My name is Linda Martin.  My husband, Matt, and I moved to Erie in 1999.  I love antiques, woodworking, and some refinishing of furniture.  Little did I know these skills would come to play an important part when we bought this old Erie house.

A Little History:

The first house I remember living in was a Victorian with a big yard and pine trees in Minnesota.  We moved to gold country in California before I was in high school.  We lived in an old gold mine’s land office that was converted to a house until I left home.

When my husband and I moved to this area (he is from Erie) we rented a 1790s farmhouse on a strawberry farm in Wattsburg.  The beams of the house were hand-hewn and I’d love looking at them in the basement.  Think of the history it held.  The commute was a bit much from Wattsburg to Erie and we found an apartment in Erie that was a converted old church near 10th and Liberty.  It had 4 levels with a winding staircase that went straight up to a loft and open beams and stained glass.  It really was unique.  I loved old antiques and old buildings and stained glass.

One day we were attending a household sale, one of many estate and household sales we attended on the weekends, and there it was.  We weren’t looking for a house, we were there just to look at some items.  I wanted that house.  It wasn’t  fancy or big, it had hardly a yard.  But it had character.  It was still very much original to its 1917 era.  My husband and I met up after rummaging through the household items at the  sale and we both said we wanted the house.  It was for sale, we bought it.  We didn’t hesitate at all when we saw the peeling paint,  broken sash cords, windows with the putty failing and squeaky stairs and  floors.  We would just fix it.  I mean, how hard could it be?  Anyone that has bought an old house can now laugh.

Owners of old houses have so much in common that house talk comes easy between us.  Please join in the conversation as we try to fix, restore and update our old Erie houses.