Closet Re-Do

When mom first looked at the house, specifically, this bedroom, she was certain she'd never hang her clothes in this closet, or use the living room fan, or, heck, even move in. She surprised me by selecting this room as her bedroom, but she hated the closet.
It had 1940's wallpaper hanging from the ceiling and 50 years of dust. We just wanted it clean and done. We scraped and repaired the cracks in the plaster.

We used Cottage White from painting the kitchen faux Hoosier cabinet. The clothing bar itself was an old pipe, and as soon as I'd completed the first wall in mom's room, the entire thing tumbled to the floor from the weight of the clothing.

Clean baseboard & Floor

We purchased a wooden closet dowel at Home Depot. Funny how much of a difference that made. We installed press-lights, as there is no wiring in the closet. We think the closet was an addition. It has a nice door, and the bottom of the door frame has the lower plinths, but the exterior walls are made of some cross of cardboard, thin plywood and old newspapers, perhaps only 1/4 of an inch thick.

Window Rescue - Jan's Room

Jan left to care for an ill family member, which left me nearly two weeks to rip down wallpaper and scrape paint off of the woodwork in her room. While not completed, I came very close. There is still some white paint in the "after" picture. The Mexican milagro cross was gift from a friend, from Gargoyles, the now-closed shop in Boston. It's perched because I couldn't stand the thought of tapping a hole into a wall we'd worked so hard on.

This project took longer than I'd anticipated, and while very frustrating, it was ultimately very satisfying.

Previous owners replaced the broken glass in the bottom two windows, (minus the panes) with plexi-glass. These need to be removed and the ropes & weights still need to be re-set. I picked up solid brass locks and brass-colored window pulls, as well. Soon, we'll need to replace the window guts with proper, weather-rated windows, but for right now, the frames are easier to live with. Still, so much more work to be done.

Back to the Window

This window stripping took at least a week. The entire wall (scraping, sanding, priming, painting and general agony) took between two and three weeks. I spent a lot of time with the window, getting to know every painted inch. So, after the dish-ditching celebration, it was back to the grind.

Satellite of Love

Today we worked on removing the satellite dish so that we could un-roll the newly-discovered awning.

Jan's room is hot, and the afternoon sun shines directly in. The former owners had sacrificed the luxury of an awning in favor of movies and whatever other 21st c. entertainment a satellite dish provides. We opted to restore a cool sleeping area, privacy and rain that falls away from the bedroom window.

Mike climbed out on the roof (and forbade me to step foot out of the window).

Mike on Roof

The former owners had cable in every room, and the cables were installed haphazardly through the walls via huge holes directly through the sides of house. When we pulled the cables out, they left gaping holes, from outside to inside, which required the best repair we could think of. Removing the dish took a few hours, one trip to Main St. Hardware and some cursing, but Mike finally freed it and swung it down so I could catch it off the porch.

The dish companies don't pick these up or even want them back, they just leave them to rot. So, I did some looking to see what crafts people have turned their dishes into. My favorites are the mosaic bird baths:

Now, my mom has a working awning.

August Black-eyed Susans

Living Room

This is the living room as it currently stands.

It's amazing how the futon frame echoes the straight newel post and balusters. Everything else we own is so old, it fits right into the nearly 100 years-old house without much effort. The green lamp came from my grandfather's store in Cooperstown, NY, about 50 years ago.  Auger's Bookstore was an independent bookstore & stationery. That store is presently being turned into a new micro-brewery, Cooperstown Beverage Exchange.  For nearly 50 years, my grampa sold stationery, newspapers, books, greeting cards, gifts, toys, typewriters, lamps, office supplies and ladies' purses & bags. As a result, most of our family has an on-going lust for office supplies and books that surpasses most other interests. We tease each other about it.

The living room has yet to be painted, have pictures and draperies hung, and, since books are such a problem, we haven't exactly worked that out yet. To burn the books and simply use a Kindle would be sacrilege. We are open to suggestions.

Here are the colors we've stared at for the last three months for the living room:

The Staples

Each window, and sadly, the entire area of the quilted maple framing had between 60 - 80 staples plunged deeply into the wood.  There were nails, screws and hooks all over the place. On the first day people came to help, we filled a jar with large, industrial staples. Everyone lamented the wood, and how beautiful it is, and how sad. My theory is that with the small, inefficient stove as the only source of heat (after the 1960's boiler gave in), that the former resident sealed off the old wood-framed windows and the upstairs with heavy plastic. That would be fine, but there are better ways to seal off rooms without trashing a house.

We are still working on pulling staples, day by day.

Welcome Home!

In February 2015 mom closed on a late-era Arts & Crafts bungalow. It has 3 BR/1 BA, and one soon-to-be 1/2 bath.  The soon-to-be bath has been 'sooning' for, we estimate, ten years, with exposed lathe & plaster, exposed drywall, layers of paints, and raw beams, with the additional random wood bits pounded over the soon-to-be door frame.
The back yard is all willy-nilly, and we spent this Spring watching to see what blossomed, since we had no idea what original (or if any at all) plantings came along with the property.
She is partly run-down, and partly a treasure.

Butter-moth