I Feel Faint

I've had a couple of guys painting various areas of the interior of my house for nearly a week now.  I had no idea this job would take 8 days. As usual, I underestimated what is required or, perhaps they really are moving slower than I think they should be. Everything we own that is in the way (which is everything) is in piles on furniture, stuffed into closets, put up into the attic temporarily, or as in one instance stacked the wrong way or upside down (a love seat in our bedroom, where it does not belong).  We have a very small home, barely 1500 s.f. including the basement so finding places to store things as the work progresses room to room is extremely difficult if not, impossible.

In their defense, there's a large amount of trim work which is being done - mostly 23 interior window frames including a patio door.  This house is filled to the brim with wood trim.  Plus some minor carpentry (quarter round at the floors, ceiling molding; and some shelving that I think they all forgot I asked about *mental note: call Owner to discuss!*).

And of course, in the middle of all of this the house, as usual, pulls a sucker punch and we find out one of the windows (and when I say "window" I don't mean the glass, that's stable, I mean the entire casement, sill, the whole thing that sits in the wall to the exterior of the house) in the Master Bedroom is more or less ready to fall out of the opening.  We had always noticed it sat like and inch or so from the wall but, like WTH?  So, that had to be attended to.  Thankfully, not a huge problem; the carpenter was able to fix it but the room had already been painted which meant more touch up work to come back to.

It's taking longer than we thought for the gel stain to completely dry on the stair railings.  Do you know how hard it is to keep going up and down your stairs and not touch the railing? Crazy hard.  I think it's because they applied too heavy a coat.  I also keep noticing the applications are uneven in places but I also know pine doesn't take stain very well.  But I have to point all of this out to the painters who already are on tenterhooks with me for leaving our front door unlocked the one day we couldn't be home.  They swear they locked it ("I checked the knob 3 times! Yes, 3 times!  Maybe something is wrong with your lock?"). Believe me, it was open and that lock set cost us a small fortune; there's nothing wrong with it.  They forgot to lock it from the inside.

The poor cat has been totally uprooted; his litter box and food dishes scattered in other rooms as needed.  Locked up for entire days so he wouldn't be underfoot or rub up against wet baseboards.  He seems to be taking it rather well - he's a calm sort.  But we feel bad about it nonetheless.  Today, I've allowed him to roam free while they finish up the trim work and so far, all he's done is find a bed to sleep in and stay away from everyone.  Maybe he won't have to be imprisoned today if we're lucky.

I believe they will start the kitchen tomorrow.  I'm sure that's a two day job.  If we're lucky they will be done Monday.  But to me, at this moment, it's looking unlikely.

Overall, they have been doing a good job.  It looks fan-freaking-tastic.  I realize this house is rough to work with.  Bad lighting, lots of flaws to deal with.  Unforeseen problems crop up and they are dealing with old wood, with many layers of ancient paint.  My agenda wasn't to make it look "new" again, it was to make it look better than it was.  And, in that regard it's successful.  I think if I didn't work in the design field, I wouldn't notice the sort of things I do. The pumpkin bedroom is now a muted blue.  The office, a friendly green.  The kitchen will be sort of a toned down rose color.  Our small vestibule leading to the kitchen is an off-white.  All the trim is now evenly matched in a dark almost black brown - all the dings, splotches and paint drippings from years gone by are history.  The trim color works well with everything else, it's in character with the age of the house.  Having the windows finally stained gives a cohesive feeling to the entire home.  It all feels freshened up.

So, here I sit, a day off, stuck.  Oh and I'm waiting for our heating and cooling guy to arrive too.  We have one radiator that hasn't worked since day one of our arrival to this house.  I figured it was about time to get that worked out before the winter sets in.

Home is Where the Heart Is

I've been bitching and moaning for over a year about my home so I figure I'd give everyone a little glimpse of what I've been complaining about.

This, is my elderly Craftsman inspired American Foursquare.  About 95 years old as far as we can tell; give or take. It also has some Victorian elements as evidenced by the bowed upper and lower windows in the dining room and master bedroom.  Inside, there is a lot of original chestnut wood trim which has not been painted over downstairs (lucky for us); upstairs not so lucky.  Many layers of paint have been applied through the years and it's impossible to get down to the original wood so we'll be painting over it shortly.  At least, nobody went and bastardized the whole thing in white as was common in the 70's and 80's.

On the "American Bungalow" forum, an architect/preservationist who goes by the name of "LesAnimaux-rouz" had this to say about the house:

• "As an architect who does restoration and preservation projects as well as researching house histories I must say I find this house quite unusual, You're right that it looks 4-square craftsman with a tad of Victorian given away the the two story bay window form. The river rock chimney is strongly bungalow without a doubt.  There's a lovely entasis to the columns unless that's the photograph.  There are some cement plaster/masonry houses with a half moon window near the ground plane that belong in the Prairie School movement."

I've been working in the field of architecture for over 30 years and even my old boss himself was puzzled over this house, as was my contractor.  The house is constructed of terracotta block, not usual for New Jersey at all.  There was a lot of issues in renovating certain areas; trying to figure out the best way to handle opening up the walls and what may even happen when we did.  And as it goes with older homes in general, doorways and windows were not generically sized leading to their own problems in getting items into the home (cabinets and appliances barely making it in) and currently I'm finding ordering replacement doors to be more than twice as expensive as I anticipated due to all the masonry repairs needed for their installation.

Anyway here's some more photos.  The "before" pictures are literally before we moved into the house.  We had to have the kitchen gutted completely down to the studs, and reconfigure where the Powder Room entry was (had been in the kitchen; we gained several feet of space in that room by doing so).  The kitchen renovation was done to keep the room feeling like it belonged to the house.  It's not "perfect"; it still has flaws (and needs a backsplash) but it's 100% better than it was.  The new landscaping added a much needed face lift to the home (neighbors are still thanking us) and we have exterior painting planned (colors picked) but other construction has held us up (you touch one thing, it impacts another and that meant the painting had to wait).  Interior painting will be begin this Friday; which is very exciting.  I can't wait to get rid of the pumpkin colored bedroom once and for all!

Here's the old kitchen.  Dirty. Cramped. Cabinets falling apart.  Mold growing behind the walls. Disgusting.

And, here is one view of the new kitchen.  Much better space. Lots of cabinets.  Great lighting. New sliding door. Awesome appliances.  Yea!

Here's the sink area; before the lighting was completely finished.

And, the opposite wall; lots more storage.  This shot was also before the room was completed as you can tell by my stove being in the middle of the room.  The kitchen is scheduled to be repainted; once the tile went in I decided I didn't really like the color.  Not sure yet what I'm picking.

Here's the living room/dining area.  The fireplace has a French inspired plaster frieze inserted into it.  Fireplace/chimney was just repaired to the tune of over $5,000.  Yikes.  The side door near the window in the living room leads to a porte cochere.

Another living room view.  That ugly light fixture has been removed (it was actually plastic!) leaving behind an ugly stain.  One more painting issue to deal with and, there isn't any electrical wiring up there either.  $$$

A little bit of our "jungle" of a "backyard".  We don't have a real backyard since we have a corner lot and it's a small lot as it is.  This area was filled with weeds, trees that just popped up out of nowhere, a beautiful ancient hydrangea tree that needed attention, out-of-control Boston Ivy, bees nests, garbage that would blow in off the street, cracked concrete and cat poop.  Sad.

What a difference!  The jungle was ripped out and we had some base plantings put in (hydrangea, landscape roses, crepe myrtle, cypress).  We also had more put in all around the house, including a dogwood and flowering plum.  Next year, 10 rose bushes will be going in (bare root, on order, coming in the spring).  The paver patio was done to perfection; and we got a lovely round table with 6 chairs and a lounger for the area (now in storage for the winter).  The hydrangea tree is doing really well and flowered like crazy (we found out from a neighbor that a local florist used to come around and pay the prior owner to strip it of it's flowers every year - something I'd never allow).

Last for now, we also had a bed dug around the front walkway.  I didn't have the landscaper put anything in. Our intention was to do this on our own this past summer, however, it was SO incredibly hot and rainy that we never got around to it.  So, that's on the agenda for the spring.  I think at least one of the roses will go around the lamp post.  Between flowers being added and a new door/storm door and the painting I expect the front of the house to look entirely different next year.

One last picture and then I'll go.  The main bathroom.  I've mentioned this to many I know.  A feast for the eyes and falling apart daily.  I have no idea when it will be affordable to update it but at least the toilet flushes, the shower works (really well) and the sink has hot water :D

Ok, that's enough for now.  Perhaps I'll be turning this blog into a food/home experience as time goes by.  There sure is enough going on here to post updates on that front.