He finished the subfloor in the foyer by himself. The ambitious part of me regrets not being able to accompany him on every trip. I feel like the travelling parent who misses her child's birthday party, school play, piano recital, etc.
The lazy part of me is relieved I don't have to make an appearance at any of those annoying functions.
Found under the floor........
....was this linoleum, circa, 1935
This paper fish from a children's game.
And this pointillism portrait
Under the slate chalkboard in the foyer was plaster that was painted black. Its hard to read, but it says "loves beaver" This reminds me of the cuss book I kept when I was 8. I wasn't allowed to use profanity when speaking, so my work around was to keep a journal of all the verboten bad words I knew. I could hardly keep it together when showing the book to my trusted friends.
Library
Pete and Simon worked on the room that is going to be my book hoarding den and photo studio. Pete thinks I will have plenty of space to spare with the floor to ceiling shelves he's going to install, but I'm not so sure.
Pete was excited to purchase these specialty pry bars and denailers to excavate down to the original floor. There were three layers:
-MDF subfloor
-narrow oak floor
-original wide pine planks
We are filing these floors under "salvageable". They look kinda rough, but they were mercifully spared by the termites.
Here is the garbage pile that awaits me on my next trip.
Shoveling debris is the crack whoring of home improvement.
Exterior repair
We finally got Joe, our structural carpenter, to replace some rotted clapboard. We have to book him about two months in advance. A good contractor is like a good accountant, attorney, or lover. Once you find a good one you will do almost anything to keep the relationship going.
Joe was kind enough to let us in on his local lumber yard source. Pete called me from there. "Whoa, Steph, this place is amazing! They have every clapboard and molding profile, we can get anything here! You've gotta see this!"
Pete had to prime the clap board before it was installed, but there was no way the primer was going to dry in such cold weather. He partitioned off this small area in the kitchen with tarp and dried them with the kerosene heater. Now we eat lunch in there, its like a little hobo shanty.
Standard before/after photos of some of the repairs.
I know what you're thinking."Why did Pete hire someone to do work he can obviously do himself? Is he getting lazy? Did he win the lottery?"
It was the top floor damage that encouraged us to hire Joe to do this grunt work. One thing we agreed to contract out was anything that had to do with heights. The goal is to get this monstrosity painted before the rest of the clap board rots away.
Fauna
It was immensely satisfying to pull this bastard out of the ground. It had massive thorns and was planted near a walkway so its job was to stick me every time I crossed its path.
It's roots were a bright yellow.
New Acquisitions
I confront my fledgling shopping addiction every time I post in this section.
Many of these items were purchased from my friend who is cleaning out her parents estate. Others are from various junk shops. I started keeping a journal of the antique malls and junk shops on our route, which has proved useful already.
These also serve as a conservation message- "FOR THE GOOD OF ALL PLEASE DO NOT DESTROY THE BIRDS" is printed on the bottom of each card. Why? Because these birds are useful, it says so on the card.
I am now on the hunt for the useless birds series.
I bought this cigarette card in a Greenpoint, Brooklyn junk shop, the dusty musty kind with lots of ugly 1970s furniture and Herb Alpert records. Surprisingly not run not by a craggly old man but two local hipsters.
The Woodmen of the World is a fraternal organization founded in 1890 by Joseph Cullen Root (har har) still operational today under the name Woodmen Life. When a Woodmen member was buried they were offered a tree stump shaped gravestone paid for by the organization. These fantastic gravestones can be found in cemeteries throughout the United States. I stumbled into one at Greenwood Cemetery this past October.
Here are a few Woodmen gravestones, the chosen design was sent to the dead guys local gravestone carver. Thank you to A Grave Interest for this information and the photos.
Here's more gravestone memorabilia, the caption on the second postcard is unsettling.
Two calling cards above and what appear to be valentines cards below.
This sheet music will be framed and hung near our player piano.
I found this wedding photo after an hour and a half of digging through a huge box of old prints. It's a perfect addition to my awkward family photos collection!
Although water damaged, I was pretty excited to purchase this print.
The poverty/riches caption can be interpreted several ways:
-A woman will never be rich (emotionally fulfilled) unless she bears children.
- You need to have money to raise a child ,raising dogs is most suitable for poor women
-Pets serve as a human baby substitute for the infertile woman
This was the only evidence of any social commentary I found in this painters work. Bessie Pease Guttman was an illustrator for several women's magazines in the early 20th century. This was around the same time birth control activist Margaret Sanger was on the lam in Britain for publishing a book about birth control, so maybe Sanger's case was on the artists mind when she painted this.
More creepy books
I've been collecting antique silverware to use as drawer and cabinet handles in our kitchen. I'm really loving these scalloped sugar spoons!
Another mirror for my mirror wall
Calling cards were often left on porcelain hands like these
I bought these pictures only for the convex glass. I'll be framing other images in them and changing out that puke mustard brown velvet.
We buy old ball and claw foot legs whenever we see them. They are so much more expensive when purchased new.
These are a gift from my friend Marianne. If we cant retrofit them to fit our tub Pete will make them into towel racks.
We got this cute metal floral desk mirror
And its big sister, a floral wood mirror
I think we are going to paint this over the existing paint, stripping this down seems like torture.
This icebox has some damage in the back and bottom, so we got it cheap. We are going to make it into a cabinet for fruit, root vegetables, and any food that doesn't need refrigeration
All the original hardware is intact.
The interior will be scraped and repainted, and drawers will be installed.
Here's an ad for what looks like the same icebox!
Poetry corner
I have about 20 more of these found gems. Enjoy
I have about 20 more of these found gems. Enjoy
