Victorian House Rescue: September 2019

This is the worst thing about a house with a yard.

The grass looks like green snow. Once again crazy man raked the lawn when he was done.

There were some huge changes recently, changes everyone can see and either appreciate or be be annoyed by.

The next project we planned was to buy a prefabricated garage for the back property line, but Pete looked at how the exterior clapboard was deteriorating and decided to get the house painted instead. I thought the garage should come after more house projects, but it wasn't worth debating. It was a fanastic moment when he told me he wanted to put he garage on the back burner. You know, one of those moments someone agrees with you, without them knowing how much you are arguing with them in your head.

The original idea was to use the same colors on the house that was used on my wedding dress.

I found a few purple houses on Pinterest that I liked.

I picked a purple swatch from the hardware store that I liked. I tacked it to my wall and looked at it periodically, making sure that I REALLY liked it. Painting your house is like getting a tattoo, It can be removed, but at great expense and embarrassment.

Part of the big plan was to use various decorative elements on the exterior, like fancy fish scale shingles and gable decorations.

I had all the colors chosen, then I saw this...

Well, not exactly this, but a similar swatch. An obnoxious sea foamy turquoise. I've never been attracted to this color before. Was it the 1950s interior design influence? Was it the Long Island suburban beach culture I have tried my whole life to escape? What was happening? I was losing Goth Cred just by looking at it.

Pete was so good to me through all of this. He never disagreed with me or complained about my choices. Does he trust my judgment? Maybe he doesn't care enough to disagree. Maybe he is arguing with me in his head the whole time.

Pete asked me to give him a pattern for the shingles. It was a quick and dirty job when I colored these with a very limited palate of water color paints from the dollar store.

Here's Pete's version, where he actually drew the shingles

Off to Sherman Williams, to find the perfect aquamarine/ turquoise paint to coexist with my purple. I was in New York, receiving photos on my phone.

We talked about these longer than I had expected. More blue or more green? He took photos outside, trying to give a more accurate representation of what the colors actually look like.

We ordered fish scale shingles and two gable decorations from the appropriately named Vintage Woodworks in Texas. Our carpenter Joe and Pete got to work as soon as they arrived.

I'm sure its no accident that the paint gun looks like a ship from Star Wars.

This video is a little long, but not as long as priming and painting 625 shingles.

Then Pete sent me a photo of the purple paint, and I panicked. I loved it, but painting the entire house this color seemed too obnoxious, even for me. Luckily he hadn't bought paint for the entire house yet.

I had also considered blue for the main color at one point. This photo calmed my nerves. It touched my shoulder reassuringly and said, " Your house is going to look amazing, just like me"

What better time than now to replace the windows in the attic? We discussed installing an oval window in the front gable. There are two companies that make oval windows that open, and both charge around $3500. , more than we wanted to pay. I found a few second hand, but none that opened.

Pete bought four practical rectangular sash windows, two were custom made and two were found in this huge warehouse of orphan windows.

All of these windows were never installed. How does this happen? Is there an epidemic of dyslexic carpenters and contractors out there? There's an anxiety attack behind each window here, these are really expensive mistakes.

Here's the two pre-owned zero mile windows that Pete bought. Two for $204. Pete painted them black while Joe set up his scaffold in front of the house. For the three people reading this that are actually interested in the details, we went with aluminum clad wood.

I'd rather sleep in a tank of snakes swimming in vomit than set foot on scaffolding this high.

Preparing for the new window, with all the old shingles removed.

This looks like the entrance into the sixth dimension, or the beginning of a film by Luis Bunuel.

I felt a twinge guilty for not incorporating the original triangle detail

But I was pleased to see that it wasn't thrown away. I'm not sure what we are going to do with it.

Here's the first window installed at the front gable, with a new window casing.

Pete was pretty excited to buy this planer. Meh. I find scroll saws a lot more exciting.

My favorite new accessory is the magnetic sweeper. Years ago these were pretty expensive. But like every other product, cheap, lower quality alternatives are now available. Rolling this thing in the lawn and picking up rusty metal bits is really satisfying.

Pete sent some options for the pattern.

The original plan was to install the shingles just at the top window, but since we had to buy them by the case, we had enough to bedazzle the next tier.

This is the gable at the side of the house. Its the tallest point due to the sloping land. It was absolutely terrifying to see pictures of Joe up there!

This is the back gable, this is where our kitchen will be.

The gable decorations were available in wood or PVC. It feels like cheating, but we bought the PVC. No painting necessary, except for the abacus balls, which are wood.

Pete painted them with a dollop of white for a "highlight." We were both surprised when someone noticed that detail from the ground.

Its great to see the gable decorations from the inside.

To avoid seeing the final paint job and crying tears of regret, I took a short weekend trip to the house to see the actual paint on the actual house. It's obvious when its said out loud, but there is a big difference between a little swatch of color and a monstrosity of a house with that same color. Pete bought a few shades of dark blues that we both liked on paper, he painted several areas, and we hashed it out.

We chose the one on the left, the appropriately spooky named Dark Night- SW6237

My dad was horrified when I showed him these progress photos. I'm not sure why he was so surprised, I've been his unconventional daughter for as long as I've been unconventional.

Here's my father trying to help:

This suggestion was just as amusing as when he suggested to me that I bleach my leg hair instead of shaving it. I was 15, maybe he was struggling with my impending adulthood.

I'm pretty thorough when shopping around for a contractor. We've been using Angie's List, and I've been calling every potential contractor listed in the area. I know its excessive, but It's been working so far, and we found a house painter that we we're really happy with.

We hired Bella Painting. Danielle, the owner, is a crazy hard working perfectionist. They power washed, then scraped and belt sanded all the gross mustard yellow bits not removed by the power washing.

There was a mish mosh of different grades of deterioration, Joe and Pete replacing the rotten clapboard as Danielle and company followed behind, scraping, sanding, etc, etc.

Painting this house was the one job so far that deals with the real old and cruddy. Everything else we've just ripped out and started fresh.

This is when Danielle had her employee sand a second time (after the primer) because it didn't look good enough for her.

..........and the caulking, she caulked between the siding.

I regret not keeping a jar of the old paint chips. It would have looked good next to the little yellow mummified egg.

In progress.........

There's something really satisfying about this.

Joe re-framed the two windows on the south side of what will someday be our bathroom.

These are the original window sizes, they are the same dimensions as the two windows facing north, We are trying, as much as possible, to restore the house back to its original shape.

It's amazing how much paint can transform a house!!!

Plaster disaster

We gutted the front bedroom and the main staircase in August. We now have only one more room to demolish! Here's Pete wrestling with the Worlds Heaviest Cast Iron Radiator in the front bedroom. I'm not sure who won.

Like most products, you pay more for labor than the materials. Getting this skinny window replaced is gonna cost about the same as the bigger windows.

Its kinda gross, but the sweaty condensation feels amazing on my dry eyes!

Found behind walls and under floors

Pete found this wallpaper at the bottom of the main staircase.

He also found this gumball machine ring, for the aspiring young mob boss.

Flora and Fauna

It seems like we are seeing a lot more groundhogs lately. Maybe they know our yard and our neighbors yard are safe from the harassment of humans. The free apples from my neighbors tree are certainly a perk.

Awww, I wish I had seen this sweet fawn in person!💖

Louis CK calls deer rats with hooves, and said he started hating them when he moved out of the city but I'm sure I will always be enchanted by them!

Also filed under awwwww! A nest of baby birds hatched in our only tree.

The house has many many entryways for small rodents to enter, so you really cant blame the local field mice for coming in and helping themselves to some carbohydrates. Pete has all the food in enclosed containers, but forgot to put away the hot dog buns.

We bought a live trap and caught this guy pretty quick. I think Pete may have yelled at him, he looks so defeated.

Pete found this odd hornet/wasp nest shaped vaguely like Scandinavia.

Here's Pete's second attempt at gardening, after the tomato massacre of 2018.

I decided to eviscerate this decorative grass monster, poorly placed right near the stairs in the back yard. I thought this was going to be an easy task, but its roots were firm and aggressive.

After I manually hacked away at it Pete carved at it with the hedge clipper. I could actually hear the motor straining as he worked it over, Pete comparing its root systems to a giant dirty hippy dreadlock.

We suspected that this hawk:

Murdered this baby skunk.

Pete bought these plastic doll houses at the local thrift shop, he tried to color match to the house but the spray paint came in limited colors.

I was impressed at how rich and healthy the soil from our half-assed compost pile looked. We've been adding grass cuttings, along with food scraps to the hill for a couple of years. This is the first time its been turned or aerated.

I've brought Hortense to the house on the last couple of visits. Did she enjoy herself? I have no idea. I compare gauging her moods to that of a newborn baby. She's not the most expressive pet. Sometimes its like taking care of a rock.

Gimmie the works

A few months back Pete found a short documentary about our neighborhood on you tube. A photo with our house in it from 1923 was included. One of the sources credited was the county Department of Public Works, with a contact name. I contacted the employee and weaseled my way into their archive. I was hoping to find more photos of our house.

"It's pretty disorganized in there, the photos were transferred from another room and they just made a mess of things."

I only had a few hours, but I would like to go back and spend some serious time there, some of the photos were pretty amazing.

This room, and the general mess it was in, reminded me of my early years working in municipal service.

The first collection I was shown was an aerial survey conducted in 1963. The numbers on the map corresponded to a large printed photograph. This was done manually, before GPS. It takes a very special type of weirdo to do this kind of work.

Those numbers in faded red ink are the numbers that correspond to the photographs.

I'm more impressed with the work that went into this project than the results.

There were several drawers of these field books

All with notes for municipal building projects

The photos were the most interesting.

There is one unimpressive photo with my house in it.

Inspirations

We were invited to dinner by our carpenter Joe and his wife Joyce in August. Driving through a neighborhood of cookie cutter McMansions, we were relieved to arrive at this super adorable brick house.

It looks like it was built in the 19th century, but the brick and mortar looked too pristine. Joe and Joyce built this house in the 1990s with the intention of selling it, but decided to keep it. I cant blame them, I would have a hard time selling something this adorable!

I love these window pediments! The bricks keep the birds from nesting.

As you may know, we've been collecting sconces. We have something similar to these.

This bench was built by an Amish carpenter.

And of course nothing completes the porch like a hammock.

This chimney was built through the center of the house, so the fire can heat both the living room and the kitchen.

This piano was acquired for free, pre-Craigslist, from the local Pennysaver.

I've never seen these decorative corner guards before.

I love this whimsical glass fruit chandelier!

Joyce's grandfather made this beautiful art deco wood inlay table, way before laser cutting technology.

This wicker furniture was made by prisoners, when the incarcerated "paid their debt to society" by manufacturing products. I told Joyce the chair looks like a hooded KKK member, which seemed to ruin her love of the furniture almost instantly.

The basement had all sorts of fantastic things.

I think this lead downspout bracket came from an old church.

Whatever this is.

The oven came from a relatives house.

I am looking into buying one of these antique flat files.....stay tuned.

We had dinner on the back patio that overlooked a dense mini forest and a stream whose babbling could be heard from the house. The visit was a great motivator, it recharged me completely.

New Acquisitions

The mother of all flea markets

Pete and I took a four day trip with our friends to the Renninger's Antique Extravaganza, a thrice yearly flea market in two locations in Eastern Pennsylvania. We finally managed to organize the trip after months of talking about it. It's so massive, it would take at least a week to really see everything.

Anton has been to Renningers in the past, it was like a local showing you the sites of a city you've never visited.

Here's Anton setting up the earpieces for his walkie talkie. "Its faster than calling" He said. I was stifling my laughter as I took this photo, but it was a good idea. There were hundreds of vendors, and some of the cell service in the area was sub-par.

We are standing in front of a carousel organ, displayed by The Carousel Organ Association of America. This beast was competing with several organs (minus the carousels) all playing at once, a bit too close to one another. If you can get to New Jersey I would highly recommend visiting the Guinness Collection at the Morris Museum in Morristown. They have a massive carousel organ that they turn on, inside a small room, as well as automatons and self playing musical instruments.

I'm not sure whats going on here but this represents the general crazy of some people we've met that vend at flea markets.

Anton found this Bakelite phone, bought it, then sold it to us! We will be using this in our intercom system.

This drawer is from a sewing machine cabinet, they are usually not this elaborate.

Pete bought this old car horn. I'm not sure what he's going to do with it. Hopefully its not going to be part of the intercom system.

These cabinet latches will have to be just for decorative use, as they are missing their sister parts.

I bought these ceramic eye wash cups for $1.

......another sconce

Rachel found two bottles of cough medicine prescribed by Dr. Christ. I bought one, she bought the other. One can assume this guys name helped his career immensely. If you had a chance to be a patient of Dr. Christ, wouldn't you ?

I plan to write about this in a future blog post. Published in 1925, many of the needed inventions currently exist.

I bought this from a vendor selling "new-old stock", things that were manufactured years ago but never used or handled. There was only one of these, but I would have bought 20 if they were available.

Besides the squeaking kitten, this is my favorite purchase from this trip. I bought this from a vendor selling random things out of cardboard boxes on the ground. Amongst the dusty and messy, I found this lovely and proper Victorian one eyed lady.

Oh, you know how wacky those theater actors can be.

I cant tell for certain, but I think the man on the right is wearing a prosthetic eye attached to his eyeglasses. Both men are wearing medals, but aren't in military uniform. Prosthetic eyes, eyelids, noses, etc were custom made for WW1 soldiers who were disfigured in combat. Click here to read a CNN article about this.

Pete drove the van to the flea market, so to make sure he didn't waste the gas money he bought this Victrola.

These thick records are called diamond discs, they are played with a diamond stylus. The Victrola came with almost 80 of these records, so far they are all fantastic!!

We were pretty thrilled to get this this canvas print of Rachel's eye paintings!

My favorite is the one in the middle, post-mortem drying of the cornea and conjunctiva.

From a flea market on Long Island

Seeing these paper Easter eggs brought back some fantastic early childhood memories!

These kittens will have a home next to my squeaking kitten postcard.

This engraving is titled Catullus Writing an Ode on the Death of Lesbia's Sparrow. The date printed on the front is 1794, but I doubt that this is the date of this actual print.

This image is based on based on a story by Gaius Valerius Catullus, a Roman poet alive in 84 BC. Lesbia is a pseudonym for someone the writer was romantically involved with. There's a long back story to their relationship,but he looks like a jerk, inspired by her to write poetry by her grief and suffering.

From a flea market on the upper west side of Manhattan.

We bought this from a guy who restores antique toasters. His website home page states "NONE of the toasters have wide slots for fat bagels" Is this a common complaint from his online customers? Jeesh.

The Sterling Collection

We have acquired an insane amount of men's starched collars and cuffs. Detachable collars and cuffs became fashionable in the 1850s. Disgustingly, they were worn to give the appearance of cleanliness without the hassle of having to wash the entire shirt.

There's a BBC story on a laundry that washes and starches these collars here.

There goes the neighborhood

Living in New York City my entire adult life, I've really forgotten what it's like to live in a place with hardly any commerce, where everything is residential. That has changed with a dark metal themed coffee shop that opened in our neighborhood earlier this year. Hopefully this is a sign of more growth to come! They are really cultivating a community, with bands, brunches, and craft markets.