Small Piece of History...

This morning, I was carefully removing the hinges from the bathroom doorway so I can refurbish them.  While removing the bottom hinge (these are original hinges, by the way), I noticed it wasn't positioned in the mortise, but, rather, slightly above it.  After removing the hinge, there seemed to be a piece of paper being used to shim the hinge. But upon carefully removing the paper, I noticed it was three layers of paper, plus a piece of very thin cardboard.

Immediately, I noticed handwriting and plain as could be, the name "Zirkel".  It was a post card letter from 1958. It's the first historical proof within these walls I have found of who has lived in our home.

Renovation begins...

The renovation, officially, began last week.  I'll share pictures in a later post of the progress.  It's been hectic and will be completed in stages. The bathroom has been demo'd and was done in a meticulous manner, which I appreciate.  I joked that it was as if they were dismantling a nuclear bomb.  A few days later, the back steps were jack hammered and hauled off.  It was another job done with care to ensure no damage was done to the foundation wall. There was concern the steps were, possibly, attached to the house with reinforced metal, but that was not the case.  In fact, there was no reinforcement in the steps, yet they stood with nary a crack for almost 100 years!  Now that the steps have been removed, it's obvious they were an original part of the house.

It has been very difficult, for me, to watch the work that has begun.  I've never had this type of work done by someone else.  The knowledge I do have is an emotional weakness as I am not in control of the process.  But, we know we are in excellent hands and I need to trust the process and the very high level of experience (i.e. many decades!) entrusted to our home.

Today, I decided to see if I could remove the corrosion on the original wrought steel door hinges that are attached to the bathroom door stored against the wall in my office.  I wasn't certain if I could remove the discoloration and what appears to be rust (it isn't).  It didn't take long to make a drastic change, which I'm thankful. Just a few more steps and I'll be satisfied, but here is the before and after. These hinges were manufactured by Hager. The manufacturer name is embossed on the mortise portion of this hinge.

Before removing from the door

After...

 Huge improvement!!!

First Blooms

The roses in the back yard have, finally, begun blooming. One of the varieties is known as "Pink Knock Out" and is a shrub rose variety. The great thing about these are they are disease resistant and prolific bloomers. The only reason I know the exact variety is I found the metal tag at the base of one of the bushes while weeding.

Pink Knock Out 'Radcon'

Pink Knock Out 'Radcon'

 The second variety is unknown but more in the category of a Tea Rose.

Besides the roses, the Columbines are blooming quite nicely, although, they aren't in the traditional color schemes. I'll have to take a few pictures of those, as well...

Two Weeks

Well, it's been two full weeks, since we moved into our home. We're still, occasionally, thinking we'll have to get up very early one of these mornings and drive back to Austin. It just doesn't seem completely real, yet.

There has been lots going on around the house, mainly outside.  I finally had the opportunity to prune the rose bushes this past week and they have responded quite well.  Within the next week, the first blooms should occur.  There are many small stumps from old bushes that were cut to the ground within the past few years. A lot of time was spent digging them out so the little green shoots stop emerging from their Winter hiatus.

One small step towards making improvements began this afternoon.  Earlier this week, after a lot of time researching outdoor lighting, I finally purchased new lights.  And, "a lot of time" means several months. The goal is to stay with the same period and style of the 1920's.  Thankfully, I have online access to digitized versions of hardware and lighting catalogs from the early 20th century.  I had my Wife make the final choice, after narrowing it down to a few different styles--She, definitely, made the best choice! The lights were delivered late this afternoon and I, immediately, opened up one of the boxes and installed the new light on our front porch.  It looks even better than expected and looks like it's been there for 91 years.

First Weekend

The past few days have been at full speed.  After pulling into the driveway with our moving truck at 2:30pm on a Friday, we managed to fully unload the contents and return the truck by 4:20pm.

I have to admit, I was aghast when we initially arrived to see a lawn more befitting for cattle grazing.  The recent late snowstorm, with it's heavy, wet snow resulted in an enormous number of large tree limbs breaking off century old trees.  A few of those ended up in our front yard from the neighbor's tree and many more in our back yard from our own mature White Poplar.

I spend the entire day on Saturday mowing, trimming, edging, pulling weeds,  and using my chainsaw to cut up the downed limbs. Compared to the day before, the result is more appealing.

While I was immersed in yard work, my Wife managed to unpack everything. It can't be said enough how much she accomplished in one day.  And, thanks to her, we can relax without looking at boxes strewn throughout the house.

It still hasn't sunk in that we won't be leaving in a few days, like we did on previous visits.  We are beginning to focus on the upcoming remodel of the kitchen and bathroom. The first purchase has been made for the kitchen--a gas range.  Since it was such a great deal, we couldn't let it go.

Our to-do list for the house is growing both with minor things to do this month and the more long-term items that need to be completed before Winter sets in later this year.  We realize it's necessary to adjust the perspective to a true four season climate from the previous one, which consisted of Summer and what I called "some other season"...

Home

Final Visit

A few weeks ago, we made our, hopefully, final trip to the house as "visitors".  The next time we enter the driveway should be with a moving truck!

There wasn't much to do during our week long stay as we are in a holding pattern with the house until we officially move in.  We had our Contractor over, again, so we could all gain a better understanding of our vision for the renovation of the kitchen and bathroom, plus adding a covered back porch.  We're excited and a little nervous to begin those projects this Summer, but know we're in very good hands.  He has 40 years of experience with old homes.  Considering the major remodel/addition he recently completed a few blocks away, which looks absolutely amazing, our house should be child's play for him.

Since there wasn't any major work to be done while we were there, we tied up some loose ends, including my wife coordinating with the our disposal company to get rid of 34 bags of leaves and a lot of packaging material.

One day, as we were sitting in the living room, I was staring at the fireplace, namely, the damper knob.  I've tried turning it in the past, but it wouldn't move.  I thought it would require someone specializing in fireplaces to come out and fix it, since it seemed to be jammed.  However, my curiosity got the best of me, as usual, and I got down on my hands and knees and looked up into the cast iron dome to see if there was anything I could do.  I was amazed at the burly design of the damper, along with the damper rod and gears. By today's standards, it was seriously overbuilt, meaning built to last.  Within a minute, thankfully, I had the mechanism working smoothly and happy I wouldn't have to pay someone to fix it.

The next time I post should be with a picture of the moving truck in the driveway...