Living Room Furniture

Well, progress on the house is moving slowly so we made our own progress today. We took another trip to Saint Louis. We had much more success! Again, don't go to Saint Louis to antique shop on a Tuesday. It will result in a failure. We stopped in Rocket Century and found so many pieces of furniture we would have loved to own. Many of them were already sold! We came across the living room set in the photograph to the left. We bought the two couches and two chairs. They are in like new condition and the wood is beautiful. The label from the shop says they are Kofod style. It is likely that we will have them reupholstered. I am partial to a nice neutral olive green. Right now they are a bright green and blue herring bone pattern which is a bit vivid for my taste. They could be much worse.

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

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!