StuccoHouse

War

2011-07-25T22:41:00.000-05:00

As if I don't have enough to do just working on my house. This week I had an explosion in my yard. An explosion of crab grass.

A Historic Street

2011-07-22T19:07:00.001-05:00

Back when I was looking to buy a new house, one of my friends took me over to a little neighborhood in South Minneapolis north of Lake Street. I didn't have a clue that this little, historic, pedestrian neighborhood even existed. I loved the street. A few days ago I ran across this You Tube video put together by some local students.

Continued

2011-07-11T21:10:00.002-05:00

Keeping myself busy. I spent some time cleaning off the window that I stripped yesterday. Then I started to putty the glass. Because this window is on first floor, I had to put it back in place until the putty cures. Then I will prime and paint.

Please excuse the putty muck still on the glass.

This was a good project for me to work on this weekend. I'll probably just continue down that bank of three casements.

One More Down. Almost.

2011-07-10T20:33:00.003-05:00

My day in pictures...

Sorry for the somewhat out of focus photos. It was hot and I was crabby and in no mood to deal with my finicky camera. Tonight I'll putty the glass. I usually remove all of the old putty, remove the glass, re-bed the glass and then reputty. But I'm worried about breaking the wavy glass in these. They are also stained instead of painted on the other side, so I don't have to strip that side. For the record, this was not the best project to work on in humid 90 degree weather.

The Case of The Missing Leaves

2011-06-19T14:08:00.004-05:00

What do you suppose happened here? This is my rose bush. I fed it with rose food at the start of the season. I also treated it with a rose treatment that was supposed to keep rose eating bugs away.

Each day I came out to even more leaves missing. Nothing else in the area (lavender, phlox, clematis, snapdragons, lilies, coral belles, basil, tomatos) is affected. I'm amazed that the bud was even able to bloom.

Stripping Paint. Again.

2011-06-12T22:00:00.001-05:00

I spent the better part of today stripping paint off of the plaster wall in my kitchen. To catch you up to speed, the layers are as follows: white plaster, brownish (original primer?), sage green, golden yellow, bright yellow, peach. The progress thus far took two passes with the stripper paste. You can see the white plaster peeking through the last few photos.

Small Detail

2011-05-29T19:07:00.000-05:00

Nothing to write home about, but I did manage to get the numbered tacks in my upstairs storm windows today. Of course, this will make figuring out which window each storm belongs in a lot easier next fall. Now I can put them in storage.

A Little Color

2011-05-28T22:37:00.001-05:00

It's full on geraniums this year in the front yard.

Full Breeze

2011-05-25T20:56:00.001-05:00

My new wood frame screens are now installed. I'm getting good at taking measurements for these windows. Once I figured out which screen fit in which window, they slid right into place. Even the one I had cut out-of-square. I now have full breeze top to bottom.

I looked through all of my old photos for a picture of these same windows with the old aluminum storms with the top glass and the bottom screen. But, evidently this is the one part of my house that hasn't been photoed in different stages of "done" one thousand times. Or even once, for that matter.

The Doll School

2011-05-23T16:10:00.000-05:00

I just picked up this newly framed print. It will hang in one of my guest bedrooms.

I saw this print many years ago in a catalog. Of course, I lost the catalog and never saw the print again. One day when I had too much time on my hands I decided to do an internet search.

Lo and behold I was able to track down The Doll School by Walter Osborne to the National Gallery of Ireland. And as luck would have it they sold copies of the print....and would mail to the U.S. My print arrived under a week after I placed my order online.

3rd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour

2011-05-13T22:58:00.015-05:00

Welcome to the Third Annual Bungalow Blog Tour! There are ten bungalow (or bungalow in spirit) blogs participating this year. At the bottom of each Tour post, you will find a link to the next house and one back to the previous house. If you follow the complete tour, you should end up where you started.

Please leave comments at the blogs you visit: 1) because its always nice for a blogger to receive feedback; and 2) if bloggers know there is interest, I'll be able to talk them into a 4th annual tour next year :)

On to the StuccoHouse tour....

The most searched topic on my blog is "kitchen." The question I hear most often from blog readers, family and friends alike is "How is the Kitchen coming?" So, I thought it was only logical that my post for this year's Bungalow Blog Tour would be concerning my kitchen progress.

The work on my kitchen had taken a long time. A really long time. Forever, actually.

Last year I finished work on the ceiling & lights. I then needed a long break to clear my mind.

So here and now I am going to make a list, complete with photos, of what I hope to accomplish this summer. You are allowed to pester me throughout the summer if you feel I am slacking off on my list.

First, I have a vintage red linoleum counter top. It is very cool, but it has also seen it's better days. When I first moved into my house, I scoured the linoleum and then treated it with butcher block oil. It looked great. However, there are areas that no amount of scrubbing can fix. Then one day my mom replaced the flooring in her kitchen and chose linoleum. She had a cute sizzle strip cut into the sheet of linoleum to run around the edge of the room. It got me thinking.

I ordered samples and lo and behold they had a color that matched my current counter top identically. Then I started thinking a little more. How cute would it be to have the same design of my wallpaper cut into the corners of the counter top in pale green? Look for this later this summer.

Next, is the project that will make the most difference to the look of the kitchen. Getting the wallpaper up. I have had this wallpaper in storage for 6+ years. After much consideration, I have decided to hire a pro to hang the wallpaper. This is *so* unlike me. But, this wallpaper was expensive. Really expensive. I'm also not entirely sure they make it any more. It was shipped from England. That, and my walls are uneven plaster.....and there are both inside and outside corners that will need to be matched. This is beyond my skill level. I have the name of a recommended pro (thanks, Hirshfields).

There is one big decision standing between me and a newly wallpapered kitchen. Do I strip the many, many layers of old paint off of the plaster first? There are half a dozen layers of thick paint. There are also some sections that have more layers than others because of some unfortunate cabinets that were put up sometime during the 70s.

I desperately do not want to strip more paint. But. This nags at me.

Will I pay to have my lovely wallpaper put up....only to be able to spot lines underneath.....or worse yet, bubbles? If I end up stripping the top part of the wall, I will have effectively stripped every surface in the entire kitchen, with the exception of the sink. Oy.

Thirdly, I am nearing the end of stripping the scored plaster below the chair rail. Regular readers have been treated to a mind numbing number of posts on this topic. I apologize. The Great Scored Plaster Stripping Nightmare is almost over.

I had a vintage red shade of paint chosen for the lower half of the wall. But, last summer I started waffling. Too much red, I kept thinking. I've decided to wait until the wallpaper is up to decide. I may end up with a light shade of green.....or even an off white.

Of Course, then there is the wood trim. The crown molding and the chair rail have been purchased and shellacked. They have been patiently waiting to be called into active duty. This will be installed after the wallpaper and paint and will probably inspire me to add this tool to my collection.

Then, the Tappan Deluxe that is currently gathering dust in my living room will be moved into the kitchen. I have been slowly plugging away on restoring the 1948 stove. A couple of moths ago, I figured out how to install a replacement light socket for the oven. With that task, restoration was pretty much complete. I still have the top & one side off of the stove, so it can be moved more easily. But, it's pretty much ready for the big move. I need to have it calibrated by a pro.

But, not everything associated with my kitchen requires dangerous chemicals and weeks of forced labor. Tomorrow, I'm bringing this vintage Tappan Ad, block print and a recipe my grandmother's neighbor gave to me when I was little (I was fascinated by canning) in to be framed. They will hang in the walls. Eventually.

With the help of reader suggestions, I was able to locate polished nickle outlet covers.....one for the funky gfi and regular outlet combo over my stove.

And my mom and dad wrote a dedication on the bottom of the drawer for my new cabinet. Its fun for me to know its there because they motivated me to get that cabinet designed and built. I think it will also be fun for future owners of this house to discover years from now.

Finally, one day when all the dust has settled.....one of these (in white) will be dropped off at my doorstep :)

Thanks for visiting StuccoHouse (and keeping me motivated on this multi-year kitchen restoration project).

Next House on the Blog Tour: Tiny Oak Park Bungalow

Previous House on the Blog Tour: At Home Alterations

Calling All Bungalows!

2011-04-30T12:55:00.001-05:00

It's that time of year where we put together the Third Annual Bungalow Blog Tour. Last year we had 9 bungalow (and bungalows in spirit) blogs participate. I'd love to have the same number or more!

I'm looking at May 14th to start the tour.

It's nothing fancy. If you participate, you put up a blog post on the day and link back one blog and forward one blog. Your post can be about anything you want - your house in general, a specific project, your house philosophy, future plans, history of your house.....

It's fun. Last year we had a lot of people go through the tour and you get to know some of your fellow bloggers.

If you are interested in participating, drop me an email at: xxxxx Put Bungalow Tour in the title of your email (so my spam filter doesn't tragically filter it out). Let me know the name of your blog.

Once we have the list of participating houses, I'll send you an email letting your know how to proceed. The earlier I have the participants lined up, the easier it is to organize.

We have a very broad definition of "bungalow" for the tour....so, if you have an old house and want to participate, sign up :)

Easter

2011-04-23T14:02:00.003-05:00

Stopped at Regina's Candies in St. Paul today and made some new friends that followed me home.

Screens

2011-04-17T20:12:00.000-05:00

Picked up my new wood frame screens on Saturday. Primed them today.

Three More

2011-04-02T18:04:00.000-05:00

Last November I pulled off the monstrous aluminum storms from three of my upstairs casement windows and had new wood frame storms made. After spending a winter with the new storms, I am amazed at how much warmer & quiet the upstairs was all winter.

Well, today we hit 50 degrees....the tulips are coming up in my garden....so you can probably guess where I was this afternoon.....ordering new wood frame screens for those same three windows. They will arrive in two weeks.

It's going to be awesome to have full screen (breeze) on those windows instead of the half glass, half crappy screen of the old storms. And, yes, once the snow is gone I plan on finishing stripping the wood trim and painting it.

Finally, to put things in perspective.....here's what the dormer looked like after I first pulled down the aluminum trim that covered all the exterior eaves (note the aluminum trim along the barge board). Slowly but surely, I have been making progress.

A Few Stragglers

2011-03-27T16:40:00.000-05:00

The new camera battery arrived and here's a better shot of some of the items I bought a couple of weeks ago on an antique shopping trip. The little red step stool is made from vintage wood, bit its not old itself. I bought it to use in my kitchen.

The chair I picked up last weekend for $12. It's pine. Someone stripped the majority of it and then lost the will to continue on the front legs and cross rail. The plan is to strip off the remaining paint and then paint it off-white with pink or black back rails (my grandmother used to do that), add a cute cushion and then use it in my guest bedroom.

One Last Shot

2011-03-19T13:17:00.001-05:00

My camera battery went dead immediately after taking this photo. A new battery is on order, but won't be delivered until next week, so in the meantime I'll post this rather poor photo of my new purchases.

A friend and I went antique store shopping last weekend and I found these items. I plan to hang the grater and the horse shoe on the wall in my kitchen once I get the wallpaper up (finally). The little aluminum funnel is something I will actually use. I'll post a better picture of the metal basket (under everything) when the new battery arrives. The basket is very cute.

The Gap

2011-03-06T16:12:00.001-06:00

I didn't mention it during the Great Lilac Disappearance of 2010, but the lilacs that went missing included a bunch of bushes that stood between my house and my neighbor's. I presume they removed those lilacs to let more light into the back room of their house. There must be a desk there because now I often see my neighbor sitting in front of the window until the wee hours.

Unfortunately, their room is directly across from one of my bedrooms and my bathroom. The lilac trees once afforded us both some privacy. Now that they are gone, it is a clear shot from their room into my bathroom. Creepy.

I immediately put up some of that peel and stick glass covering and slapped up some temporary curtains on temporary robs (I know they look horrible, the rods kept sliding down the window frame). However, one day I was outside and was surprised at how much could still be seen through the window when the lights were on. Really creepy.

I hadn't spent much time thinking about what type of window covering I wanted to put up in the bathroom. After all, I still have half of that window to restore....and to figure what I want to do with the rest of the bathroom. But, there was a sudden sense of urgency.

My former condo had metal mini-blinds in the bathroom. They were neat looking, private and low maintenance. I pulled out some of my old photos. I ended up ordering brushed aluminum, 8 gauge, exterior mount, metal mini-blinds.

I'm not overly fond of the headrail on these mini-blinds, but they do make the bathroom look much more streamlined and I think they will protect the wood trim nicely. And no one can see through them.

Advice

2011-02-27T15:59:00.001-06:00

I have the oddest experiences at Menards.

This morning I drove over the the local Menards to look at dollies. I am in the process of trying to figure out how to get my vintage Tappan stove out of my living room and into my kitchen. I was thinking two dollies might make the process easy...and give me a chance to clean underneath the stove.

I walked in the store and went straight to one of the sales people. I asked him to direct me to the dollies and he walked me to an aisle in the back of the store. They had two sizes. A small one for $12.99 (but they only had one left) and a larger version for $22.99. I was standing there, minding my own business, considering which size would work best and wishing they had more of the small sized dollies.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a guy down the aisle watching me. Sure enough, he slowly pushed his cart behind me only to stop, turn around and tell me he thought the small dolly was too small for me. I looked at him curious how he was able to decide that considering that he didn't have a clue what I was working on. I said something vague like "maybe" and turned back to continue my deliberation.

He then asked me if I knew what I was looking at. He said "cuz, those are for transmissions and stuff..." I assured him I did know what I was looking at and I had "stuff" to use them with. I smiled.

This happens to me almost every time I go to Menards. I have had very odd encounters in the glue, nail, concrete and roofing areas. I once had a guy poke me in the shoulder and ask me if I worked in roofing. I told him, no, but I was working on my own roof. He disappeared and next thing I knew, both he and his friend were peeking around the corner at the end of aisle at me while I looked at roofing patch. I felt like some sort of celebrity.

It makes me laugh. There are a lot of women that work on their houses. I can't be that unusual.

Honestly, I am going to start approaching random, unsuspecting men in the grocery store and tell them they need unsalted butter and ask them if they know how to make a pie crust from scratch.....

Stalactite Minnesota Style

2011-02-24T22:31:00.000-06:00

By the end of last week my roof was completely free of snow. Then, on Monday we got pummeled. Here is what awaited me this morning. Before I knocked it down, I took a photo for your entertainment.

A Little Glam

2011-02-20T17:16:00.000-06:00

I've been working on my hallway doors on and off for the past couple of weeks. The doors are a fairly soft pine. Never been painted. They have an almost black stain. The doors suffered from benign neglect and the finish had all but disappeared. The wood itself just looked dry. And of course, there were the paint drips....all those tiny paint drips.

I scraped the paint drips off one by one with a straight edged razor. I removed the strips of paint near the hinges with steel wool doused in Goof Off.

Once that was done, I took a tiny art brush and filled in gouges & scratches with MinWax stain in Jacobean. Finally, I rubbed in a coat of MinWax Tung Oil Finish. I was surprised at how good they looked immediately upon the first coat of finish. I've been slowly building thin layers of the finish in order to get a soft gloss.

I'm not looking for a perfect refinish. I actually like the look of minor alligatoring. The new finish still shows the imperfections; the imperfections just look prettier. These doors are almost 90 years old, I figure they should show a little history.

Eventually, the wood trim surrounding the doors will be stripped and repainted with a semi-gloss oil. It's a flat acrylic taupe right now. Yuck.

Below you can first see: 1) a shot of the dry wood, 2) the three doors (the one in the center has not been started, the other two are done), 3) two doors (the one on the right is undone, the left done), and 4) finally a shot of a done door.

Working on the Doors. Still.

2011-02-14T21:23:00.000-06:00

Just saying.....

A Short Rant

2011-02-05T17:51:00.000-06:00

I'm currently working on my hallways doors. More on this in a future post, but a short vent from me today.

To the day I die, I will not understand people that will go to the trouble of painting.....and not remove the doors or at least throw some plastic over them...before slopping on their paint.

Seriously, what's so hard about protecting the woodwork? It would have taken two minutes. Now it's taking me days......

Miscellaneous

2011-01-23T13:01:00.003-06:00

Nothing too exciting here. Yesterday I scrubbed my 1924 bathtub, with limited remaining porcelain finish, clean. This was quite a project and believe it or not, I still have some scrubbing to do. The photo actually shows the spots where the porcelain is thinning.

I had the tub at my previous house refinished and wasn't overly fond of the results, so I'm delaying that as long as possible with this fixture. I have been experimenting with that gel finish that comes in a pink can (sorry can't remember they name)....I've also used carnuba wax. Both worked ok, but tend to collect gunk (hair conditioner is the worst). Someone just needs to invent a sealer for old tubs. Any inventors out there?

While I was at the hardware store buying the above Bon Ami, I noticed a display of Roof Melt tablets. These have been featured prominently on most local news shows in the past few weeks. 8 out of 10 houses (my own made up statistics, but probably close) around here have massive ice dams this year and ever news station has done the mandatory story on ways to handle the problem. My neighbor had her entire roof steamed clean.

I bought a bucket. When I got home, I stood on my front sidewalk and pitched one up on to the roof. It promptly hit the roof, bounced back down and hit me in the eye. After running into the house and washing my eye out with water, I decided a better idea was to haul them upstairs and toss them out my second floor windows on to the overhang that has been giving me problems this winter. We'll see.

Ice

2011-01-16T15:27:00.000-06:00

Here is the current concern. A massive ice dam off the front door over hang. For those following my "snow is the enemy of my roof" posts, this is about 7 feet down slope from the area that was leaking into my living room. For now though, the little copper drip edge seems to be holding it's own.

Blogiversary

2010-12-29T20:03:00.001-06:00

I started my blog six years ago today on December 29, 2004. I was bored and AOL had just come out with this newfangled thing called AOL Journals. I decided to give it a try. [transferring my AOL Journal posts to Blogger years later would just about be the death of me]

A little trivia. My first working blog name was "1924 Bungalow." I switched the name to StuccoHouse after my first post.

When I started my blog, I had already lived in my house for two years and had just started to get the hang of this thing they call restoration. I had just broken up with a boyfriend and throwing myself into my house restoration seemed more healthy than plotting his untimely demise. I was pretty active on some of the old house website like American Bungalow and Old House Web and had set up an old house website so my family could follow my work. Writing about restoration on a regular basis seemed like it might be kind of fun. I originally didn't even have a digital camera, so I would take photos, develop them, scan them and then upload them. It's a amazing I ever stuck with it.

About that same time, both Petch House and Foxcroft were starting their blogs and a little cyber neighborhood was born. One day I received an email from a blog called House In Progress and they were starting a house blog ring and wondered if I would be interested in linking my blog. A number of us had been exchanging ideas about this very topic, so we were very happy when someone actually organized it all.

I'm pretty sure that I would not have survived this long in StuccoHouse had it not been for my blog. I had no clue how far beyond my capabilities this house was when I bought it. The blog and you, the readers, have been my therapist, teacher, professional advisor, support system, cheerleading team, and creative outlet. That's an awful lot to ask of one little blog. Amazingly, I can now talk window restoration, paint stripping and sewer replacement with the best of them.

Blogger keeps urging me to switch to one of the new blog designs. I can't bring myself to do it. I've signed on to those green and yellow dots so many times over the years they have become synonymous with StuccoHouse in my mind.

If you had told me back in 2004 that I'd still be working and writing about this house six years later, I would have laughed at you. Today, I wouldn't bat an eye at a prediction that I'll still be working on my house 10 years from now.

Oy.

Words Fell

2010-12-26T10:37:00.002-06:00

Here are nine words that I never thought I would utter in my lifetime.

I'm thinking about buying an air compressor. Any advice?

I have miles of wood trim to install in the inside of my house. Crown moulding in the kitchen. Base shoe in my dining room, living room, kitchen and upstairs. Wood chair rail and medicine cabinet in my bathroom. And I have a stairs project coming up one of these days that will require finish nailing. It dawned on me one day that spending a few hundred bucks on an air compressor and finish nailer might actually save me money (and time).

I have two requirements at this point: 1) it needs to be small and compact enough for me to actually carry around my house; and 2) it needs to be easy to use. I don't want to lose an eye while trying to figure out where the nails go. Keep in mind that up to now I have been using a miter box, hand saw and hammer. Think low(er) tech.

I'll also mention I am not looking for the top of the line model. I want something solid that will last but reasonably priced.

What do you think?

Down the Road

2010-12-23T17:13:00.002-06:00

This post isn't about living in an old house. It's about living in a neighborhood.

There's an older gentleman that lives somewhere in southern end of my neighborhood. Over the years I have noticed him out walking. Usually around the bridge between Minneapolis and St. Paul. I've noticed him because he is always walking quite slow, but always with a lot of purpose. Like he has someplace to be. Some days I've noticed he's wearing a big leather jacket on days that are a little too warm for a big leather jacket. I originally thought he might be homeless and living in the park.

The other day I was driving to work. I was late, so a took a little different route than I normally take. As I drove down the fairly busy street, I noticed a solitary figure slowly walking down the center of the road. He was holding what looked like and old broom ball stick as a sort of cane. His scarf was dragging behind him in the snow. As I got closer, I realized it was the leather jacket guy. What to do. What to do.

This was happening on a pretty busy street and he was headed for an even busier one. I pulled my car over and walked over, thinking I'd be able to convince him to move over to the sidewalk. Everyone would be happy and I'd be on my way. I asked him if I could help him over to the sidewalk. He told me with the snow that he couldn't make it through. He was right. We have monster amounts of snow and you need to be able to climb over piles to walk a city block. I was also trying to decide if he was either drunk or not entirely with it. He seemed sober and we had a short coherent conversation (granted I did most of the talking). So, I told him I was worried a car was going to hit him and asked him if he would move over closer to the side just to make me happy. He nodded and moved over closer to the side of the street.

I wasn't sure what else I could do. Surely, I couldn't offer to give a total stranger a ride to places unknown. Right? If you know anything about my luck, you would know that this would mostly likely result in some huge misunderstanding that would end up with me being charged with kidnapping....or I would be victim 28 of the newly identified black leather jacket serial killer. So, I slowly drove off. I saw other cars behind me slow way down to go by the gentleman, who was now over more to the side of the road.

Well, you can imagine my dismay when on my way to work this morning, I spotted a lone figure working his way down the center of the street. When I got to work, I went to the Minneapolis city website. I started calling. I was just hoping to find someone that could check this out. Make sure this guy is ok....and if he needs a little help figure out how that could happen. He's on the street at the same time every day (well, so far). I thought it would be easy for some responsible party to just roll by and check things out.

I called the Senior Ombudsman. Their suggestion was to call 911 if I saw it again. I called the Minneapolis 311 number and a very nice operator suggested I call the Hennepin County Adult Protection. I called Hennepin County Adult Protection and they told me that if I didn't know his name or address, my only option was to wait for it to happen again and call 911. My experience with Minneapolis' finest has not been good. The thought of them man-handling this senior gentleman makes me reluctant.

At this point, I realized it was easier to locate someone to report an animal in possible trouble to in Minneapolis than a person.

I don't want to be a busy body. If I were him, I'd be ticked as hell if someone tried to tell me what to do...or worse yet interfered. But, the other side of me couldn't take it if I saw a news story about a man hit while walking down the street right before Christmas.

Do I get up tomorrow morning and innocently drive down in that direction to get my latte? If I see him, do I call 911? Am I inserting myself someplace where I don't belong?

See Spot Go Away

2010-12-19T15:06:00.000-06:00

I know you are probably getting sick of looking up at these water spots. I am too.

There hasn't been any changes in the ceiling water spots. They aren't bigger, but they haven't gone away either.

So, I hauled a chair over there to see if they were soggy or even damp. Nope, they feel dry. I think we (that's a royal "we" that includes you because it helps me to think I am not in this alone) are only dealing with a water stain at this point.

The second photo is a heat vent (closed off in the basement) that runs in a nearby closet and up through the attic space below the leak. The water spots in the ceiling are about two feet outside of this closet. You can see a gap at the top of the duct that runs into the attic space...and presumably lets at least a little hot air up there. The plan today is to put some expanding foam into that gap and seal it up. The last thing I need is a flow of hot air the the spot underneath all the snow and ice. Hopefully, I can find a can of foam in my basement that isn't all clogged up after one use.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

2010-12-18T12:50:00.000-06:00

As much trouble as it has caused me this week, I will admit the snow has made things look a lot more Christmas-y compare to a couple of weeks ago.

Run Spot Run

2010-12-17T19:39:00.001-06:00

Here's what I like about having a house blog. My readers have a whole lot more confidence in my abilities than I have myself.

Today I woke with a mission. I pulled on my jacket, my mittens and my boots. I hauled my shovel upstairs. I took out those new wood storm windows and I shoveled snow off of my roof from the second floor windows.

I cleared the area where the water was seeping into my house. The last photo below shows the suspicious spot in the little metal gully where the shingles meet the membrane...directly above the water stains on my living room ceiling.

The sun was out today. When I came home later in the day, the ceiling water spots were the same size as they were yesterday. It may be just be my imagination, but they look like they might be a little lighter in color too.

Tomorrow, the plan is to haul the roof rake up there and try to remove even more snow. We are talking a LOT of snow. I was even surprised to see about 2 feet of snow layered up there.

Now if you will excuse me...it's 7:30 pm and I am heading to bed. Weary. Fingers crossed.

See Spot Run

2010-12-16T19:15:00.002-06:00

Here is where things stand today. The good news is that I didn't come home to my living room plaster ceiling laying in soggy chunks on the floor. The bad news is my plan of active denial does not seem to be working.

I do have a roof rake. Of course, I'd have to retrieve it from my garage currently buried in snow....and dig a path in my back yard to get to the garage. Or I suppose I could drive back there.

The roof rake is not an ideal solution for a few reasons: 1) I will need to get on a ladder to use it; 2) the roof on that section is curved, so I'm not sure it will do much; and 3) the roof in that spot is membrane and I'm worried it could tear if the rook rake goes rogue on me.

The only other option is to try to use the rake from the dormer windows. Probably a safer route and possibly an easier way to reach that spot. That said, I'm not sure I could get the angle (and strength) I'd need to actually get the snow to fall off of the side of the roof.

Wonder how much it would cost to just pay someone to do it.

Crap.

Seeing Spots

2010-12-15T21:26:00.003-06:00

There I was relaxing on my couch after a long day when out of the corner of my eye I spotted something on the living room ceiling. At first I thought it was a shadow. I got up and walked over to check.

Water. Two water spots on my plaster ceiling.

It must be leaking at the valley where my front door overhang meets the rest of the roof.

I have 20" of snow on my roof. 4" more on it's way tonight. The area above those spots is inaccessible attic. There is no way on God's green earth I am going to be able to get up there and clear things off until this weekend.

What on earth am I going to do?

How I Spent My Weekend

2010-12-12T09:47:00.000-06:00

Back Band Back In

2010-12-08T21:14:00.003-06:00

I'm falling behind in my posting. At any rate, the replacement back band is in. This has been a very long saga.

The cliff notes:

When I moved into the house, a chunk of back band was mysteriously missing from over the front door. It looked like this:

And a strip of back band that had gone bad was replaced by a less than attractive strip of flat trim. It looked like this:

The front door section now looks like this (note the little copper lip on the top edge):

And the front window now looks like this (again, note the little copper drip lip protecting the top edge, but ignore the dead geraniums):

The back band surrounding my dormer windows was also totally replaced. It took the brunt of 80+ years of MN weather.

This is one of those projects that I'm going to totally forget about. When you walk up to the house it looks like it should. You would never notice the difference (unless you were forced to read about it for the last few years).

I hired this job out. I didn't have the time or the correct tools. If you are a perfectionist and have done enough work on your house, there definitely comes a point where it is hard to let a stranger mess with things (with the notable exception of the guy that worked on my much beloved kitchen cabinet). They rarely do things up to your exacting standards. The miter corners on this job are going to be that issue for me. They are okay. They have too much caulking in them for my liking; they are not as tightly fit as I would have done myself. There. I said it. Now, I have to let it go. And, I must admit that the little copper drip edge is much better than I ever could have done. Yin and yang.

Holiday Window Box

2010-11-28T15:21:00.000-06:00

The spruce tips are in. The Christmas season can officially commence.

Note to self: next year get them in before the dirt freezes, so no hammer is needed to get them to stand up.

A Shot From the Past

2010-11-21T12:17:00.001-06:00

Here are some fun images of Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis circa 1900. Not that I'm telling you how to decorate your house, but copies of these images can be purchased through the Library of Congress. Ha, now I dare you to follow the link and try to spend less than an hour looking through old photos.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection and photographer George Lawrence on the last photo.

LC-D4-70598

LC-D4-4862

LC-D4-33729

LC-D4-36268

LOT 12005, p. 4

PAN US GEOG

Three in a Row

2010-11-19T17:28:00.002-06:00

After walking aimlessly through my house for a week, I finally found the hook & eye hardware for my storm windows. They were in a small brown bag on a chair right by the dormer windows. Of course.

Two storm windows went in without a hitch. The third window mysteriously didn't come close to fitting. I tried each storm in each window. It was clear which storms fit into two of the windows. The third was not going to fit no matter how hard I tried to coax it into place.

I measured those damn windows 5 times before placing the order for storms, so this was particularly irritating. But the storm was made to order...and it was too big (thankfully). Today I called Rick at Diamond Lake Hardware and asked if there was any way he could trim down the storms (he made them)...he told me that it wasn't a problem. I just needed to bring the storm in and he'd trim it while I waited. I dropped by the hardware store 30 minutes later.

I contend that the window somehow shrunk between the time when I took the measure and tried to install the storm. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So, here are the storms installed. The top board and left vertical board still need to be fully stripped and repainted next Spring. The snow came before I could complete that job.

It's amazing how much more light comes through those windows without the old aluminum storms...and how much street sound they block. Oh, and how much warmer it is.

Curses

2010-11-15T19:38:00.000-06:00

Damn. I bought the hook & eyes to install the storm windows last weekend. Now I can't find them. Anywhere.

In The Nick of Time

2010-11-14T15:38:00.001-06:00

There is nothing like a snow storm to motivate a girl to get her new upstairs wood storm windows puttied, primed and painted. They are now drying in my dining room. Oil based primer and two coats of Benjamin Moore exterior acrylic. I just need to clean up the paint edges on the glass. With any luck, I will be able to install them tomorrow.

For the record, I an not a taper when it comes to painting windows. I use an angled edge brush and don't worry about any over painting. If you don't own one of these cheap little straight edge razor holders, you need to drop everything and run out and buy one. They make cleaning up paint on glass beyond easy. They also give the paint a nice sharp edge.

Three Faces of StuccoHouse

2010-11-13T21:25:00.001-06:00

I'm going to do a post and run. I have three wood storm windows in my dining room waiting for their last coat of paint.

Every now and then I go through old photos to remind myself of where I started and where I am now.

I've mentioned this before. but the stucco (and the yellow paint) on my house photos weirdly. It's the same stucco in all photos. The last photo is probably the closest to reality.

Here is my house as it stands today. The horizontal half-timber is newly stripped and painted. The barge boards are slated as the first project next Spring. I have been slowly working my way upward. Here's a little background on the front door overhang.

Here is a photo of the house after I had been here a year. The white is all aluminum trim nailed over the original wood. I have to say, the house looks a whole lot better in this picture than it did in real life. Although. this photo has me motivated to pick up some fir tops again for the front flower box this winter.

And here is a photo of my house shortly before I bought it. Note the fine wood lattice front steps.

Another [Three] Bite The Dust

2010-11-07T12:52:00.003-06:00

Two weeks ago in a phase where I thought winter would never come, I brazenly took down the decrepit aluminum storm windows from my three upstairs dormer windows. If you have followed my blog for a while, you know I have done this before (and apparently not learned) and now it's a mad race to get wood storm windows made, glass cut, storm primed, glass puttied in place, putty cured and the whole shebang painted and installed before things turn really cold here in Minnesota.

At this point, I have the wood storms (courtesy of Diamond Lake Hardware). I have them primed and one side painted. I put down a bead of silicone and then put in the glass and the little metal glazing push points hold it in place. Last night I puttied the last storm. The glazing putty jar says to leave the putty cure for 2 to 3 weeks. Two of the storms might get to 2 weeks (I puttied them early). We'll see about the third. I also ran out last night and picked up three sets of hook/eye to hold them in place until I decide if I want exterior brackets. I just may beat the snow.

I have also simultaneously been stripping the exterior wood on the dormers. I have 75% of it down to bare wood. I think I'm going to prime and paint that wood today...and then leave the top board for Spring (unless this warm weather holds out for another few weeks). It should look pretty cute with the new gray storm windows even if the top board isn't painted just yet.

And just as a reminder.....here's what the dormer area looked like originally.

Slowly

2010-11-06T19:28:00.000-05:00

There has been slow progress in my kitchen. When last we left the kitchen, I had just finished putting up the ceiling and the ceiling fixture. (see the label Kitchen below for the full ongoing saga). This past week, I had an electrician come in and pull new wires to both walls and install my new fixtures.

He also expanded my two outlet box above the stove to a four outlet. (Does anyone have any idea where I can get a polished nickel plate with one gfi and one standard hole? I have already tried all of the usual suspects. Do I want them both gfi?)

You will have to imagine this wallpaper behind the fixtures. I'm still stripping the peach paint. Still.

For the heck of it, you can also imagine this stove installed in the kitchen.

The Hallway Light

2010-10-31T16:24:00.001-05:00

One of my very first posts back in 2004 was about a light fixture I had made for my hallway. Then in 2007, I posted about glass shade I picked up for a steal at a local salvage shop (the round shade in the first link will eventually be used in my basement stairwell). Optimistic that I would have the new light installed very soon, a year ago I donated the light that was there to a friend. I have since been living with bare wires.

In keeping with the every three years theme I have going, today I can finally report that the box has been totally rewired and my new light and shade have been installed. The wiring up there was a scary, tangled mess of old wires, tape and dust.

Big box light that was there when I moved in.

The new light. The shade has an opal kind of glow that the photos don't capture well. You can also ignore the circle of paint surrounding the base of the light. I will never understand people that paint a ceiling and paint around lights rather than loosen the base and paint under them .

One Domino

2010-10-30T15:28:00.001-05:00

I thought I'd never type this. The long, painfully ugly reign of the oak bathroom light is over. Long live the new light!

This is one of those old house things where you start with a small project and it turns into a slow game of dominoes.

As part of a project to replace a wiring mess in my hallway in order to install a new light (future post), the electrician discovered a stray wire. We spent some time trying to figure out what it could operate. Finally the electrician jiggled the wire and I listened along various walls to see where it made noise.

The bathroom.

He unhooked the wire and nothing in the bathroom turned off. We decided to take the bathroom light off the wall to see what was going on. The wire was a stray that lead to nothing (probably an old set of sconces).

Then we made another discovery. In order to install this lovely piece of crap (and it's matching medicine cabinet), they had furred out the wall 3 or so inches. Well, this kind of explains the odd clearance for the toilet when I first moved into the house. You had to sit sideways on the toilet (I finally had the toilet turned 90 degrees). What are some people thinking? I shudder to think that the original plaster was pulled out to install this light......no, it couldn't be. No one would do that, right?

This changes everything. I was going to replace the sink and replace the existing medicine cabinet with a vintage one currently sitting in my basement. I was going to run the current big box tile (which I neither love or hate) through the rest of the bathroom.

Now I am thinking reclaim the 3+", if possible. And then while I already have one wall gutted......do I spent the time and money to do the bathroom the way I really would want it?? This would mean a vintage toilet and true vintage style tile (perhaps pink and black).

The electrician put in a temporary light for me to use. It already is a 200% improvement, I think.

This hideous light is going into the trash. It will not be salvaged anywhere. I am considering it my gift to the world to permanently put an end to it.

Set Up To Succeed

2010-10-16T20:20:00.003-05:00

I searched high and low for back band to replace the trim that was missing or rotted around my front window and door. The search spanned three years, give or take. Tears were shed. Swearing occurred.

What baffled me was that back band on my house, is the very same profile that is on 95% of the houses in the Twin Cities. This is not some funky back band. It's pretty generic.

Long story short, I finally located the exact back band profile I needed last Spring at Siweks Lumber in NE Minneapolis. At that time I had them cut me a sample of the trim to bring home with me. That sample sat until a few weeks ago when I called a local contractor to get on their schedule and have someone come out and pull out the old trim and replace it with new.

The deal was that they would replace the trim. My end of the deal was to obtain said trim, sand it and paint it.

So, off I went to buy trim. On the drive to NE, I suddenly started to worry that I would find that the profile I needed had been discontinued. But, my worry was for naught. I showed the lumberyard guy my sample and he walked me over to his supply of that profile. He asked me what measurements I needed. I told him and he started pulling out lengths of trim. All of a sudden, I noticed these faint stripes on the trim. I looked a little closer and realized that every 5" or so, the trim was finger jointed. I even asked they guy..."are those finger joints?" He looked at me and said "yup." Like I was some sort of newbie for even asking.

Well, it's not like I have a whole lot of choices when it comes to this trim. This is it. And compared to the $10/ft quote I received at the start of my search.......the $1.50/ft they were charging me for this trim was a bargain.

I paid the man, loaded my trim into my car and headed home.

Concerned, I asked my dad (structural engineer) his thoughts. No, he had never seen that done before on trim. It was good in the sense that the trim is extremely straight. No, he did not share my concerns that it would fall apart immediately. Even if it only lasted a 5-10 years, he pointed out, replacing it wouldn't break the bank.

So, I coated the finger jointed back band with wood preservative. It then received two coats of primer. If ever there was finger jointed back band set up to succeed, it is this bunch of trim going on the front of my house.

The guys at Scheftel are fitting my project in between their larger projects. One guy was out last week and got the old trim off of the front window...and the new side pieces installed. He's going to wrap the upper edge of the top piece of trim in copper, so that was delayed for a bit. Once that's done, I'll need to paint the trim and caulk.

There is a bit more to this project (isn't that always the case) and I'll talk more about that in my next post.

Finally, in past posts commenters and I wondered why we never saw back band in the local salvage places. The last picture explains that. Pulling back band out of stucco, as it turns out, is not an easy task.

Timber.....make that Half Timber

2010-09-26T22:15:00.000-05:00

Here is what I accomplished this weekend. The main half-timber is now sanded down to new wood. If you are thinking it doesn't look like I did much, you will want to keep that thought to yourself. This old growth wood is hard as a rock. A really hard rock.

In the next day or so, I'll hit it with Boracare, primer and paint.

A Simple Hook

2010-09-19T21:22:00.003-05:00

It doesn't take a whole lot to get a house restorer excited. I spied these hooks in a case in an antique store I visited on Saturday. The older guy working in the shop could not believe I was so happy to find some old metal hooks. I bought them out of 8 hooks.

They used these hooks throughout my house when it was built. I like how simple they are. They screw into the wall or door and are there to stay. The perfect balance of form and function.

The two hooks you see in the photos with 58 layers of paint on them (only a slight exaggeration) are from my bathroom door. I'll eventually boil them to get the paint off, but having a nice supply of non-painted hooks will let me postpone that task for a while.

I haven't been posting much, but there is activity going on:

* Stripping the paint off the door in my bathroom.
* Continuing to strip paint and shellac in my kitchen (which I will be doing once this post is done).
* Trying to set up an appointment before the end of the month with an electrician to run new wires in my kitchen.
* Have a call in to the carpenter to replace backband on my front windows.
* A soul-sucking, mind-numbing battle with Qwest - who sold me $20 dsl and is now charging me $70 (and will probably result in me being being offline for a month or so).
* Finally was able to match the paint I had been using upstairs (and threw away the lid w/ the color formula) - thanks to the friendly folks at Hirshfields. Lesson learned on that one.
* Parts are being ordered for the Tappan *still* residing in my living room.
* And I bought a new Fall decoration for my front door.

How It all Started

2010-08-31T20:37:00.000-05:00

For your entertainment. A photo of me entertaining guests at the very first house I owned.

Note the dutch door, the wide eaves, and the intricate exterior trim.

My New Best Friend

2010-08-25T22:00:00.000-05:00

Out with the old.

And in with the new.

A birthday present from my mom and dad who were tired of listening to me whine about how near death I came during the long hour(s) it took me to mow my lawn this summer.

Funny little story. I immediately tried out the new mower while my mom and dad were still at my house after delivering it. The box said it was self-propelled and I was thinking to myself as the mower glided over my overgrown grass how much of a huge difference the self-propelled technology made.

I stopped the mower to move my hammock to the other side of the yard..and commented to my mom how easy it was. I had to laugh when she said "...and it will be even easier when you pull up on the self-propeller bar." I am now practically running after this mower. If I could teach it to turn corners, I'm pretty sure it would mow the lawn itself.

More Pieces to the Puzzle

2010-07-11T13:48:00.005-05:00

Big, big excitement here at StuccoHouse this morning. I had just taken a shower and dried my hair and was walking through the dining room when I spotted a group of ladies out on the sidewalk in front of my house taking photos. I watched them for a little while to see if it was my house they were trying to get in the background. It was.

So, I stepped outside to meet them (and explain that the crappy looking trim was really in the process of being stripped and repainted)....hoping against hope that it was a previous owner. It was!

The older woman was the owner and she was there with two daughters who also lived in the house. They were the owners of StuccoHouse in the mid 1940's. There was another older woman that was with them that had lived in a house across the street at the same time.

First of all, before I forget. The front steps had little concrete benches on either side of the entryway. This has been a burning mystery since day one. I had suspected there were benches of some sort there based on the odd markings in the stucco. Hmm...wouldn't it be fun to add wood benches back in? (ah, but I digress).

They also told me details about the ice delivery man (and the ice box that was once in my kitchen). They considered themselves lucky to have the ice delivered right into the icebox from the outside. One of the women asked me if the bathroom still have hex tiles (she remembered cleaning them many Saturdays). I asked about the kitchen corner where I had the cabinet built (there were shadows on the wall of a previous cabinet), but no one remembered exactly what was there.

Hollyhocks and apple trees were in the back yard and the current hedge is at least similar to the original, if not the same one. Under my front window was a hedge of bride's wreathes (oddly enough, last week I was talking to my mom about putting some in my back yard). There was a plum tree on the side of the first flight of steps up to my house (the former site of the ceder tree, for long time blog readers - and where I have been trying to think of a small replacement tree). There were two huge oak trees in the front yard.

They told me of a rag man that ran his cart down the back alleyway shouting out for old rags to be collected. They told me about the coal, milk, and ice delivery men (one of them had a horse drown cart) that made stops at the house. During winters, their father iced the back yard for them to skate. The younger sister told me that when she went downstairs someone had to stand at the top and talk to her while she was down there. They remember the lit with a match vintage stove that was in the kitchen (well into the 1990s).

I was so surprised by their visit. I gave them my contact information and they promised to send me any pictures, etc. that they were able to find. I told them that the next time they were in town that I would love to have them over for a visit of the inside of the house. How on earth did I not think to take a photo of them until they were driving off??!! I have my fingers (and toes) crossed that they will contact me.

Of course, after they left I thought of many more questions I wish I could have asked - was there a cistern in the basement? How did the laundry chute in the linen closet work? What did the little window in the wall look like upstairs? Did the little closet in the basement below the stairs hold coal? How was the coal delivered to the basement? And......

No Limbs Were Lost

2010-06-27T19:34:00.000-05:00

Today I overcame my fear and pulled out the hedge clipper. Yes, the same hedge clipper that I used to just about cut off my finger two summers ago (warning, it's gruesome). I have been using a manual hand held clipper until now, but it's hot and the sun was going down. I sat in my back yard and debated for a while....summoned my courage and pulled out the battery clipper. This time the gloves remained on until the last branch was down.

The hedge is trimmed and no appendages were lost and not one drop of blood was shed in the process.

While I was out trimming the hedges (to the north in my back yard). My neighbor of missing lilac bushes fame came out and started rooting in the lilac bushes (south side of my yard). I thought I'd break the ice...and wandered over there...and jokingly said "hey, you cut down my lilac bushes...." I thought this would get a "Oh, sorry about that". And then I had planned to chat about what we could do that would make us both happy.

Well, I was sadly mistaken. I got a pile of full-on snottiness thrown back at me.

So, I asked if he planned on replacing the bushes. Nope. And then he proceeded to go sit in a chair and watch me working in my back yard through the gap that once was my lilac bushes.

Wow. I was stunned.

All I can say is that one who has an air conditioner unit too close for code to their neighbor's house best not cop too much of an attitude. Just saying.....

A Place for the Plants

2010-06-20T16:52:00.000-05:00

This is the vintage plant stand I picked up yesterday. I'm going to use it in my upstairs sun room. You probably don't know this about me, but I have a collection of vintage ceramic planters (currently sitting on the side of each step of my stairway).

Here's my question to you: Should I put a fresh coat of white or maybe really pale pink paint on it.....or leave it alone? I am a fan of vintage, but not "shabby chic." The paint is a little grungy and chipped in quite a few places. I could go either way on this. What do you think?

Disappointed

2010-06-13T11:39:00.005-05:00

Wow, more trees gone. Reminder note ignored. Coincidently, they work on it when I'm not home so I can't just go out there and talk to them. Although, I have talked about the property line with the owner a number of times in the past. Certified letter being drafted. I'm surprised and disappointed.

I came out in my yard this morning to missing bushes and a strange neighborhood cat pooping in my garden (yes, we have a leash law). It kind of sums things up for me today.

It makes me laugh a little because when I moved into my house and was going to trim the over grown hedge on the other side of my back yard, I actually asked the home owner on that side what height he'd like to see. He in turn gave me a courtesy "heads up" when he was going to install his fence.

Straying Over The Line

2010-06-10T20:41:00.002-05:00

Why is it that when people see a fence, they assume property line? A few years ago my neighbor went through a phase where he hacked down a row of nicely (and recently) trimmed lilacs. I was miffed, but *most* of them grew back.

Today I was bringing out my trash when I realized a good chunk of my lilac bushes are completely missing. Gone. Totally gone.

I'm not so happy.

The previous owner of my house put up a fence for her dogs. There is a massive oak tree that runs down the middle of the property line and two rows of lilacs (one my neighbor's and the row nearests me and the fence, mine). Not wanting to try to wrap a fence around the tree and through the lilacs the PO had the fence placed a 3-4 feet in (immediately on my side of the tree with both rows of lilacs on the outside).

I'm absolutely sure he didn't mean to be malicious. But honestly, before you started hacking out bushes (that I have maintained), wouldn't you think to check? And I have talked with him about this a number of times in the past.

I left a big note out on the fence (best I don't see him right now) and will need to talk to that neighbor this weekend. Like I have time for this.

Looks Can Be Deceiving

2010-06-05T21:48:00.001-05:00

I'm looking at the last post on my blog of the entryway to my house....or any exterior shot, for that matter. The yellow always seems SO bright. It is bright yellow no matter how I take the photo. For the record, it's not.

Here is the actual color chart for the exterior of my house. The color that LOOKS like neon yellow in all of my photos is called Barley. What is is about yellow paint?

Red, White and Blue

2010-05-30T21:43:00.001-05:00

2nd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour

2010-05-07T22:26:00.012-05:00

Welcome to the Second Annual Bungalow Blog Tour! There are nine bungalow (or bungalow in spirit) blogs participating this year. At the bottom of each Tour post, you will find a link to the next house and one back to the previous house. If you follow the complete tour, you should end up where you started.

Please leave comments at the blogs you visit: 1) because bloggers love feedback; and 2) if they know there is interest, it will make it easer for me to talk these bloggers into doing the tour again next year :)

On with the Tour......

Here is a photo of StuccoHouse as it was listed for sale on MLS by the previous owner's realtor. It seems so long ago. The house was built in 1924 and I purchased it in 2002.

When I bought the house I had no clear idea that I would be "restoring" it. That kind of snuck up on me. I do remember thinking that as soon as I owned the house, those two hanging flower baskets were coming down. It would take me a few weeks after buying the house to even discover that was I had was a bungalow.

I had moved to this house from a 1928 condo on the other side of the city. The condo was vintage inside and I was looking for that same atmosphere in a house. I knew when I walked into StuccoHouse and saw the unpainted woodwork and vintage kitchen....that this was the house.

One of my first "restoration" type activities was to replace the lovely front door entry set (and that is using the term loosely). Then I dived right in with the infamous cat pee floor project. By this time I started to get an idea of how the interior of the house *should* look and I pulled down & replaced the "most hated light." By this time, I had a long list of things that I hoped to accomplish with the house....and it dawned on me that this was going to be a multi-year (or multi-decade) full on house restoration. I joke that I'm 8 years in to a 2 year house project.

One of my most rewarding projects has been the ongoing restoration of my vintage, old growth wood, double hung & casement windows.

The grossest project I'd had to do it a tie between trapping the mice that found an entryway into my house by my front door, crawling into the dark recesses of my attic, and patching the hole above my front door overhang. All of these involved the real possibility of bugs or rodents in my hair.

The most fun project to date has been installing a new, custom vintage style cabinet in my kitchen where one had been removed. My mom was the motivation to get me going on this project. The kitchen restoration is still going on. I have been diligently stripping paint off of the plaster walls and I hope to post about putting up wallpaper and painting walls this summer.....and my 1949 Tappan stove being hooked up (and finally out of my living room).

The most costly, yet surprisingly interesting task was replacing my sewer lateral line.

I think the project with the most immediate impact has been the work on my front door entryway. I get a lot of comments from passerby's that seems to be following my progress on that work (and keep me motivated)

The project that got me in over my head and forced me to dig my way out.....was absolutely the restoration of the rotten brackets holding up my front door overhang. Painted wood is now where the awful aluminum once was...and a copper drip edge with a nice patina replaced the snipped aluminum one.

Plans for this summer include stripping the old paint off the remaining wood trim on the front of my house and painting it, finishing up my kitchen restoration, and replacing some more of the triple track aluminum storm windows with wood framed storms.

Thanks for visiting StuccoHouse (and taking a tour down memory lane with me).

Next House on the Blog Tour: Tiny Oak Park Bungalow
Previous House on the Blog Tour: Foxcroft

Calling All Bungalows

2010-04-13T22:45:00.001-05:00

Last year, the first week in May, I pulled together a hasty bungalow web tour (the Twin Cities Bungalow Club had canceled their annual live tour and we were going through withdrawal). A few of my fellow bungalow owners joined me in creating a mini-online bungalow tour. It was fun.

This year, I thought I'd start a little earlier with more organization. The Twin Cities Bungalow Tour is taking place on May 8th. Anyone interested in joining in on a online bungalow tour for that same day?

If you are, drop me an email at: stuccohouse at aol dot com. Let me know the name of your blog & give me a link. Put "Bungalow Tour" in the email's re, so my spam filter doesn't prevent me from reading it :) You do not need to be from the Twin Cities to participate....if you have a bungalow and a blog, you are invited!

Then, start thinking about a post that you can put up that day.....your favorite spot in your house, a restoration project, your future plans, the history of your house....anything bungalow related.

I'll see who is interested and get back to you with a plan & instructions for linking the blogs.

April Showers

2010-04-06T19:05:00.004-05:00

It's that time of year again. The Friends School Plant Sale catalog has been posted.

I've written about this sale, many time in past years....so I'm just going to point you there for the details.

Honestly, read their website and download their catalog. So, worth it.

Graphic used with permission

Get Ready

2010-04-05T11:44:00.001-05:00

Okay, just so we are all prepared. This is what we (well, I...and you vicariously) will be dealing with this summer.

You will remember, I took the aluminum trim down almost two years ago. Wow, it doesn't seem that long ago. I had kind of hoped if I waited long enough that the paint would fall off by itself. No such luck.

Fun, huh? If you listen carefully, you should be able to hear the sound of my neighbors cheering.

News

2010-04-01T13:37:00.001-05:00

Well, after 7 yrs and 5 months, it's official. I've sold StuccoHouse.

For many months, I've grown tired of old houses and all of the issues they bring with them. Enough is enough.

StuccoHouse will transfer to it's new owner on May 1. I've enjoyed blogging about restoring this old house, but I am off to a blissful life in a new condo in the suburbs. I may start a garden blog.

The Switch

2010-03-17T17:09:00.001-05:00

See this? Know what it means?

It means this gets switched out with.....

This...

Shop Local

2010-03-02T15:17:00.000-06:00

I received this postcard today from Lightworks. I really like this local, vintage and reproduction lighting store in downtown Minneapolis. They don't have sales very often, so I thought I'd let you know...

Hot and Neutral

2010-02-28T21:55:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I posted photos of my salvaged pink hanging light. It needed a cleaning, paint stripped off the metal (why do people just paint over light bases when they paint their ceilings anyway?), and new wiring.

I took the light apart and started cleaning. Then made a few calls and located a small vintage lamp repair shop called The Lamp Mender (in Bloomington 9911 Lyndale Ave S.) that sold cloth covered wire. I went with the black cloth. I managed to replace the wiring (I think) and add a grounding wire (I think). It took me a long while to see the oh-so-light markings on the cloth that indicated the neutral vs hot wires...and then an equal amount of time to try to figure out which was the "brass" screw on the socket.

After stripping the remaining white paint off of the base, I decided to protect the metal with 3-in-One oil. I used the same approach on my kitchen hardware after I cleaned it. I hope that the oil will allow the metal to develop a nice patina.....right now it gives it a nice glow.

After some debate, I decided to paint the socket cover. It was originally a very light pink and the paint I used closely matches the original color. I cleaned the chain, but left the patina. For whatever reason, my house attracts pieces with mixed metals - the base on this light is steel, the chain is brass.

The next photos of this light you see it will be (hopefully) hanging in my bedroom. It looks a lot more impressive with the pink, three chain, glass shade.

More Pink

2010-02-27T11:03:00.001-06:00

Here's this weekend's project. It's a light I purchased salvage a couple of years ago. The shade is spectacular. The base, not so much. This is one of those tiny projects that gets started and then put aside when bigger things come up (you've probably seen me post about it before). The plan is to get the remaining paint off of the base and get some type of protective coat on the metal (you can see fine rusting - I've got a few ideas on this).

The little stem piece is a very light pink. I can't decide whether to repaint it or not. A while back I thought I would clean it up and leave it "as is." I generally take the "unless there's a problem, leave well enough alone" approach.....but, I'm wafffling. I did find a tester of paint in the same color. We'll see.

The chain needs to be cleaned & polished. The little glass flute also is pretty dingy.

And, of course, it needs to be rewired. I've never rewired a light before, but this one seems to be easy (unless I'm missing something big). I think there is a light shop across town that has cloth wiring.

The hope is to get this light hanging in my bedroom shortly, so I can sell the wonderful Home Depot light in there now on Craigslist.

In The Dumpster

2010-02-20T22:37:00.000-06:00

Ugh. Drove by a dumpster not far from my house and spied a house worth of vintage windows laying there. The house was sporting some new, glaring white, vinyl, replacement windows. Charmless. And so the 10 year replacement cycle begins.

I wish people knew the vintage windows were built to be restored.

Register Covers

2010-02-12T17:05:00.002-06:00

A couple of people commented on my last post asking if the heat register cover was original to my house. I thought I'd answer them in a separate post. Yes, the register cover is vintage. Yes, I believe it is originally from my house.

First I must tell you that both my bathroom and my upstairs were "updated" by a flipper before I bought the place.

The register grate in my bathroom when I first bought my house was this:

This grate is old, but you could tell it wasn't original to the bathroom because it was screwed flat against the wall. By shadows on the bathroom hex floor tile, you could see that the original grate had rested on the floor.

So, one day I was goofing off upstairs and for some reason looked at the register cover on the wall. Something about it was "off." I took a closer look and realized that the vent screwed on the a register hole in the wall was originally meant to rest on the floor.

Ding. Ding.

Off came the vent cover upstairs and it was brought to the bathroom. The bathroom vent cover went upstairs. I have no idea if those were their original spots, but they both now fit perfectly.

The vent cover that is now in my bathroom was painted an ugly brown when I bought the house. I stripped off that paint and discovered a chromed plated vent cover in poor condition. I then had that rechromed (with a final coat in nickel)...and thats the vent you see in my bathroom today. A little work that paid off.

Side note: you can also see the original plastic (yes, plastic) white "baseboard" that I replaced with black ceramic a year or so before I started my blog

Blushing

2010-02-08T16:24:00.002-06:00

Well, here's the new pink bathroom. I didn't realize what a nightmare painting a bathroom is. Lots of little nooks and crannies. It also dawned on me just as I started that I would need to prime the blue so it didn't show through the pink. Loads of fun.

It took me most of the day and well into the night (with brief breaks to whine and watch Super Bowl commercials). At about 1:30am I hit a wall and briefly understood why people just paint over hardware and light bases instead of removing them.

There is still plenty to do in the bathroom, but at least it is now pink (see the paint chip that has been taped to my wall since the week I moved into the house). The color is hard to capture on camera, but the photo with the shower curtain is closest to reality.

This is probably the closest I will ever come to a fully pink bathroom (I would kill for house with vintage pink sink, tub and toilet fixtures.)

Super Bowl Day Activities

2010-02-07T13:14:00.001-06:00

Football is not my thing. I don't hate it. I guess I'm football neutral.

The plan today is to turn on the game (maybe) and paint my bathroom.

I have plans to add tile to my bathroom walls, replace the horrid medicine cabinet and install a vintage sink. All items have been purchased and are currently stored in my basement (or hallway). Painting should probably be done last.

That said, I am in the mood to paint. So, the agenda today includes painting the current light blue walls pink. I can hear every man out there sighing heavily right now. Tough. I want a pink bathroom.

This photo is not in the best focus, but it shows the current color better than the others I took. I stripped and painted the window woodwork a year or so ago (I start to forget).

More photos once it is pink.

Better Late Than Never

2010-01-18T15:51:00.000-06:00

I *finally* finished putting up the filler pieces of ceiling tile in my kitchen (they were a big pain in the butt to cut and fit into place) and then got the whole thing painted. I know, it took me a really long time to finish this. I agree. It's just such thankless work.

The ceiling is now a light sage green. It's hard to tell in the photos, but it's a lighter color of the green in the light shade. It's actually a 25% tint of the color I used in my dining room. The color also matches the wallpaper that will eventually go on the walls. The Benjamin Moore Super Spec paint was a dream to work with. Not a drop on me or the floor.

Next up is getting the crown molding cut. It's already stained and shellacked. I also need to get an electrician out to rewire the wall lights (the new ones match the ceiling light) and lower an outlet over the stove area. And of course, there is more paint stripping to be done.

Not About The House

2010-01-13T13:34:00.000-06:00

I don't have any house updates, so I'm giving you a cookie updates instead. Granted, I'm a little bit early in making these Valentines Day treats....

Electrical Outage

2010-01-03T12:30:00.001-06:00

Yesterday morning at 3:30am the electricity went out in my house. I woke up from a dead sleep because all of a sudden my house was silent...and my alarm clock made a loud click as it's juice was cut off.

I laid in bed for a while trying to decide if the outage was just my house or the entire block. I got up and looked across the street and their front door lights were still on. I tried to look down my block to see if any lights were on. Couldn't tell one way or another. I ended up calling the electric company to report the outage and the automatic message told me they were aware of the outage and were working on it. I'm sure the electric company was a little under the gun because the temperature was dangerously low (-15 degrees, I think) Not a good night for an entire neighborhood to be out of electricity.

I lulled myself back to sleep by thinking about everything I'd have to reset in the morning. My water heater & furnace are totally gas, so I'm always pretty well covered during outages.

When I first moved into my house the electricity went out a lot; every other week or so. It was always accompanied by a huge bang of the transformer blowing. I still have a nice collection of flashlights and candles from those years.

So, yesterday morning (well, afternoon) I woke up. It was a little cold. The electricity was still out. I got up and the first thing I noticed out from under the covers is that it was really cold..in the house. I went out to check my thermometer and it told me the interior of the house was 51 degrees. Huh?

I have a really old furnace. Really old. It was coal and converted to gas in the 1950s. I love the thing. It is not dependent on anything. It runs without problem through anything.

My heart sank. I ran downstairs. I opened the furnace door and the area usually filled with big flames was not filled with big flames. I've watched this furnace get checked every year, but it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't know exactly where the pilot light was. I've never had to light it in my entire time in the house...and a pilot light is a whole lot easier to find when it's lit. The basement didn't smell like gas and my CO monitors had not triggered.

Nothing on my furnace is electrical. I started running possibilities through my head: a) the electrical company cut the gas to houses while they worked over night to prevent any dangerous furnace issues. b) the basement got so cold it affected gas flow; c) my furnace randomly chose this moment to give out unrelated to electrical; d) the upstairs wall thermostat was electrical and somehow triggered the furnace to shut down; and/or e) God was punishing me.

I went back up to the relative warmth of the first floor to think about what I needed to do next....and how I was going to pay for an entirely new furnace in a day.

All of a sudden the electricity came back on. So did the furnace.

I ran back downstairs. Said a quick little prayer and opened the furnace door to a big bunch of beautiful gas flames. If the furnace wasn't so dusty, I would have hugged it.

None of the utilities have Customer Services during the weekend, so I'm still not sure what happened. I have my money on the upstairs wall thermostat being electrical and turning down the flames (the pilot light stayed on). Note to self - learn how to disable the wall thermostat...and learn where the pilot light is.

There is nothing like 30 minutes of thinking you might have to pay for a new furnace (and abatement and new duct work) to put things in perspective for you in the New Year. Whew!

Sand for Sidewalks

2009-12-28T13:43:00.000-06:00

Did you know Minneapolis offers free sand for sidewalks?

All you need to do is stop by one if their sites and bring your own shovel and pail.

1940 Water Heaters

2009-12-27T12:00:00.003-06:00

I've been scanning some old Philgas stove sales brochures and ran across these sales brochures for 1940 water heaters. Considering my recent water heater experience, they caught my eye.

20 yr warranty.

We once had the capability of building a 20 yr water heater. Now they typically last less than 10 yrs, if you are lucky. Something is wrong here.

Oh, and check out those prices. I almost cried.

Holiday Restoration Humor

2009-12-26T11:54:00.001-06:00

Santa brought me an electric fry pan. I've wanted one for years. I unwrapped the pan and was looking through the instruction manual and joked "Geez, now I don't really have to finish the Tappan."

Just for a second, I think my horrified mother thought she had inadvertently contributed yet another delay in getting the Tappan Deluxe stove up and running.

Everyone is anxious to see the stove out of my living room and into my kitchen.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Filling the Rim Joists

2009-12-19T11:25:00.000-06:00

Another small step in the name of weatherproofing. A few days ago, my dad came over and helped me put insulation into the spot where my basement rim joists meet the first level floor.

When I had my infrared energy audit done, this was one area the energy auditor pointed this out as an area that could use some work. The dark areas in the infrared photos is where heat loss is taking place. There was old insulation in some of the joist bays on one side of the house when I moved in. But as I've had electrical work done....and when they installed the glass block windows....even this insulation had been pulled out and tossed. The joist bays have a funky shape as the concrete basement walls were topped with a slanting pile of concrete.

I had been dreading doing this and kept putting it off. But, once we got started it was really pretty easy and only took a couple of hours.

Away With The Peach

2009-12-17T10:30:00.001-06:00

Nothing too exciting. I've just been stripping more paint off of the scored plaster in my kitchen. It's tedious and I get bored with it, so of course it takes a whole lot longer than it should. (Note the refinished, reinstalled baseboard - it looks darker on the right, but that's just shadow)

I will say the scoring detail in the plaster beneath the paint makes the effort worthwhile. It's going to look nice with one coat of fresh paint on it. I'll be happy never to see the color peach again in my life.

My Disclosure Policy

2009-12-13T19:42:00.001-06:00

The Federal Trade Commission, obviously having some time on their hands, has decided that the world just may fall apart if they are not able to regulate the review of products by bloggers. In their infinite wisdom they have declared that a blogger must disclose if they are paid or receive free products for their reviews. Or else.

So, in order to side step a knock on the door by the FTC and the accompanying fine (wouldn't that make for an entertaining post?), I am disclosing this...

As nice as it would be to have packages of free stuff and product review payment checks arriving at the doorstep of StuccoHouse..none of my product reviews (and they are far and few between) are based on free products or payment. I don't read blogs where they constantly are promoting some vendor giveaway with a gushy product review...nor where I know a product review is written to keep that gravy train of free stuff coming. So, I wouldn't subject my readers to that.

If you read a product review on my blog, it's because I have purchased the product, used the product and genuinely liked (or disliked) the product. You get the good, the bad and the ugly. If I ever actually received a free product (don't hold your breath), you would be the very first to know. End of story.

Now that this important disclosure has been made, perhaps the FTC can move on to stopping the robo-calls I keep getting from America's Best Contacts and Glasses....

Defying The Flow

2009-12-11T16:22:00.003-06:00

This post will probably be of interest to few people other than me (and possibly my dad). We've been hit by a cold spell here and I've been trying to think of ways to further weatherproof my house. I've done a lot already.

But, my dad suggested that maybe putting the door to my basement back up might be a good idea. The PO removed a bunch of doors to "open up the flow" of the house. I gagged a little typing that. Thankfully, they were stored in the basement.

I wrote a few months ago about hauling up the door for my kitchen and getting that back in place.

I've also written about this silly hallway I have whose walls are filled with doors. Well, now there is one more. Each short wall, two doors (the oak door leads to the "formal" space of the dining room). 8 doors total.

I like it. It's quirky. It defies "flow."

Having the old door back in place has raised the temperature a couple of degrees.

And, yes, that's *still* the bathroom sink laying there.

Weary

2009-11-30T16:10:00.000-06:00

For the past week or so I've been in the throes of a water heater situation. I'm not going to write about it because, frankly, it sucked the life out of me.

Although, I am curious to hear if anyone has purchased a water heater on ebay or Amazon - as I briefly toyed with that idea, but chickened out.

I am left with a general disgust with my house (and my car, but that's a whole other long story) and it's ability to consistently produce a big, fat, expensive fail at precisely the worst moment. I mean come on...right before Christmas?! I'm sure this will pass. It always does. But for right now, I can't talk about the house.

Introducing Tappan Talk

2009-11-08T13:03:00.002-06:00

A few of you have already discovered the link I added to the side bar. I've created a page on my blog specifically dedicated to vintage Tappan stoves.

Not a week goes by that I don't receive at least one email from a Tappan owner looking for information, advice, or just someone to share their Tappan enthusiasm. My record in responding to emails is admittedly spotty. I just don't have the time to reply with info. to each email, and often I don't know the answer to the question asked.

So, I decided to create a page where Tappan owners that end up on my blog can exchange info. & discuss Tappan Deluxe stoves. Selfishly, I also hope to learn a lot about my own stove :-)

Please keep in mind that the Tappan Talk page is very much in it's preliminary stages. I hope to put up posts by category so they are easily searchable and comments are limited to one topic.

I hope you enjoy.

Place Your Orders

2009-11-03T16:17:00.002-06:00

Just a very quick post. I'm dealing with both a busy work life and an ocean of leaves in my yard.

But, I promised last year to let you know when the Epworth United Methodist Church was taking orders for pasties. Consider this your notice. Orders for pasties must be paced by Thursday, Nov. 5th. (ordering done for this sale - next sale is Feb 6, 2010 cost will be $5.00). The cost is $4.50 - specify either meat or vegetarian.

Orders are then picked up at the church on November 7th - 3207 37th Ave. S., Minneapolis.

Another intriguing dinner will be held at the Minnehaha Communion Lutheran Church. Their lutefisk dinner will also be taking place on November 7th - 4101 37th Ave S., Minneapolis. Reservations are required for this one. Call the church at 612-722-9527.

If you attend the lutefisk dinner: 1) let me know how it was; and 2) you are braver than me :-)

Seven Year Itch

2009-10-31T15:27:00.000-05:00

Seven years ago today I moved into StuccoHouse. Some days it seems like it was yesterday, others like it was 15 years ago.

How did I celebrate the anniversary? By hanging some glow-in-the-dark fake spiderwebs on my front door overhang. Yes, I splurged the extra dollar for the glow-in-the-dark version. I hope the added expense was worth it.

Honestly, the spider web looks a whole lot better in real life when the wind isn't blowing.

At any rate, Happy Halloween to all!

Painted Red

2009-10-19T23:07:00.001-05:00

Not much, but the new shelves for my chimney cabinet are now painted red. This is the same red that one day you will see below the chair rail in my kitchen.

I have the bulk of the old paint off of the chimney cabinet itself. But, since my last post on the topic things have become cold here and open window ventilation is no longer possible. I have a fear of working with chemical stripper inside with my gravity furnace.

That said, I'm sure in a few weeks boredom, stupidity & ambition will drive me to come up with some way to get the remaining paint off of the cabinet. Of course, removing the tiny remains of paint in the crevices usually take the most time.

The Change Out

2009-10-11T16:01:00.000-05:00

Pulled my screens out and replaced them with storms this afternoon. I probably won't be so fond of this task when I'm 90, but I enjoy it now. I only change out 6 smaller windows, so it's not overwhelming.

Shown in the photo is the wood trim I'll be stripping and repainting next summer.

Here are the three stages: storm in, screen out, screen in.

Drying Paint and Fake Storm Windows

2009-10-10T18:43:00.001-05:00

Under the gun yesterday, I was able to get my kitchen window exterior trim primed and painted. As predicted, it snowed last night and today it's cold, cold, cold (30's) and windy.

The kitchen windows don't have storms. I took off the awful aluminum triple track storms two summers ago. I have wood screens (salvaged) and the plan was to promptly find wood frame screens. But, I've been waffling between traditional wood storms and Marvin wood frame combination storms (pricey as my windows are non-standard sizes).

As I look back at my posts, I see I wrote another full-of-angst-because-winter-is-coming-and-I-don't-have-kitchen-storms post last year at about this same time. Oh well.

Last year I survived the winter without kitchen storms. I left in the wood frame screens. This wasn't very good on the double hung sashes. So, this year I got a little more ambitious.

This afternoon, I first painted the old screen black. The screen wood frames were originally green and the metal screening was still painted green....and a little rusty. It was time to make them black. (I apologize for the blurry picture - it looked in focus when I took it.)

Then I put on some of that exterior grade winter sheet plastic on the exterior of the wood frames. I was able to pull it pretty tight, so you can't see it from the street unless you look closely.

I waited as long as I could today to let the paint from yesterday dry as much as possible. When the sun started going down, I put in the fake "storms." I like the pale yellow & gray combination.

We're set for another winter...well, kitchen window-wise at least.

In the Nick of Time

2009-10-09T15:24:00.002-05:00

We have had two days of sun with temperatures on the 50's. So, I've had time to prime and paint my exterior kitchen wood trim. I stripped the trim down to bare wood, so the trim details are nice and crisp (not to mention lead free). I've included some close ups of the repaired rot.

You can see that I stripped the exterior paint off of the sashes (and sash channel) - I'll be removing this from the inside, reglazing them, repainting them, and putting in a new rope. But, that's a whole other project for another day.

It never ceases to surprise me at how yellow that paint it once it's on. It looks like a very light creamy yellow in the can (BM Barley).

I'm writing this post as I wait for the first coat to dry. Then it will get a second coat of paint. I also need to run down to the hardware store to buy some exterior plastic to put under the wood framed screens (not in these photos)...as I still don't have wood storms for these windows.

The final photo is what the trim originally looked like. Ugh.

Snow is in the forcast for tomorrow.

The Clock is Ticking

2009-10-05T23:24:00.000-05:00

It was not supposed to rain today. I had plans to put a coat or two of primer on the exterior trim of my kitchen windows. I started stripping & repairing this trim last fall and finished up a few weekends ago. Now I have my fingers crossed that it will stop raining long enough for the wood to dry before we get hit with snow. Stress.

The New Kitchen Light

2009-10-04T13:37:00.003-05:00

As big of a hassle as it was to install, I am totally in love with my new kitchen ceiling light. I finally got the thing installed and working this morning.

Because the light electrical box was kind of sunk into the plaster ceiling...and the ceiling tiles exacerbated this....I had originally installed an extender box. But when the light was installed, this caused it to hang down 1/2 inch from the ceiling.

It finally dawned on me that a better approach would be to remove the extender box and use really long screws to attach the light to the existing box. School House Electric was kind enough to send me some longer screws. It worked, the light sits flat against the ceiling with a tight and solid fit.

You can see the new cabinet in the background. I still need to paint half of the ceiling tiles - if you look closely you can see some of them to the far right are still white.

And just so you remember what the old light looked like.....

Small Stuff

2009-09-23T23:03:00.002-05:00

Two minor events:

I was at Home Depot the other day and managed to charm the guy in lumber into cutting shelves for me to the exact size needed for my chimney cabinet. I had been putting this off forever because I though it would involve hauling home a 4'x8' piece of plywood and having to cut it down. I have them sanded and primed. They are going to be painted vintage red.

The second advancement in home restoration this week was the arrival of longer nickel screws for my kitchen light fixture. After I contacted them by email, Schoolhouse Electric was kind enough to send out a pair of screws to me. The light can now be installed. Hurrah!

More Birch

2009-09-20T16:05:00.000-05:00

Spending some time today stripping a vintage birch chimney cabinet I bought some years ago. You can't tell in the photo, but the glass is original and wavy. I had new shelves cut yesterday.

It's the same wood as my kitchen cabinets, so I plan on shellacking it and using it in the kitchen. The shelves will be the same vintage red that is going on the kitchen's lower walls. I actually have the door and hardware already completed, but will share those photos with the rest.

One Inch Short

2009-09-12T00:37:00.011-05:00

I have the rest of my kitchen ceiling installed. I installed the bulk of it a few weeks ago when the new cabinet was going in. The remaining pieces needed to be cut to size & put up....and to get motivated to do that took me a while. But, its up. Now the remaining tiles just need to be painted.

I was also able to get the ceiling electrical box ready for the new light. I was all ready last weekend to install the ceiling light I purchased from Schoolhouse Electric. I turned off the main electrical switch, crawled up the ladder with the light.....and realized the screws supplied with the lamp were way too short.

Easy peazy, I though. I'll just run to the hardware store and get two longer ones. Four hardware stores later, it dawned on me that these screws were not going to be found locally (slotted, 2", nickel plated). So, I sent off a polite email to Schoolhouse Electric asking them if it was possible they had a couple of replacement screws I could buy....I referred them to my kitchen lighting post.

Well, they checked my blog post....and then promptly ignored my email. No response. Not a peep.

Weary sigh.

So, still no light in my kitchen.

UPDATE 9/15/09: Today I received a call from Schoolhouse Electric and they are sending me two screws. Yeah! I am very anxious to get that ceiling light up. All's well that ends well.

The Retraction

2009-09-09T00:35:00.004-05:00

It appears that the Evil Squirrel may have been falsely accused of the cabbage incident. New evidence has come to light that appears to exonorate him, and I am forced to retract my previous post's accusations.

Although, in my defense there was a lot of evidence that pointed directly to the squirrel. And his behavior in the past quickly moved him to the top of the list of usual suspects. Moments before I discovered the cabbage head in question, I saw the squirrel suspiciously close the to garden and could have sworn I saw a slight satisfied smirk. Also, every morning I open my front door to see a spilled pot of parsley & the flowers bitten off of my potted mums. Clearly this is a squirrel accustomed to behaving badly and without regard to the rules of common civilized living.

But as it turns out, a commenter to my previous post mentioned a little phenomenon called "split cabbage." Karen Anne's comments in my previous post provide a link with a photo of someone else's split cabbage. I have to admit, she appears to be right.

I have been watching CSI for enough years to know that you have to follow the evidence.

As a result, all charges against the Evil Squirrel for this event have been dropped at this time. I retain the right to resurrect said charges if new evidence surfaces.

The Sauerkraut That Wasn't

2009-09-05T15:30:00.000-05:00

The little snot. And that it *not* the word I want to use, but this is a G-rated blog.

After I spent the entire summer watching over these four cabbage plants - protecting them from cabbage bugs & slugs. I even squished a few slugs with my bare hands to save those plants. This is how the Evil Squirrel behaves.

He had better not show his face to me any time soon or his time on this earth will be short.

Buying for the Bungalow

2009-09-04T09:56:00.027-05:00

Received an interesting email today announcing a Twin Cities Bungalow Club event.

They are sponsoring a talk Buying for the Bungalow: A Shopping Trip Through Time. The guest speaker is a historian for Rejuvention Lighting and House Parts.

Sunday, September 13, 2009
2:30 to 4:00 p.m.
Bungalow Club members free; non-members $3
Hillcrest Community Recreation Center
1978 Ford Pkwy., St. Paul

More detailed info. about the event can also be found at the Twin Cities Bungalow Club Website

Images used with permission

From The Pages of A Magazine

2009-08-29T11:05:00.008-05:00

When I first bought my house, I spent hours looking through magazines trying to get ideas of how I wanted to decorate my house. When I bought my house, I didn't even know it was a bungalow. I only discovered this when I saw a house that looked a lot like mine on the cover of American Bungalow.

When I found pictures I liked, I tore out the pages and put them into a folder.

After a while I started to get a pretty good idea of how I wanted the house to look and what was appropriate for a bungalow, so I stopped saving magazine pages. I haven't looked in the folder since the day I stopped tearing out pages.

Last week I was cleaning out some papers and I ran across the folder I had kept. I pulled out all of the magazine pages & looked through them. Some of them I looked at and thought..."what on earth was I thinking?" But there was one that made me stop and pause.

It was a picture of a vintage stove that I tore out of a magazine whose name I can't find on the page (possibly Storage 2004)....

I had to laugh. Recognize that stove?

It's the exact Tappan Deluxe I have been restoring in my living room. Note the salt & pepper shakers on top.

Somehow, I found this vintage stove picture to give me an idea of how it would look in my kitchen. Then years later the stars aligned (long after I had forgotten about it) to have that exact stove be the one I found on Craigslist for the right price at the right time.

All I need is the speckled bowl & yellow stock pot.

Scored Plaster

2009-08-25T00:08:00.006-05:00

I'm in the middle of the thankless job of stripping all of the paint off of the scored plaster in my kitchen below the chair rail. Whose bright idea was it to do this? Oh, that's right. Mine.

I have one wall completely done. I will admit that the scoring in the plaster looks much crisper now that 5 layers of paint have been removed. The scored plaster is very cool. One of those small details you only find in an old house.

I think I'm going to paint this one wall the vintage red to see how it looks before I move on to stripping the paint off of the rest. Just to give me some hope & motivation.

The plan: New chair rail to replace the mysteriously missing one. Wallpaper above the chair rail. Paint below.

Oh, and I managed to fit three complete sets of dishes (Dansk, Sargadelos & Fire King) into my new cabinet.

Is That The Truck Coming?

2009-08-06T18:24:00.004-05:00

Super quick post. This has been an ongoing problem at StuccoHouse resulting in long periods of a garage filled with many, many bags of newspaper and plastic bottles. As well, as mad dashes out to the alley in the dark hours of the evening and the wee hours of the morning.

Until now!

Look up your Minneapolis recycling schedule online.

CSA - Take Two

2009-08-05T16:02:00.008-05:00

We joined a CSA again this year. We were gun shy after our "series of unfortunate CSA events" last year. But, we found a new CSA that provided quite a few more boxes at half the price of our previous farm. So, we put aside our reservations & joined.

We are now on box 10. I waited this long to post to make absolutely sure we liked our new arrangement.

We really do.

Eener's Farm.

Our boxes have been solid, fresh and usable. We like the personable feeling of the newsletters and their entertaining farm blog. We are definitely getting our money's worth this year. Best of all, no one has been reprimanded yet ;-)

This week's box: Pie apples (enough for an actual tart), yellow onion, squash, summer savory, swiss chard, green peppers and carrots.

We have a half-share (22 boxes).