Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Well, we'll see how long this lasts.


I suppose now that I recorded my deed and started tearing my house apart, it ain't going away anytime soon, so I may as well begin my own blog. Lookit, ma! I'm on the internet!

My house is not very big, and it certainly isn't very fancy, it's a very early bungalow mutt with some sort of early Craftsman influence. This picture was taken the day I signed the papers. Since then we cut the trees down around the house and the south side has been roofed.
My house was listed on the tax roles as being built in 1914. The last one to live here was Miss Andrea, who lived here from 1934 to 1990. After speaking with some of her family members, there appears to be some question of this house being moved in from their farm, which was somewhere nearby, and replacing a house that stood on the site.
At Miss Andrea's death in 1990, the house
was sold to a neighbor, who intended to use it as an antique shop. She never lived in it, but kept the lawn up and the house painted, and I bought it from her this summer. She likes old-fashioned things as much as I do, and kept it all original inside, and we've had lots of interesting conversations about fixing it up. She used to call it her "Doll House," and a friend of mine told me that it was a bumpy ride from the doll House to the Dog House, thus the name.

The house has 768 square feet; just right for a bachelor. There are two bedrooms, a walk-up attic, a large parlor/dining room, and kitchen.

The woodwork in most of the rooms isn't painted, and is very nice yet. All of the floors are fir, and are laid on a bias. The door in this picture is the front bedroom. All of them are like this, with the exception of the front door and dining room door, which have glass in them.

I had to put porcelain knobs on the doors because the dog can catch the oval ones with his mouth and open them, but he can't get a grip on the porcelain ones. Besides, I have been saving them since I was six, and it's a shame not to use them now that I can. (It's for that very reason that I am installing push-button switches on all of the lights-because I can!)





The kitchen has a built-in cupboard that takes up the whole north wall, and still has the old icebox and Tappan cook stove.
There is an awning on the windows, which opens and closes by a crank on the window trim just left of the cupboard.
You can see where the old wood stove was piped in, but that chimney is chopped off at floor level in the attic, and the rest will be shaking hands with eternity soon.








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