Flushing the whirlpool and watching Downton episodes. Puppies find the events of the evening boooooring.
And on a practical note... Used about 1/3 cup of bleach plus 2 T of Cascade powder; ran for 10 minutes, drained. Filled with cold water and ran for 5 minutes, drain. A few nasties came out, though not much. I think this whirlpool was used quite a lot.
On a side note, that rain shower head really doesn't seem appealing at all. As a friend pointed out, it's like someone peeing on your head. We're gonna need to do something about that...
I'll get to a full walk-through of the second floors... but in the meantime...
Downstairs, the floors are a very fine-grained oak. Maybe quartersawn:
The entire upstairs, though, is carpeted.
The current master bedroom combined what used to be a sewing room with one of the bedrooms. We noticed a strip of carpet that was not tacked down and peeled it back:
I peeled back another section, and it looks like most of the floor was painted. I happen to like painted wood floors (not as much as stained/finished floors, but I like them), but this wood is beautiful. I can't tell if it's heart pine or fir. Any tips on telling the difference? I can post better pics later. We have heart pine in our current house, original to the 1920 house. I love it. But I'm not sure about this. It's also very wide-- noticeably wider than downstairs. I know that whatever it is would have been cheaper wood at that time...
So yeah. A little bit imposing. I think that's an original rock wall.
From the edge of the property line...
Despite a chilly closing with the sellers, we were pleased to find a sheet of 2 pieces of mat board taped together, with writing on the outside that read, "Old Blueprints. Be very careful (Kind of falling apart)." They were right. But this is so cool. The blueprints are dated 1912, and bear the name of the WWI vet son who lived here. Talking to the listing agent, he said he was pretty sure that these plans were drawn up when the family had a boiler system installed...
...and these sketches showing all the fittings bear out that assumption.
He also said that it was his understanding that there had been a basement at one time, with stairs that led down from the butlers pantry and below the main stairs. We found, in the closet under the main stairs, a boarded up opening that appears to have been those very stairs. And one of the blueprint sheets suggests it, as well. I'll address the mystery basement in a later post.
In the meantime, I'll begin with the 1912 sketch of the 1st floor, talk about the changes made and what it looks like now in my next post.
I spent yesterday evening at the house with a few friends, pizza and beer, and our older black lab River. It was the best day of her life. She took the stairs 3 at a time like she'd been born to it, like she'd been waiting her whole life for us to finally wise up and give her stairs to make her life complete. I just hope it doesn't ruin her joints...
This morning, I went over with the newest (and youngest) addition to the zoo, another black lab named Andre. This was also, clearly, the best day of Andre's life. Truly.
Back to the house...
Here's what I can tell you from the history of the house. It appears to have built built in about 1901. I was able to find it on the 1908 Sanborn Fire Maps; in earlier maps, our neighborhood had not yet been annexed into the city, I don't believe.
Our neighborhood is one of the few remaining trolley neighborhoods-- the trolley came out to the edge of town, turned around, and went back-- these were originally mule-drawn and then electric trolleys. These additions to cities allowed for the development of commuter suburbs as we now know them.
Our neighborhood is now on the National Register of HIstoric Places.
A book has been created about the area; the author compiled a number of newspaper articles, etc., about the are, and scoured city directories. The earliest resident of our house was a man who, from what I can tell, was the owner of an industrial equipment/hardware store. His wife's father had been a Civil War captain in the Confederacy; her family's papers are located at the Butler Center in Little Rock, and I hope to go down there to see them soon. Their son, who lived in the house after them, was a WWI veteran who served in France. His papers are at the University in Fayetteville, so I'll probably see those much sooner than later.
We've already started finding some crazy fun things to explore, and the sellers were kind enough to leave a set of blueprints from 1912. It was a chilly closing, at best, but I am very grateful that they left these propped up in the coat closet for us to find. the next post will begin with the exterior of the house and the blueprints... and I'll take it from there, one level at a time, and one building at a time.
Part of me can't believe it's ours. And part of me feels like we've lived here forever.
Today we closed on the house, and it was not without its share of fiascos.
Some of you may know us from Oh, Bungalow. We bought that house knowing it would be a starter home, knowing it would not hold us for more than 5-10 years. But we put so much work into the place. We became so comfortable in the house. We still have so much to do! I don't think we ever really thought we'd leave.
But we have outgrown the house. My mother (and sometimes my sister) will also be moving into the house. We have 4 large dogs. And cats. We inherited a lot of large (and beautiful and un-give-uppable) furniture from my grandmother.
Then this house came along. This house that I have walked the dogs by, ridden my bicycle by, driven by and been smitten by my whole life. It's one of those houses that you can't miss. It's in the same neighborhood that we are currently in. It's been on the market for a while.
It was a perfect storm of opportunity and necessity.
So we decided to buy it.
Once the price had been settled on, scheduling an inspection around Christmas was difficult; and then once it was scheduled, the sellers didn't want us in the house. Then the insurance wouldn't bind without the promise of a new roof. And the sellers didn't think they could get out by closing. It's been one thing after another.
But today we closed. We closed! It's ours.
We have a few things we need to do to it, and handful of things we want to do to it. And a lot of history that I'd love to share about the house and its many previous owners. It's not the fixer-upper that the Bungalow was and is, but it is an amazing place. I will detail the house with pictures, starting tomorrow. This blog will chronicle those changes and the history, as well as our lives with all tehse animals, training and caring for them, making their food and managing them. I'll begin relaying all the history that I know about the house, and slowly introducing you to our Funny Farm. There will also surely be a flurry of activity on the Oh, Bungalow page; I'll be cross-posting and linking a lot of those updates.
So here we go. Historic home, second time around. After the first one, I can't believe we've decided to tackle it again. But we have. We must be crazy.
