My new living situation

My new landlord is a good guy, easy to talk to, no pretension. This is his first house, he was raised in Hood River up the Columbia River Gorge in North Mid Oregon, 70 miles East of Portland. Hood River is one of the first places I took a road trip to when i first moved here in 2007. I"m living out of the basement, meaning that my main room is the bassement, semi finished, concrete floor that is painted brown, a small set tothe side room. What I find interesting in this basement is the house heating system. In order to install it years before my landlord considered purchasing a house, a couple of someones removed some main supporting members ot the existing main house supporting members, beams and floor joists. Upstairs you can sense this with the creaking of the floor as one walks through the house. The current owner has owned this relic for 4 years. Like he said it is the first one he's owned. It makes me wonder if he consulted anyone who knows anything about construction when he was considering purchasing it. Oh well. I asked him if he was planning on putting insulation and sheet rock on the ceiling down here and he said no, thought that it would severely limit the head room. He painted the basement ceiling black, perhaps to mask the missing supporting members of the main house floor. Covering the ceiling in sheet rock would require any conscientious builder to also add extensive supporting members and blocking nailers to the existing structure. I think the plan is to live here maybe ten years, fix up the yard and the outside, make a pleasant visual experience for the next buyer and now knowing more of what to look for in a house, purchase something that has not been gerry mandered by the previous owner and his pals.

The basement is sound and water tight and I plan on staying here at least 2 or perhaps 3 years hoping that my landlord is planning on staying beyond that. I am putting some effort into making it more comfortable and will post some pictures. I hope that this experience doesn't turn me into a bear in a cave. I am already looking like one. Work is calling!