A Knock On The Door

This morning at about 10am there was a knock at our front door. My husband has a horrible cold but I have this policy about not answering the door if I don't know who is on the other side. So, he got the job of answering. It ended up being the second owner of our house standing on the other side of the door! She wanted to know if she could come back later today with her family to see the house. This is the lady who happened to be very good friends with my mother's best friend and we have emailed about the house several times. I had not heard from her in quite some time. So, we set an appointment for 2pm when they returned.

At 2pm the owner showed up with her daughter, husband, granddaughter-in-law and grandson. It was so interesting to hear what they had to say about the house. They seemed to like the things we had done to it. I am going to type some of the things they told us about the house so that I don't forget. We started in the living room. She said when they moved in, the living room floor had just been carpeted with wool carpet for the sale of the house. We speculate this may have been the same carpet that was in the house when we moved in. She said the living room windows had white sheer panels when they lived there. We think they were the same ones on the windows when we moved in. They also told us they used the fireplace. We were told by the inspector that he thought there was no liner in the fireplace and we shouldn't use it until we know for sure. We haven't had it inspected by a chimney sweep yet but we suspect it does have a liner!

The kitchen was still terrazzo when they moved in but they covered it in linoleum. She thought the kitchen cabinets were white when they moved in and they had been painted due to damage. I was told that the cabinet that divides the living room and kitchen was moved further into the kitchen by them because they thought it went too far into the living room. She said the kitchen had a gourmet freezer/ fridge that was very large and had wood surrounding it. It was not very efficient and when it broke they couldn't find anyone to fix it so they replaced it. We think that was the original fridge for the house. She said it was very tall and flush with the kitchen cabinets. That is what I had speculated. The original owners had a laundry off the kitchen with a washer/ dryer all in one unit. That was removed and the laundry was added in the basement by these people.

The hallway leading to the family room.
The laundry room is on the left. The laundry
room and door leading into the family room
were not always here.

The pink and blueish/green carpet that was in the two smaller bedrooms when we moved in sounds like it was here when these people lived here. The pink was added by them. One bedroom has funny marks in the floor and ceiling right above and below each other. (I have been meaning to do a post about these to see if anyone knows what they are.) All I can think is that some kind of tension unit was in this spot. Maybe a lamp or a shelf. They said they don't remember having anything like this. I had suspected these were the owners who put the wallpaper in both of the bathrooms but they said they did not. The basement bathroom has tile on the floor that was also in the entry way. They said they don't remember this tile. They think the basement hallway and bathroom had carpet when they lived there.

This is the same floor covered in white splotches
at the "floor problems" link  below.

They used our guest room as a den which is also what I think the original owners used it for. The biggest surprise of their visit was learning about the rest of the basement. The rest of the basement had originally been a dog kennel. I know these people had removed the dog kennel. So, I assumed they had also refinished the basement and turned it into the laundry room and family room. But, they were not the ones who refinished the basement. They left it unfinished with a cement floor. What is now the laundry room and family room were all one big room. At one time the entire basement had a long hall that went from one end to a door that went outside. They said that hall was still there when they lived in the house. This was a very big surprise to us.

When you walk in the family room this divider is in front of you.
We assume it's there as support instead  of the original wall. You
can see the door to the carport past this divider.

I haven't included many pictures of the basement. That is where a large part of our floor problems happened. (Remember the story about the floors that got stained purple on accident?) I figure it is about time to post some photos of the basement. I'm sorry I didn't take them in the day when there was more light. We are just about moved in down there. For those of you wondering, our other house still has not sold!! So, we aren't completely moved into this house. We still have furniture at the other house. We do have an offer on the other house. It is supposed to close on June 24th. Hopefully everything will go through without any hitches. We are now in the process of moving the last of our furniture to the new house.

This is the divider from the opposite side.
The right side of this divider was where there
was a wall that ran the length of the family room
and created a hallway.

At our old house we had a lot of built in shelving in our family room. We were wondering how we were going to make up for all of that lost space. This past winter we got a shelving unit for the family room that comes in two pieces. They are supposed to be stacked on top of each other but we separated them. One unit is being used as an entertainment center. The other unit is being used as shelving for books. The unit was originally a beverage rack. I will have more photos soon of our guest bedroom. It has also been neglected in my photos. A new bedspread comes this week and we should be about done with that room. We finally had our front yard repaired after the new sewer line. So, be watching for more landscaping photos. We also have some new patio furniture.

It is our hope to paint the exterior of the house this summer. Choosing colors is not fun!! I wish someone could just tell me what will look great.

More to come soon!

This is the new storage unit we got in the winter. The piece on the left is actually supposed to stack on top of the piece
on the right. The top of the piece on the right is actually from our old house. My cousin built it to serve the same
purpose it serves now on top of a built in shelving unit where our TV sat. The two pieces on the right are not attached.

It Arrived!!!

We can finally live in our living room again!! All of the walls have been stripped and stained. We put a very thin molding around the ceiling. You can't even really see it. It just makes it look finished and the edges look sharper. We had new vertical blinds put up last Friday. Our awesome guy who did the walls came back and put them up for free so we wouldn't mess up his work by accidentally drilling holes in the wrong spot. Now our walls will be protected from more sun damage. The kitties can also stick their heads through and look out whenever they want. I have decided there is a lot of green in the room. I love green but we need something else. I think I will eventually make some pillows that are a different color. Maybe I will blog about pillow ideas next. I still need to do a blog on the bathroom.

Today my piano came!!!! I have been so anxious to get it here and see how it looks in the room. But, we decided to hold off until the walls were done and new blinds were up as long as our old house hadn't sold. The mess from the construction would have been very bad for the piano. We have a few little things we would still like to do in this room but there is no rush. We will most likely eventually take the ceiling fan down. We think it detracts from the fire place. We will live through all of the seasons and see for sure if we can do without it. We are under the impression the fireplace is not lined. At some point we need to have a chimney sweep look at it. If it is not lined we will look into our options. We may possibly put in a gas fireplace. I read about unlined fireplaces. It sounds like they are a very bad thing. We have a pretty low open shelf that we are going to put against the window in the open space in front of the piano. We also have four more chairs for the table. We are waiting to move them back into the room because we still have some spots where stripper got on the floor that need to be scrubbed. If we are lucky we may even get our intercom system working again!!

Before

After

Paint Palettes

We are STILL not quite done painting. We have some trim in the hallways and family room to still do. Thankfully we have had some help from my mom because my back is about shot from painting. We are close so I finally decided to take a few photos. I just tried to get photos of paint colors because we still have dressers with no drawers in them and boxes piled up and weird things like that! I took photos this afternoon at 3PM but the sun was already starting to go down I realized.  :(  So, the photos could be better but at least you get a sneak peak for now. All of the colors were picked from California Paints 20th Century Colors Of America which are authentic shades used from 1900-1985. All of the colors we used were from the year our house was built.

Our bedroom is my favorite color! In our old house our bedroom was a very deep burgundy color. Everyone hated it but me. I was finally convinced to ditch the burgundy because it was not appropriate for our house. But, I wanted something that still would compliment the bedspread, wall hangings etc. from the burgundy room. I decided I wanted a pinkish brown color but I DID NOT want pink. I was scared to death I would think I found something then get it on the wall and it would be pink. It is a miracle that I somehow found exactly what I had hoped for!! It has just a touch of pinkish and I think it also transitions nicely into the pink and blue bathroom. (I keep saying "I" because I tried to include my husband in picking colors but he didn't seem to have a lot of interest. He did give some input but he mostly let me choose.)

 I settled on University Square by California Paints. Unfortunately, the photos of our bedroom are the worst. I don't think they nearly show off how great this color is. I will have to get better ones later. You really should click the University Square link above to get a better look. I really like the way all of the colors we picked bring the outside colors inside. I believe this was one of the architectural goals of the style of our house which is one of the reasons for the large windows. Outside our bedroom window is a Japanese Maple Tree. The pinkish brown paint really brings out the pinkish purple colors in the tree. Unfortunately I didn't realize when I took the photos that the tree is quickly turning brown and shedding for the winter.

Japanese Maple tree outside bedroom window before it turned cold.

The view from our bedroom. The Japanese Maple is looking a bit sorry now. Just the other day it was still beautiful.

I wish this picture showed the paint color off better. I LOVE it! Ignore our horribly wrinkled bedspread.

For the second bedroom (originally the girl's room) that we are using as a dressing room, the family room and the upstairs and downstairs hallway I chose Gobi Desert by Behr. This was a neutral color that was much easier to get from Behr than trying to get a copy from California Paints but there are several similar historical California Paint Colors. It is kind of a khaki color. I love that it is very neutral but just dark enough to have a punch of color. It also goes with the burgundy items from the old bedroom and compliments the colors in the beautiful trees you can see outside from the large window in the bedroom.

The dressing room, family room and hallway colors. I'm not sure if the white trim was the right choice.

The downstairs of the house is a bit more modern than the upstairs since the family room was done almost 20 years after the house was built. I wanted blues in there and thought since it was more modern I might paint it a deep blue color. But, we have lots of blue pillows, wall hangings etc. so I came to my senses and decided to do the Gobi desert down there also. I decided it would compliment the blues nicely. And, my husband was more anti-blue basement than anything else having to do with paint.

The family room is not finished but here is a glimpse of the color inside a white trimmed shelf.

Our "hobby room" (originally the boy's room) is a steel blueish grey color form California Paints called Industrial Steel. I thought this color might go well with some black and white photos I would like to hang in this room. I can see some of the original blue paint color that was in this room peeking out in places. It looks like it might have possibly been a very similar color at one time. There is a beautiful deep, deep green magnolia tree outside the big window in this room. It is so green some of the leaves almost look blue which again makes the blue paint a nice frame for this window.

The kitty looking outside at the Magnolia tree.

The "hobby room"

We have our new dining room set home and we really like the way it looks in the family room. Even the orange seats which I immediately wanted to change look so nice with all of the wood and the style of the house. I would almost be tempted to keep the orange but it just isn't me. It is too vibrant and not peaceful enough. And, we already have olive green living room furniture in the same room so the orange and green would really be over the top! I already have fabric to cover the dining room chairs. Maybe this weekend I can do that. I need to do a little bit of research on upholstering tonight.

New dining room set. Can you spot the sleeping kitty?

New fabric for dining room chairs.

New fabric

Now that all of the colors are starting to come together I am getting really anxious to paint the kitchen. We saved it for last since it has no furniture in it that we will have to work around. Also, we were trying to decide what we were going to do with the cabinets before we painted. I think this winter we are going to have the cabinets stripped back down to their natural wood instead of white. So, I think it would be best if we paint before instead of after they are stripped. Then we don't have to worry about getting paint on the cabinets as much.

The kitchen will be an olive green color from Behr called Spartan Stone. It is another match to a historical California Paint color. I love the olive green and it will go with the olive green furniture in the dining room and living room since the rooms are all open to each other. My husband might kill me if I ask him to paint that room before Thanksgiving. We have done so much painting!! There are some really high walls in there and he has to do all of the high parts since he is 6ft 5in. But, hopefully someday soon I will have kitchen photos for you! And, some full house photos!! Hopefully you caught a few glimpses of the floors in these photos. Taking photos of the floors requires them to not be covered with boxes!!! Still coming!

Slowly But Surely...

Slowly but surely we are making progress. We are moved into the house.....sort of! We had an open house at the old house on October 6. We wanted to be living in the new house by then so we no longer have to deal with trying to get the house ready every time there is a showing on top of trying to work. So, we moved the weekend before the showing but we still have a lot of stuff at the old house. The floors at the new house are FINALLY done! We are not 100% pleased with the job but at least they are done. We are extremely pleased with the overall look of the floors but the attention to detail was horrible. There are lots of little things we are going to have to take care of ourselves. We are going to have a lot of their less than stellar work finished this winter.

We finally found someone to refinish all of the wood in the house. He actually builds house and does really great work. We called him just hoping for a referral. He said if we could wait until this winter he would do the work himself. We are so thrilled to have someone who does such good work. All of the paneling throughout the house is badly faded from the sun. It also has a blonde wash on it. We have been trying to decide if the wash is original. We don't think it is. He is going to refinish all of that. He will also strip our kitchen cabinets back to wood. Right now they are painted white. He is also going to put in new stair treads since the work the floor people did on them is NOT pretty. He saw them and said, "What are you going to do with your stairs?" What a sure sign that they need help! He is also going to make us thresholds going into the bathrooms and he will probably do a few more odds and ends.

Right before the move we painted the entire house. That is why I may appear to have dropped off the planet. The painting took about 10x longer than I expected. The whole entire house has painted molding which I decided to paint white. I am starting to think that may have been a mistake for several reasons. First of all, oh my gosh!!!! Who ever thought of painting trim white (or any color for that matter) is a crazy person. It takes for ever and a day!!! This is the first house I have ever lived in with painted molding. Why would anyone think this time consuming craziness is a good idea when you can have natural wood. There were some places were I could literally only reach by putting my back to the wall, bending over and looking under my right arm upside down!???!? I feel like my insides are permanently damaged from all of the contorted positions I had to get in while painting. I am now thinking it would have been in keeping with the style of the house to paint the trim the same color as the wall. It looks like that is what was always done in the past. All of the painting is pretty much done. I do have to finish a small amount of trim in the family room and both hallways. We decided to wait a bit on the kitchen and bathrooms. I am extremely happy with our colors. They are all authentic colors from 1960.  I will do another blog post later on the paint with photos. Right now there are still too many boxes for photos but they will come soon.

We are making lots of new little discoveries about the house now that we are living here. While we were painting my husband was up on a ladder and noticed that the top of the bedroom doors are labeled in pencil "Boy's Room" and "Girl's Room". I want to get a photo of that and post it. I am getting much more used to the pink and blue bathrooms. We think we will keep them for a while and decorate with ads of pink and blue bathrooms from the 1960's.  I already have a few picked out. I have been trying to decide if I should paint the bathroom walls white or blue to match the tile. I noticed just yesterday that I can see old paint around the windows and it looks like the walls may have originally been blue like the tile. There is a blue surround over the tile in the shower. I have been wondering if this is original. I assume it is not. I'm wondering why it was added. Someone thought maybe the tile underneath is bad. If that is the case I would like to look into replacing it someday. The den has a smell that I love. At first I thought it was the smell of wood. Then I decided there is a smokey smell. But, it doesn't smell like nasty cigarette smoke. Tonight I decided it kind of smelled like my grandma's church which would maybe be the smell of incense. I mentioned it to my husband and he said maybe it is the smell of the wood and someone who had smoked a pipe in there.

Our new dining room table and chairs. 

 

 

 

 

We have a long weekend this weekend and for the first time in ages we were able to have a fun carefree day with no painting or moving. We went to several antique shops and had a lot of success. Our greatest find was a dining room table for $100!!!! It has six chairs (Two of the chairs in the photo are not a part of the set.) and two leaves that can be inserted. It is not exactly what we are looking for. It is just laminate and not solid wood. The chairs are also not as "interesting" as we would like. But, it is pretty close to the style we are looking for so we decided that for $100 we could take it until we found exactly what we want because we think it's going to be a while. And, now we can have people over for Thanksgiving dinner!!! We are going to re-upholster the chairs. I am hoping I can find some inexpensive fabric and do it myself. I will try to make another post tomorrow on some more of our finds from today. Hopefully very soon we will have some more boxes out of the way and I can post some photos of the new paint.

Still Here

I have not dropped off the face of the earth. It has just been too overwhelming to think about rehashing everything in a blog post. Tomorrow it will be two months exactly since we closed on the house and the flooring people STILL have a key to our house. : ( They think they are done with the floor. We are not in agreement! The overall look of the floors we are satisfied with but their attention to detail has been less than stellar.

After the last post about how upset we were with the look of the polished cement due to the flaws left from the dog kennel we spoke to them about our options. We decided to have the cement floor stained a coffee bean color. Because they had already sealed the floor before we got to see it that meant they had to strip it all again. We made it very clear that it was not their fault (even though communication could have been better and time could have been saved had we been given the opportunity to see the floor before it was sealed) that at one time there had been a dog kennel in the basement. We felt good about the decision and decided we might like the stained floor even better.

We then got a call one Friday night telling us not to freak out but if we went over to the house the basement floor would be purple and there was purple stain sprayed all over the carport. Apparently the container of stain they used was labeled correctly but had the wrong color stain inside. I was questioning the truth of this to myself but we then saw the container and it WAS labeled correctly. THEN apparently the sprayer broke in the driveway and got purple stain all over the place. We were assured that it would all be cleaned up and rectified on Monday.

After this we felt like they gave up on our house and quit putting in a lot of effort. We could tell they would go days without working and the attention to detail was very sloppy. They had to strip the basement floor a second time and re-stain it. We are quite satisfied with the overall look of the correct stain color but they were very sloppy with it. They sealed the walls around the floor with plastic to protect it from the stain. A spot of the floor about the size of a baseball got covered by plastic and has no stain on it. They went ahead and sealed it!

They also had me go over and look at the floor before they sealed it. (I wasn't able to see the spot mentioned above because the plastic was still up.) I confirmed with them it was safe to walk across the floors. They said yes. The grass had just been mowed and I tracked in a lot of cut grass. They knew I had been in the house and I assumed would sweep the floor one last time before sealing. Nope! I was wrong. We now have grass permanently embedded in our floor. It's not really noticeable but for the price we paid it shouldn't be there! They also didn't finish some of the chipped spots in the terrazzo correctly. We are going to have to add some extra speckles to it ourselves just because we want to be done with them.

The last thing we are waiting for is a spot in front of the doorway to the furnace room where the stain doesn't go all the way up to the door so there is a strip of bare concrete showing in front of the door. It is a shame they were willing to have unhappy customers over such silly careless things. I could go on and on with the little nit picky things they didn't do correctly but I could go on for days. Many of the small things we are just forgetting about so these people will be out of our lives. We had asked them for an estimate on refinishing our living room walls. They never gave us one and never finished the test patch they said they would do on the walls.

Right now we are trying to find out what would be entailed in having the walls refinished now by someone else. We would like to have it done now before we move in but it will depend how much it costs and if we can find someone to do it. It has been a challenge! Yesterday we started painting. We have almost all of the ceilings done and the trim in the family room. We also have paint colors picked out. We have chosen authentic historical paint colors. The only rooms we aren't painting right now are the bathrooms and kitchen.

We had an offer on our house and thought we might have to be moved by October 1 which was going to be pushing it. The offer ended up falling through. The girl didn't really seem to know what she was doing or what she wanted so we weren't too upset about it. Though, we are hoping to sell our house sooner rather than later. We would also like to be in the new house ASAP so that we don't have to deal with getting the house ready for a showing while school is in session. We did get our new living room furniture reupholstered which has been one bright spot in this ordeal of trying to get the house ready for moving in. The guy from Saint Louis who did the cushions for us did an awesome job! You can see the completed terrazzo floor in the photo of the furniture. I will post more floor photos soon.

One Month...(I think)

Basement floor on Friday

So, (I think) today is one month exactly that they have been working on our floors!! And, yes, they are still working. There have been some minor hurdles but at this point we are really not sure what is taking so long. Every time we go check things out it looks like things have very minimally changed. I am starting to feel like I might never walk in the front door and see gorgeous terrazzo that reflects like a mirror. The glue that they expected to have problems with came up fine we were told. We were told it would take an extra day to get the white circles (floor leveler) up in the basement but it wasn't a problem really. The cork has been done for almost 3 weeks! The terrazzo looks pretty fabulous but the other day they said it has been giving them fits. We don't really know why. It looked pretty darn good to start with. They said something about yellow glue stains from the tack strips around the edges. We saw the stains. They weren't that bad. After many weeks there are still numerous chipped spots where the tack strips were that need to be repaired. They aren't that bad and there has never been any indication they will be a problem. They just need to be done!!! The terrazzo still doesn't have that mirror like shine. I think it still needs to be buffed or something.

Friday we went and the basement was finally done (or close to done). It was very disappointing. There were dark grid lines in the cement where the old tile had been. There were white holes that had been filled with floor leveler. Because they were white they really stood out and looked horrible. It just DID NOT look good. I was very unhappy and felt like I could cry. They had already put a layer of epoxy down. We were a bit disappointed that no one called to communicate what the floors looked like before they proceeded with epoxy. It wasn't their fault it looked so bad but they should have communicated what it was looking like. After several phone calls and finally a stop by their office on Monday we decided to have all of the epoxy stripped off the basement floors. We will have the cement stained a brown color which will hopefully help a lot of the imperfections blend in better. Then another top coat will be added. They acted as if they thought we were going to be angry about something which we were a little confused about. We just wish they would have communicated better before proceeding. We then discovered they put a big gash in our fridge. We were planning on replacing it so it's not that big a deal but it is still a bit upsetting. At this point we are feeling frustrated and concerned with what the final product will look like. We are thinking they surely have not been working straight through for the entire month. Luckily we aren't paying by the hour!!

Strange front door lock

It is hard to sit by and not be able to do anything else like paint or move anything into the house. In two weeks I have to go back to work and the summer days I had planned to work on the house will be gone. All of the floor work is so messy. We just have to wait. We have been looking at paint colors. We made a trip to Saint Louis to get some samples of some historical paint colors. We also planned to go to several retro antique shops looking for living room furniture. They were all closed! Don't go to Saint Louis hoping to look at antique shops on Tuesday. It kind of feels like that is how our whole summer has gone. We went to a few antique shops around here today and saw a few promising items. We did find another unique little item in the house yesterday. There is a funny little piece of metal on the front door frame. It kind of looks like the strike plate but there was nothing on the door that would strike it. It also kind of stuck out past the door frame a little bit and could be flipped back and forth. We finally realized it is a strange little lock! You close the door. Then you flip the extra piece of metal over the door. Then you can push it down to hold it in place. It creates a lock. On Sunday we were able to go to the house and get some of the windows that had been painted shut open with a razor blade. In the process we think we uncovered the original exterior trim color of the house which was kind of interesting.

Strange front door lock closed and locked

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

Well, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. We are STILL waiting on the floors to be finished and we can't do much else until that happens. They were supposed to be done in 2 weeks. So far it has been 2 weeks and 2 days. It is supposed to be another half a week to a week. At this point I'm not sure what is taking so long. The glue in the basement seemed to come up fairly easy. I didn't hear of any problems like they expected. There was a bit of a scare with the cement in the family room. I got a call to come over and discuss our options because they didn't think it could be polished due to those big white circles I posted photos of. It turns out the spots were just floor leveler that was put down to make the carpet lay smooth. It popped up fairly easy and ended up not being a problem. So, again, I'm not sure what the delay has been. I see very little difference every time I sneak in to take a peek in the evenings. There is always some progress but it never quite seems like a day's worth of work. Thankfully we are not paying by the hour! We have been told there will be some extra labor added on for the basement glue and the floor leveler. I hope it isn't excessive.

Right now the curtains have been pulled in the basement so I can no longer peek in the windows to see what is going on down there. The cork upstairs is done I think. It doesn't look as nice as I had hoped but it will do for now. After they sanded it I expected it to look much newer. It looks very much like it initially did when we pulled the carpet up. It now just has the polyurethane coating on top. You can still see a lot of wear but most of it will be covered with furniture. We will eventually put in newer cork I think. There is a spot in front of each bathroom door where there is a gap between the cork and the threshold. I'm not sure what is going to happen there. I was supposed to get a phone call to discuss the plan but I haven't received one yet.

On the main floor the terrazzo looks really good. The spot we were told about in front of the stove is hardly noticeable. I don't think I would have noticed anything if I hadn't been told. The terrazzo is not done and doesn't yet have that super glossy look like I am expecting. They have been working on it since almost day one so I'm not sure why they haven't gotten further with it. It looks great. It just needs to be finished!! They have pulled the laminate off of the steps but I can't tell what the plans are there. The stairs will be wood but I didn't completely understand how they are going to do it. They are also going to sand a small patch of the wall next to the stairs so they can get some idea of what will be involved in refinishing the paneled walls. We were not going to jump right in to painting but now we are changing our plans. There is a big spot along all of the baseboards where it wasn't painted due to the carpet. It doesn't look great so we are going to paint sooner than planned. Hopefully soon I can update and say the floors are finished. I feel like it is never going to happen.

Getting To The Bottom Of Things

Yesterday, the flooring people finally began on the floors in the house. I decided to stop by at about 3PM and see what was going on. The entryway tile was pulled up and the terrazzo was looking good on the main floor. All of the upstairs carpet was gone. The cork up there looked good. It was very worn but I'm sure when they sand it, it will look good. There was a gap between the cork and both bathroom thresholds. I'm sure it can be filled in or covered with some kind of transition strip. I just hope the floor people will take care of it so that we don't have to. There is a corner broken out of just one of the cork tiles in the master bedroom. Hopefully, they plan on filling that also. So, upstairs and and the main floor are looking good. Though we haven't seen the kitchen yet. The top layer of the linoleum is gone but the paper backing is still stuck to the floor. There was only one layer which was a good thing. They are going to use a chemical to remove the paper and doesn't sound like they are expecting any problems with that.

This is the pile of carpet, padding and tiles under the carport that have been removed from the house.

The basement is another story. The carpet has been pulled out of the basement den and the cork has water damage which we were expecting. The plan is to remove that cork but it hasn't happened yet. All of the tile in the basement hallway has been removed except right at the bottom of the steps. There is gross, gross, gross glue coating the floor completely where the tile was. You can't even see the cement. This glue was the biggest concern the flooring people had. So, hopefully it comes up fairly easily with their chemicals and other magic tricks.

The family room has 5 (I believe) spots on the floor where the dog kennel fencing was. It looks worse than I expected. There was one exposed dog kennel spot in the laundry room and it isn't bad. They already told me it wouldn't be a problem. I was hoping the spots in the family room would be the same. I haven't been able to look at the spots in the family room close up because the floor is too yucky to walk across. I could see it through the back window though. There are big white circular spots on the floor. It looks almost like paint but we think it is actually cement that was used to fill in holes were the dog kennel fence posts were. Maybe just a different color than the rest of the cement. So, again I hope the flooring people can work some magic because right now it is a pretty big mess.

The circles in the family room floor taken through the back window while standing outside. There are 2 more circles not in the picture. The dark strip at the top of the picture is glue from tile against the back wall. That strip used to be tiled hallway

 We are not sure what we are going to do with the steps right now. They are covered just on the top with some kind of linoleum. It actually looks very nice and we don't mind it. It could use buffing or whatever they do to make that stuff look shiny and new. One of the workers recommended getting oak stair treads to replace the tops of the steps since there is plywood under the linoleum (we think). I am supposed to get a call from the "boss" to discuss the steps. Hopefully they can help us decide what would be best. Speaking of the workers. They were these young boys who loved our house! They were totally intrigued by all of the weird little gadgets it has.

The steps with linoleum on them. The right corner of the bottom step is the only damage because the flooring people pulled on it to see what it was and what was underneath. There are still tack strips down and you can see the entry way tile to the right which has now been removed along with the tack strips.

Closing

Yesterday we had the closing on the house. It is ours! My husband is very excited. I am a bit too stressed out to be as excited as he is. We are now the owner of TWO, yes I said TWO, homes. That is a bit overwhelming! We got to meet the owners at the closing which was very nice. They were extremely kind and very sad to give up the house they have lived in for 30 years. We talked a lot and they told us many things about caring for the house including some great advice on getting cheap furnace filters. They asked if they and their children could visit when they are in town. We said yes.

First thing we did after the closing (and getting some McDonalds) was head over to the house to rip some carpet up. We discovered the key we have does not work on the carport door. That was a bummer. I am looking forward to being able to go in that door when it rains. So, looks like we have a lock to change. It fits but it won't turn. We pulled up all of the living room carpet, all of one stairway, some of the hallway and a little bit of one bedroom, another stairwell and the family room. I really wanted to see the family room the most so I could see what is left of the dog kennel fencing in the floors. But, I couldn't get it up around the turns of the built in shelf.

The living room floor looked fabulous we thought! It was in great shape and will look even better when they polish it. We learned from the seller at the closing that there are pipes that run under the living floor to keep it warm in the winter. That was great to hear! I was already planning on wearing really warm socks in the winter but apparently that won't be necessary (at least any more than usual).

 

This is a close up of the terrazzo floor.

Pile of carpet in the living room floor. (The owners are donating the piano to my school.)

Piano has been moved. Nothing but gorgeous floors!

More Floors

The cork floors upstairs also look pretty fabulous from what we can see. Right now they are pretty dull from so many years of wear. And, it's kind of weird the way you can see all of the individual tiles. They will sand them down just like hardwood and they will be sealed. I'm sure when they are finished they will look very much like hard wood. So, this was another pleasant surprise. 

Cork tile floor in upstairs hallway

Last night my husband's family came by to see the house for the first time. We made a few new interesting discoveries while they were here. The sewing machine table in the prep kitchen slides in and out!!! So neat! The table doesn't slide back all the way to meet the wall. I couldn't figure out why. It finally dawned on me that it leaves a space for the cords to go behind it. We haven't figured out where the outlet is yet. There is a wooden trim around the table that looks very unfinished and not painted. I couldn't figure out why it hadn't been painted. Then it dawned on me that the kitchen cabinets (and probably trim too) were originally wood. So, the trim on the table would have matched the natural wood just fine. It would have been a challenge to paint because the trim is so tiny and it could have easily prevented the little table from sliding in and out. We are now also thinking the cabinets above the built in kitchen table and maybe the kitchen table are not original. Today the flooring people came to start their work. So, more on that soon!

Owner Number Two

This week I received an email from the second owners of the house! We will be owners number four. So, I have now had communication with every family that has lived in the house! It turns out that the second family to live there was very close friends with the family we grew up next to until I was in the fourth grade. The old neighbors are still close friends of our family. When they heard about the house we will be buying they contacted the second owners who they still keep in touch with even though they have moved from our town. Our friends had shared this blog with the previous owners and then they contacted me.

Owners number two lived in the house for only 6 years. They seem to be the ones who made some of the more obvious changes to the house. They said, "We did not cover the terrazzo floors in the kitchen but remember that the terrazzo was damaged in front of the double ovens - perhaps by a spill of some sort.  The rest of the house was carpeted though.  The great room was newly carpeted when we bought it and the rest of the house had wool carpet from the original owner.  We removed all of the indoor kennels and two of the outdoor kennels. The outside of the house had been painted (not stained) a redwood color before we bought it. We then painted it brown. The small room off the kitchen contained a washer / dryer unit. We removed it and put a washer and a dryer in the basement.  I used the small desk for a sewing machine. The kitchen had a "gourmet" refrigerator and freezer (two separate units built in). We removed those units and replaced them with a "normal" refrigerator / freezer."

We will be very relieved to see what the condition of the floors are under the carpet. Hopefully the stain mentioned can be sanded down. I also started thinking that there might be flaws in the basement concrete where the kennels once were. We were at the house the other day and noticed for the first time there are the remnants of old fencing posts from the kennels in the patio concrete. Again, hopefully anything like that inside the house can be ground down or filled in with new cement. I took some photos of those places in the concrete were the posts used to be and the places in the brick where the old outline of the doggy doors can be seen.

If you look closely you can see the outline of the three doggy doors in the brick. One is behind the pile of stuff. One is directly under the middle of the window and the last is to the right of the water spigot. We believe the window was added when the kennels were removed but we are not sure. It is definitely a newer window than the others.

You can see at the edge of the patio, next to the cracks, a circle that is the remains of a metal post from the kennels. There are several of them along the edge of the patio. I am wondering if there are more of these inside under the carpet. Or, maybe the kennels inside had walls instead of fencing. Another mystery!

The patio- You can see three circles from old fencing along the edge of the patio and you can see the doggy door marks in the brick.

We also decided that there were definitely trees that were lost in the big storm four years ago. The fence in the back has been damaged by a tree. Someone told us this but I can't remember who. It was very obviously crushed by a tree falling right on top of it. It was obviously a large tree. You can tell right where the tree used to be by the way the ground slopes, the grass grows and where some ornamental rocks are placed in the area. Yet, there is no stump to be seen. The owners must have had all of the stumps removed after the storm. We have also been told that so many trees were lost the day of the storm because the ground was so wet from a previous storm the night before. All of the trees came over with large root balls still attached. It would make sense that a tree in the spot fell since it is a low spot where water would collect. We have talked about planting another tree in the same spot.

In this photo you can see where the fence is leaning next to the gate. It has been crushed and is no longer attached. We think there was a large tree in front of the rocks in the sloped area that fell on the fence.

More On The Floors

A couple of weeks ago we had a company come in and measure and look at the floors. They seemed pretty excited about what was under the carpet. I guess it's not that common. Terrazzo, cork and polished cement will be virtually maintenance free and so much better for the allergies. We heard multiple times. "It is amazing what people will put carpet over!" We were waiting to hear on a proposal from them but we got a call saying "the boss" wanted to come look at things since the tile over the cement in the basement hallway is potentially asbestos. Ugh!! When I arrived and walked in the basement den "the boss" was pointing out to his employee that water had come in the basement and the cork underneath the carpet had some water damage. GREAT! At this point the house had already been inspected and no one said a word about water damage. There seemed to be some pretty obvious tell tale signs the flooring guy picked up on right away. The water issue doesn't seem like anything significant. I have always grown up with a basement and I just accept that water comes with the territory. As long as I'm not wading in it I'm not really concerned. But, it would have been nice to know. The multi-talented flooring people are also going to be able to take care of some landscaping that lead to the water issues. But, this now means the basement den will no longer be cork. The cork will also have to be pulled up and the cement underneath will be polished. The tile in the basement hallway won't be a problem. But there is a big question about how easy it will be to get the glue up and the glue from the linoleum in the kitchen. So, at this point we are praying the glue comes up easy and there is no other damage to any of the floors underneath. The flooring company also forgot to give us a quote on doing the steps which seem to be wood. Hopefully they will give us a reasonable deal on that. Immediately after we close we plan to go to the house and pull back as much of the carpet as easily possible so we can see the condition of what is underneath. Last week we put a 50% down payment on the floors. They are supposed to begin the work on July 3. The day after we close. We will be nervous until we know for sure exactly what is under the carpet and the condition it is in.

Acceptance

On Sunday we got a call from the realtor that our offer had been accepted. She said the owners were moving to Hawaii and wanted to take as little with them as possible. They were willing to include any of their furniture in the deal with the sale. She also said they were very sad about moving due to their retirement. They were very happy we made an offer the day the house went up for sale because that must have meant that we really loved it. We had to go back to the house before Mother's Day dinner to look at the furniture and decide if there was anything we were interested in. We also had some questions about the property lines and were told the original plans to the house were available in the cupboard and could most likely answer any questions. Jackpot!!!

 

Our house was custom built in 1960. The plans indicated what the original flooring was for the entire house. The main floor was TERRAZZO!!!!!! We were so excited. Terrazzo is beautiful and virtually indestructible. The upstairs was cork and the basement was cement with cork in the den. All so much better than gross, dirty carpet. The big question was if it was all still there. We were able to peel back some of the carpet and it appeared to all be there in decent condition from what we could tell.

Original Terrazo floor under the carpet. At the bottom of the photo is the tiled entry way.

 

Original cork floor under the carpet in one of the bedrooms.

Now we can plan to have the all of the carpet pulled up and refinish the terrazzo and cork. We will have the cement in the basement polished. The Laundry room and kitchen have laminate flooring and the entryway has tile. We didn't have any particular problem with them but they are supposed to have terrazzo underneath so we decided while we are going for it to have the whole thing redone. The last bit of exciting news was that the original owners name is scrawled across the plans in huge letters!! Now I could do more research on the history of the house.

Mother's Day Weekend 2013

My husband and I have been keeping our eyes open for a mid-century house for sale in our home town. It was our hope to find a house that someone had appreciated and not decided to paint all the beautiful natural wood white or any of the other 100 things you can do to screw up you mid-century modern home. On Saturday of Mother's Day weekend 2013 I looked at Zillow on my phone before I even got out of bed. There was a house that had just gone up for sale. Our realtor was available so we got to take a look within hours.

The house was on the edge of town at the end of a long drive with 2 other houses on it. On one side is a nice row of trees that separates the house from a church. On the other side is neighbor who has been a friend of our family for years. The other house was owned for a very long time by a popular local veterinarian. At this time we don't know who the owner is since the vet has passed away.

When we got inside the house was full of beautiful paneling in a huge great room with a beautiful floor to ceiling fireplace There was more paneling in the den. (Why would anyone want to deal with painting when you could have gorgeous natural wood that hardly requires any upkeep?) It has unique wooden wall shelving units in 2 bedrooms and the den. There is plenty of space with a family room and a second bathroom. But.......the master bathroom is pink AND blue. (More on that later.) And, we were not thrilled to see that every floor surface was covered with carpet.

The realtor was convinced that there was nothing of value under the carpet since carpet was most likely the flooring of choice at the time the house was built. That was a bit of a disappointment. We talked to the realtor and she told us that if we wanted a house that still had as many original components as this one we might as well make an offer because the chances of us finding something else like this in our town would be slim. So, we were making plans to put in new flooring in almost the entire house if our offer was accepted.