We frequently find ourselves converting formerly nice clothing into work clothes as we stain it with paint, snag it on nails or other similar things. It isn't that we don't have a ton of work clothes already, it is simply that we sometimes find ourselves motivated to work on a project and unmotivated to change. Or since we don't live at the Big Purple House yet, we occasionally find ourselves over there with a chance to work on something, while our work attire is still at home.
Yesterday was one such occasion. We had a bit of time and a big pile of wood that needed to be carried our dumpster. Although I was wearing flip-flops and a skirt, I some how managed to not rip holes in anything or injure myself. My husband on the other hand was almost properly attired. He was wearing work shorts, a t-shirt, and Tevas. His clothes are fine, but by not wearing proper work shoes, his foot did not fair so well when he dropped a 2x4 with a nail in it on his foot.
I told him a stigmata didn't count if he did it to himself, which he some how didn't find funny. Today is on a course of antibiotics, ibuprofen and has an up-to-date tetanus shot. Ironically, now the only shoes he can wear are the Tevas. I guess he won't be carrying any more nail-ridden wood for a while.
The house is coming along. I'm still dubious (as is everyone else) that we will meet our mid-April deadline, when our current house closes. But we have all the new windows in (with all their sashes) and all the new siding is up. 
The plumbing is for the downstairs is roughed in and tested.
Once we get some termite damage to a sill repaired, we can get the floors put back together and readied for tile in the laundry room and master bathroom.
My children, who have not been entirely sure that our move to the "big, scary, purple house" will be a good thing, are much more excited, now that they've discovered that the house comes with a whole family of "pets."
On the other hand, I am less than thrilled by the discovery. Indiana Jones and I feel much the same way about the critters.
A week ago, we put our current house on the market. We got one person who was desperate to see it that night, so we were disappointed the next morning to hear that it wasn't what they were looking for. We had one showing on Saturday, but never heard anything. Our open house was on Sunday and we returned home afterwards to be greeted at the front gate by our realtor with the news that we not only had an offer, but an offer for more than the asking price. I guess location really is everything. Too bad we are moving to a less desirable one.
Anyway, assuming the appraisal and inspection go well, which we have no reason to believe they won't, we'll be closing in mid-April. Which means we really need to get things moving along at the Big Purple House. Right now there isn't a working bathroom, kitchen or laundry room. In fact, the water is totally shut off over there and the only "plumbing" is the port-a-potty in the front yard.
However, great strides have been made in that department in the last two days. I believe that by the end of today, the plumbing for most, if not all, of the downstairs will be roughed in. If we can get our concrete guys in to cover things back up and get the sub-floor down next week, perhaps we could be ready for tile very soon.
Naturally, I've been working on something pretty much unimportant. I put in the contract that I wanted to divide plants and take some things with me. So I've been out digging up the flower beds, dividing almost everything. Where I'll put things over at the purple house where there are no flower beds at present, is another question.
In order to save money, we're using a lot of salvaged items. Sometimes, of course, really cool salvage might be quite expensive, but in our case, the things we're using are not pricey.
We're reworking the whole back of the house, moving a doorway and some windows. Most of the things back there weren't original anyway. Half of the back of the house was once a back porch that got enclosed at some point and the enclosure wasn't done well -- leading to our having to rebuild some of the walls and part of the foundation. So we pretty much had free reign to put things back there where we wanted them and we could use any size windows and doors we could find.
Naturally we wanted things that would suit the house, but when dealing with things you don't order brand new just for the house, sometimes you have to make compromises.
Our biggest compromise is the new back door. It was found at a Habitat Home Store and since it had sat around for a long time, they sold it for $30. It's brand new, never installed and from Pella's architectural series. It's a gorgeous and huge door that will let in a lot of light in our new kitchen. Unfortunately, it is also a prairie style. But for the price, we decided we could live with something less than perfectly architecturally matched.
We also got two long, narrow, wooden one over one windows at the Habitat store. These were also brand new and never installed and both from MW. One was in perfect condition, but since it had been sitting around for a while they sold it for $50. The other was missing the bottom sash. They sold it for $10. It drove my husband nuts to chase down the necessary competent people at Lowes, but we got the sash ordered. It cost about $51 for the sash, which should be in, in the next few days. They aren't as big as the original windows which were wider and about 8 feet tall, but being wood and one over ones like the originals keeps them from standing out as different.
And then finally, we are using a real salvaged old window, which was also a bit of a compromise. I wanted a decorative window that matched the diamond pattern in the front windows of our house to sit over the clawfoot tub (also salvage) we'll be installing. The only windows I found that were an exact match, were pretty expensive. We found one with bigger diamond panes for about half the price of the perfect matches and I think it goes well enough.
We'll be trimming the door and all the new windows with trim that matches what's original to the house and everything has been installed at heights that are in keeping with what is original. While a later owner may easily be able to tell that none of these were part of the house, I think we're mostly maintaining the character and style -- or at least in the case of the back door, putting on something really nice that some one with more money can replace later.
The NY Times has an article about post-renovation depression. Once people finish their projects they find themselves depressed thinking about all the things they could have done and wondering what to do with all the free time they find themselves with.
For a split second I wondered whether I would be depressed when we finished our renovation. Then I remembered two things. One, we have four children that we homeschool. Filling empty time has never been a problem. Two, we'll never actually be done with our renovation.
Problem solved.
(The NYT article spotted by my buddy NBS.)
Apparently at some time in its past the Purple House had so many termites dining on it that it's a wonder nobody actually heard them gobbling away. Or maybe they did. Fortunately for us, we haven't found any active colonies. Unfortunately, every time we turn around, we find more old damage.
When we bought the house we knew one sill had some termite damage. We didn't know it how extensive, until we pulled the floor above it up. We've found a few other sills that also had extensive damage and the whole back of the house seems to have had a major infestation. The good news is that because we found termite damage to the old sheathing when we were taking off the siding on the back of the house, we're going to be able to insulate the kitchen from the outside without ripping down the plaster on the inside. Not the ideal method, but now the whole back of the house will be insulated, sheathed and Tyveked.
I think I'll be spending next winter in the kitchen, laundry room or master bathroom. I guess that means life won't really be changing much.
Thanks to the Big Purple House, we've added a whole new assortment of acquaintances. First, there is the previous owner -- she was a stripper. The carpenters she stiffed on redoing the kitchen and whose tools she stole? -- they are identical twins, country musicians and excellent cabinet builders and carpenters. Thanks to the previous owner, we've had our first ever encounter with a repo-man. The neighbor across the street is a French interior decorator specializing in faux painting and fancy plasterwork. The guy who does most of the lawn care in the neighborhood and who we got to help us clear the jungle goes by the sole name of Junior. We got Crazy Billy to cut down our tree, and made another neighbor mad in the process.
We're sorry to be leaving the neighborhood we live in now, but we sure will have more interesting stories to tell about the people who came into our lives thanks to the Big Purple House.
That's where I've been for the last week. Last Monday or Tuesday our real estate agent called and asked if, although our current house isn't on the market, if we'd be willing to show it over the weekend to a house-hunter coming in from out of town.
Of course we were, and what followed was a week of frantic house cleaning and packing. Fortunately, we'd gotten a Mobile Attic storage container delivered to the back yard a few days before, so we actually had a place to stick the stuff we packed up.
Our house has never been as clean as it was on Sunday when the buyer came through -- not even when we had it on the neighborhood home tour last April -- then I didn't let people look at my closets or bathrooms. But we didn't get an offer.
That would have been too good to be true, I suppose. I'm sorry to have not gotten the place sold without even having to list it and go through open houses and the like, but apparently the buyer wanted an old house she could muck up remodel into something modern. Our house is already not particularly pure and untouched, but it still maintains a lot of the character and feel of an older house and I would sort of hate to see someone come in and transform it into something really modernist. So I'm not particularly broken hearted that she didn't buy it.
The good news is that we're farther along towards being ready for listing the place than we would be otherwise. The bad news is we still have to paint.
One of the first questions people ask when they hear we bought a purple house is whether or not we intend to change the color. In fact, all our neighbors asked the same thing. It's really more of a lavender than a Barney purple, with grey and black accents, but I can't say the colors were ones I would have chosen.
I can't say I love the colors and I don't really think they are historically right for the house, and the previous owner didn't even do a great job on the painting, but it is freshly painted. It's definitely better than nothing and gives the house some protection from the elements.
There are plenty of other things for us to spend money on, so until it absolutely needs repainting our neighbors are just going to have to get used to purple. I think it will look a lot better once I dig out some flower beds and get my hands dirty with some landscaping projects.
Unsurprisingly with four children, I do a lot of laundry. So while we are planning the arrangement for our the laundry room, master bathroom and all, I asked that we find some way to put a pass-through door from the master suite into the laundry room-- sort of like a sideways laundry chute. So our architect added one to our plans. I'll be able to stick clothes from the master closet right into the laundry and send them back the other way.
Also dropping into the laundry room will be a laundry chute for the clothes from upstairs. We had one in the house I grew up in in Ohio and I loved being able to through my clothes down, although I confess to often stuffing too much down at once and having to find a broom to unjam the thing. Maybe it will encourage the kids to pick up their laundry, at least until the novelty wears off.
When we first started looking at the big purple house, we called it a Victorian. But it didn't really seem all that Victorian. It's almost perfectly symmetrical and the window and door casings really seemed more like those in a Craftsman house. It was also built in 1909. Some folk Victorians were still being built, but it was really the end of the era.
So we started researching the style. First, we went to the Metropolitan Historic Zoning Commission's website and pulled up their documents about guidelines for the area into which we were moving.
In their guidelines, they refer to the purple house's style simply as a "Turn-of-the-Century" which is an unsatisfying name, to say the least.
We wanted to find out more and see if another name existed. So we checked out A Field Guide to American Houses by by Virginia and Lee Mcalester. And there it was -- our house is an eclectic Neo-Classical cottage. Also, worth noting, it is essentially a one-story Foursquare.
So now we know.
Work at the Big Purple Money Pit continues. We got the rest of the hall bathroom demolished and pulled out the bath tub. We had considered leaving the tub in place, but are happy that we pulled it out. The joist under it had been cut at some point and it was essentially unsupported. It would have really sucked to start a bath on the first floor and finished it in the basement.
We've almost got our ideas hashed out with the architect for how to finish the back of the downstairs and rework the upstairs.
I must admit that I'm feeling beaten down by the process. It seems like we'll never be able to put the house back in order and live there. Right now, with no working plumbing and several walls ripped out, it may arguably be less valuable than it was when we bought it, despite have a firmer foundation and new wiring.
I know it is now a sounder place and we're getting to the point where we can start putting it back together again, but it still feels like it's not coming together. Sigh.
This is what you look after you take down a ceiling in a house that was heated for many years with coal.
