the potential buyers to tell the sellers about all the problems and ask for repairs. Barb and I are unlikely to repair anything unless it is specifically required to get a bank loan. Why? Because we have already repaired everything we personally feel is important. If a buyer wants to change things, great! We will want the buyer make changes after the sale is complete.

We are not selling this home in an "as is" manner because it has problems we want to hide. Instead, we are selling it that way because:

• It's not clear what actually is a problem in an historic home ... opinions will vary substantially.

• Most problems can be fixed in several ways, so it would be difficult to agree on how to make repairs.

• We want to sell the home to a buyer who is willing and able to fix problems. Please do not buy this historic home unless you want to maintain it for future generations to enjoy.

Historic homes require more maintenance than the cookie-cutter brand new ones with vinyl windows and Hardiplank siding ... buy one of those homes if the idea of upkeep bothers you.

Question 112: Has the roof leaked?

Yes, over the life of this house, the roof has had lots of leaks, and these leaks have caused major damage. I've spent most of my time for the past three years building a custom home on our timberland, so the N. H. Allen house has some deferred maintenance. As a result, we repaired three roof leaks this year:

1. Side porch above the living room. See Photo 1 and its caption.

2. Kitchen porch. Evidently there was a relatively minor leak in the flat roof over the kitchen porch that Buddy McClure repaired when we repainted the porch in August 2020. I don't know much about this repair, but if you are curious, feel free to phone Buddy McClure to talk with him about the home at 541-662-6606.

3. Second-floor scupper (south-west corner). See Photo 4 and its caption.

To the best of my knowledge, the roof is currently in good repair, and all major damage caused by prior roof leaks have been repaired. However, it is possible our repairs will prove to have been defective, and prior leaks may have caused hidden damage.

I want to stress that water damage is the single most serious enemy of historic homes, and roof leaks need to be fixed promptly. Chemists call water the universal solvent, so keeping water away from the house is critical.

Question 114 -117: Are there any additions, conversions or remodeling?

Yes, please see the Renovations page and all the associated photographs. This building was constructed before building permits were required, and for the most part, all changes that have been made since then have been done without building permits. One major exception to this is that I took out a building permit for the 20-by-38-foot garage and it's electrical system, and it received a final inspection.

Question 143: Electrical system in good working order.

The Larsons had a new electrical system installed in the 1980s that was inspected and approved. I have a detailed, hand-written diagram of how it was wired that is part of the notebook of materials that goes with the house.

When I built the garage, I had the garage's electrical subpanel inspected.

Along the way, lots of electrical work has been done that hasn't been inspected. For the most part, this work was done according to code, and I know of no problems that seem particularly important.

On the other hand, I do have several recommendations. First, by installing some smart switches, it would be possible to make the electrical system more convenient. For example, it would be nice to have the front door light switch also turn on-and-off the back door light.

The wire which goes from the main panel box to the outdoor heat pump is rated for 30 amps. Once every couple of years, it appears the outdoor heat pump must ask to draw more than 30 amps because it blows a replaceable fuse. This is an annoyance and could be solved by stringing a larger wire between the panel box and the heat pump and using a 40-amp fuse.

Question 145: Water heater tank

I didn't trust the new, highly-efficient hot water heater, so I had it installed in a different location from the previous hot water heater. Then I changed the plumbing and wiring so it would be easy to switch from using one heater to the other. The new heater has been working well, so it is probably time to simply remove the now-unused back-up water heater.

Questions 150 to 152: HVAC systems

I am curious, but do not know, what heating system was used when the home was built. I know the home had at least two chimneys. I believe the Larsons tore out and replaced the existing chimney because it has excellent modern mortar. They probably also removed nearly all of the second chimney, because it stopped just below the dining room floor. I removed the rest of it to recapture its basement space.

When we bought the home, it had a large, old Sears natural gas heater with very leaky ductwork. Because the home had no air conditioning, we needed to open doors and windows on hot summer days. This let in bugs and pollen, so we decided to upgrade the central HVAC system.

We replaced the Sears heater with a more efficient natural gas heater and installed a chiller in the new ductwork, and then we added a 5-ton heat pump outside. This means the main part of the house can be heated with either natural gas or the heat pump. We normally use natural gas for heat because it is cheaper. In the summer, we use the 5-ton heat pump to keep the main part of the house cool. This entire system uses a triangular space behind the first-floor's fireplace as a cold-air return ... and also feeds ductwork through this space to push warm air to the second floor. Most of this was installed with help from my son-in-law, Chris Reiter, who is an expert in HVAC work ... but I know the installation is non-conventional and likely wouldn't make a building inspector happy.

While the system described above works well enough for the first floor, the bedrooms on the second floor were uncomfortable until we added three more heat pumps. Now each upstairs bedroom has its own ductless heat pump. This works great because the units are very efficient and allow each bedroom to be controlled individually.

We have been happy with the HVAC systems as they are today, but new owners would be free to modify or replace them as they desire.

Question 186: Is there material damage from fire?

No ... but I understand from talking with Allen descendants and from examining Sanborn plat maps that the home originally had a kitchen area to the south (what currently is between the home and the garage). This area apparently burned up long ago.

Also, about six years ago, Buddy McClure and I replaced the roof over the kitchen porch and used torch-down roofing. The torch evidently sparked an ember that smoldered in the upstairs bedroom wall for several hours. Barb and I were watching TV downstairs when we heard the upstairs smoke alarm go off. The fire department is just across the street, and they responded with gusto and chainsaws ... and in their enthusiasm, they caused far more damage than the fire. This required me to have custom siding built to match the existing siding, and all the damage has been carefully repaired.

Question 197: Other defects.

As I've grown older, I've grown more philosophical, and I've learned to look at issues from multiple viewpoints. I've found what one person calls a defect, other people will call a useful feature. Both the windows and porches are good examples:

Windows

This home has double-hung wood windows typical for homes built in Albany during the 1880s. Both the upper and lower sashes would initially have opened easily because they had weights hanging on pulleys and clothes line to counterbalance the sashes.

Over time people have painted and repainted these windows, and clothes lines have broken or become detached. As a result, many sashes are now painted shut, and weights are sitting useless in the bottom of their pockets. Lots of strategies are available to address these issues:

• When we bought the house, all double-hung windows had storm windows made from wood trim and single-pane glass. This improved insulation by providing an air pocket between the storm windows and the double-hung windows, and it reduced air infiltration as well. We removed the storm windows when we repainted in 2016 and placed them behind the garage.

• A few folks in Albany have tried replacing the wood windows in their historic homes with modern vinyl ones. This would be a good way to learn about the enforcement powers of the Albany Landmarks Commission and the Albany Development Office.

• The double-hung windows could be disassembled, paint could be stripped, and they could be reinstalled ... good as new. This wouldn't cost much for materials, but it would take a lot of time to do. You also would want to do this very carefully, because the wood trim around the windows has lead-based paint.

• They could be deliberately sealed up so air can't infiltrate and then they just wouldn't open. This approach makes a lot of sense to me because modern HVAC systems can keep the home at a constant temperature so there no longer is a good reason to open the windows: Open windows just let in pollen and bugs while letting heat escape.

New window topic: The sill on the window at the top of the stairs had rotted out, so I replaced that window's sill this year. To make this repair, I went down the street to 338 6th Avenue SE (another historic home that Barb and I own), and I got a spare double-hung window from it's basement. Why did the basement have a spare window? Because someone in the 1960s decided to completely remodel 336 6th Avenue by removing the tall original windows, installing short squatty ones, and lowering all the ceilings to to be only 8-feet tall. Honestly, I still can't fathom why anyone would have decided to do this: It completely destroyed the architectural integrity of the home. So when I bought the home at an auction for $47,000, I decided to bring this home back to its former glory, and that involved building a whole new set of double-hung windows from Douglas Fir lumber. I believe we built 17 new double-hung windows, but the Landmark Advisory folks decided we only should use 16 of them ... and that left me with a spare window that has been sitting in the basement unused.

Just for fun, Photo 5 shows before-and-after views of 338's renovation.

I removed the bottom sill plate from the spare window and used it to repair the window at the top of the stairs. That left me with most of the spare window (see Photo 6) ... and I decided to leave it under the kitchen porch at 208 6th for the new owners.

Two other items are worth mentioning. First, the window in the downstairs bathroom has cracked glass (see Photo 7). This bothers me because the glass is wavy; that is, it has uneven imperfections, so it dates to the 1880s. Thus, a piece of history will disappear when this glass is replaced. The actual replacement itself is straightforward. Using a ladder, remove the putty glazing and broken window, carefully measure the opening, go to Smith Glass or Davis Glass downtown to have them cut a replacement pane (which will cost around $25), put the new glass in place, push tiny metal holders (called "push points") around the glass, and use a tube of window glazing to finish the repair. The entire project should take a couple of hours.

Second, an upstairs bedroom window is stuck slightly open (see Photo 8). This lets air and bugs into the room and should be fixed. If I was going to continue owning the house, I'd probably just seal up the cracks with a couple of pieces of wood and chalk. Lots of other repair alternatives exist, so the new owners will get to decide what they want to do.

Porches

The N. H. Allen house has wood porches in rainy western Oregon. Because the home is in a historic district, these porches cannot be replaced with plastic, so they will periodically rot and need replacement. They currently are in good condition, and if they are kept well painted and chalked (use tubes of Vulkem polyurethane--it stays flexible and watertight forever), they will last a lot longer than if they are ignored. But either way, they will eventually rot and need repair.

Photo 9 shows various items I plan on leaving under the kitchen porch for the new owners. The left-over paint will help make touch-up painting easier. But I suspect the most important item will be the tongue-and-groove flooring. I salvaged it from a farm house in Lebanon that was scheduled to be demolished. This should make the next porch repair less expensive.

One final thought

Some people find historical homes to be outmoded, obsolete relics of questionable value. Personally, I find them to be unique ... fun examples of how people used to live, full of character and charm, and adaptable to modern living. While Albany's Landmark Commission won't let you make major changes to the home's exterior, you can change anything you want on the interior to suit your lifestyle and interests.

I really love the N. H. Allen home, and nothing in it bothers me or seems like a significant defect. But I live in a society gave a woman a $1,000,000 judgment because McDonalds served her hot coffee which she promptly spilled all over herself while driving. In this sort of world, it makes sense to check the box saying the home has serious defects, provide lots of photos of prior repairs, and encourage potential buyers to look at the home for themselves ... and sell it "as is."

Once again, please do not buy this home unless you are willing to maintain it for future generations to enjoy. The single most important task will be to defend it from water by making sure the roof system works well and all exterior wood remains well painted.