Cement, Bricks, and Crap Oh My!

Believe it or not, once I was finished with the front walk (as far as I was going to go anyway) I decided to round up all the small piles of junk cement, bricks and crap from around the yard. Throughout the late summer and fall I had been making little piles of this stuff with the intention of getting rid of them this spring.

Whenever it rains, or I do some yard work, this stuff comes to light. One of the running jokes in the family is that you can't stick a shovel anywhere in the yard without hitting cement, rocks, or bricks. It is frustrating, but it gives further proof that the yard had been landscaped sometime in the 10s 0r 20s. More on that later.

Instead of waiting till spring to clean these piles up, I decided to just go ahead and do it. So I got the old trailer we use for this type of thing from my father and took care of it. I'm sure I'll pay the price tomorrow with a sore back though. But hey - at least it is done.

Can you believe all this junk?! What amazes me is that this is a very small amount of the same type stuff we remove every year!!

Here's a better view of the bigger pieces.

In case you are wondering, all of this is not going to a landfill. Instead it is going out to my brother's property in the country. He is using this stuff to build a path in one of his fields. So, it will go to good use.

The sad thing about it is that there is a lot more of it in the yard. We still have part of the outbuilding we removed a few years ago as well as an old sidewalk and an old slap we have no idea what it was used for.

Cheers!
Larry ~

Not much happened....

Well, not a whole lot happened this weekend in the way of the house.

I started feeling a little like I was getting sick Thursday and Friday started with a bad soar throat and congested, stuffy, head. So I spent the Friday taking drugs and taking it easy so we could hit it hard Saturday and Sunday.

Well, Saturday came around and SWMBO and I just didn't want to work on the house - it was way to nice outside to stay indoors!!!!

So we went to a friends house who was having an open house at their furniture restoration shop/showroom. After this we walked next door to SWMBO's parent's house (the friend that does the furniture has lived next door to Annette's parents for over 30 years) to see the work that had been done on their basement. We then went home and decided we SHOULD work on the kitchen. Well, as soon as we got home I laid down and crashed. Guess I wasn't as well as I thought I was.

Anyway, after a couple hours napping we decided it was STILL too nice to work inside and ended up working in the yard and having a bon-fire.

We ended up having our best friends over, as well as the wife's kid brother and his wife. Along with all of these were there kids and my brother's youngest daughter.

So, Saturday wasn't a complete waste. We got to rest a bit, do some much-needed brush burning and enjoyed time with family and friends.

Sunday we decided to actually do some work on the kitchen, yet it was still so nice outside!

Well, guess what - nothing much happened in the way of work on the kitchen but the entire day was not lost!!!

As some of you know - I LOVE JUNK!!! SWMBO calls me a pack rat, I call my self a 'collector of the trans-mundane'.

Anyway, I offered to take the wife's car to have it washed and on the way I found a pair of chairs thrown out by the side of the road. I drove by several times and 'looked' at them, but that was about it. On the last 'drive by lurk' I saw an older couple out in the yard that was next to the curb the chairs were on. So I stopped.

I asked if they were getting rid of the chairs and they said "that's why they are out there', so I brought them home.

Here they are!

At first I thought they were going to be some of those cheep ones you can buy at big-box furniture stores, but these have turned out to be very nice, solid wood and heavy. These are not cheap chairs!

Now the cushions have been replaced at some point and really don't look good. I plan to restore these puppies and put better seats on them.

Once they’re done we might keep them or sale them.

What was so interesting about these were not the things list above but the fact that they were more of a 'sign'. I have been kicking around for ideas of starting a sideline business I can do out of the house. My wife, as well as the furniture restoration friend of ours, have pointed out numerous times that I have a 'knack' of finding quality furniture pieces. Bill, the furniture guy, has been trying to get me more into furniture restoration to compliment this 'knack' of mine (unfortunately - the furniture I find is usually the wrong style for us but the right style for others). Anyway, after visiting Bill, and his wife's, furniture restoration shop on Saturday Annette and I once again talked about getting into furniture restoration and selling.

Well, finding those chairs on the side of the road was as much of a sign as I need to give it a shot!! It doesn’t take a brick hitting me between the eyes to give me a clue. I will post pictures of these once they are underway and completed.

We did get one other project done inside the house we have wanted to do since we bought the place.

Remember this picture? You can see a mirror and a file cabinet under it (as well as all the junk around it).

Believe it or not, there IS a window behind those!! The file cabinet is actually hiding a an air conditioner window unit that was installed sometime in the late 60s or early 70s.

We decided to get rid of it.

It was not as easy as it sounds. The previous owners put that thing in to stay. It took aver three hours just to get it out.

Then it took the wife and I about two extra hours to clean the 35+ years worth of dirt, grime, cobwebs, dead bugs and spiders cleaned out of the windows. The dirt and dust was so bad you could not really even look out the window. The glass was like a permanent, double layer, of shear curtains!!!!

Can you believe this is the same window?!?!

We were amazed at just how much light come into this room now and how much bigger it looks!!

The light is so bright now it was hard to get the picture.


So, Sunday was not a complete waste!

Don't Mind the Mess

Recently, a cyber friend, from Missouri, and I found out we have something in common. We both have houses that are virtually identical. So, through several e-mails we have been comparing the two homes.

Two of the main differences between the two homes are architectural features that his house has and we want on ours. The bay windows in his house extend all the way up into the second story and his wrap-around porch has an ornate pediment over the front entrance.

Anyway, I snapped a few pics to send to him. They are of rooms on the ground floor. Sorry about the quality, I'm using my phone camera. As soon as I can I will get better pics and post those.




This is our front door. Nothing too special about it.

However, I am really dreading the work that needs to be done on this room.

First off, the part of the floor, right in front of the stairs, has been eaten away by termites. It is just as bad as the damage in the back door.

The termites also ate the woodwork that the right hand window sets on. Not sure how that will be fixed.

Also, notice the big patch of white plaster on the wall where the stairway starts? That is not original. We do not know when the work was done, but a gent in town believes the plaster was put there in the 50s. He was in high school at the time and helped hang the wall paper and he remembers it.

Anyway, it is there to replace the original plaster that was destroyed when termites ate away the lathe that holds the plaster. We do know the wall will probably have to be replaced. As you can see, most of the wallpaper has been removed.

Now you can see the north side of the foyer where the stairs go up to the second floor.

See the wallpaper that's still on the wall?

For some reason we can not get it to come off so we are thinking that there might be some plaster damage behind it also.

If you look right up at the top of the stairs you can barely see the bottom of the mid-landing window. We are hoping to put a stained-glass element there.

While your looking; keep the triangular part of the wall, which the stairs are on top of, in mind when you look at the following picture.

Okay, let's get the triangular wall taken care of first.

Remember the problem with the termites eating the lathe?

Same problem here.

We try not to use the plug-in receptacle you can see because when we unplug something that part of the wall wants to come out also.

The picture also shows the first of three landings in the stairwell. It isn't noticeable in this picture, but the window is made up of leaded, diamond panes.

You can also see more of the termite damage on the floor.

This picture also shows how the walls were originally painted. The bottom half of the wall is a greenish color while the top is a parchment color. We were fortunate in being able to remove all the wallpaper out of the stairwell with no problems.

In this picture you can see one of three matching chandeliers.

This one is the smallest of the bunch.

The double sconces in the stairwell, as those in the kitchen, match these.

You can also see what's left of the wallpaper that was applied to the ceiling. Originally it was painted to match the walls.

A little word about the original paint application. It is a fresco style, i.e. the paint was applied while the paint was still somewhat wet. This allowed the paint to absorb into the plaster. This is also the same type of technique the Ancient Romans used in their homes.

This is the last major pic of the foyer.

It shows the coat closet as well as the detail of the wallpaper.

Okay, now keep in mind that we are in the middle of renovating this place so PLEASE don't mind the mess!!!

This pic is looking into the living room from the foyer.

Here you can see the right hand column and base.

You can also see one of the other chandeliers.

Here is the left column.

Living room bay and more crap.

We have decided that most of this stuff is going 'bye-bye'.

In fact, most of what you are seeing is already boxed up for a garage sale!!

Here is the doorway that leads into the dinning room from the living room.

You can't see them, but there are French doors attached, there just opened into the dinning room.




This doorway actually had pocket doors.

Not sure why they were removed, but all the hardware is still in the walls.

We think they were removed in order to make room for the central heating.

You can also see part of the chandelier close-up.

This is the last shot I will bore you with tonight (I think - LOL).

The windows match the one above the first landing in the stairwell.

You can also see the third chandelier as well as one of Annette's tapestries.

'SWMBO' collects antique tapestries and we are planing on using those to decorate this room once finished. Un-seen in the pic, but on the wall to the left, hangs her largest tapestry. It is about 3'x5' and comes from Belgium. That one, plus a large, gilded Edwardian mirror is to be the focal points for this room.

Do you see how grey the floor looks? Even with protective plastic covering the doorways the dust is everywhere - especially the floors!!

Kitchen Details

Following are several shoots of various details in the kitchen.

This is part of the 'egg-n-dart' crown molding that can be found above every-single-window-and-door of the house.

At first we thought that the kitchen only had this above the door leading into the foyer. However, once we started striping the wood work we found the evidence that shows it was above all the doors and windows in the kitchen as well. Unfortunately we have not found the extra pieces.

The pic here is the paint in the process of bubbling up from the chemical stripper.

Progress is being made with the stripper.

Now all we need to do is finish it off with a dental pick and it will be ready for staining.

What is frustrating is that we can not find this exact pattern. We find molding that is close, but not quite. So now we need to decide on whether or not to replace the molding with something similar or just not put any of it up except for the piece we have.

This is one of the pair of brass wall sconces. We have no idea when they were installed, but they match all the chandeliers in the rest of the house. From what we have been told, they were installed in the 50s.

We are kind of torn between these a original lighting. Everyone loves these lights and the matching chandeliers; and for most these are the only lights they remember in the house. You should see them at night from the street!!

On the other hand we would like to replace the light fixtures with the type we know where in the house when it was built - the dual gas / electric kind.

What to do, what to do......

They are stunning when turned on at night.

This is one of a pair of blown glass lights from the 20s, or 30s, we got for $25 dollars at a yard sale.

They don't go with the house either but are better than what WAS up there. The light in the eating area had been a lantern type light that looked like it came off a covered wagon (the kind that was popular in the 50s). The one that was in the prep area was the typical, ceiling hugging 'cake' type fixture. What was most bizarre about the two were not only their dissimilarities but the fact that they were only about 10' from each other.

Again, we are not sure what we will do with them; everyone seems to love them.

Another view.

Here is the right hand end cap of one of the original cupboards that had been in the kitchen when it was built.

The shear size indicates that it might have been located along the wall that the sconces are on now.

Close up of the top.

One of the first things people ask when they visit is "where is all the stuff that was in the kitchen?".

Well, the simple answer is "just about everywhere"!

So here are a couple pics that are rather embarrassing. Both are of all the junk from the kitchen that we have tossed in the dinning room.

Another wonderful view of our 'junk'.

They wife will probably kill me for posting these!! LOL

The Attic

Hello again everyone.

Well, it has been a while since I posted, so here's an up-date on the latest project - the attic.

After about 5 years worth of false starts and other projects getting in the way, I have finally been able to start construction on a wargaming room / hobby room.

Part of the house hunting ordeal was making sure there was space for a gaming room (wife's insistence). The attic in this house is bigger than our first home! Anyway, it had never been finished, just filled with junk. The beginning of last week was the first day I could start cleaning it out and getting ready to build. Additional floor joists and flooring need to be added, as well as lighting and such. When finished it will be a blank slate.

The total space is about 960 sq. feet. Once the knee walls are up and the built in storage / book shelves are in it will shrink the room to about 700 sq. feet. The top of the ceiling is just under 13', right below that is where the gaming table will be.

You can't tell the size by the pics, but the picture that has a straight-on view of a white book case. Thia is where the gaming table might go. It is big enough for a 6x9 table with room for expansion.

You might be amused to see some of our Halloween props hanging, and lying, about. They are not the bodies of the previous owners or neighbors, nor is the white haired woman my grandmother! LOL LOL LOL

Last Thursday I, along with neighbor's kid, hoisted the new floor joist up and into one of the attic doors (they're too big to take through the house). It surprised me that it was harder to lift a 2"x"6x14' long piece of lumber up onto back porch roof than it was getting it through the attic window.

Here is where the table might go.

Or it might go to the right side of the chimney.

Another view of where the table might be placed.

To the left back of the pic you can can see the dormor and just the top of the window in it.

Top of the stairs.

The window in the background is going to be the lounging area.

At the back of the pic you can see another window. This one overlooks the West lawn.

A better view of the same window.

The window in this pic is the spot where my painting table will go.

This picture shows where I am planing on having most of the books that will be up here.

It's hard to see the back of the space in this pic, I'm not sure what will go there yet.

Another pic trying to show that back space better.

Last, but not least, here is a pic of the neighbors (oops - did I say that?).

The past few days saw me clearing out the last of everything in the attic. Annette insisted we do this, she wants to go through the junk and get rid of most of it.

Several of the new floor joist are in and the rest are awaiting placement. I'm needing to re-route some wiring first. They should all be in by Thursday and the insulation in by Friday. We are also having the new floor delivered Friday so that it can be installed this coming weekend.

Here are some pics so you can see the work done so far.

The top of the stairs area going down.

The lounging area will be in front ot the window.

The painting table is going to go by the window that can bearly be seen to the left.

Here's the spot where most of the books will be going.

Finally, a better view of that back area I wasn't sure what to do with yet. Annette thinks it would be a good gaming storage area.

The window is where the painting table was going to go, but that has been changed.

The other far back corner.

The very top of the house, almost 13' up!

I will post more as we progress!

About the Inside

As promised, here is a description of the inside.

It was ONE HUGE MESS!!!

Really, it was, no kidding. When I find the pics I will get them scanned in and posted.

The inside of the house was just as trashed as the outside. What ever no one wanted they left behind for us to clean up. Most of it was trash, but we did find a few "treasures". I will work on getting some photos of the main things we found and post them.

One of the main caches we found were the closets. They were filled with vintage clothing! We found everything from turn of the century tuxedos and evening gowns to furs and funky clothes from the 60s and 70s. The best part was that most of the women's coats & jackets had jewelry (such as broaches and pins) attached! What a find! We could not believe that the auctioneers forgot (or perhaps over looked) all the stuff in the closets. We also found drawers filled with linens, old photos and post cards. And, according to the law, it was all ours!!! Now keep this in mind.

The law also stated that we could not take physical possession of the house until all the paperwork had been process and that was going to take about two weeks. That meant that technically we were not allowed in the house. Fortunately for us, the auction house, and the bank, turned a 'blind eye' and we were able to start cleaning on the inside. All that was asked was that we not make it too obvious.

If memory serves me, we removed about 15 trash cans worth of junk from the inside. I'm talking about the large trash cans you set out by the curb on trash day! This did not include the stuff we had not sorted through or all the dirt and dust in the attic and basement.

While we are dwelling on trash..... We hauled 5 large truck loads of junk from the yard to the dumb and that was just the first year! We are still hauling things off to this day.

Back to the house.

We removed all carpets that were in the house and tossed all the ones that could not be salvaged (like the Merlot purple carpet that was in the dining room). We were able to salvage some nice, large, antique braided rugs though.

But for the most part, the house was not structurally trashed. We would be able to move in fairly quickly.

Now, remember all the stuff that we found in the closets and drawers? Well, the night before we closed, someone ransacked the house and stole everything inside they could find! We know who did it. It was a friend of the previous owner who helped them out and had power of attorney over their affairs. The woman still had a key to the house and just helped herself. They only problem is that we can't prove it and her husband is an attorney. It would also force us, and the auction house, to admit that we had unauthorised access to the house.

However, they didn't find all the treasures! Those are the items I will get pictures of and post.

The House is FINALLY Ours!!!

Hello again!

Well, let me pick up the story from where we left off.

Once the auction was over, and the crowds had all gone home, Annette and I, along with assorted family and friends, sat on the porch and recounted the day. We also started to 'walk the property' (which would become a weekly ritual) and see what we had just gotten ourselves into.

The yard was SO overgrown with trees; shrubs; various assorted plants; and TONS of weeds. As for grass - well - there wasn't any. The yard was like a jungle in the middle of suburbia. The trees ranged anywhere from 100+ year old oaks to saplings that came up wherever. The yard had been left to 'go-to-seed' for about 20 years - YES - 20 years! It was so bad that the auction company had to come in with bush-hogs, chainsaws, and heavy equipment just to clear spots for people to stand. It was so overgrown that you could hardly see the house!

Besides the flora and foliage there were piles of junk left over and miscellaneous junk. There was even an old, stucco storage building that was so bad.... It was rotting, crawling with mold, fungus, slime, and who knows what else. Part of the roof was even caving in. 90% of the items stored in it (we're talking bags of old corn cobs and dozens upon dozens of KFC containers - that type of junk) was not salvageable.

We even found, buried under mounds of rotting wood, leaves and debris, what looked like the muzzle of a cannon! Turned out it was a cast-iron column that was used in a door way. In fact there were four of them. Two sets of columns in two styles. Each is about 8 to 9 feet tall and weigh over a ton. When we demolished the building we were able to move them. So now they are sitting, with their lintels, in a back part of the property.

We also stumbled across a couple of amazing finds that we were shocked had not been been auctioned off. The first were two, hand made, folk art, birdbaths. They are both concrete with decorative stones and rocks embedded in them. One is even a fountain! We estimate that they were made sometime in the 30s or 40s. The other find was a pile of limestone pavers and rocks in various sizes and shapes. It was hidden under a very thick layer of ivy and antique rose bushes. The pile is about 15'x6'x3' and is estimated to hold over one thousand rocks. We believe they are left-overs from when the yard had been landscaped. As an aside, the builder of the house was good friends of the founder and creator of the Bartlett Arboretum here in town (http://www.bartlettarboretum.com/history.php). We were told that the property had been landscaped by this guy's landscaper. There is a lot of evidence pointing to this fact also. Several of the trees, shrubs, and plants are rare and are only known to exist in our yard and the Arboretum. There is also the pesky bricks and rocks! We can not mow, dig, walk, etc. without hitting, stepping on, or tripping over one of them! We have found traces of brick and stone lined paths and flower beds all over the place!

There are also innumerable stumps everywhere! Most of them are small, less than 3" in diameter, and are the remains of the growth the auction company cut down and the old plants that just died off. We go through a riding mower and a push mower about t every other year. So, we do not buy new ones. I can't wait for the day I can buy a new riding mower!!! Even this week I hit a stump I never knew existed. I was lucky it didn't hurt the blade of the mower.

We also discovered a structure underground. Kind of like a cellar, but we never found an entrance. We know it existed because there was a vent shaft coming out of the spot. What was so unusual, other than no entrance, was the fact that the vent shaft was well over 10 tall. When I would try to dig out around the shaft I would find it attached to a brick form - structure like. Last fall I had had it - I could no longer stand not knowing what was buried out there. So, I took my handy sawzall and cut the vent pipe down and peered down the shaft - it was filed with dirt and sand. Bummer - thought it would be more interesting than that. So I stuck a hose to it to see if it would drain somewhere. It didn't. So - what ever it was it has been filled in. Perhaps it was a storm cellar or a septic tank. What ever it was the person who put it in thought it needed to have a huge vent shaft. I tell people that that is where the bodies are buried! LOL One thing that leads me to think it is not a septic tank is the fact that we are using the original septic tank!! it is a beehive shaped structure made of brick with a dirt floor. More of THAT story later.

Next Post I will tell you about all the junk left inside the house.....