The plumbing/sewer pipes originating in the basement of homes this vintage would be in keeping with; "closest to the entry point of fresh city water, and exit point for sewer water." Perhaps freezing weather in that part of the country was a consideration too. This home was likely built before indoor plumbing was installed. Even if plumbing were available in the area at the time the home was built, it would have been cheaper to erect an outhouse behind the home, and perhaps even a private well for fresh water was likely drilled on your home's property. Water was carried in to the kitchen for drinking water, and heated on the cast iron stoves for bath water. Kitchen stoves were also the heat source for homes of that day, fueled by coal or wood.

Such was the case with the small 2 story home my Mother's Father constructed for their family of 11 in the late 1920s in the small town of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. The cellar had the low-ceiling that you describe your home has, however, I do not know where in my Mom's childhood home's first toilet was located - however there was only one in the home I remember as a young lad in the 1950s, and it was on the second floor. Forensically, there will always be unknowns about these very old homes. No one is alive to ask it's history of.

I am not fond of the appearance factor of roofing shingles on the exterior of a home - unless you paint them. That's just me.

My Mother's childhood home had asphalt shingles applied as the cheapest available exterior siding/cladding of the day. Her Father, my Grandfather contracted a form of MS in his 30s, and was bedridden the rest of his 60-some year life. Obviously there wasn't much income in their household. They would not accept, nor apply for county charity either, they managed nonetheless through the 1930s, because the children of middle school age were put to work outside the home. Every American family has a story - I know times were hard for most of our forefathers.

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