So many to-do's not yet too-done

I unfortunately reread my short/medium/longterm house to-do list
from almost three years ago, and feel very unworthy as a houseblogger.

So far, we have taken down bathroom wallpaper, but still need to paint the temporarily white walls a cool color, probably something in the salmon vein.

Took down lace curtains in the living and dining rooms, leaving sheers, but still want blinds instead. Soon, I hope. We have a paint scheme in mind for later this year. At least we got a nifty blue oriental area rug, an 80-year-old quartersawn oak rocker (on ebay) and an art-glass ceiling light from Two Fish Art Glass in Forest Park--great folks!

The kitchen has been treated to a new light fixture and butcherblock cart.
The plan is for Marmoleum linoleum flooring to replace the scary '70's tile.

We have resolved our plumbing issues for now, with some serious rodding to the kitchen and bath drains and replacing the basement p-trap that sprang a leak.

The next major purchase may be a gas water heater, since ours is over 20 years old and barely hanging together. We are looking into tankless to see if it is justified. And it looks like a lot of new highly efficient products are just coming out, hopefully in time to take advantage of tax credits. Hoping to get enough research in before the old decides for us.

Our latest home improvement...

Not to be too off-topic but it seems like LOTS of folks have been posting on this topic lately....

This is why we have been too busy to do anything major with the house since last spring.



Almost 4 months of baby fun so far. We are hoping to finally start re-doing the third bedroom soon, so it's ready when she moves there from our room. That will probably involve more posts about bad 70's wallpaper and carpeting.

And Ooh, I see I have two followers. Cool, I hadn't realized it. So sorry for being down for so long and hoping to catch up soon.

Then And Now...

This is how our house looked in 1976, when the previous owner bought it. I think it's pretty much also how it looked in 1919 when it was built. The photo was from the real estate listing page. It was nice of them to give us that, along with the manuals for the 20+ year old appliances.

You can compare it to the current photo:


The roof used to be diamond-shaped red shingles we gather from pieces found under the bushes. The previous owners replaced the windows and added the white siding, alas, including filling in the decorative roof brackets. That won't stay forever. They also bricked up the bathroom and two kitchen windows, ditto. But that will be major work, redoing the cabinets, bathtub and more.
We'll start with more manageable things like stripping the white lead paint off the stone trim.

The spirea shrubs in front are the same and the lilac bushes were there until the next door neighbor cut them down last summer. I feel a little bad but it does give a much better view. :)
And the original urn planter in the old photo is in the back yard awaiting its own paint stripping.
Gonna be a busy spring once it kicks in. It's already been over 70 but we are due to get a couple inches of snow tonight. We love the midwest.

Wide-ranging wallpaper wonders

What was it about people, 30 years ago, that made them pick such a "variety" of then-attractive wallpaper, all in the same portion of the color spectrum?

Here is the delightful stuff in the kitchen, with bonus dirt from 30 years of pictures in the same place (the bunny is ours, for temporary contrast).


Here is the smallest upstairs bedroom, with matching curtains and water stains.


This is our room in all its bamboo glory. That paper may be even older and we don't hate quite as much since it's sort of arts-and-craftsy and the picture molding helps.


Our favorite in the heinous race is the stunning front hall disco effect stuff. At least it's not foil, too.

All unpapered walls are either white or beige and from what we can tell around the edges of doors and windows, always have been.
We are planning to come up with some nice schemes involving actual colors and hoping to get a lot more painting done this year than last, when all we managed was stripping the floral striped (beige of course) bathroom wallpaper and priming the walls.
It will be fun to see what shape the plaster is in and if walls were strategically papered for a reason...

Floor archaeology

Way too long since posting. We actually did do a few things, mostly decorative, but were too busy with birthdays and holidays to post to the blog; will try to catch up.


So, in the first floor bathroom, looking very carefully into the space between the beige tub and oak vanity, both from the mid-80's, you can see that the original 1-inch unglazed porcelain hex floor tiles are still there, under the far larger beige hex tiles that later covered them. We may find out more soon, if our chronic plumbing problem requires tearing into walls as one plumber thinks, and we take out the vanity, which is obviously set on top of the old tile, with the new
cut off around its edges.

Is there any hope for getting a later layer of ceramic tile off an older one or am I just kidding myself? I can be very patient with a scraper, hammer, chisel, etc.....
Perhaps worst case, we could add in new unglazed porcelain hex tile if the original is in too bad a shape.

We also want a nice retro-looking sink, such as from Vintage Tub or perhaps an older one from Salvage One. We'd most like a spiffy new dual-flush toilet that looks old, though those seem to be harder to find that just regular 1.6 gal low-flow models, at least if we aren't able to spend $1000+ just on a toilet.

More to come after further plumber consultations...

Help us match this garden fence, please!

Still 'tis the time for spending more time outside the house than in, and that's ok, except for collecting dust, bunny fur, laundry, etc. Anyway...

We bought these garden fence panels last year at either Home Depot or Lowe's, I forget. They are 2 ft. wide and 9 in high, not counting the stake/legs. No place seems to have anything remotely similar now, and we need a bunch more, maybe 10+. If anyone has seen any, or something similar, in the Chicago area or on-line/mail order, any tips would be greatly appreciated. We'd happily do something even more Craftsman/bungalow style but can't seem to find much of that either, aside from way pricey custom made things which we're not quite up for yet.

Thanks!!

Hooked on TiVo...

Ok, I'm sure I'm not the only one, but dang, it's a house-obsessed geek's dream come true. I have wishlists for "bungalow" and "Arts Crafts" and "brick" and "plaster" and "stone" (having
picked the home improvement category to remove the programs about Sharon and Oliver) and "plumbing" and I forget how many other keywords...(not to mention the Brosnan, Pierce, keywords, and so on, but that's a whole 'nother topic).

Such fun late at night, surfing the guide data, running wishlists, Bee-Boop, Boo-Beep...kind of soothing, really, till the spouse sees I have added 5 hours of shows in the next few days, and we are already close to capacity with those exercise shows we keep meaning to use and the documentaries we are never in the mood to watch but can't just delete...


G'night...

The caterpillars were some bird's lunch

Or else they got washed away in the huge storms, dunno...They had made it to almost 2 inches long but then were just gone. I don't see any cocoons on the plants, at least.

I don't THINK baby rabbits eat them...

Now It's All About the Yard...

So we are growing lettuce for the rabbits, peppers and beans for us, sunflowers for fun and the birds...
We've had great butterfly visitors thanks to the prior owner's plants. Now (thanks to a wonderful friend/neighbor) we added some common milkweed , the favorite egg-laying spot of the Monarchs, and It's Working! We just have to hope they make coccoons before they eat the whole tiny plants...they'll be better off next year.

Still about the house...

No we didn't get eaten by the mice or move or anything. Just had blogging as less of a priority for a while there. Hoping to make up for that, but the photos may take longer to catch up.

We mostly did a lot of little things, like get a spiffy new oriental rug for the living room from Peerless Rugs on Lincoln near Wellington in Chicago. Great website and free shipping anywhere, too. It was a hand-knotted discontinued one that we just fell in love with and bought on the spot, a good deal, too.

We got a new Energy Star fridge for the basement, to replace the 20+ year old clunker that was near death.

I installed a built-in soap dispenser for the kitchen sink, to replace the non-working sprayer that was disconnected when we bought the house (and the current faucet doesn't even have a place TO connect it).

And we are in the process of switching kitchen cabinet handles, from bad 70's things to sort of retro, very similar to the handles on our built-in buffet. Photo soon.

Other unplanned things, like the hellish plumbing mess in the kitchen, have taken more time and been less fun. The sink got slower and slower and then plugged up and no amount of plunging, drain cleaner or even snaking would improve it. Then the plunging started bringing up metal flakes, like rusty granola or corn flakes, gobs of it. We took this as a bad sign and called a professional. They power rodded things and it seemed ok, but only for a couple days, then total clog and metal bits again. It seems there is some oddness with how the previous owners moved the sink from one all to the other 30 years ago and not too properly, so that nasty pipe bends prevent proper rodding and are collecting gunk. And our vent stack may be falling to bits, which would SO not be a good thing. Awaiting word from their conferring, estimating, etc. At least we have another sink in the basement in the mean time.

Next post on more fun things, gardening....

Of lights and mice and doorbell chimes

Our front hall has a nifty hanging light fixture with a white glass acorn-shaped shade that is original to the house. (The '70's disco wallpaper sure isn't, and is soon to go)

Recently, the pullchain switch broke, after a mere 88 years of use. Took the socket off and the switch apart and saw that one of the brass pieces of the switch had broken and did not seem fixable. We wanted to at least get a decent replacement that would last another 50 years, if not 80. Home improvement stores seem to only carry junky imported stuff (more rants on that later), but at least there are still some small local places with quality items in stock. One such is Great West Electrical Supply (not sure if they have a website) in Berwyn on 26th Street. They had socket interiors in stock that the owner figured his dad had bought 50 years ago, Hubbell brand, made in Connecticut. As he said, Hubbell invented the pull chain switch and it seems he was right (See this for instance.) It was a feel-good retail experience with people who are happy to be "old school" as he said, rather than the clueless kids you often get at large chain stores.
I later realized that the turn-switch light in a nearby closet has the very same Hubbell logo on it, so I figured the house approves.

We had a little rodent visitor recently (may it R.I.P.) and around then, the doorbell stopped working. I tried the easy stuff, take off the switch, see if the wires still made a circuit...nothing. The chime part tested ok. So, trace the wire from the front door back, pulling ceiling panels in the basement every few feet...find the transformer, once I learned what that was. Gosh, old wires with their cloth covering missing in spots near a pile of leaves and sawdust up in the ceiling. Bingo. The bare wire was touching an electrical conduit and shorting out, it seemed. A few bits of electrical tape fixed the wire and gosh, the bell worked again. Put back the boring plastic button until we can get a cool metal retro one in the spring.

A couple case of some education and work that got us back to just about where we started. So it goes.

An almost fire in our fake fireplace

Perhaps we are the only people who don't know about this, but anyway...
we have a decorative fireplace, like so many other bungalows. It has a pipe showing that it was originally gas, good nasty coal gas, with no vent, but that was capped and disconnected ages ago, fortunately. We still have the cement logs for decoration. We were debating whether to go the candle scene or what, when we found the magic of fireplace gel cans. They are much like glorified sterno, but burn red instead of blue and have a built-in occasional crackle. Apparently there are several companies, such as Real Flame, Sunjel and others, and they have been aroaund for over 20 years. Huh.


This is a picture, which doesn't make it look nearly as cool as it is, so I blame the camera. The alternative was a totally dark picture with a flame in the center, not too informative. We burned two cans and it was really pretty cool. Little to no smell, a tiny bit of heat and lots of atmosphere. The child likes to curl up on her new beanbag chair in front of it. They say a can will burn 2-3 hours and that seems true. We have done one longer and two shorter fires so far. Debating whether to spend $200 on a log set that hides the cans better (ours are in a pan stacked on bricks behind the logs). But so far, so good.

Urban wildlife in action...

So this summer we have seen, in our pretty darn urban area, countless birds, rabbits and squirrels, several possums, a bat, a very large raccoon, a Peregrine falcon (the last two making quick visits to the neighbor's yard) and yesterday, a fox managing not to kill itself on a main residential street. All but skunks, which we have smelled but not seen, and we are on par with our former suburban abode. Of course here there are tons of trees, plants and flowers everywhere and there it was endless goose-plagued lawns. So much happier now.

Finally back at it

Summer was a time of little progress house-project-wise but at least there were occasional bits of seasonal fun.

Now to get rid of the icky wallpaper in the bathroom.



WHY DO PEOPLE PUT WALLPAPER RIGHT ONTO NAKED DRYWALL?
Presumably they are so in love with the pattern, that they can't imagine anyone wanting to get rid of it, not even thirty years later. Argh. We had this in our last house, similarly bedecked in the '70's and made a mess trying to get the stuff moist enough to be scraped off without taking the whole face of the wall with it.

At least the rest of the rooms are still plaster...

Cool, affordable house numbers

Wow, some folks are actually reading this! Thanks houseblogs.net! I'll have to try harder to be interesting and amusing. So, I'll just add small things when I can, instead of always apologizing for not updating more frequently.

Our latest token home improvement is new address numbers. So far they were only on the door and not too visible. These will go on the front of the porch roof, much better.

We used House Numbers Only, a website with lots of funky styles, for about $10 each. Powder-coated steel, in black or copper color, about 5x2.5 inches. We went with the Craftsman, no surprise.

I emailed them to ask, and they said they are made in USA, yay. A bit of a hand-cut quality to them, but I think that is actually fitting in this case. Now to actually put them up...

Our five-year-old says:

Our Spiderworts are very beautiful. Our house is very nice. I like everything that's here and I like the yard. Better than our old house 'cause they tore down houses there [Gotta instill values somehow; maybe a bit much warping though. Ed.] and it's nice living in this house and I have a lot of new friends.

New copper mailbox

Apparently our 89-year old house has never had a mailbox. We are used to having one, and got tired of having our magazines and such folded and crammed through the mail slot in the aluminum storm door.

Trying to keep with our arts and crafts theme, with Celtic accents, we went with a handmade (but not obscenely expensive) one at Gaelsong.com.



Two days and no one has swiped it, great. We do read about people stealing copper downspouts nearby, so I don't think we are worrying needlessly. It's nice and solid and works great, though it is a bit rough in a handmade (in Turkey) sort of way.

It is bare copper, and we are a bit torn over letting it get a natural patina vs. trying to lacquer it and keep it shiny. Going the natural approach so far; worst
case we can polish it and spray it with something later.

We found a Linoleum Rug!

Ok, so we didn't buy anything at the Arts & Crafts Expo last week. Saw some Great Mission style furniture to long for. Maybe we can work up to a rocking chair one of these days.
Anyway.
In the closet under the eaves off the back dormer, we pulled up several layers of 70's carpeting and found a linoleum rug---

I guess the people we bought it from saved it when they redecorated thirty years ago, which was cool of them to do, though they never mentioned it to us.
It makes sense given that they said the place had original blue linoleum in the kitchen and white with blue hex tiles in the bathroom (which they covered with
beigh 80's tile, argh...).

I learned a lot about such things from Jane Powell's book Linoleum. I love that it is an all natural product that is so much more environmentally friendly and healthy than vinyl and gosh, they invented it in the 1800's. At least some companies are again offering the stuff, such as Marmoleum.
We hope to use that for our kitchen next year in something very similar to the original blue marblized pattern.

Arts and Crafts Chicago Expo this weekend

Can't wait to check this out. It is the second annual event, in River Forest, May 12-13, '07. Lots of vendors of all things Arts & Crafts. Hope they take credit cards :). Click on the photo from their website for info.

Native Plants and Arts & Crafts

I will definitely ramble on more about this later, but for now, here is a photo of the currently blooming Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon Meadia). They are in the fledgling prairie garden along the south side of the house, with a bit of Prairie Smoke in front and yet-to-bloom Spiderwort and Nodding Wild Onions behind.

Definitely finding it cool, the more I read about the Arts and Crafts movement, the more I see how I have fit into all that all along, living more in tune with nature, having houses made of local materials and so on.