January 30, 2003

School starts tonight (Thursday) so I should know soon whether I can make it in April. The house is going well. I’ve really been getting a lot done lately. I removed the bathroom and closet that were added to the main kitchen and put it back to one large room like it was originally. This allowed me to open up the back stairwell that had been closed off for more than 80 years. You can now walk down the back stairs and into the kitchen. Also for the first time in more than 80 years you can now walk from the kitchen to the dinning room.

One section of the ceiling and wall in the kitchen that had been covered for all that time revealed the original paint and wall paper. The kitchen was painted a dark purple with an 18” wallpaper boarder around the top of the wall. The wallpaper looks like Greek design with flowers, vines, and urns. I also uncovered a sort of dumb waiter door that leads from the kitchen to the dinning room. It is a small opening about 2 feet square in the wall near the stove. I can see where there used to be a door that lifted up. It opens up on the dinning room side where I suspect there used to be a built in sideboard.

I also removed the fake wood tile that was in every room and hallway upstairs. Underneath the tile and particle board underlayment in the bedrooms I found a redwood floor with a 3 foot boarder of painted floor canvas in each room. The hallway was also covered in the floor canvas. It is in bad shape, and will have to come up, but it is interesting to see. I talked with a restoration consultant who told me this was very common from about 1870 to the 19-teens. He said that the room would have had the floor canvas around the boarder (or just a painted floor) and then a un-tacked carpet or rug to cover the bare wood in the center.

Inside the closet of the back bedroom is the stairwell that leads up to the attic. At some point they chopped off the bottom three steps and boarded up the entrance to the attic. They then pushed the back wall of the closet 2 feet into the bathroom to enlarge the closet. I moved the wall back and rebuilt the bottom three steps. The stair treads leading to the attic are made of a heavy, rough-cut lumber - very rustic. I was amazed to find the missing three treads in the attic. Now that it is back together you can’t really tell they were ever chopped off.

When I moved the wall back I uncovered some original plaster and beadboard in the bathroom that was covered up back in the 20s. The plaster was painted a very light blue and the redwood beadboard has a high gloss varnish on it. Unfortunately the rest of the beadboard in the bathroom has several coats of paint and the plaster has many coats of paint and wall paper. It does still have the original marble sink and a 7 foot long clawfoot tub. You can see on the wall were there used be one of those types of high-tank toilets that had the tank mounted up on the wall but the toilet is no longer there. There is now a “modern” toilet from the 40s in its place. I have two toilets from the 20s in the attic so I may put one of those in there if I can’t get one of the high tank ones.

It may sound like the place looks better but it some ways it looks worse. I’ve really just been doing a lot of demolition. Everything still needs lots of work. I’ve decided I’m going to just go through each room and rip out whatever doesn’t belong. Then after I rewire and re-plumb this summer I can then go back one room at a time and restore things.

I made my first purchase on Ebay this weekend. I have been buying sets of antique white porcelain doorknobs for the upstairs at local antique stores. They go for $13 to $15 a set. On Ebay I was able to buy 8 sets with rim locks for $100 dollars ($12.50 a set). The antique rim locks I can’t use but I think I can sell them for $5 each or so which will bring the cost of the doorknobs down to $7.50 each. About half what they charge locally. I also found an old high-tank toilet tank on Ebay. It is a copper lined, oak tank with a long pull-chain on it. Form the pictures it looks like it is in good shape. Bidding ends this Saturday. Right now the top bid is $10.00 and I’m sure that will go up. I’ve decided I will bid no more than $30 because I will also have to pay shipping. I hope I get it.