The Humble K-Car That Saved Chrysler. I Owned Two Of Them. 1985 Dodge Aires Wagon, 1982 Plymouth Reliant Sedan

February 14, 2020

#357

Gentle reader,

Since I found out I could stream YouTube on the big screen, I watch it a lot. This morning, there was a Retro Review from Motorweek about a car I was given and would still have today had I been able to figure out why it wouldn't pass the emissions test. 

(7) MotorWeek | Retro Review: '85 Chrysler K Wagon - YouTube  

Here is how the car came to be ours. My wife had retired friends who were our parent's age, they were animal rescuers and just the nicest, most giving people ever. We miss them.

I would stop by sometimes on the way home from work and one day, the car above was sitting in their driveway. 

Having owned an earlier model, (1982 Plymouth Reliant sedan, top image above) and had been a Chrysler/Plymouth dealer mechanic, I inquired about it. Jim told me that it was a neighbor's car, they could not fix it and he was going to donate it. Instead, he donated it to me.

1985 Dodge Aries Dealer Brochure.

Three images above are from an article I wrote about all of the cars I have owned since 1973. I collected dealer brochures for almost all of them.

A Journey through time, via Automobile Sales Brochures 

Whatever problem those people had with it, it never came up again. The car did have a problem or two, nothing I couldn't handle, though.

I started working at the aforementioned dealer in 1981. There soon came a recession and people were not bringing their cars in for work. Which is how I ended up going to work on subway train cars instead. Best employment choice I could ever made.

This car had the optional 14 inch aluminum wheels mentioned in the Motorweek review.

For only the second time in my life, I had a car repainted. Maaco did a great job.

Both cars I had were equipped with Chrysler's venerable 2.2 liter four cylinder engine, not the Mitsubishi "Hemi" 2.6 in the Motorweek video.

I found a chrome plated cam cover for it and liked the way it brightened up the engine.

One of the things I loved about the car was it's red interior. I always wanted a car with a red interior.

Bucket seats, console, floor shifter, and "wood" dashboard definitely "loaded" above the standard car. 

I created an armrest/cup holder for it. It looks like crap but did the job. Cup holders were unheard of in 1985.

Had it the manual transmission, it would have been perfect. But, unlike the transmission in the Reliant, this one never failed.

The flash "burned" out the red of the armrest I made in this photo. No cup holders, but the ashtray was standard.

I liked the simple yet elegant design of the dash and wheel. Cruise control, was optional as were many things the car had.

I upgraded the stereo to a much later model so I could play cassettes.

While it had A/C, it used R-22 refrigerant which was outlawed by the time we had the car, which was in 2005.

My daughter asked if the A/C worked, "Yes, like this." my wife said as she rolled down the window.

See? I even made sure my console had cup holders for the kids in roomy backseat. Even the seat belts were red.

In the video on Motorweek, they said that the inside was so roomy that one could go into the moving business.

If you want a red interior today, forget about it. Cars have become so boring looking inside with black or gray. Plus, so many look just like their competition.

In fact, a car magazine was doing a test of all of certain type of cars, all brands. They stopped for the night and all of them were lined up outside the hotel. The clerk saw them and asked, "What kind of car are those?" "They are all different!" "They all look the same to me."

As you know, I am a wagon guy. I drive a 2005 Volvo V50 T5 M66. I bought it used, specifically because it has the ultra-rare six speed manual transmission and turbocharged five cylinder engine.

I had no choice of color, it is gray inside and out. Lighter gray inside than most cars have, and many shades to make it attractive. Not fifty shade of gray, though.

Six, count 'em, six speeds, one must shift themselves. I'd have it no other way.

Three pedals as God intended.

Subtle dual exhausts which almost every car has nowadays. But unless one had the T5, they were not there.

You may be thinking, "That car is fifteen years old, why don't you get a newer one?" One cannot get a Volvo with a manual transmission in North America. That's why.

Even this 2020 V60 Polestar, their performance model, has an automatic transmission in North America.

My Volvo is my forever car. Like I said in the beginning, had I been able to figure out why it wouldn't pass emissions, I would still have Gigi. That's the name the kids gave the Aries. For Grocery Getter. But I couldn't figure it out. She was twenty years old when I sold her.

Seeing that Motorweek video inspired me to write this article. I greatly appreciate your taking the time to read it. Your kind words and comments are what keep me writing.

Scott
February 14, 2020
#357

 

Pre-Abandonment Photos of: A Most Unique Abandoned Home In Northern Virginia

February 10, 2020

#356

Gentle reader,

I recently wrote about and showed photos we made inside the home we are about to show you here, a link is below:

 

A Most Unique Abandoned Home In Northern Virginia INSIDE! Shocking Find!  

That article has a link in it to the original article which shows the photos of the exterior as well as the yard and some unique architecture the house possesses.

The following photos are from two realtor's websites MLS Listings from more than ten years ago when the first (main) floor of the home was available for rent for $2,500 a month.

We have since learned who owned the house and probably built the magnificent addition with a great room and two-car, rear- loading garage added to the original structure which was built in 1953.

He, if we are correct, owns a construction company, and we found his telephone number.

But, since the house and almost forty acres have been sold twice since it was his, we will not disturb him.

Lovely Azaleas and other landscaping flanked the large front porch with wall-to-wall windows of the great room it opens into.

The view from said porch, looking to the left into the front yard. Lattice screen shields a wooden shed, purpose unknown. You can see one of the four water wells the property has, to the right of the tree.

Inside the great room, the left wall is the original outside east wall. You see the inside of the new front door, ahead. 

Just look at all the fine woodwork.

Magnificent open beam ceiling with angled knotty pine between the covered beams. Wagon wheel light fixture lends a Western flair to the room.

This is looking towards the backyard. The door just seen, lower left of center, is reached by a half stair down. You can just see the railing. 

"Behind The Green Door" is this large living room with wood stove, one of three on the two floors all with one massive brick chimney.

The door in the right corner is to the attic stairs. The attic is full length and was built to be lived in, but never finished. Nor was it insulated. There is none in the house, thus the need for wood stoves.

The attic is fully floored with an ornate railing around the stairwell and a window on each end of the house. 

The original front door is on the left. It opens to the only insulation in the house, the exterior brick wall opening was so closely matched outside, one cannot see that it ever held a doorway, nor any sign of the original steps or a porch.

That arched doorway leads from the living room to this dining/family room. Second wood stove is in this room. The third is in the basement, and it too has a wood stove.

A side view of the magnificent built-in bookcase that I fell in love with. An arched doorway from the living room is above where the photographer stood.

I added my own photo to show you just how pretty it is. If only I could transport it AND the great room and garage here.... 

The avocado green dishwasher has been replaced since these photos with a black faced, much more modern one.

The kitchen door, one of four on the back of the house has a beautiful brick porch which doubles as protection for the steps and doorway directly beneath that leads to the basement. 

Green stove is still there, a testament to the build quality since it is decades old. Not seen in either photo is the corner windows to the right of where the photographer stood. 

The entire first floor, save the kitchen and bath, are hardwood. Three bedrooms total.

The house was heated by hot water by a massive oil-fired boiler.

The large single bathroom is quite lovely, if you like green. There are two bathrooms in the fully finished basement, as well as two more bedrooms and a massive room beneath the great room addition.

We hope you have enjoyed this trilogy of articles about a Most Unique Abandoned Home in Northern Virginia.

Since the property was sold last month for almost four million dollars, and we could not afford to restore and update the vandalized house, we can only imagine what it would be like to have more room than we need to live in.

Did I tell you there is a separate heated three car garage there as well?

Thanks for reading these articles. I love photographing and writing and in this case, researching them. Your kind words here and one Facebook keep me writing. 

Scott and Nancy

February 10, 2020

 

A Most Unique Abandoned Home In Northern Virginia INSIDE! Shocking Find!

February 8, 2020

#355

Gentle reader,

After much thought and due to the likely impending destruction of this house, first shown here:

A Most Unique Abandoned Home In Northern Virginia 

(Note: It may be easier for you to open the link in another tab or window so that you may be able to correlate inside doors/windows to what we show here.)

We decided to enter the house to document it for posterity. What we found shocked us, and it's not the condition of the house. We found something that was truly sad.

Note: There are NO signs warning against trespassing. I felt strongly about not wanting to enter the house the first time we were here. 

First, we counted the number of exterior doors, there are SIX. Four on the back, one on the western side and the front door which opens to the great room.

The vaulted ceiling of the great room. How proud the owners must have been. They chose knotty pine to match the walls of the basement.

Looking from the original structure into the great room. Those stairs lead halfway down and out to the back yard the the door into the garage. That is the eastern wall of the attached garage.

The addition of the great room/garage, due to the construction and detail must have cost a LOT of money. 

This is the original side of the house. Were it me, I would have had the window removed and made into a pass-through.

I was wrong in my original conclusion that the house was added onto twice. And the square footage the county lists must be for the main floor only. 

The living room. I deliberately blocked the nasty words of the graffiti. Heavy iron wood stove/insert in this room. Hardwood floors throughout the entire floor, except the kitchen. 

That door leads to the attic stairs. Opening on the right is into the dining room. Finished rather than painted wooden trim throughout, which I love.

The most destruction is in the dining room. Senseless. Note the baseboard heater. 

I did not know when drywall was invented, but obviously before 1953 which is when the house was built.

We truly wonder WHY the last tenants simply took their clothes and left everything else.

Avocado green stove must have still worked after all the decades. Much newer refrigerator. A carton of eggs on the counter. The stink that they must hold.

Lots of cabinets. It must have been almost a panicked retreat by the people that left so much behind. 

Curtains and drapes still in place around the house.

Corner windows are a nice touch. What I thought in the previous article was the kitchen door was not. This is on the back wall of the house and has an elaborate brick steps with ones leading down to a door into the basement directly beneath this door and corresponding porch.

I deliberately blocked all names and addresses on this stack of mail. Could they have been forcibly evicted?

Back into the living room and the attic door. From the outside of the house, it is not evident what we will find. 

The only sign of insulation we found anywhere. It must have been a cold home in the winter, thus the multiple wood stoves.

Finding these stairs harked back to the house in Richmond, VA we first moved into in 1974 after I graduated high school. It too was cold in the winter.

There are three chimney shafts in this large chimney. 

Note total lack of insulation.

Ornate railing in the attic!

I had to laugh at this box. "2800W(atts) Total Power" Right. The box is huge!

Remember the steel ductwork that was on the outside corner of the house attached to the A/C unit? Here it crosses the attic. To where?

There are beds and mattresses all over the house. I don't want to think what might have gone on them by the "visitors" who vandalized the place.

Wine rack inside the family room. There are empty bottles all over the house of various kinds. Lots of "partying" must have occurred by the visitors. Back into the living room, below.

This built-in cabinet/shelves took my breath away. There are built-in things all over the house. Must have been a wonderful house.

There is a second couch on the porch as well as the dining room chairs and another large mattress. 

The one on the porch matches the gray remains of this sectional.

Gee, what do you think they used to break the 1953 window? Down the hall to the other rooms, below.

Based upon the repaired window, perhaps someone was squatting for a while in this room. Not the eyeglasses left behind.

Aluminum is a great conductor of heat. So, making windows from them was not a good idea.

One of the built-in things we found in this bedroom. Perhaps the master?

This doorway intrigued us. You will wonder why too.

At first, I thought, shower. But, upon viewing the images, I saw the hot/cold water fittings. Possibly stacked washer/dryer?

The other side of the opening is this master bathroom. And the graffiti is correct.

Sad signs of the rapid departure of the previous tenants.  

That area's use still ponders me.

Calendar is from 2016 and in Spanish.

Hide-a-bed is in another bedroom which overlooks the unique roof over one of the basement doors.

A glance into the backyard above the basement roof I noted in the original article.

Another angle of the same room. Graffiti artist will not become famous with that poor quality.

Large linen closet. I have always loved wood and long ago owned a large house which all of the trim and doors were finished like this.

Some of the light fixtures from long ago.

Another sad reminder of a family that once loved this house.

Now, we journey to the basement of the original structure and the addition.

The knotty pine paneling that was the basis for the look in the great room.

Closet under those stairs. Warning, you will see a lot of mold and mildew downstairs.

What may have been the original family room in the basement. Note the dropped ceiling. Brick wall and hearth for the wood stove. 

A more vertical heater for this room. One of the many doors to the backyard from the basement.

Downstairs bathroom with the heater right where it was needed.

A second bathroom downstairs. See through the window the green from the fiberglass roofed structure outside the western door?

Large oil fired boiler to provide heat for the original house. Iron water pipes which the rest of the house probably has.

What was the laundry/utility room. Look at all the shelves!

One of two bedrooms downstairs.

Looking out that room's door leads to the back door beneath the fancy roof.

We are now beneath the great room. That is a 36" television. We once thought about getting one that big. But when I tried lifting one in the store, we settled for a 32" model.

This closet is partially beneath the stairs seen in the very first photo of the great room.

What was first seen from the covered doorway on the back of the house.

That desk is attached to the wall. That is a vanity on the right, the sink has been removed. SO, 1950's.

We will now head back out to the backyard. What we found was not noticed or perhaps understood on our first visit.

Ivy covered tree and swing set that was converted to hold a porch swing.

My wife spotted this wooden box when we arrived. We did not know it's significance then. 

A second one on top of the Weber grille, the wooden boxes contain cat cremains. 

We had a LOT of rain over the last two days. When we gazed into this box, we wondered what that gray stuff in the bag beneath the rainwater was.

Then it hit us. HUMAN cremains! Yes, someone's deceased relative's remains were left in the house and a "visitor" removed them to the outside. Did they realize what they were? 

What remains of a long ago stylish dresser has been in the backyard for a long time.

Many think "FREON" is generic for refrigerant. You know, the chemical which magically cools us off in the summer. 
Well, like Kleenex, Xerox, Bandaid and countless other words we think are generic are all in fact brand names.
Freon-11 which is now outlawed was a refrigerant that had a boiling point of 74.79℉ (23.77℃).
I worked on subway car's HVAC systems for decades prior to retiring and we used to use it for cleaning greasy things early on in my career. 
New members of the HVAC department were handed a Styrofoam cup and told to fill it with R-11. The 30 gallon drums were laid on their sides with a spigot on one end. 
The unsuspecting new guy would fill the cup and before he turned around, the cup was gone and the R-11 hit the floor! Turns out it also dissolved Styrofoam. 

On that hopefully funny note, I will end this interior tour of:
A Most Unique Abandoned Home In Northern Virginia 

Thank you SO much for reading my humble blog. Your response to the above article is overwhelming!

Scott
February 8, 2020
#355