Spring time

Taking a short rest form working inside the house recently. Spring time hit with a whollup this year. The temperatures soared into the upper 80s for the past week and after a long dry-spell, we finally got some rain the other night. Here are some photos of how the gardens are growing.

Hope you enjoy.

          

     

  

    

     

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Were heading back into the Cellar soon so be sure to "tune in" for more stories about our trials with the drywall there ...

Peaceful Dreams ... at long last

As anyone who has restored (notice I didn't say renovate) an old house understands, one of the most difficult things is undoing all the "bad, evil and wicked" previous owners plopped into your house. We have fought againstminor things such as tchotchke light switches, bad wood trim additions and colors choices that I have only previously seen in my worst nightmares. Some of the major things are using spray foam insulation to rebuild the foundation and installing windows into a wall that had a crumbling main support beam (see Sunroom) . Couple that with natures inevitable drone forward, catapulting your plaster into little piles of dust or sagging those ols joists enough to crack the walls open in some places, and you always have longer than expected projects in hand. Such was the master bedroom restoration.

Within weeks of moving in we were drenched at about 3 am when the ceiling and wall above our heads gave way to a gusher of water from the roof (just like an illness or a plumbing disaster, these bad things never happens when you can actually, easily do something about it). The bed was placed against the old fireplace/chimney breast (long since removed) and the flashing around that chimney was horrible so ... in came the water. Strangely, after I was dry and caught a few more hours of sleep, I saw this as a potentially positive situation. See, the ceiling was one of those poporn things and there are these arch-like-things that span from the chimney breast out to the side walls and create little "niches" on either side of the ex-chimney breast. The popcorn ceiling makes me think of a bad apartment I had years ago that smelled of cat box and the niches are a little too cutsie for my taste. Why not have the plasterer remove them both when he comes in to fix the damaged ceiling ? Brilliant !

A few days later the roofer had the chimney flashing repaired and since he grew up in this neighborhood we heard lots of stories. In fact, he dated one of the girls who lived in this house in the fifties and confirmed that the beams in the parlor were a late addition.

OK, roof watertight ... time to get the plasterer in to fix up the interior.

Fast forward a month and about 20 plasterer estimates and youll understand how we ended up with a team of drywall-guys in the house hanging drywall on the ceiling. Who knew plaster would be that expensive (just dont tell anyone it's not plaster.) They did a fine job and even connected us with a good electrician. Meanwhile, before we moved in, the master bed room was wallpapered. When the ceiling collapsed there were bits of walpaperpaper torn off, of course. Well, you know how a tiny thread on a sweater beckons to you to pull at it, the same is true of torn wallpaper. One swift pull and the paper came off one of the niches and licked around a corner onto a full wall. Not a big deal until you try to smooth the torn edge of wallpaper - you cant. The drywaller said to pull off all the paper and he could skim coat the whole room ($$). So we did ... and he couldn't. The mud wouldn't stick to the underlayment paper that was beneath the wallpaper and we couldn't remove it either. He recommended that he hang 1/4 inch drywall over all the wall$$$$$$$$.

So the walls and the ceiling were repaired and smoothed with more drywall, and oh, those arches that I wanted removed, yeah, they were structural and hid the slope of the roof. Realizing we had to keep them, they were made straight, rather than arched. Not perfect, but it looks pretty good.

Repairs to the wood trim were minimal and I used up several tubes of caulk around the edges of the drywall.  The alcove area was not changed, excepting my usual obsessive scraping and cleaning out old caulk (really, what are people thinking when they just squirt that stuff in and leave it all lumpy and gross?).

Painting was a little crazy. The original color scheme was light jade green walls, maroon trim (to mimic the color of the Chinese antiques we have) and a fleshy-pink ceiling. Painting the ceiling came first, high gloss since the walls are a flat finish. I always put on a coat of trim color since painting the edges of the trim makes me nuts (its easier to edge the wall along the trim than the trim along the wall, if that makes sense). Then I did the walls. I used Benjamin Moore paint that we got 1/2 off at a sale this past fall. It was terrible paint - like syrup. I hated it, but put on 2 coats.

Here is a funny fact. light jade green turns into awful mint green when its translated into a flat painted wall. So I panicked. I added some yellow, some brown--I mixed and trialed into the night. I painted the whole room that re-mixed color and wanted to sit in a corner of that hideously colored room and cry.It looked like old Jadite kitchen glass and made my perfect ceiling look hot pink ... what a mess.




The next day we reviewed the paint chips for Porter Paint - I had a sample of it for the dining room color and liked the consistency and the color options. We chose a dull deep olive as you can see in the photos. Its so much better with the dark color of the trim and furniture. and makes the ceiling look fantastic.

Check out the photos ... they show off how dramatic the change from bubble-gum pink to sophisticated green is ... and not only that, but the whole room feels like a big-boy room now, not a litttle girls barbie-inspired hide-a-way. Back to the basement, next, still have to finish what we left when the temps got too cold to easily work there.

Ebonized Music Cabinet

Hi all. I recently found this great little Ebonized American Aesthetic Music Cabinet to add to the huge pile of furniture that is littering the parlor. I checked out a reference book I have and, well, lo-and-behold, there was my cabinet. It is only 39 inches tall and originally came in either a small size (top = 13 x 17 inches) or a larger size (top = 13 x 20 inches) - this is the larger size. It was also available in either Solid Walnut with Ebony and gilt accents for $24 or Ebonized Walnut with Gilt for $24. Check out all those super old American machine-produced Aesthetic cabinets. WOW - this is the stuff I love ... Thank goodness for the industrial revolution.

(side note - and this always makes me laugh - You know all that "hand-carved" Victorian furniture you see on eBay - MACHINE MADE ... yup yup ... how in the world could it all have been made entirely by hand. Did we all really forget 3rd grade history and the whole story of mechanization and the Victorian Industrial Revolution ? OH ... and why are we all such suckers for that term "hand-carved")



According to the book, and the reprinted catalog page, it was made by Clarke Bros. & Co. but oddly, there is no information about this company (like where they were, when they were in existence, etc...)

If anyone knows anything, please e-mail me. I love the little cabinet nonetheless, but wouldn't it be great to know more about it !



 

I just discovered that the Clarke Brothers Furniture Co. was located in Cincinnati OH. This makes sense since I have found three items on the reprinted catalogue pages that I have bought in the Louisville area. More info as I discover more ...

Confounded Foundation

Since my last post about the Kitchen renovation we have focused on repairing the basement. There are 2 main problems: 1. the foundation wall beneath the Sun Room and 2. the warped 1960's paneling that needs replacing since the flood.

Here in photo number one you can see the meager attempt by the PO's at filling gaps with spray foam. notice it dripping from below the sil plate. One other problem was that we neglected to inspect behind the insulation - and you all know that the minute you move something to look behind it, well, the results wont be fun ...



What you will see in the 2 photos below, or I should say, NOT see, is the mortar that should be in between the bricks. In the first picture we had already removed the sil plate and the spray foam and dusted off some of the mortar for a clearer image. On the left you can see an old, not well done, patch job (note the grey colored mortar below the hand scraper)





Problem number 2 for the foundation was, ugh, termites. There were old tunnels and decayed/eaten posts, beams, etc. along the three outdoor walls that make up this part of the basement (the fourth wall is an interior wall where we have not identified any termite activity). We still wonder how the house didnt fall in every time we walked thru the back door. We got the house treated.

We rebuilt the Sun Room foundation wall in sections, not seeing the need to support anything because, frankly, so much of the timber had to be replaced im not sure what was holding the floor up above our heads- anything we did would just make it stronger. Matthew has become an excellent mason. Here are some pictures of him vacuuming out old crumbled mortar, infilling and rebuilding the wall, and of the final completed section.









This job took over a month since we had to rebuild masonry, then let it cure before rebuilding the wood above. We also addressed some outdoor trouble as removing the old bricks to remortar them showed up some gaping holes in the stucco (were not sure how old that stucco is. It predated 1950 and could be original to the house.) Here are some photos from the outside of Matthews masonry work inside.

You can see the holes best in this image since the light from inside is streaming out.



Here is one of those holes patched - to the left of the photo. Crawling under the back deck to access these holes was eyeopening to me. We plan to remove the vinyl siding at some point and seeing that there are good remnants/clues about how the wood siding was constructed hiding under the deck will really help once were ready to tackle that huge job. in the photo below you can also see the old drip edge, cut to accomodate the vinyl siding, just a few inches below the bottom of the deck joist. Its the rounded molding that hangs a little over top of the white flashing. This molding would have directed water away from the foundation when the house was all wood-clad and so we should be able to reproduce or replace it.



Finally, a small corner repair that I did from outside. Yes, that is a pie-pan you see. aluminum flashing is aluminum flashing in my book, and since its a bandaid till we tear off the vinyl siding, I wasnt worried about looks. Its a good solid repair, though, if I say so myself.



Here is a before photo of the other part of the basement that needs repair. You can see the wall we had to cut out after the flooding. We opened up that doorway in the process to connect the 2 sides of the basement together. Ill follow up with more photos and information on this repair as I get them - its in the process.

The Exterior

Mange !

We love to eat ... and love to have others over to cook meals together. But the kitchen we inherited was not able to supply us with anything remotely like that.

Our kitchen, when we moved in, was a brightly lit pale lavender and white, girly, nightmare.

The circa 1976 green electric stove was unusable, filthy and had to be replaced immediately. There are no photos of it.

The ochre colored refrigerator smelled so bad and was so dirty we only put food in it that was in backpacks. As we removed it the day the new one was delivered, enough dog hair came out of the bottom to build a standard sized poodle - no exaggeration. Obviously the fridge was replaced immediately. Again, no photos of this monstrosity

The dishwasher leaked during the home inspection prior to buying the house so it was replaced before we got here with a model that we choose.

The countertops were 6-inch tile laid with 1/2 - 3/4 inch grout lines that captured any crumb, spill, or goo that got on the counter and never let go. I scrubbed them endlessly, it seemed. We replaced them with granite-look laminate very quickly after getting new appliances. Look closeley at the before photos and you may see some filth stuck in the grout.

The ceiling fan worked, but was way too fru-fru for our more classic historical taste. It was low priority, but also had to go. It was replaced.




The strip of track lights above the sink didnt work. Sure there were lights and bulbs, and a switch on the wall, but there was no wire between the two. Richard fixed that and added a new, outlandish light fixture we found at Home Depot (go figure).



There was also a switch, and wire, for a sink disposal, but no disposal. We got one within 6 months.

The floor wasn't our taste, but it was nice ceramic tile that was fairly inoffensive, not broken and not installed too poorly. It stayed.

The sink was stained and the finish was dull and ruined. It was just replaced with an 18 gague stainless sink last week.

We kept the cabinets, though, repainting them more appealing colors. I would have loved to do away with the upper cabs, but we needed the storage, so I painted them a glossy color similar to the matte color of the walls. We also changed out the door handles and the handle position for some we scored on sale at Ikea.

My father and I spent three days installing that over the stove microwave. Mom and Dad got it for us for Christmas, 08. We had to install electric and build a cabinet before hanging the micro. THANKS DAD !!!

One other thing, note the huge cabinet in the last photo that overhangs the window. That was replaced by open shelving that lets more light in. (boy, did I learn alot about where the studs are from this experience ... there arent many ...)

Check out these before and after photos. They are the only 4 before photos I have, so look carefully thru the out of focus ... I tried to pair them up as well as I could so you can clearly see the change. I think our style is pretty vintage 40's meets industrial, but you can tell me otherwise ...






The photos below look like a glare on a windshield its all so white ... totally not our taste. the bright trim makes the huge windows look tiny against that pale lavender wall color.






Look to the left in this photo to see the overhanging cabinet sticking out past the wall and into the window. the table and garbage can are in the same spots in both photos, along with the red clock on the wall.