Best cartoon strip ever

If you are not familiar with Get Fuzzy, I highly recommend that you start reading it, especially if you have a cat or a dog. They're spit-coffee-on-your-keyboard funny sometimes.

http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/

It took a while for us to warm up to it. We started out with one book that we found in the bargain bin at Borders. It had a cat and dog on the cover, and looked like it might be somewhat humorous, so what the heck? It was less than five bucks. Well, 10 pages into it and we were hooked! It's a very clever cartoon. Sometimes I'm not sure I get it. But I still laugh. Oh, yes, I laugh.

The great unknown: our septic system

This may fall under the category of TMI! TMI!!, but it's house-related so I feel I must blog about it. Our downstairs toilet is now not flushing properly. This means we are forced to use the upstairs toilet (see the most recent prior post to see the glorious experience that must be). We used an enzyme build-up remover in it, and this has seemingly helped. But she's still not sending the water down with as much gusto as she used to. Yesterday V and I bought a closet auger and tried unsuccessfully to send that sucker down into the trap in case there's a clog. One extremely frustrating half-hour later, after having no success whatsoever with the auger, we began to despair that our toilet may just be on strike.

My fear is that it is somehow septic-system related rather than toilet/plumbing related. We don't even know quite where our septic tank is. I guess that's one negative offshoot to buying a house that's been uninhabited for so long. People are like "well, I think it might be over there" as they jerk a thumb in a far-too-general direction. We might have to shell out to have someone look for it, which I assume they can do with radar/sonar. If Ballard could find the Titanic amidst a target area of hundreds of thousands of acres of water, they can find our little septic tank located somewhere on four acres, right? I hope so.

Having grown up on a farm, I know a little bit about septic systems. I know there are certain things you just don't do--you don't use chemical cleaners because they can destroy the bacteria that you need to break down that waste. You watch what you flush, even to the brand of toilet paper. Some wad up and don't break down quite so easily as others. I have no idea what size septic tank we have, but I do know that they should be pumped out occasionally. How occasionally? I don't know that much!

If there's anyone out there with septic knowledge that's just overflowing (pun intended), please feel free to pass it along! In the meantime, we'll be using the scary bathroom.

How to make over the smallest bathroom ever

DH and I going to do something to the downstairs bathroom. Don't ask me what we're going to do, but we've got to do something!! The paint is peeling/flaking off like crazy from all the moisture, we've got no storage save a medicine cabinet, and it's a little small. OK, it's really small. It's about 4 feet wide and about 7 feet deep. And this is our large, full bath! In the one upstairs, you can't even close the door unless you do it AS you're sitting down onto the toilet. But I digress. Back to the "big" bathroom.

The reason I'm posting is that what we're planning to do is definitely not perfect, but we just need something to get us by until we're really ready to make some changes in terms of possibly an addition. Here's the existing situation:

• entire bathroom--including shower--is paint (no tile, no water repellent surface of any kind)
• as I mentioned, there is no storage other than the medicine cabinet
• right now we've managed to squeeze a tiny bookshelf in to hold towels, etc., and there's one of those over-the-toilet etageres (we don't particularly like it) holding other essentials
• we have nice original fixtures in here--a small but wonderful cast iron tub with shower (the only one in the house), a pedestal sink that's--again--tiny but really nice in its own way, and spigots and such that are simple but filled with character. This stuff all stays no matter what.

being as how it's an old bathroom it's not vented. There is a small window that we try to crack in order to let some of the moisture out. We understand that this is what's killing the paint, but we may or may not be able to properly vent due to the configuration and location of the room. This is an unknown.

The tricky part is that we can't afford to add on right now or bump out, so we're forced to figure out something within the confines of the size and configuration we've got right now. One thing we'll do is scrape and paint. Since it's just temporary (hopefully) I think we're going to go ahead and just put paint in the shower again. If we go with paint we can at least choose a color where it doesn't show as much and/or repaint as necessary.

Here's a picture from when we first toured the house. It is not nearly as roomy as this picture makes it look (she types, dripping with sarcasm) now that we've got the bookshelf and etagere in there. What a project this will be!

Oh, and just for fun, here's a picture of the small bath. I crack up just typing that. It goes way beyond small, but I'm not sure there's a word in existence to describe it.

One of these days we're actually going to start working

V and I are planners to our cores. We never start a project without analyzing, analyzing, and analyzing some more. We pore over every detail, work out every possible case scenario, and then pore over other details that came up in the various scenarios. It's enough to try the patience of a saint, I'm sure, which is why it's good that we're both this way!

Anyway, I think we're inching our way forward to the point where we'll be ready to actually BEGIN WORK! Woohoo! Never again will our evenings be filled with lounging in front of the TV. Never again will we have a dust-free (or at least dust-minimal) house. Never again will we be able to simply walk through a room without skidding on dropcloths, tripping over Tyvek suits, or looking at all the work yet to be done. I'm tired just thinking about it. :)

What would you do?

We're continuing to wrestle with some philosophical and emotional issues concerning the house. First is whether we will want to put up wallpaper in the rooms that were originally papered. I'm not sure, V is leaning toward it, but I don't think either one of us is convinced--or convincing--enough.

Second, if my paint analysis shows that the molding finish was originallly just shellac (which is what I suspect) and not paint, are we going to strip all the way down and re-shellac? I've seen this done very well, and I've seen this done very poorly. Our trim is not crazy super elaborate, but the thought of stripping out all of those nooks and crannies gives me hives. On the other hand, I love the look of wood/shellac. V is concerned this might make the rooms appear too dark, but we've seen it in other houses that I wouldn't consider dungeonlike by any stretch.

Third, what to do with the kitchen? Temporary makeover or gut it out and bear it until we're ready for the real deal? I say temporary makeovers can really help make a room work until you're prepared to do better. Haven't asked V 'bout this one and probably won't until I can get a decent dollar amount in my head. Cost estimates may make or break my case!

Spring cleaning, a little early

V and I have decided to give ourselves until the spring to figure out what's going and what's staying. Having two houses' worth of STUFF is getting a little overwhelming. There are some lovely things here that, honestly, just aren't our style, so they'll probably go to a good home where they'll be appreciated.

Now our big worry is finding a good and reputable appraiser. There is such a wide variety that we don't know whether to find a really good generalist or whether we should start looking into folks who specialize in, say, ephemera. One more thing to overwhelm us! Mind you, I'd rather be overwhelmed by this than by plaster falling from the walls in great huge chunks or one of the other myriad old-house-related problems we could have. Honestly. But of all the plans we have for the house, this is the one I find the most challenging, probably because it's the one where I have the least amount of real knowledge.

Mommy's little helpers

I'm tired today. And I don't think I'm really thinking clearly. So instead of blogging, I'm just going to post some pictures of our cats. V and I are mere inches away from being the crazy cat people. It's really only a matter of time. But they have good stories.

Annie is a one-time feral. I found her in the middle of a blizzard, trying desperately to get into my parents' barn. She was very wild but decided (she's always been an extremely smart cat) to come in from the cold. However, she trusted no one until V came along and very patiently showed her that indoor life was cushy and to be savored. Now, she's the Queen of Sheba and is also known as the "fancy cat." She's very tidy--look at how white she keeps those whites!

Romeo came into my life when I was an undergrad tutoring in my school's writing lab. One night I thought I heard meowing. Being a softie, I went to check it out and found Romesie standing out in the rain waiting for a human to come along. He was just a doll. Sure that someone was missing such a lovely and giving cat, I posted flyers all over the place. Eventually a woman called me to tell him I might as well keep him "because I told my daughter he was probably dead." Uh, right then. Keep him I did! Doesn't he look like he ought to have a tiny pipe and smoking jacket? He really lives up to his name.

Birdie exploded onto the scene in June of 2002. We'd lost a very beloved kitty two months before and were not (not) looking for a new cat. Then a routine trip to PetSmart for food proved to be our undoing. There cowered Birdie, the only kitten amongst about 30 cages full of dogs. Poor thing looked terrified. She had just one eye and frankly, she looked pretty darn scrappy. But there was something about her. We took her out of her cage and she promptly climbed onto V's shoulder and perched there like she belonged. She came home with us that day.


Frasier is a momma's boy. He came around in January-ish of 2003 . Birdie was having some serious socialization-related issues and had taken to repeatedly pounding on Romeo. We thought having a playmate more her own age would be good for her. Besides, I told V, cats should always come in even numbers. Sounded perfectly logical at the time. Frasier became an internet cat date. I saw his picture on Petfinder.com and just had to see him in person. In spite of his neurotic tendencies (he'd been adopted twice and returned twice) we thought we would be just the home for him, and we have been. He seems to have bonded especially much to me...not that I mind it. It's like V has his cat, and I have my cat, and then we share the other two equally. Works out nicely, I think!

The wish list and the project list...so far

If you are an independently wealthy person and would like to contribute funds either to the wish list or to help us move projects along, I don't think we'd turn you down. This is going to be one expensive endeavor! Perhaps we should implement an "adopt a clapboard" program. Hmmmm.

The wish list.

• Good plastering tools
• Some supplier within 30 miles who carries Type S hydrated lime so I can make lime putty for said plaster and for mortar
• Insulation for the attic
• A tractor so our neighbor no longer has to mow our lawn (thank you just doesn't cover it...we have awesome neighbors!)
• Silent paint remover
• Good quality paint scrapers
• Refills for our respirators
• Tyvek suits
• Tons of 5ml or higher plastic
• New old windows (or custom new wood windows, but prefer old wood if we can find some)
• A hot water radiator heating system
• A clawfoot tub

The (partial) project list, not necessarily in this order

• Replace windows (aluminum replacements) with good-quality historic windows, if we can find them, or well-constructed wooden replacements
• Scrape and repaint (maybe, or shellac, depending on what our paint analysis shows) trim, doors, and windows
• Patch holes in plaster left by electrical crew
• Expand one-time porch (now utility room/bathroom) and add second story to whole thing to create master bath (and closet?) for upstairs
• Pull up carpet wherever it is found
• Kitchen—I don't even have a clue what to say here other than "kitchen"
• Remove wallpaper and either paint or re-paper
• Strip steel siding from exterior, then scrape and paint clapboard that is hidden underneath

Our attic is the coolest place EVER

I really, really need to get started on the historic structure report (HSR) for our house. It is supposed to be my winter project so we have a decent, prioritized list of maintenance and projects ready for when warmer weather hits. Instead, I have been Slacker Girl. Well, as of today I am Slacker Girl no more!

This afternoon I squeezed through the cubbyhole that is the only access to our attic and began the process of documenting the existing condition of the house. Overall, I couldn't have been more pleased with what I found. First, some good news--it was pouring down rain and I didn't see any drips anywhere, which means the slate roof is holding up well. I honestly expected to see a few here or there, but there's nothing. I saw a couple places where there's some very old water damage but it's not extensive. Over all, it looks like the old girl is holding up really well, thank goodness! We'll definitely need to get up there and insulate, which will be interesting considering that the joists are so close together. We also have dozens (not kidding) of old hornet/wasp nests up there. Hopefully they're empty. There's also a bat up there. Just one, which surprised me. I thought they mostly lived in groups. Guess not!

The house is, as we suspected, constructed very well. True 2x8 joists on 16-inch centers rather than the current standard (which is either 22 or 24, I always forget). I never felt so much as a wobble while I was up there. One of the chimneys looks as though it's had some problems over the years, and at one point it may have been patched with Portland concrete. We'll have to chisel that out and replace it with a lime-mix mortar.

Up in the attic, it's easier than ever to see that the kitchen is an addition. For one, it's not constructed as well. What's more fun to see, though, is the existing clapboard that they did not remove from the original house before adding on. And then there's the gable end trusses. They're just cut out to provide access to/from the addition, but you can see where they once met each other. Interesting stuff indeed.

V and I had some questions that I was hoping to answer as a result of going up there--a few of them I did manage to answer, but one is still a big mystery. We have been wondering if there had ever been a stairway or even a ladder mechanism going out of where our upstairs bath is (from the days when it was a closet).....so when I was in the attic I stuck my head down into the cavity to see. The existing stairway ceiling is all drywall and it's newer (I'd say within the past 10 years or so), which means it's been replaced fairly recently. BUT, there's plaster/lath ghosts on the backside of the bathroom wall. Isn't that weird? The walls of that cavity are also plastered, and plastered very nicely. I suspect those would not have been finished with such quality if that was never a "used" space. But there aren't any ghosts of joist notches, stairs, risers, or anything like that. So now we're more perplexed than ever. One of these days I'm taking a drywall saw to that bathroom wall! :) I'm wondering if maybe there was access, but if it was more of a haymow ladder type mechanism than actual stairs. The ceiling joists over that cavity are wider than the rest of the original house, and that makes me think there's a purpose behind the difference.

Next stop, the crawl space!

The doorbell rang itself today

Christmas was positively wonderful, but I won't bore you with the details.

What I will bore you with, however, are the details of our first and only (so far) spooky house occurrence. V was doing some tidying up when our doorbell rang. This doorbell is original to the house...has a lever that you push down with your thumb, which in turn rings the bell. No big deal, right? Right, until you consider that the thumb mechanism is seized up and frozen in place, which means that bell does not ring. It wasn't until after V started walking toward the door that he thought "Hmmmm, that doorbell doesn't work. How on earth did it ring?" At first he thought maybe one of the cats had bumped it. Not likely unless one of them managed to grow a foot in height. Then he thought maybe something had rattled the door, in turn rattling the doorbell enough to ding it. But it had made an entire rrrrrrrrring.

Incidentally, there was no one at the door. Thank goodness.

Merry Christmas! Hand me a hammer.

With Christmas just around the corner, it seems only right that we should have some decorations up. Thanks to V, we do! I came home one night to lovely wreaths on the door(s) and twinkling lights inside.

We decided this year to cut our own tree. What an experience! We decided to go on our way home from my folks' annual holiday party. V rightfully noted that I was not exactly dressed for cutting down a tree, what with my cashmere coat, my Burberry scarf, and my high-heeled boots (I'm not a fashionista, I swear I'm not. That coat and scarf are warm and soft!!! They're practical! I have no excuse for the boots.). Be that as it may, we headed out into the forest to cut down our tree. Well, actually what we did was walk through the many rows of pine trees they had, look at so many we could no longer differentiate them, and finally decide to "just cut one." Luckily for us, we were inspired to this rash decision while standing directly in front of a great tree.

Next year, we think we'll buy a living tree and plant it after Christmas. We wanted to do that this year but thought of it far too late. Next year we'll plan ahead and dig the hole so it's all ready to make a comfy new home for our little pine. :)

One other thing we (more like it, V) managed to do over the past few days is to put up our various paintings, prints, and photos. Thank goodness for him. I never think of things like that, even though, when they're up, I love the result. Must be missing some sort of "decor" chip or something. Anyway, he hung all of our prints from Spain, our ceramics, the painting I bought for his birthday, and scads of family photos. Our house feels like a home now!

Plaster is awesome stuff. We had plaster walls in one of our previous houses and just loved them. It's such a superior material to drywall. One drawback--removing nails from plaster is h-a-r-d! We tried to use existing nails where we could just so we didn't have to remove them all. And I'm sure we didn't get every last one. There were a LOT of things hanging up in this house when we bought it.

Down to one mortgage, folks!

Look, I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but I've had my reasons. For one, we have been trying to sell house #1--no easy task since it's fairly small and located in a transitional neighborhood. Secondly, this has been one seriously busy time at work. Gack!

For the above reasons, among others, it gives me tremendous pleasure to say that WE CLOSED ON THE SALE OF HOUSE #1 TODAY!!!! We were afraid we'd jinx ourselves if we rejoiced too soon, but now the papers are signed and all's well that ends well. The buyer seems very nice, and he has friends in the neighborhood, so he'll probably love it. All told, it's not a bad neighborhood, but it was a bit more than V and I were prepared to take on. We've done the urban pioneer thing, but now we're ready for our nice quaint farmhouse in the country. Ahhhh, acreage. :)

That means we're now officially only paying for one home. One. Happy, happy, happy! Now we can be our own little family all under one roof again!

Happy Thanksgiving! Part deux

Hip, hip, hooray! All turned out lovely for our big feast. I did (quite accidentally, might I add) discover a potentially new way to cook turkey that yielded the moistest, most delicious bird we've ever had.

• brine the turkey for only an hour (because the only bowl that will hold enough brine is too large for your fridge)
• heat the oven to normal roasting temp
• prepare the turkey as usual (I use a recipe from Epicurious.com that has never failed....roasted turkey with carmelized onion and balsamic vinegar gravy. Yum!)
• put turkey into oven
• approximately one-half hour before turkey is supposed to be done, check on turkey and discover in a panic that the oven has gone out
• note that the roasting pan is actually cool enough to touch with your bare hands....the turkey, however, is still nice and hot (hopefully staving off botulism)
• relight the oven and crank 'er up to about 500 degrees, then put bird in even as the oven is warming up, which takes a very very long time
• pull the turkey out about a half-hour later, let it rest for 20 minutes or so, then carve
• marvel at the fact that 1) the turkey is just fabulous, and 2) several hours later, no one is sick

I can't believe it worked out so well. That could have been quite the Thanksgiving disaster. Of course, we had enough food that I don't think anyone would have even noticed if there'd been no turkey on the table. Still, I'm awfully pleased with the whole shebang!

Happy Thanksgiving! Well, it's close, anyway!

V and I are preparing for our annual Thanksgiving feast. Several years ago we took a look at our proposed travel plans for yet another frenetic, hurried holiday season and said "ENOUGH!". We called our families and asked how they'd feel about us skipping the 'ol runaround and, instead, trying to structure longer visits throughout the year. Thankfully, they didn't seem to have any problem with that. Thus, our splendoriferous holiday traditions began. For Thanksgiving, we have a nice big turkey with homemade Caesar salad, yummy fresh bread, and of course stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Seeing as how we have an older stove, I'm not quite sure how all this is going to work out, so I plan to start early.

A couple of friends are coming over to share in the festivities with us, and we're really looking forward to that. Not so long ago we had one of our best Thanksgivings ever when friends who also did not have Thanksgiving plans joined us. The more the merrier, right? Right!

So, we're making a grocery list and checking it twice. Bird, check. Potatoes, check. Garlic, check. Bread, check. That ought to about do it. I'll let you know how it goes after we've eaten, hopefully without having to spend any hospital time because of my giving us and our guests food poisoning!

Holes in the walls, holes in our heads?

Now, I think, is the time where V and I are beginning to look around and think "uh oh...." There are still holes in the walls from the electricians. Small holes, thankfully, but holes nonetheless. We discovered a leak in the roof. One leak, and a small one, but a leak nonetheless. The plaster ceilings are definitely quite cracked. Salvageable? Who knows?

One problem that has come up more than once is our love for the setting of the place. How could this be a problem, you ask? Well, I'll tell you how--we're loathe to make any changes whatsoever for fear of spoiling it. That means parking a hundred yards from the house and endlessly discussing where we should/should not put a driveway, barn, garage, insert outbuilding or landscape item here. I knew that reconciling beautiful history with modern convenience was going to be tricky.....but I just didn't realize how tricky it would be on the outside of the house! Sheesh!

Claustrophobia!!! Aaaaaaaagh!

You might ask yourself how it's possible that we could be claustrophobic in a house that is double the size of the one we used to live in. I'll tell you how: we brought our own stuff and mixed it with someone else's stuff, and now we just have TOO MUCH STUFF. It's crazy. There are rooms where I'm not even sure you could turn around. You have to walk in, survey your fiefdom, and then carefully (carefully) back out, stepping back into the same footsteps you used coming in. Well, maybe it's not quite that bad, but it's close.

So V and I have decided that, come spring, we're going to make some decisions as to what stays and what goes. To that end, we'll need to inventory what's there in an attempt to get a grasp on it all. We still haven't tapped what all is in the house, I don't think. Nutty!

Some things will be easier than others. Certain pieces just aren't our style, and never will be, and don't seem to have any deep connection to the house, so those will be easier to send on their way. Other things will be much more difficult to box up and ship off. Guess we'll see where it all goes.

Short posts lately. I just don't have the energy to do much else. It's been one of those falls.

What we've found, or, "how many incredibly cool old things can a family leave behind?"

As I've mentioned, we bought this house as-is, including all the contents, for better or for worse. I'm very happy to note that it has MUCH been for the better! Not only are we lucky enough to be in a house we just love, but we are also lucky enough to, almost every single day, find something notable. From ephemera to linens and furniture, we've stumbled across some amazing stuff. Here's a rundown of the highlights:

• a wedding invitation dated 1891
• a commencement week program dated 1892
• four whole years of The Etude music magazine, 1909-1912
• a book of postcard views from the 1893 Colombian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair)
• a lovely silk taffeta parasol
• several late-1800s textbooks
• Valentine's day cards from the late 1800s
• the original shutters to the house
• several replacement slates for the roof--those will come in handy someday!
• several "liniment" bottles
• numerous old picture frames, some with pictures in, some empty
• a lovely cast-iron (read: HEAVY) fireplace screen

But wait, there's more! Also of note: the original outhouse still stands to the northwest of the house (it's a two-seater). And the wooden clapboard siding is reputed to be hiding out underneath the steel siding that's currently there.

We love this house. We seriously do.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming

I'm sure you've all bitten your nails to the quick waiting and waiting and waiting for the next post. Well, wait no longer, massage some Burt's Bees Cuticle Cream into those poor fingers, and let's head upstairs!

In general, the trim is much simpler upstairs, where no one but the family would really have been expected to see it. The upstairs floor plan mirrors the downstairs for the most part. instead of the kitchen and porch-turned-bathroom, there is a single large bedroom. The other three bedrooms all correspond in size to their level-one counterparts. Thus far, two of the rooms are habitable. We needed someplace where we could extend an arm halfway and not hit a box(!!), so we set up our bedroom and a guest bedroom fairly quickly after moving. I will not fib, here...it sure does feel gooooood to walk into those rooms! They feel inviting, and even with what is most assuredly far too much furniture, they still feel roomy! For the first time ever, I get my master bedroom with a sitting area! I'm practically beside myself.

The room that will take the most significant redecorating is the one we're planning to use as our office. The other three bedrooms have heart-pine hardwoods, nice subtle wallpaper (not exactly to our style, but it's still quite nice). The office, however, has seen some redecorating that we will be undoing as we go along.

Here are a couple of pictures (I'm tired of typing for today):

The soon-to-be office













One of the bedrooms

Happy Halloween!

I'm going to take a little break from the house tour to express my deep and fervent wish that our other house sells QUICKLY. It's no fun to have V living there and me living here.....not to mention the headache of having two mortgages, two of each utility bill, two phone bills. Real fun.

In a cruel twist of the fates, it's already a slow time of year to sell a house, especially one that has a lot of good selling points (nice floor plan, good decor) but some major drawbacks from a buyer's perspective (no garage, kind of small, very little storage) as well. We have moved almost everything we own into the farmhouse, hoping that the lack of our stuff, with just a few life-neccessity items left for V, will help our house in the 'hood seem a bit bigger. We priced it quite a bit lower than what it's probably worth in an attempt to move it quickly.

Suddenly, those past episodes of "Sell This House!" and all of its relatives seem very, very important. C'mon, buyers!!!!

Drum roll, please

At long last, I give to you....the kitchen! I know, I know, I spoiled the whole surprise by putting a picture of it into one of my very first posts. Still, the shock value is pretty good, don't you think? I've heard other bloggers refer to it as camping with a mortgage. We're definitely not quite at that level, but this is pretty primitive for us.

This picture doesn't show it, but when we moved in there was a built-in pantry/cupboard structure right about where I stood to take this picture. We had discussed in general terms taking it out and maybe moving the DR cupboard into its place, to liven up the kitchen and to make some room in the DR for our own furniture! Imagine my happiness when, one day, I drive up the lane to see a large pile of orangeish-yellow (same color as in the picture) wood next to the kitchen door. My absolutely amazing hubby had called upon his mighty powers of demolition and had removed the offending cupboard in its entirety! Moments later we were moving the DR cupboard into the kitchen.

What you see in the picture above is the extent (excepting the cupboard) of our cabinetry. It's a Youngstown metal cabinet with built-on sink. LOVE the sink. In fact, I have long had my eye out for one "just in case," but it doesn't look like I need to do that any more. The stove is in great working condition and just needs to be cleaned up. We had a vintage stove in our first house, and I bemoaned having to leave it behind. So knowing this one came with the house perked me right up!