Happy Christmas!

Wahsing Dishes....

One shelf (bottom) washed...5 more to go.

Has The Water Stopped?

I think we have found the winner, or should I say loser! The cold water supply pipe to the toilet is leaking. A simple fix, right...WRONG - the pipes are encased in a cement tomb under the bathroom floor.

 

Turning off the feed to the upstairs toilet has stopped the water from dripping/flowing, but there have been years of damage done and I fear we may be loosing the original bathroom tile floor. :( 

Kitchen Inspiration

So now that I need to fix the ceiling in my kitchen why not re model it? I only have one kitchen cabinet...
My dilemma is the over all layout of the kitchen...its long and really only 1 wall is functional, but that wall has two GIANT windows...hence no cupboards.

These are a few photos I have found for inspiration:

This kitchen looks like my butlers pantry...

 Has anybody seen my maid? I cant find her and the house is a mess!!!

Seems a little empty without a refrigerator.

A little more modern...Ohhh! Ahhhh! Drool!

Tile up the walls is a must!

 

This Greenfield Village Kitchen Display has always been my favorite!

An Open Ceiling Plan?

You've heard of kitchens with an open floor plan...well mine has an open ceiling plan!!

The water from the tub in the above bathroom was leaking around the drain. This caused the water to collect under the tub and slowly seep down the outside (wrong side) of the drain pipe onto the ceiling of the kitchen below.

Of course the exact reason for the leak could not be discovered until large section of the ceiling was pulled down. Revealing some questionable decisions on the part of the original constructors.

The layer of wet plaster was floating off the lath and literally crumbled to its death. The two layers of sheetrock/drywall also had to go. 
Speaking of death; a mummified squirrel from the 1940's was discovered, he was wearing a fedora. 

The next greatest discovery was the original color of the walls/ceiling...OLIVE GREEN! Of course it was, I think everything in the house was slathered with a nice coat of olive green lead. I have found two paint hues, one a bit darker but I don't know if the color darkened with age or if it had been discolored from smoke; the Squirrel form the 40's also smoked a pipe.  

Damn, and I just washed all those dishes in my pantry!!!

Drip, Drip, Drip...

I woke up this morning to a frightening sound that I just couldn't understand. Then I saw it...the ceiling in the kitchen was dripping. :(

Well, at least it was not dripping blood.

Garden

I just planted two new trees to the back yard, a Santa Rosa Plumb, and an Elberta Peach!
YUMMYYYY I cant wait 5 years for fruit!!!!

can you NOT READ?!?!?!

One of the many enduring things the prior home owners left for us were two hand made signs that declare "No Handbills". Unfortunatly the word "Handbill" has gone the way of the dinosaur and people in this generation obviously have no clue what it means!!!!.

My friend and hood neighbor suggested an update: "Yo homie, Ay ay ay dawg, I ain't got no time for paper on my steps. Unless its paper that pays the bills, keep it off, fo shizzle."

Dogs, Dogs and more DOGS!!!

Because I do not have enough dogs in the house I decided to get a few more from an estate sale - and its my Birthday weekend!

Flanking the entrance with style and grace.

Fill-In

its been raining a lot these past few days... :(

Snow?!?!

The ski season has ended, winter coats put away in to the cedar closet, tulips and daffodils are starting to come up, the motorcycles have been woken form their slumber...and today we got about an inch or two of snow!

The only good thing about snow is that it stops the muddy paw prints, but don't worry they should be back soon.

Freshly Oiled Floors...and a cat

The house is clean, and floors have been oiled. :)

The calm before the storm!!!

Foster Dog Opie

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs, Dogs, Cat!

The little gold puppy is a house guest, looking for his fur-ever home.

Waterfall Furniture

Wahoo!
I finally found a Waterfall Bedroom set in good condition at a great price!!!
I scoped out an estate sale last week that advertized a waterfall bedroom set - the sale started on Thursday, and I thought by Friday it would be gone...but it was still there. Dan scoped it out for me and made a deal with the seller and now its MINE!!!! :)

I will be taking better photo soon! This bedroom set was loved and well taken care of for the past  80ish years. There are 4 pieces:

Bed (head board, foot board, rails),
Armour with Mirror
Dressing Table with Mirror
Vanity Chair

You can see the reflection of the bed in the dressing tables mirror, and the little chair in the mirror of the armour.

This will go into my "sewing room" meaning my sewing is getting relocated to a place yet to be determined and the second bedroom is now a "Guest Room".

The set has a few scratched which I have oiled and given a generous slathering of polish - the set looks like new. A few of the cut glass tiles have fallen off but I have them and they will be re-attached.

The only thing that is wrong with the set is on the armour; the knob on the top drawer has a small chip out of the bakelite, and has one replacement mirror clip.

   

Bathroom Shelf Fabrication

Drawing for stainless shelf to hold orchids in master bathroom.

Welcome...

I have been meaning to make a blog since I purchased this home in February 2012, but have not had a chance to do it until now. 

I will be slowly adding back dated stories.

Laundry Sink meet Muriatic Acid

Thanks to the help of Muriatic Acid 61 years worth of ick removed! It took a lot of scrubbing and spraying, but the results are well worth it.

LOOK - It's so shiny and clean!!! This is just the first step of many for this dear old early 50's laundry sink.
The plan is:

1. strip the paint on the outside
2. patch any hairline cracks (there may be two on the outside surface but its hard to tell) 
3. clear coat the outside surface - if you have a cement laundry tub you might as well show it off!
4. patch, fill, sand any rough spots on the inside surface of the tub, bondo like a dented car if you will
5. coat the inside with enamel....should I go with white or a fancy color?
6. clear coat the metal on the rim
7. find faucet to fit the existing holes or use a lame generic utility sink faucet - ho hum
8. make legs
9. install 
10. throw a laundry sink party!

Nice Legs!

New Old Sink Delivered

The new old cement laundry sink was delivered today!

Dan *at gate with Max by his side: "Are you guys afraid of dogs?"
ASWD Delivery Guys: "No man, he's cool."
Dan: "That's good because there are four more in the house."
Dogs inside house: "bark, bark, bark, bark"
ASWD Delivery Guys: "What kind of dogs?"
Dan: "A German Shepard, a Pit Bull, a Doberman, and a Great Dane."
ASWD Delivery Guys: "DAMN!!!!"

Elictrical Don'ts

While Dan was using the sawzall to cut up the old tub over the weekend the power to a light socket and a outlet went out. No big deal right, I have been collecting fuses from estate sales and have oodles of them for this very reason. Well we looked on Yate's map, and checked the fuses...all were fine, nothing blown...uh-o that's not good. So on NYD (official work holiday) the wires were investigated. Dan tore out a bunch of junk wires that were not connected to anything, used his volt meeter to trace the lines and I got to play "what does this fuse do?". This is what we found just above the washing machine:

Eeek! The draw from the radio, the light bulb and sawzall was just too much for the little old copper twist. The wires were charred causing resistance thus not flowing current to the outlet causing them to fail. Old Knob and Tube wiring is fine as long as you don't splice into it and do dumb things like the photo above. Honestly the sketchy wiring in the house is the "modern" Romex!