The pain of the stain

Our house has amazing old floors. But they are in desperate need of some loving. The stain / finish seems to have completely worn off in areas and I doubt they have received much in the way of sanding or finishing since they were put into place in 1933. When you wipe the floor with a wet rag they still shine a warm reddish honey. Unfortunately, I don't have many details on the flooring, but we know they are some type of oak. And that's about all.

And now, being completely uneducated in flooring, our floors, and floor colors, it's time to select the wood stain. Harder than I anticipated. May seem minor, but this is actually a huge decision considering the floors of every room in our house (aside from the bathroom) will be coated in this stain. It is going to be in every single room, including the kitchen. That means I'm going to walk on it every single day...sweep it, mop it, drop stuff on it, track mud and grime on it, complain about it being cold and/or dirty and hopefully - have it be my favorite part of the house... yep. this is pretty major.

Because we were unable to talk to flooring guy into preparing a sample for us, we attempted to sample the stains on the flooring ourselves. (Hopefully we didn't do any permanent damage.) Yes, we realize this was  likely not an effective test since we don't know how much to sand the floor, how long to leave it on, and we used no finish... but we thought it was still better than winging it and basing the future of our beloved floors on a 2 inch piece of paper (the sample deck).

We had a lot of choices, and considered a lot of these:



But we were able to narrow it down to three choices to attempt our sample. We did a lot of talking and finally decided on these three finalists in a very fair manner. One choice was based on Eric's first selection, the second was by me picking a color... and then...I picked the third color too (ha).

Early American - Eric's pick - I honestly think he just liked the thought of the name.

English Chestnut - my pick - warm brown, the darkest of our options

Gunstock -  warm reddish tones - my pick and my favorite. Everyone else is scared of the red tones...

Believe it or not, these are actually very different. Early American (left), Gunstock (center), English Chestnut (right). I need a new camera or maybe just a better flash.


We finally decided on English Chestnut with a satin (low gloss) finish!
Note -  my color wins! 

A sinking feeling

I will admit, I may have changed my mind once or twice during this remodel.

But there are a few very special things that I have known for a long time that I must have - someday. One of those things: farm house sink. I adore these big old classic sinks.

Even Eric is on board with my hunt for an affordable farmhouse sink (they can be a wee bit pricey). So, when we found one (below), we were pretty pumped and put in the order.


We got the call Friday that our sink was ready for pick up! It is in a huge box.  Very heavy. Two person lifting job. So excited to open it up! I opened it this morning to check it out; it doesn't quite look as good as the one we ordered...

Serious problem. They need the sink for the cabinets and counters to work. Which is happening very soon. Not good. We ordered two more today. One out of three has to be intact...right?

Demo Daze

The week of September 9th, I was traveling for work. All week. I felt like I was in a time warp. Which, I guess I really was, due to the drastic time difference between the East and West Coast.  But, really it just felt strange because I barely talked to Eric and when I got back to the house a week later, I realized that during my absence, the ball had started rolling...big time. I tried not to take it personally.

Eric dug up all of the bushes - by himself! 

We got a new roof! "Weathered Wood" Honestly, I thought it was going to be dark brown.
It was hard to tell on a tiny little sample swatch.

But it's not leaking - yet. The last time the roof was replaced was the year that Hurricane Hugo hit.
Yep, time for a replacement.
The antenna and awning are gone. The shiny flashing is now a matte black. 

And last, but not least, the demo started! 

The Kitchen was gutted!
The side wall of the pantry was removed  and new framing was added over the previous pantry door opening.  It is no longer a pantry, but a "fridge nook" - the fridge will slide into the opening. The wall separating the "butler's pantry/ breakfast area" from the kitchen was also removed. So sad to loose that precious arched doorway. 

The sink will go under the first big window and the "breakfast bar" area will be under the second set of windows. 

The room looks enormous with the cabinets and wall removed! 

Things are starting to move along! Note to self: travel more often. 

Snakes on a wall

I considered the need for a more clever title for this post, but then I realized - if a Hollywood blockbuster can be called "snakes on a plane" - why waste my time getting clever for this little blog?

It all started when we were cleaning out the basement. That's right. BASEMENT. In North Carolina. If you live in NC you know that such a thing is unheard of (Michiganders, trust me. It is rare). Even more unheard of, it also has an outside door. The beauty of little miracles.

A real basement! 

This is the basement door that leads to the side yard. Pretty crafty. And yes. It pretty much looks this creepy.

As we were cleaning, I foolishly made a comment about the lack of insects, spiders, spider webs and other unmentionables normally found in basements. Then I foolishly proceeded to ask "have you seen evidence of snakes?".

He proceeded to foolishly answer: "No. You are so paranoid. There are no snakes down here." (that is a direct quote).

I assume you can see where this is going. Like the movie, the title may have given the plot away.

A section of the basement is  just crawl space. Ours was filled with all kinds of rubble. But no treasures worthy of Antiques Roadshow....yet.  Here, Eric is panning for treasure (i.e. cleaning). 

In one corner of the basement is a small "cellar" type area that is separated from the rest of the basement with wood walls. On the wall was an odd looking tool of some type hanging from a nail. It was stuck there and, try as I could, I could not get it off of the nail. Something was stuck. I put my face right up against the wall so I could see what part of the tool was catching the back of the nail when I saw a glimmer on the wall - in between the board slats - it was just in the corner of my eye. What was it? I took another look. It was another eye. It belonged to this guy (or girl?).

Deadly poisonous snake on a wall? Does anyone recognize this print?

Yes. The snakes head was inches from my face. I very "calmly" stepped backwards and then very "calmly" called my dashing husband to my side. His first words "Get Ollie upstairs". Yes, save the dog.

Ollie is faking. He doesn't really like the basement. 

Dashing husband was able to use a tool to fling my new friend from the wall and onto the floor...where dashing husband eradicated the beast. The snake was long. But skinny and really pretty small. My concern, aren't those little ones the ones you need to watch out for?

We survived. Snake on the wall did not. Unfortunately, we have a lot of clean up to do in the basement. So, avoiding it indefinitely is not an option. Hopefully there is no need for a sequel titled "Snakes on a Wall 2." Sequels are always bad.

Salvage

It was the first weekend. We knew there were lots of random little treasures we needed to rescue before the the demo started. Especially because we wouldn't be in charge of the demo. Our GC was handling that. Terrifying. We got to work unscrewing, unhinging, removing and piling  all of our little goodies away for safekeeping. 

No, I don't have a plan for every cabinet door (art canvas?) and hook (mudroom organization?) and random little metal shelf (make up caddy?) that I insisted be carried up to the attic...but I'll think of something when the time comes.

Amazing glass doors with awesome old ice crusher. Very efficient. 

Eric saves the glass doors! Please don't mind awkward rip in rear of pants...we 're on a budget.

Must ...save...every ...single hook. Here I am in the pantry - future fridge nook - salvaging all the glorious hooks!

Lots of random boards from the pantry. I refuse to believe they will not come in handy. Ideas?

Future spice rack? That may have been its original use... creative failure. Gotta love that the hip little ironing board! 

Oh no. What is the definition of hoarder? Pack rat?

Introducing

Introducing : our new (first) house -

View from the front yard - gotta love that antenna, awning, and gigantic bushes.

Please come in! Glass door knobs on every single door! Complete with skeleton key. 

Butler's pantry in the kitchen - this must survive the remodel!  I love it.  I love it.

 

I adore this old kitchen... and that HUGE window! But there is no room for appliances with the current set up...problem.  

Red counter tops! You can not get this from the picture, but they are coated in layers and layers and layers of funky grime. 

Huge window (still in the kitchen) the widows crank out to open - so neat! Down side : apparent sacrifice area...  kidding!  It's some kind of rust/ paint. I think. 

Gourmet stove next to the built in ironing board. 

Bedroom number 3. With a wall of gorgeous old windows! 

Look at all the light! And that fancy AC unit. 

The floors are gorgeous. Just imagine how amazing  they are going to be when they are cleaned up! 

Bedroom number 2! That pile in the corner was apparently a cat's pee pad. 

Some type of technology called a "typewriter" and an old school desk! 

The ONE and ONLY bathroom. 

Love that arched bathtub/ shower area! 

Bedroom number 1. We are planning to use this as the master. 

Bedroom 1 - the Master. 

Front entrance, fireplace and awesome old widows! 

Living room and front door. 

Entrance from the breakfast nook/ butlers pantry into the kitchen. Beautiful framing of that fridge! 

 

French doors from the dining room to the front porch. 

+

The closer

I can not believe the amount of time that has passed since we first toured this house to this day. I have quietly been expecting something to fall through. I didn't know what it would be - but I was so certain that it would, I really didn't even want to talk about the house to other people...I was afraid I would jinx it. So many little parts had to work together. I didn't think they all could.  They did. We made it to close.

Since we received the letter on time, we were actually able to move the close date up from Friday to Wednesday. The closing was a bit tricky since so many parties were involved in this deal. This was not a traditional ownership with one simple seller.

From what we have learned, the couple who built and lived in the house in 1933 left the house to their two daughters when they passed away. Each daughter owned a 1/2 interest in the home. Daughter B was married and moved out of the house at some point. She later passed away, leaving her interest in the home to her husband. When Daughter B's husband then passed away, the interest in the home went to his two nephews (we are not certain if they had no children of their own, or if they too were no longer living). The nephews are both still alive and well and each one is married. That makes four.

Then there was the other daughter, V, she makes five. The one who, from what we know, has lived in the house essentially since it was built in 1933, or very shortly thereafter. She was never married. She had no children. She did not do a lot of home repairs :)

About a year and a half ago, she was no longer able to live in the home on her own and had to move to an assisted living facility. From what we know, she did not want to leave the house - and thus, it sat vacant for a nearly two years until it was decided that the property would need to be sold.

She was not able to come to the closing, but we were told, that took a lot of convincing by her Realtor and the other four co-owners. It seems V was convinced that she WAS coming to the closing. Who can blame her?

Only two parties were able to be present at closing, which meant their attorney in fact (one of the brothers) had to sign each document on behalf of himself, his brother, his brother's wife and the other daughter, V. It was a long closing. Our trusty closing attorney (below) maneuvered everyone skillfully through the paperwork. 

We all waited patiently while that poor man was required to sign as attorney in fact for those three other owners over, and over, and over again. And - when it was all over. We needed a drink. Oh - and I should add, Eric and I now owned a house.