Completed Kitchen

I think I will make a post about one room at a time. I will start with the kitchen. It is almost completely done. The only thing that is left to deal with is our hideous white dishwasher. It is the only appliance in our kitchen that isn't stainless steel. We will hopefully be replacing it in the near future. It is probably from the early 80's and not very energy efficient along with being very ugly. This past month we had the water line added to the new fridge we bought in the fall. We had all of the white paint on the kitchen cabinets stripped and stained them back to natural wood. We took down all of the white painted molding around the doors and grill. We replaced it with natural wood molding. We had the hinge on the grill door fixed so it doesn't have to be held up by a string. We then painted the ceiling and walls.

When we thought we were all done with the kitchen my husband was putting everything back in its place when the hood over the stove came crashing down. He was calling me to help him hold it back up. I had been asleep and didn't have my glasses on. Despite the fact I am very blind without my glasses I could see sparks and a little flame behind the hood. I wondered how many sparks and flames I couldn't see! At that moment it started feeling like our house was going to be a never ending project. But, my wonderful cousin was able to fix the hood for us. It turns out the screw holes were stripped and when it fell it pulled some wires and made them arc. So, that has now been repaired also.

I guess before I go I should talk about the kitchen paint color a bit. It is called Spartan Stone by Behr. It is identical to the historical paint color Serene Scholar by California Paints. I got the Behr paint because it was more inexpensive and Behr paint has done well for me in the past. I actually had this color in the living room in our old house. And, I think I had this color in my living room in Saint Louis. If it wasn't the exact same color it was very similar. As I have talked about in the past I was looking for historically accurate paint colors. I was thrilled to find out this pale olive green color that I love so much would work for the time period of our house.

Before- You can see our ugly dishwasher in this picture.

After

After- Ugly trash cans

Before

Before- Check out the red string on the door

After

A Mess Until March

Wow! Things have been a mess! On January 22, the work finally began on our house. We had 3 workers here every day until February 25. A whole month!! Our house was a DISASTER the whole time they were here. All of our furniture was piled into every room they weren't working in except our bedroom. There was dust everywhere. There was paper covering much of the floor. That paper was coated in stripper or stain. It was a yucky, yucky mess. We were unable to use our kitchen or sit in our living room for a month.

Our living room a couple of weeks ago

We actually ended up spending a lot of time at home with the workers. I have completely lost count of how many snow days we have had this winter. There were many days we did not have work and stayed home. My husband stayed home with them for a week after suffering through the beginning of anaphylaxis. If you don't know what that is, it basically means you quit breathing due to an allergic reaction. He didn't quit breathing but he was headed in that direction.

Thankfully we loved our workers. They did an awesome job on our house and they were fun to talk to. We don't have one single complaint. It was kind of sad when they left. It was depressing on the last day when they walked out with their radio. I knew they would not be coming back! They were also quite handy to have around. They helped us figure out that we had a basement full of water due to our sewer backing up.

A week later they saved us from having a completely flooded house. The toilet backed up after I left for work. Water went in the bathroom, bedroom, down the hall and through the ceiling into the basement. Luckily, one of them was in the basement and saw the water pouring through the ceiling. They had a shop vac and they were able to clean it up quickly and call me at work to come home and deal with it. So, on top of everything else that was done we now also have a new sewer line. So, not only was the inside of the house a mess but the outside too!

The giant mole hill in our front yard after getting a new sewer line.

 Finally,  everything is done except the two new toilets we will be getting Sunday because of their contribution to our sewer problems and the new roof on the carport which we can't get until the weather warms up. Believe it or not we are forecast to have MORE snow Sunday night. Today we got new vertical blinds in the living room to prevent having so much sun damage again. We also had the walls refinished in the living room and guest room, new very thin molding added around the ceiling in the family room and guest bedroom, new floor molding added in the family room and downstairs hallway, refinished stairs, kitchen cabinets and molding refinished, painted the kitchen, built in grill repaired, stove hood repaired, basement door repaired, new thresholds leading into all bathrooms, bathroom cabinets refinished, all inside doors to closets, bedroom etc. refinished, and new shower door. My next post well be lots of photos of all the new work that was done.

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.

The Sister

The man forwarded my emails to his sister who was a wealth of information! She told us that the shelving units on the walls in two of the bedrooms and the den are System Cado. These are Scandinavian designed highly collectible floating wall units. Some of these wall units have metal brackets but these have more desirable wooden brackets.

This is the unit in one of the bedrooms. The desk at the left of the picture is NOT a part of the unit. It was left by the owners and will be moved.

The top of the unit in the above picture. This is the part above the desk.

This is the other top corner of the above unit.

This is the shelving system in the den.

This is part of the shelving unit in the other bedroom.

The last time we were at the house we noticed one of the shelving units was actually not part of the shelving system at all. It was a speaker! We couldn't figure out what in the heck it was for. The woman finally cleared up that mystery and told us that her parents got new speakers and decided to use this one as a shelf in her bedroom. It is STILL there over 40 years later. It is the coolest idea ever and doesn't look like any speaker I have ever seen. Old speakers were so much prettier than the ones we have today. I think we will continue to use it as a shelf!

Speaker shelf

I like to sew and had wondered where the lady of the house would put her sewing machine in 1960.  I know many women did their own sewing back then. There was a master bedroom, one bedroom for each child. A den which I feel certain was the husband's office. A very nice living room which surely was no place for a sewing machine. There definitely would not have been a sewing machine in the bathrooms, kitchen or dog kennel! I came to the conclusion that if the lady had enough money to have a custom built house she could have someone else do her sewing for her.

I forgot about one room! There is a butler's kitchen or prep kitchen next to the kitchen. It is a small room like a pantry with some counter space and kitchen sink. A place to prep your meal without dirtying your large kitchen. On the plans it is listed as a laundry room. The laundry is currently in the basement. The woman confirmed that the prep kitchen used to be the laundry room. There is a little "desk" in there with a telephone jack that looks like the perfect place to sit and pay your bills. She said that little "desk" was for a sewing machine! I told her my husband is the cook and I don't think he would be very excited if I told him that my sewing machine was going to be in his kitchen! This all brought about a new mystery. What did the current laundry room used to be?? It is the only unaccounted for space. It is next to the space that used to be the dog kennels but I don't think it was part of the dog kennel though it is possible.

The little desk in the prep kitchen that was made for a sewing machine.