Little Details

The first time I saw the doorknobs inside our house, I assumed the door hardware (hinges, backplates, and doorknobs) were not original; they looked almost new.  But, after perusing the online interior photos of local homes that have been sold over the past three years, I realized the hardware is original.

The five knuckle,  half-mortise hinges, with cannon ball tip finials, are made by C. Hager and Sons Hinge Company. One interesting piece of trivia is that this company was commissioned to manufacture the hinges for the locks on the Panama Canal Project in the early 1900's.

The lighting in the photographs would lead one to believe these hinges are brass, but, in person, they are much lighter in color and appear to be stainless steel.

While I never imagined liking the ornate style of glass doorknobs, I'm mesmerized by the ones in our home. 

The backplate appears to be nickel and each doorknob functions perfectly.  The backplate style is what I believe called Colonial Revival. The craftsmanship gives me a deep appreciation of the details that went in making each one.  I decided to disassemble one set from a closet door to gain a better understanding of how they were made. From the metal shanks with set screws to the threaded spindles, I admire everything about them.
 

In an attempt to determine the manufacturer of the mortise locks, I removed one from the closet door and removed the cover.  There is not name on the casing and nothing on the inside that provides any hint.  Here are just a few of the lock manufacturers of the time period: Corbin, Yale & Towne, Russel & Erwin, Sargent & Co., and Penn.  I was, also, looking for a skeleton key code, which is, typically embossed on the interior of the lock casing. But, again, nothing...

The Zirkel House

Out of curiosity, I recently visited the Colorado Springs Carnegie Library to see if I could find out who has lived in the house.  I looked through dozens of City Directories going all the way back to 1928. I was, mainly, interested in the earlier years. It would be interesting to gain some understanding of the history of the house and, possibly, contact any surviving relatives.

Here is the timeline from 1928 until present.  The longest timeline of occupancy was by a professional carpenter named Henry Zirkel (b.1894-d.1990) and his Wife, Viola (b.1903-d.2001).  They owned the house for 39 years.  In their memory, I'll refer to our house as "The Zirkel House".

When I have the opportunity, I plan on visiting the local county assessors office to research the official ownership records. City Directories do not necessarily reflect ownership, but, instead, occupancy.  I am confident in the timeline for the Zirkel's, however, as I can search online property records back to the date when they sold the home.  I have my suspicions on who was the first owner of the house and it has it's own interesting story.  I will need to research it further before I'm certain they were, indeed, the original owner.

Our Future Home

Since the first few posts are to catch up to the present, I won't belabor all the details of the search, other than to say, our Realtor nailed it.  Although I preferred a true Craftsman style with a full front porch and tapered columns, our Bungalow is perfect! We even have a two-car garage and a full-sized lot with an alley.

Over the years, this 1928 built house has been handled with loving care.  The red oak floors are in very good shape and most of the interior trim work and solid wood doors are stained, not painted--the only rooms with painted trim are the bathroom and kitchen, which was common for a home of the era. The original double-hung windows are there in all their glory, all thirteen of them.  By today's standards, the house is small at less than 830 square feet on the main floor, but it is perfect for us.

Meeting our Realtor

Last April, we scheduled another trip to Colorado Springs.  We rented a beautiful house in the neighborhood where we hoped to call home one day.  The main purpose of the trip was to meet with our potential Realtor.  Being my normal, methodical self, I had been looking for a specific set of criteria: someone who specialized in buying and selling old homes--"old" defined as something approaching or greater than 100 years old.  If they lived in the area, that would be ideal.  This was important since we knew there was a high likelihood we would be making a purchase decision from out-of state.  We needed someone with a high level of knowledge and expertise for the market of old houses.

Thankfully, the criteria were not only met, but exceeded.  Not only did he focus most of his real estate transactions in the area, he lived in the area, too--in a 100+ year old house that he renovated! The bonus was that he, also, had worked with his Father for many years in residential renovations, many on the type of house we were looking for.  His passion was old houses

We walked from our rental house to the local coffee shop where we had a quick lunch before meeting with our potential Realtor.  Unknown to us, it was a mere three minute walk to the coffee shop from his house.  The meeting went very well and my Wife and I knew very quickly that he would be our Realtor.

We had given our Realtor a wish list:  Craftsman style, at least two bedrooms, one bath, original wood floors, original windows, garage (two car preferred, but realized it was a long shot), and a full-sized lot with alley access.  I didn't have high confidence all these items could be found in one house, but I was still hopeful.

During the remaining time left on our trip we spent time walking and driving around the neighborhood, fantasizing about living there one day.  It was starting to feel real after all these years, but still just a conceptual thought in my mind.  The next several months were difficult as I spent more time than I'd like to admit perusing online real estate websites looking at listings.

The Beginning

The purpose of this blog is to provide an account of the experiences in owning and preserving an old house. I meant to start this blog several months ago before the house search began, but, alas, life got in the way.  The first post will be lead-up to a consolidated update to the start of our house search.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Wife and I set out on this journey over four years ago to find the perfect Colorado location to call “home”.  There have been countless trips where we drove and walked many neighborhood streets countless times, as well as, rented houses in targeted cities, just to get a better feel for locations.  We, also, shopped local the grocery stores, visited coffee shops, and, occasionally, ate at local restaurants.  Along the way, we fell in love with the older, established neighborhoods—the ones, typically, part of the original plat of a city.  The quiet, mature tree-lined streets with houses of all shapes and sizes had an unique charm not seen in most modern day developed areas.  I’ve, always, considered new as better, meaning free of the maintenance and repair stressors of owning an old house; my logical mind would never dispute this.  But, a spell had been cast and caught us in its lair.  All I could think of was a Craftsman style home with a large front porch, original windows, exposed rafter tails, and a gabled roof adorned with knee braces.

Three years ago, we settled on a city to call our own.  The last and most important detail was to pinpoint the neighborhood.  This entailed driving and walking neighborhoods countless times and visiting locals shops and restaurants. In the end, our initial neighborhood choice was where we would purchase our home, but we still looked in all nearby areas just to make sure.  You see, this isn’t a home we plan on living in temporarily; we are hoping it will be our last house; a place where we will become deeply rooted.  It wasn’t until less than a year ago that we made the decision that our first neighborhood choice was, indeed, the best for us.  And, with a sigh, we knew where our “home” would be.  But, the stressful part, at least for me emotionally, was finding the perfect house...