What the...what?! Or, things that make you go hmmm

So this weekend, my contractor stopped by and we got to talking siding.  I decided the house just needed it, although I didn't want to spend the extra money.  The thing is, in the end, when I had over the keys, I want them to be to a move in ready great house that hopefully will now be kept up.

So, I've been thinking about siding since I heard my offer was accepted.  I finally gave in to the white as I said earlier.  Now though, should I go with the standard 4 over 4 (4" revel) clapboards or shakes?  I have been pretty sure it had shake since the beginning.  The historian thought so as well.  The neighbor couldn't remember.  I swore I saw the revel of them below the current siding.  I hemmed and hawed.

My contractor agreed, he thought it was shake under that white siding.  I had an inspiration.  I was going to do siding, right?  Right.  So, then take off one of the pieces of white siding and and see what was there-color and all!  My contractor climbed up and we awaited the long debated color and style issue being resolved.

Off came the white.  Then...what the...what??  Is that...yup.

Here's what I waited all that time for.

Um, yeah.  That did NOT help.

So it also snowed, this is the neighbors yard

The house has blown in.  When they did it, it filled up this electric box

I got light in the living room-yay!!

I removed more dining room floor

The work continues

It looks like I took a few days off. But really, I didn’t! I didn’t do a lot on Tuesday, it was mostly pondering the hows and which ways and what to uses of projects. Then yesterday…ah, yesterday. Most of the half bath is now “gutted” (the sink is removed and in a safe place for later rehoming, the medicine cabinet is in a safe place for later cleaning and remounting, the toilet is loose and ready to be removed when I remember to bring something to put “in the hole”). Some wiring is pulled. Some more dining room (linoleum) floor is up. And I was about to load the remaining lath into my trailer to bring to a friend’s house for use as bonfire wood (what is left was touching blown in, and that is NOT coming into my house or going into my wood stove). I put the first armload in, and realized a bad thing had happened. There was no tailgate. There is supposed to be a tailgate. Uh oh. I checked the street and it wasn’t there. So I shut everything down for the night and left in search of it-it was located close to my house in the ditch with a new dent where someone had run over it. It looks like it will still work-although I need a new method of securing it apparently. So no photos were taken and I just decided not to post.

I have been fighting the white on the house since before I closed on it. I am not a fan of white. I just don’t like large blobs of it. However, I’ve come to the conclusion that the house would like to stay brick and white and am going to embrace it. I’m still not sure if I will be able to reside the gables and dormers, but even if I do, it will probably be white. I know it sounds hokey and borderline whacknuts, but I think houses tend to “tell” us what they want, if we are willing to listen. So, I am trying to do so. Mostly it seems like what I’ve chosen here works for this house, it just seems the white was destined to stay.

As for the rest of this, a friend once said (paraphrasing) a person built it with wood, nails, time and money, a person can fix it with wood, nails, time and money. While the wood and nails are a generalization and not applicable to plumbing or wiring, the general idea is there. Someone built it,
someone can repair it.

So, here's the kitchen, bathroom, downstairs bedroom and dining room floor

Oh, and Frosty.  He is enjoying the lights in town.  I couldn't decorate the outside or put up a tree, but I do have him!

Old photos

Today was more cleaning and removing of old wiring.  Nothing to write home about-or in this case, to take photos of.

So instead, here are photos of the old photos the neighbor gave me!  She had some very pretty gardens-it looks like she still does, but not quite so many plants now.

Front then back with photo stamps:

Random thoughts

Today was mostly about clean up and paint.  No photos to show, sorry!  Thankfully I have some excellent friends who are helping me.  What a godsend!  I didn't intend for quite such a large scope of work so it's been a great help to have help.

As I've worked through the house, I've found evidence of previous remodels.  It got me to pondering about preservation, old houses, and what exactly the cut off date is for the age of a remodel or update before it's too "new".  I mean, if you were to have an early 1800's era home, it's doubtful most folks would preserve the "facilities" of the day, or the heating system...probably not the plumbing or "lighting" as it were either.  When do the modifications to "modernize" that home make them too modern?  Should preserved homes feature the cook stove of that era to be "correct"?  When is a concession to advancing technology and changes in how we live a travesty of epic old home loving proportions and when is it simply modifying the place we live in to accomidate who we are now?

Reconfiguring the built ins kind of started my thoughts on this, but it was mostly the windows that did it.  I spent the better part of two days in December painting outside, some of it because I didn't want them to wrap the trim on the windows and lose the detail.  In the back of my head I was hearing an old timer telling me that some updates were so we didn't have to work so hard-like central forced air vs fireplaces.  Maybe too, because I was pondering the decision to replace the old worn and leaky original windows.  Of course as I was staring at the plexiglass replacement in one window along with the disjointed frames and missing glazing, the decision wasn't too questionable lol.  (Originally my first thought was to repair them, until I came back to look over the place after my offer was accepted and I really looked at what I bought)  I could almost see the neighbor shaking her head at me-her house has aluminum siding and wrapped windows.  She grew up there, living there a likely 70-80 years.  But she sided the house and replaced the original windows because to her, it was a place to live and grow, not a museum or time capsule.  I am taking great effort to save what I can, but is it enough?  Or does it really matter if every piece of the house is exactly original, or is it more important that it is a warm, safe, comfortable home where people will live their lives and make memories?

I probably spent entirely too much time by myself painting this weekend because it let my brain wander too much.  One thing is for sure, I am glad for the advances in woodstove technology over open fireplaces for heat!  Speaking of which, now that the fire is all settled in, in the woodstove here at The Cottage, I am going to go to bed.

Paint and more

So instead of just destruction, today included some reconstruction and paint!

I had a local mason do the repointing on the front stairs.  I wish I had the time to watch and learn, but I am racing Old Man Winter to get the paint done, so I was busy scraping.

The gentleman that did the brick work couldn't fix some of the previous owners "repairs" because he was afraid that chiseling out the mortar would damage the bricks.  I might try to stain it, but I'm not sure.  One thing is for certain, it looks a lot better than when I bought the house!

I also started repainting all of the porch and trim.  It looks SO much better!

There was demo.  There is always demo, lol.  There was a little modification of the built ins.  The fridge will be recessed into the opening in the middle.  There was just no other good place for it.

This is the hole from the other side.

A little more plaster had to come down in the kitchen.

Also, upstairs.  This is the dormer bedroom.

And the upstairs pink bedroom

This door was broken when we bought the place.  I am hoping to use one from downstairs.

 While I was outside painting, a couple kids came up on bikes.  The one said he really liked what I was doing with the place.  And then he said he used to live here!  He was the PO's younger son.  I took him through, he told me a little more about it, as well as where they put the fridge-between the door to the half bath and the mudroom.

I also have a couple photos of the house from the 60's that the neighbor gave me.  I'll scan or photograph them and post them soon.  It was cute then too :) although it had some vine all over it.  Glad that's gone-and that it didn't do any damage to the house!

A small town Christmas and other things

So tonight was the town tree lighting and parade.  I had to take a break and enjoy it-it literally took a minute to walk to it.

This was an awesome float

Another float

Horse drawn wagon

Did a little demo too.

A better picture of the whole piece of lath

I have no kitchen! I do have a smilie face...

So it's been a lot of work and late nights (hey I'm posting before midnight tonight-woo hoo) so the posts have been brief.  I'll try to be more descriptive later, but I am not promising anything.

So I played with photoshop.  The lath with the date also had words I couldn't quite make out.  Now I can.  It says #1 Fir June 2 1923

This is the wallpaper in the kitchen bedroom that was behind the wall cabinet.

The plywood cabinet base in the actual kitchen is GONE!  Yay!

I somehow forgot to post this.  This is the smilie face.  It is on one of the balls by the stairs on the front porch.