Uncovering the Past

A few weeks ago, when my husband was working on the foyer, he had to rip out some pipes (old gas lines?) that had been in the house for a long, long time. These pipes were exposed (not walled in) and were just tucked into a corner of the foyer. Rather than dealing with them, previous owners had simply painted them to match their wall color.

The back sides of the pipes, which had not been visible until they were cut down, showed the vestiges of several different layers of paint. Much to my satisfaction, the order of these colors matched those that I had found in several other places throughout the house.

Soooo, I am now fairly certain that we know the original wall color of the house, as it looked in 1897...

This mauve-ish color looks to be the original paint. This color, together with all the natural woodwork (before it was painted many, many times) must've looked really beautiful.

I am a regular Nancy Drew.

Sneak Preview Time!

Oy vey, one month since my last post! So goes Summer in blogland, I guess. Well, my family and I enjoyed a very nice vacation in the White Mountains last week (see, I'm coming up with excuses for not blogging - that means at least I care). We got rained on about half of the time - but it was still nice and very much NEEDED!

I thought I'd share a little sneak peek at what my very talented husband has been up to. This project is whole-post worthy in and of itself, but I don't have the before pics with me and he's not quite finished, so that post will have to wait a couple weeks or so. This is a little corner of my beautiful, new foyer (complete with brand new wainscotting done by said husband)...

I absolutely love it! I feel like a little girl at Christmas every time I look at it! This wainscotting might be my single most favorite thing my husband has done to the house. This is better than flowers and chocolate! Don't bring me roses - bring me wainscotting!!!

Incidentally, those framed pictures are of our house in 1952. My husband found them in the attic shortly after we bought the house. Apparently an arsonist set fire to the church next door in 1952 and our house appeared in some of the fire-related pictures. Very cool to have pics of the house from that era. It's hard to imagine that the house was already 55 years old in these pictures!

Okay, now for one more little sneak peek...

This is our new tin ceiling in the foyer. Well it's actually faux tin - but don't tell anyone, okay? I cannot get over how real it looks! We used this* product from Armstrong and just put a few coats of silver spray paint on it before hanging. Oh, how I love my new ceiling! (not as much as my new wainscotting, though ;) )

* http://www.armstrong.com/resclgam/na/ceilings/en/us/prod_detail.asp?itemId=44552.0

Better Late Than Never

Admittedly, I should have started this blog about three years ago. And yes, this is another house blog. After some consideration I decided that not only might this blog interest a few other people, it would also be a great way for me to document the (planned) transformation of our new house. Okay, here's a little background:

In April of 2005 my husband, Michael, and I bought our 3000 sq. ft. money pit from the Methodist Church in our hometown. The Church had owned the property for over fifty years and in that time it was a parsonage, a Sunday school, offices and rental property. Needless to say there was a general lack of TLC given to the house during those years.

Initially, based on city records and our Deed, we believed the house (a quasi-Victorian) had been built in 1910. Not so. Upon further research, we found the house clearly depicted on a map dated 1900 and a Mr. Cobb lists the house as his residence in a city directory in 1898. We now believe the house was completed either in 1897 or 1898 - we're still looking into it. One thing we know for sure is that the house has changed hands no more than three times in its 110 year history. Pretty cool.

Starting in the Spring of '05 my husband and I began the extensive, whole-house renovation that has consumed us for the last three years. We started at the top, and worked our way down. For the first year and a half, the house was totally uninhabitable and we lived with my husband's parents while toiling away on weekends. So far, the third floor has been completed, the second floor is about 75% done and the first floor is about 75% done. Oh, and my husband just had to build a deck this spring. :) Here are some pics of his handiwork (yes, I know I'm lucky to have him - he reminds me ALL the time):

Oh, and here's a pic of the actual house. Well, this is what it looked like the day we closed - I'll have to take an updated pic later today. The outside of the house wasn't in bad shape - just some minor cleaning needed. Our "Someday" plan is to remove the vinyl siding and replace it with clapboard. Someday. Like, after I win the lottery...

We call that paint color on the front porch "mac 'n cheese." It has since been repainted white.

Well, I think that's about it for my first post. Hopefully someone out there in the blogosphere bothers reading...