Pete is settling in comfortably to a more laid back suburban lifestyle.
New Google maps images!!
Google maps finally drove by in November. Why does this make me so happy? I'm not sure. There's some obscure feeling that our efforts are being recognized.
Back Bathroom
Pete and Joe worked on installing new joists and subfloor in what will be one of our bathrooms. One step closer to me and Mr. Bubble soaking in a claw foot double slipper bathtub. The fireplace will burn fracked gas as Pete scrubs my back with one of those oversized sea sponges on a stick.
Side Awning
We were on the fence about keeping the elongated awning and porch when we had the new roof installed. I thought it might look better shorter, but we decided to keep it, so he and Joe began repairs.
The first step was to remove the platform Pete built for the painters last year.
Some of the decking was removed to expose the rotten rafters.
Then on to the drill and fill dental work.
Each rafter was in an advanced state of decomposition. Pete drilled out each one with a dremmel, installed a healthy piece of wood, filled it with polyester resin/auto body filler, and sanded it down after it dried.
We got our roofers to come back to shingle the awning.
Windows
There is so much that annoyed me about this house, and the original large windows made smaller were on the top of my list of irritants. It was especially satisfying to see progress photos of Pete and Joe changing these windows back to their original size.
These are the windows on the south side in our future solarium/fern room.
Uh! What a mess!
Here's the window by the side door.
I got this giant pencil at a gift shop for Pete. He waited patiently for Joe to ask for a pencil to enthusiastically pull it out of his back pocket. I think its gonna be a site gag for the duration of the renovations.
Special Guest
Our friend and Pete's bandmate Matt spent a few days at the house. New York City to Western Pennsylvania is a commitment, so we really appreciate any visitors, especially the ones who offer to help. I thought giving them the heavy duty man tasks was a good idea:
Smashing up the old 900 pound radiator in the bedroom
Moving our fancy fancy French radiators from the van.
Matt and Pete decided to have band practice. It was such a treat to hear live music, and it reminded me of the endless potential of the house. I especially enjoyed the thought that we were probably irritating our jerk neighbors.
This was another one of those "This really is my house!" moments. Pete put out some snacks for us before dinner. It felt so domestic and warm. A real adulting moment.
Wow, that sounds so cheesy.
We went to At Home, the home furnishings store that puts Home Depot to shame as far as square footage is concerned.
I hassled Pete until he agreed to buy this area rug, hammer eyelets into it, make it into an apron, and promise me he would wear it every time he cooked on the barbeque.
New Acquisitions
This blog sometimes leaves me conflicted. Do I write this for myself, and invite the rest of you to look in, or am I writing for an audience? I am aware that these posts are long winded and seem in need of editing, but I've concluded that this is primarily a diary for me that I keep open for you to see. So here are too many of the things we bought this fall.
In September we took a trip to the Eastern Pennsylvania Rennigers Flea Market. Renningers has two year round indoor locations as well as their outdoor market four times a year. We thought this would be worth the effort since the last two events had been cancelled.
In October we went on a road trip through PA. One week of driving to all the antique malls and flea markets we could squeeze in. I was nervous about traveling, but the places we visited had very few customers inside.
Ephemera
I enjoy the flea markets and antique shops that are a bit messy, boxes of random items that must be rooted through. Some of the postcards, advertising, and pages ripped out of books were sold in packaged lots, so it looks like more thought went into this than it did.
Climax shoes-try a pair!
I would like to see the rest of the cigarette cards from this series. This cat is absolutely terrifying.
An undated Valentines Day telegram
Mourning attire and etiquette was complex in the Victorian period. Women bought new black dresses and jewelry or had existing garments dyed black when a close relative died, and it was expected that the mourner dress in black for a specified amount of time.
Wearing perpetual black after the death of someone close fell out of fashion after WW1, society was really burnt out from all the death The Great War left at their feet.
I had no idea how many American WW1 soldiers are buried in Europe. Shipping bodies back across the ocean proved to be too much.
"If you don't need it, don't buy it!" is printed on the back of these WW2 ration booklets.
Making sacrifices for the greater good is a foreign idea for most people in this country. Americans generally view their own wants and desires above over the good of society. When is the last time you were asked to give up something or do something for the good of a group, possibly at your own detriment?
Every citizen was issued a ration book, this one belonged to a seven year old girl.
"Application for sugar on this basis" is written on the right side of this list. Did mom have to jump through special hoops to get sugar?
I've started collecting needle books as well. I'm impressed at how detailed some of these are.
This wall calendar must be a reproduction. There's no way it could have made it 104 years without any damage.
I don't know what story this is illustrating but it's getting framed.
666 obviously took on a different meaning when this was printed.
This sheet music appealed to Pete's love of all things UFO.
Here's a booklet advertising night clubs in Paris in 1925.
Opening at midnight. When did they close? I'm sure it was snowing cocaine all over Paris.
This insurance company really put it all out there. No arguing with a sleazy insurance adjuster.
Coverage includes:
- gored by a bull
-barbers itch
-kicked by a horse
-cyclones
-malignant pustules
-getting on or off cars
-smallpox
-tapeworms
-burning stores
and so so much more!
Whoa! This is kind of like a shrunken head for the entire body. Explorer/colonist John White must have been shitting himself watching this beef jerky funeral go down.
Books
Gomez Adams would have loved this book!
This was part of a set, each tiny book being sold for $2.00. This is the kind of item that would sell for $50. at the Brooklyn Flea or any New York City hipster flea market.
Is this comedy? Tragedy? Pornography? Some day I'll have the time to dig in and find out.
I really like the cover of this book, it's thick with random poems and short stories. It lured me in with its misleading sweetness.
Well, that was a real downer. This encapsulates the sadness that Victorians are known for.
There are so many dead animals in this book.
This book isn't entirely sad and depressing. Here are some monkeys getting revenge on humans
attacking a stagecoach
and taking a ride on an angry domestic cat.
Who cares what this book is about? The title is probably better than the books contents.
To continue with the disaster themed books from my last entry, here's a book about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906
Rich people have been fleeing disasters and pestilence since the bubonic plague.
Shooting looters wasn't questioned
Forced Undertaking!
This is something I've never heard before! Forcing civilians at gunpoint to collect the the deceased.
And how could I pass up the opportunity to add this gem to my library?
Pete and I visited the Imperial Museum in London a couple of years ago. Its entirely dedicated to World War 1, and the stories and paraphernalia regarding mustard gas really made a dark impression on me.
I've recently been collecting children's books from the late 19th and early 20th century. Commentary on the dangers and fun of automobile driving was a theme with Uncle Wiggly, as well as the crazy driving Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows.
Cute, with an undercurrent of evil child.
Postcards
Although sending a piece of thick paper through the mail without an envelope was a thing pretty much from the beginning of the post office, postcards really took off starting around 1890. I learned about the multi colored printing process called chromolithography in college, the process which made full color postcards possible.
There are several postcards from this crying baby series. Three of which I am buying on Ebay as soon as I finish writing this sentence. Were these meant as a warning to expectant parents? Am I a terrible person because I find these amusing?
This also makes me laugh every time I look at it.
Down boy! It seems these two just met.
I love everything about this postcard. How the models are posed is perfect, and the frame is beautifully embossed. I guess the caption is referring to catching a spouse.
Sally could benefit from social services.
Is this an obscure joke referring to silk being from China?
Whoa....
Every so often I find absolute gold written on the back of a postcard.
"Hello Honey,
How you was how did you get over the party from aaaaaaaa
-You know who"
Its the paper version of a drunk text message.
Photographs
These photos are captioned "Hurricane at Ocean City, Massachusetts. May 6, 1942" on the back.
These are the second and third cabinet cards I've found of women with ocular problems.
This woman's eyes are crossed.
And apparently this woman is part lizard. This is not a photoshopped image. I see a lot of dilated patients at work, but this lady is off the charts.
As I mentioned in my last post, Kodak put portable cameras into the hands of the public in 1900, enabling people to document their own lives. Being photographed by family and friends instead of a stranger in a studio changed everything. I love these photos. People are at ease, having fun. It makes everyone seem much more modern and relatable.
The guy in the back with the tea kettle wanted to drink wine out of his girlfriends shoe, but she objected, so he posed like this instead.
Well, not everyone is having fun. This family is old old school.
The new litter of kittens has disappeared, one by one. If the internet existed in 1910 this woman would be the subject of many memes.
Lithographs
This is an etching from The Pitie Salpetriere Hospital in Paris. The man standing in the center of the frame is Dr. Jean Martin Charot, a French neurologist who practiced at the hospital in the late 19th century. He has some serious accomplishments under his belt, but he is most famous for his inpatient clinic of hysterical women, who like trained seals would display hysterical fits on command at his lectures. One theory was there was an unspoken agreement between doctor and patients, their performance would get them better treatment and favors. 
If anyone was entitled to display fits of hysterics its Mary, Queen of Scots. Here she is, composed and dignified, being taken to her execution.
My favorite new old artist is Gene Pressler, who painted romantic moon lit portraits of flappers. The cat eye mask is what really sold me on this print. Reproductions are sold on Ebay, but the old prints almost always look nicer.
Metal
When drinking tea was exclusively a tough guy pastime.
Oddly, there were several old lightning rods at one antique mall. This was the most interesting one.
Will we install it on our roof? Why yes, yes we will.
Glass
These cream bottles will be our new/old juice glasses.
I'm not typically a big glassware fan, but these odd pieces really got my attention. The patterns remind me of 1950s reptile themed horror movies, like 20 Million Miles to Earth and The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
These are Vaseline glass, which glows under black light due to the uranium content. According to the interwebs, this glass will expose a person to about 1% of the radiation she/he would typically receive in a year. I would like to find more pieces and display them under a black light with a Geiger counter.
I bought a black light flashlight to see if the uranium claim was legit. Ill be taking it with me on our antique excursions. 
Wood
It was just starting to rain when we saw a vendor haggling with a potential buyer regarding this wicker baby carriage. We approached as the vendor was just about to roll it in his van and drive off. We bought it then borrowed some tools from another vendor to dismantle it. I wish I had video of us getting it into our rental car, by some great feat of geometry and physics we managed to squeeze it in. 
Pete sent these photos to me in a text with no caption. He got this Victrola from Facebook Marketplace. He likes to make big purchases, then let me know about them after the fact. That's his kink.
This is our second Victrola, the first one we bought only plays diamond discs.
He got this cute little loveseat from Facebook Marketplace as well, via a discussion between us.
I'm not sure if it would look better painted or stained.
Found in Victrola cabinet
This book published by the Studebaker car company looks like a sales brochure, but it mentions the company's finances, so maybe it was meant for the shareholders.
Clippings from a 1940 newspaper. I think this case is mentioned in a documentary on the history of Toxicology
Screwing around with your secretary was referred to as "bad manners" in 1940. Or is the guy interrupting them ill mannered?
I found this undated uncaptioned photograph too. I guess someone took this picture because of the roadwork, It looks like new drainage is about to be installed. I love the little birdhouse in the foreground.
Flora and Fauna
Yay! Our grass transplant from last April was a success!
Our friend Amanda came by and planted some flowers, as well as a peach tree sapling. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does well. Thank you, Amanda!
This neighborhood cat is not an Elvis fan.
Lull with the skull
I was encouraging Pete to give away this crappy repro Victrola, instead he gave it quite the spooky makeover. Regrettably I don't have any before photos.
All up in my grill, until.........
Pete dropped the vacuum cleaner down the maids staircase where it crashed into our diamond disc Victrola.
We aren't concerned about the resale value of any of our antiques, but at this rate I think Pete will be gothify-ing all of our things.
The Sterling Collection
I don't remember when banks stopped using bank books, but I remember using them when I was in grade school and as a teenager. I still have my last bank book, as well as one I found in the house, and now this one.
I like looking at the financial activity of anonymous strangers. Mr. Goldberger was doing pretty well. According to an online inflation calculator, that $1000. deposit made in January of 1937 is worth about $18,000. today. Pete never passes up an opportunity to look at the account balances on discarded ATM receipts at the bank, so I guess this kind of snooping has some common appeal.
This bank book is from The Public National Bank in Manhattan, a building is still standing but appears to have been abandoned for as long as I can remember. The terracotta ornamentation above the door really stands out on Avenue C.
Inspirations
I'm usually not too interested in colonial houses beyond "Wow, that's old." I can appreciate that something was built 250 plus years ago, but beyond that, I'm usually not impressed. This house changed my opinion drastically.
Doug Towle makes Pete and I look like jerry rigging hacks.
A lifelong restoration artiste, The George Farley house in Gilmanton, New Hampshire appears to be Doug Towle's crowning achievement. Built in 1665 in Massachusetts as a home for widows and orphans, he dismantled and stored the pieces until he found the land to reassemble it on. He also transplanted a schoolhouse, a carriage house, and a water tower on to the property. Every article I've read about this guy mentions that he hammers the kinks out of old hand forged nails to use on future restoration projects.
There's an interview with Doug Towle here.
