September 2015

We spent a few days on this trip spending time with Pete's brother and his wife, who visited from Michigan. My dad visited as well, he was on his way to a wedding in Ohio. The breakdown was approximately 60% work and 40% blowing everything else off. 

The trash slide 

The one place that rents proper construction trash chutes is ridiculously expensive, so Pete and his brother MacGyvered this trash slide together using plastic sheets and zip ties. Pete got really agitated when it jammed, but it was incredibly satisfying shoveling debris into it.

Its really not an exciting video, but here you can watch us releasing a fine powder dust of  plaster and other sinful unknown materials into the neighborhood. After carrying buckets of plaster down the stairs, this trash chute was pretty thrilling. I asked my neighbors that were getting most of the dust if it was getting in their house. They didn't seem concerned. That's good, because I didn't want to tarp the dumpster every time we used our new contraption.

The Back Bedroom

 We tore down the walls in the back bedroom, which took longer than anticipated due to the many layers. The first layer was the sheet rock, underneath revealed exterior aluminum siding with a wood grain pattern printed on it. Under the aluminum was plaster.

                                                   

 I don't think mounting light switches to wood lathe scraps is an approved technique. 

 This is my favorite electrical violation so far. These wires were embedded in the plaster, with the copper between the forked ends exposed.

 We were hoping to remove all of the walls in this room, but only got through two of them. Being that we actually took down six walls in one room, I'm going to count this as a room and a half. This photo is taken from the front bedroom. The beams are where the closet was.

The maids room/back bathroom

We worked a bit on the maids room/ back bathroom which is now one room. We left a pile of debris there on the last trip that we cleaned up on this visit. We tore down the last of the disgusting bathroom that I thought was the creepiest room in the house due to the mildew and darkness. 

This itty bitty adorable fireplace has no hearth. I kept digging looking for some evidence of broken marble but only found more dirt. The brick on the left also needs to be re- pointed if we actually install one of those lovely old timey gas heaters. I'm hoping we are able to get these chimneys functional. 

I'd love to have one of these installed in the bathroom, but I have no idea if there's anyone who can replace the ceramic heating elements that are usually broken. 

Pete started taking small bites out of the old ugly cast iron tub upstairs using the reciprocating saw to start and smashing it with the sledgehammer. 

This is an exceptionally slow process.It doesn't look like much, but those chunks collectively were probably about 85 pounds. 

Whoa! These old copper pipes are so thick!

This hole was cut out when the tub was installed to run the waste pipes. I don't know how that tub did not fall through the floor!

This is the inside of the medicine cabinet. The slit is to deposit razor blades into the wall. We didn't find any loose blades behind it, but apparently other people have. The photo below is from reddit.com.

Medicine cabinet manufacturers must have had a lot of confidence in their products thinking they would never be removed!

New acquisitions 

We got this attractive end table and her homelier sister end table at a local thrift store. I think they were $25. for both. 

We got these wooden and metal posts at a stoop sale in Manhattan. I cant remember how much we paid but the owner gave us the metal ones for free. They are sink legs, but I'm not sure what we will end up doing with them. 

These beautiful door knobs and back plates were gifts from the previous house resident that I correspond with. I was confused when she told me she had a house warming gift for me, then overwhelmed with warm fuzzies when I opened the package. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

I still cant believe we scored an Elmira stove!!! These stoves go for $8000. new but we got one on Ebay for $2000. We picked it up about an hour away from NYC. The seller had it stored in his garage for four years, it was originally installed in his in-laws house in Pennsylvania. His wife's parents passed away, and I got the impression she had a sentimental attachment to it. I mailed them a thank you card, it felt like the right thing to do. 

I think it took an hour to load this tank into the house. We wanted to give Pete's brother Ben more hard work to do, but spent most of the weekend loafing around. This was the one task he helped with, and we are eternally grateful!

It JUST fit past this porch post!

Elmira Stove Works makes some drool worthy appliances. I was a frequent visitor to their website, looking at all the color options for this stove many times over. These do sell on Ebay and Craigslist occasionally, but to find one close to us was an incredible stroke of luck. We were entertaining the logistics of picking one up in Nebraska, luckily that didn't have to happen!

Flora and fauna

I don't know if slugs like coffee, or this was just a good place for them to loiter.

We caught actual deer on our deer cam. I love their fluffy tails!

Now I know why there are holes in our lawn! Ninja gopher strikes again.

Things left behind

I'm not sure exactly where this came from, but I found it cleaning up debris in the bedroom.

Pete threw this door out without removing the hinges! I spent quite a while cussing to myself turning the screws that were glued in with 100 years of paint.These are one of the only original details of the house left behind, and I was determined to save them!

These will look great once the paint is removed.

House history update- September 2015

I was hoping to find court transcripts or documents as to why William Duff had his house repossessed in 1896. After an afternoon of trying to find the proper archive, we got lucky and met a historian that works for the court system. He told us without a docket number it would be impossible to find any information, (there's no docket number on the repossession deed) and that those records are kept in a facility that does not allow public access.

We did find the will of Samuel Duff Sr. My point and shoot camera is missing, so I took these with my super crappy cell phone camera. Luckily I was able to make copies.

The photo doesn't do it justice, but this guy had really beautiful handwriting.

Unfortunately, there's no earth shattering surprises here. Besides the land divided up between his six sons, he leaves his" mansion house" (not our house) to his son Thomas.  His wife Isabella "during the time and term she shall remain my widow" gets $150. a year. Was it standard practice to cut off the widow if she remarried? This money was supposed to come from her sons, but they arent left any money, just property.  How were these payments to Isabella enforced?

His daughter Mary was given $500. and Matilda got $200., to be paid one year after his death. I guess Matilda got less because she was married, or maybe her dad wanted to stick it to her in the end for whatever reason.