Solid ground

I've often talked about the importance of having solid ground beneath me.  I meant something more akin to knowing where I stand on a given issue or feeling confident that I'd made the right choice than the literal ground...being solid.  In this case I mean it is literally "very important" because, for example urine soaked particle board is not okay, neither is carpet in a kitchen, nor linoleum tile in a bedroom or tongue and groove flooring that has been refinished so many times that the tongue is exposed.

Yuck, urine soaked particle board is just yuck.

That goes for carpet in a kitchen as well...yuck.

Linoleum mastic is not my friend.

The Turret bedroom floor was ravaged.  The floor joists were also stretching too broad a span for their size.  The floor dipped several inches and was very spongy to walk on.

Hard wood in the Turret bedroom.

The hallway was in the same shape as the turret bedroom and is now hardwood as well.

The original pine flooring we revealed under too many layers was so lovely we just refinished it in most of the rooms.

Wow, I love this floor in the Master bedroom.  It just glows.

The stairs, and first floor got a buff and recoat.  They look awesome.

Only crazy people strip second floor woodwork

This is understood.  The wood is soft and meant to be painted.  We do not deny that the undertaking was insane given the complexity of the millwork.  It is done however, and we do not regret it.  This was a rooming house for ages and the second floor was divided into units that must have turned over many times, each time requiring a fresh coat of paint.  The painters did not clean the woodwork well...or at all between coats, therefore the layers were lumpy (they painted over fuzz...bleh), beaten, chipped and  so gored with various lock sets and hooks and so forth that we simply couldn't do a light sand and call it good.  We started chipping away at it one day and found that since the surface hadn't been properly prepped after the first painting, most of it just flaked off with a putty knife.  We went at it in June and it's finally ready for a fresh coat.  Phew!

These giant double hung windows in the turret bedroom...now that they have been stripped, are fully fundctional.

If it weren't so beautiful, we never would have been able to stick with it.

Some millwork was cracked or cut into for a lock set.  We Bondo and glued the hell out of them.  Bondo carving is an under appreciated art form.  They look as good as new.

If walls could talk

I can imagine a thousand stories these walls might tell, but the latest would involve recounting tales of us revealing the layers with awe.  This home was layered with an astonishing array of wall treatments from painted wainscoting to paper that marked every era of its past.  I have a true appreciation for their durability as well, for they seem to have been holding many of the plaster walls up.  After stripping the walls down to bare plaster, we had a lot of repair to do.  The walls were repairable, a couple of the ceilings however were beyond help (by that I mean that one day a piece about 4 feet square came crashing down and scared the hell out of me) and needed to be sheetrocked.

Layers, layers, and more layers.  Some rooms had six or eight, some ten...

I love the soft metallic sheen on this one.

After we stripped the walls and cleaned them, Ryan drilled holes around the loose areas in the plaster and injected adhesive to re-secure it, then he rough plastered and fine plastered and final plastered and...you get the picture.  That part took a while.

This is the room with the offending ceiling that came crashing down.  It was really cool too.  They had painted it red to go with the cherry wallpaper.

Plaster work was finally completed in June.  We sealed it up with a good primer.  Should be good for another hundred years.

Squirrels are vermin.

I suppose you're wondering what we've been up to over the last several months of non-blogging...let's catch up shall we?

I know a lot of squirrel lovers.  I've heard accolades of their fluffy little tails, seen performances of lithe nut retrieval and heard myriad humorous stories about them running about being very cute...I was almost on board I admit, but after the experience of the last few months of defending this house against their virulent and destructive onslaught, I fall squarely in the anti-squirrel camp.

I imagine they were accessing the roof through the use of what we fondly refer to as the "squirrel highway"  for quite some time before we acquired this house.  The offending trees growing out of the foundation and several limbs have since been removed, animal control set live traps to catch the latest (and hopefully last) naughty little guys, and oh my goodness was there a mess to clean up.

They were quite comfortable having chewed almost entirely through the framing members in the roof to create an elaborate maze through many rafters.  This process necessitated a thorough demolition of the existing third floor.  A picture is worth a thousand words right?

About an inch left in this 2x4 and the attic was full of them.  If she weren't so well built she would have crumbled:)

From the East looking West the space is filled with light.

From the West looking East

New Oak floors throughout.

Needless to say this was a bit beyond the original scope we intended to take on before moving in to this house.  Oh well.  Now the structure has been restored, all squirrel feces removed...yuck, all mold issues resolved and proportions that suit the space much more nicely than the job that was done in the 70's.  It's been a long, bumpy and unexpected detour, but wow is it turning out nicely.

Whoa is us:(

Love the blue:)

I've been called an obnoxious optimist.  I can find the bright side of just about anything so here goes...because otherwise I'm going to cry:

Cheryl and Carol purchased a clawfoot tub for the house as a Christmas gift.  It's hard to find a slipper tubs with flawless enamel, but they did of course.  We were well into the demo and didn't want it to get damaged after 100 years or so of managing to stay in great shape so we decided to store it in the shed, under a blanket behind closed doors with a barricade.  Silly us.  Someone took it and it's probably right back on craigslist...sniff...okay so getting on with the bright side.

We had been thinking about a security system, motion lights for the back, putting lamps on timers and many other things that got back burnered in the chaos of demo.  No longer.  We are now the proud owners of such a fabulously high tech security system, that "there's an app for that":)

Back to the drawing board on plans for the bathroom though...is there an app for that?

Nice screen, I know.

You know you've reached the "Obsession" point when you're stripping wallpaper and skim coating by flashlight.

The paper in the hall was painted and skim coated over several times.  I don't understand why they did that as they must have known it would soon crack and peel again. Wallpaper removal has a bad rap.  I say just get it off of there!

The room is fully skim coated!  We're ready to sand, prime and paint the first room!! YAY!

This all may make more sense if I show you the pretty things...

 I live and work just blocks away from this grand lady so I often drive by and can't stop myself from stopping in...sometimes to work, sometimes just to explore.  This night it was way to dark to photograph anything so I walked around with a flashlight and took pictures anyway.  The detail is astounding.  The whole first floor needs a good cleaning and not much more.  It's in wonderful condition with 114 years of patina and wear that charm me.

Appropriately, the very first fireplace I have ever had would have a torch as it's primary decorative element.

This is the corner tile of the mantle.

There is a ridiculously long tile on the sides

...and the bottom tile.  They are a mellow cream with crackling glaze, gold detailing and the most subtle lavender and pale yellow tones.

This was a coal burning fire place so it's shallow with a cast iron basket and surround.  Being a metal sculptor, I can't imagine a more perfect fireplace. The craftsmanship is awe inspiring.

There are birch colums flanking the mantle with fully carved detail, no applied elements.

The details are so fully carved, you can look inside them.

Above the 5 foot mantle is a beveled mirror with more birchwood carving.

This is the egg and dart molding above all of the doors, arches and windows on the first floor except the kitchen.  It's about 8 inches high and though the kitchen's is simpler it has the same significant profile.

The paneling, moulding, built in china cabinet and dining room side of the pocket doors are quarter sawn oak, while the other side of the pocket doors are birch to match the paneling, mantle and molding in the living room.

Gross rotty mess...I'm not ready to talk about it.

I think the only things that are staying are the cute little sconce light fixtures.  Ugh...this room scares me.

Third floor apartment in the sky!

It's got humongous going for it.

It's got 80's rustic decorating working against it.

This kitchen doesn't look like much right now, but we've got some serious plans.

This bathroom is gone now.

I wasn't sorry to see it go.

Meh.

The space in between

I love James Records architectural design's in so many ways, but the switchback stair landing with a dramatic glass vignette reminds me of something my dad used to say all of the time.  "There is magic in the spaces in between".  As a little girl that phrase created habits like making wishes at midnight, or in stairwells or while driving through tunnels or crossing bridges.  As an adult it developed into an appreciation of the opportunities that only present themselves when you're "between" like when you're between jobs or your relationship ends or pregnant.  Times that could have been filled with such fear, uncertainty and tumult throughout my life have been met instead with a call to my spirit to pay attention, notice...and step into the currents.  Just like in the dream about the window.  I love that such a thought has a physical form in my home, a daily reminder of life's magic.  God, I miss my dad.

And this is where the lady will go.  This is going to knock my socks off every time I walk through my front door.

As if my socks weren't already being knocked off by the paneling and newel post.

This is the view as I walk out my bedroom door.  Hi Lady!

Longest hall ever.

We probably shouldn't be using the hall to store huge sheets of paneling that are full of nails should we?

Master Suite

The master suite is the full width of the house which is nearly thirty feet, divided by an arch.  It has a bump out with three humongous windows and two other huge windows as well.  It has the tiniest closet though.  Mint green and pink are not my colors.

Removal of linoleum from wood floors is not my favorite demo task.

We had a contractor look at the flooring and it's totally salvageable.  We don't even have to remove all of the black goo, YIPPEE!!

The top layers of painted wallpaper peeled off in giant awesome sheets.

I love the barbershop pole.

The thin plastic tiles, though...interesting, had to go.  There had been three kitchen "remodels" over the years, each adding a layer of wallpaper and various other layers.

The ceiling was originally painted a bright cherry red in the north half of the suite.

Paper is down in the North half and the walls are repairable.  The ceiling however fell one night when no one was around...fortunately.

The South half of the suite has four huge windows, an arch, and two doors.  There is very little wall space.

That means the paper stripping went quickly:)

Now we're ready to fix up the walls.