An Samhradh 2007

The second floor living room is located across the landing from the bathroom. It also contains a nice bank of built-in cabinets. All the leaded glass is intact, and all hardware is present and accounted for. The ceiling pan-style light fixture is original, including the amber shades, although one has a pretty nasty chip. We scour the lighting section of second-hand stores and antique malls when possible, but finding a replacement may be next to impossible. However, I did see a desk lamp in a movie that looked close (on the Big Lebowski's desk, as I recall). The second floor bedroom is located off the living room, but it was another of the rooms that escaped documentation.

An t-Earrach 2007

Because we did not take the time to fully documenting the before and after on this project, I have only a handful of digital photos taken that show the pre move-in conditions. Since this is the short tour of the upstairs kitchen, this shot of the replacement sink is appropriate. Too bad we have no record of the awful stainless one for comparison. The newly constructed sink base and upper cabinet are darn good match to the originals. The tile on the cabinet top were left over from the bathroom floor project (waste not, want not). Since this photo was taken, we've also located a nice, almost vintage kitchen sink faucet with soap dish.

An Geimhreadh 2006-2007

Clean-up on these cabinets won't be too bad...except for the ubiquitous contact paper. All the copper-flashed finish cabinet hardware is intact. Another "can't believe someone didn't paint over this" sigh of relief.

An Fómhar 2006

This older shot shows the south wall's bank of pine built-ins and a giant electric stove (50s vintage, no longer with us). In true craftsman style, there's also a nice size closet to the left of the cabinets.

An Samhradh 2006

Continuing with second floor tour. Left of the upstairs bathroom, you'll enter the kitchen (future sewing/guest room). Floor here is covered with some great original linoleum. The brown/beige marbled-paper pattern is quite attractive, so it's here for the near term. Cabinets are constructed of pine with a mahogany stain, although it's a bit lighter than the built-ins from the other rooms. Like garments, old house features always come back into style, like the ironing board cupboard. It's also a keeper. In fact the only thing we removed in this room was a stainless steel sink and the painted cabinet it was housed in. We were able to locate a vintage kitchen sink to replace it. The new old sink is a close match to the original (this confirmed by former tenants).

An t-Earrach 2006

After another extended absence, I've decided to resume posting. Two events inspired me in this direction: completing the house trim painting (funny how a project can extend over almost 2 years) and a visit from three architecture students this fall. These three young women painstakingly measured and documented the dimensions of our first floor as part of a project related to a Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference to be held in June 2009. My goal is to meet my original (and scaled back once already) milestone of adding a post for every season since we purchased our new old house in the Fall of 2003. Back on track with Spring 2006...

I'll also interrupt the house tour theme to say a few words about the builder of our house, Frank Oldhaber. Mr. Oldhauber, with help from friends and family, built our present home block-by-block. He also fabricated the blocks on-site, one-by-one, using a cement block maker similar to the Wizard marketed by Sears & Roebuck.

The picture above was provided by the late Edna Anderson, Frank's niece. Although Frank's not present in this picture of the family, Edna is the babe-in-arms. We were fortunate to have Edna walk through the house with us shortly before her death. The photo dates from the early 1920s, the front porch of the house looks much the same as now, with one exception. At some point, iron pipe supports were added to the top of the half-pillars (perhaps to correct a sag in the porch). Not knowing if the supports were absolutely needed for support, we erred on the side of caution and left them in place. They're visible in the early posts.