Beebe -- our 1935 Bungalow on Baker Street.

[phil]

with mine , since I had it down to bare studs, I made a header and moved a couple studs to get bigger doors in there. the short wall is 4'
the corners between the knee walls and the ceiling, I rounded, so it looks more like plaster. It was a lot of work to get that right.
my house has a pair of closets at the top of the stairs, it provides a big bedroom and another weird U shaped room. I planned to use it for my radio repairs because I like the light and view. it doesn't really have room for a modern sized bed in there. I didn't change much from the way it was. If I did it again, I would have eliminated all the doors and closets that add separation because the only windows are on the gable ends. my neighbor put a little low wall and a bathtub up there. no separation between the bath and the bedroom. a little weird I guess but it actually seemed to work for her.
my bedroom is on the side of the street, Its a bit loud. If it were reversed it would be more peaceful. I got all that space finished and pretty nice so I don't see changing it all now. I think maybe all the stairs, to the attic and to the basement were not there and basement access was from outside only. they slid my kitchen over about 4' to add the stairs up and the stairs down overtop each other. to get the 4' on the other side they changed the slope of the roof and ran it out further, made the house jut out a bit more on that side. maybe the attic wasn't living space at all originally. it does have windows. I have a short basement, I can stand ok in there but it is a bit low, about 3" short for a suite to be legal. the main is 9' the attic has a pretty low ceiling. one day I noticed that my basement floor is finished quite perfectly and the foundations have a lot of big rocks and rubble, maybe the floor was poured after the house was built, but I can see marks where the origional furnace was so the floor in the center of the basement so the floor was at least early on. maybe the carpenters made the concrete foundation from locally scavenged gravel, mixed onsite, and had a cement finisher do the floor after it got enclosed. could have been a dirt floor for a while. my house had the permit isued in 1924. maybe it took a year to build, then sold in '25, by 29 the depression hit. I think the family added the stairs up and down and put 2 bedrooms in the basement to incorporate the number of kids they had, or maybe some boarders. when I bought, it had old drywall in one basement bedroom. most of the walls downstairs had no insulation and just cardboard boxes nailed to the studs that were really old. it wasn't' well sealed and a bit drafty. the boxes had stamps from the train station , they were leather goods. so the boxes were from a place nearby that sold boots and things. I wonder if maybe the owner of the house owned the store or maybe just got the boxes from there. I was a little surprised that no one put effort into anything better than cardboard boxes for such a length of time. I saved the labels.

[Lily left the valley]

I mentioned in the "Today at my house" thread a few days ago about the plumbing "oh noes!" I'm shocked we've spent so much on water related fixes already this year (one planned, the other also planned but just not that soon), but both were well worth it and I'm just glad we had the funds to do so though now our emergency house nest egg will have to be rebuilt. If nothing else, I finally found a trustworthy and reasonable plumber in town for the things better left to the pros. When we can build the funds up, I'll finally have that section of pinholed sewer lines replaced (original) as well as the Drunken Weasel PVC with the taped seams because the idiot that installed them can't properly form a seal to save their life with 2 part epoxy.

As to other bits, this year has been, well, so 2020. Sean's still working his butt off, I'm still trying to hold up most of his end at home because he's just so tired all the time. Parcel counts have gone way up thanks to the shut downs, which means his days have been a bit longer and harder. He pulled something that is still affecting his left arm, but he can't get the time off to go to a doctor who's mostly going to tell him to rest it and let it heal anyway. Yeah...rest it...

Our area is also one where the fireworks have been near to nonstop since around Memorial Day. The boy kitties are affected more from it, but they've all been a bit more difficult of late. There are nights when the fireworks are so close I worry that this night is the one when the roof catches on fire. Yet, so far, so good. *knocks on wood* Other places have not been so lucky. We're one of the states where the fine is beyond painful if you are caught with them, yet people persist. I've been hoping things would finally die out with the 4th, but so far...nope. At least we haven't found any spent casings on the property which we have in prior years.

Like so many other folks we know, a lot that seemingly shouldn't be on hold has been. Part of that is due to Sean's workload, and part is my picking up on whatever portion of his chores he's just too tired to deal with lately. It seems ridiculous since we've no kids or aging parents to care for in our home, and I'm still not working even part time, but here we are. I'm sure no small part was all the hassle of trying to replace a car during lockdowns after Sean had his accident--it took ridiculously long and a lot of time felt wasted being on hold or for return phone calls since services we needed to reach for what's normally involved in a replacement after a wreck have been understaffed or outright closed.

There's also been some unplanned time spent talking people down/through things this year. Whether it's politics, the disease or a recent C19 case/death in the family, I can't remember spending so much time talking to people, whether on Discord or the phone since maybe high school. They're also not the kind of conversations one can really multi task during. The best I managed was sewing some buttons on things they'd fallen off of and some indoor seed starting.

There are things that have been getting to me as time goes by that have nothing to do with the pandemic but I guess maybe pandemic related factors are making them bug me more. The blah beiges everywhere. The projects barely or not started that have stalled or been set aside. Sean has been adamant about not starting any indoor projects this year until maybe fall unless they are emergencies (especially after the plumbing emergency), but my brain craves color and progress. I even tried to talk him into letting me start to strip the wood trim from the worst of the chipping paint on the porch and at least paint that something other than stark white. That got turned down too which maybe was a good thing because right after that "decision", we had rain for almost a straight week.

I also still haven't insulated the bulkhead enclosure because I still can't find that leak origin. I don't know if I mentioned that, but we bought some insulation this winter specifically because I realized with the frankenstein inner door combined with that one section of crumbling cement in the precast stairwell, heat was just running up the stairs and leaking out all over. Trouble was, when I went to install the first bit, I felt the water. Having still not found the leak origin, it's still not fixed. I highly suspect it's bad flashing somewhere, which means if I can't find it by August I'll start to rip off the small roofing bits until I can find the darn point of entry. We have plenty of "new" roofing that was here when we bought the place, and I bought more roofing nails for a different project so no additional expense unless I find bad rot somewhere. (Which, I'm pretty sure is Sean's fear, hence not wanting me to start peeling off roof bits.)

Even the garden is way behind, yet has also been one of the things keeping me from going bonkers from what time I've managed to spend out there. We've been calling this "the lost year" for the garden. Between the late snows and then the craziness with Covid, so much that was already being harvested last year isn't even in the ground. I'll leave the rest of that portion for my Park Ave. thread which I hope to post a lot more to later today. I'm still catching up on all the bits that were a hassle and a half to do without hot water on demand, so we just kept begging off. Almost caught up...any day now!

[awomanwithahammer]

Oh, goodness, Lily, it sounds like you've had a hell of a year. I'm so sorry for your family loss.

I'm retired and I watch my grandson a day or so a week. My mother had foot surgery 3 weeks ago, and can't drive, and we got word 3 days after her surgery that a unit opened up in the senior center where we've been on the waiting list for almost a year. So we're moving her in the next week. I don't know what day it is or what I'm supposed to be doing at any given time. And politics! I feel ya!

[Lily left the valley]

Honestly I almost didn't post most of that as it feels weird talking about the troubles and setbacks of this year because we're all going through something equally annoying/distressing/sad/etc.

Maybe I should be putting that stuff in the pandemic thread...

Anyhoo! Good luck with moving your mom. I hope it's a center that isn't one of the places that has been poorly handling the covid issue, hence the sudden empty bed. If it was me making that decision, I'd be terrified of putting anyone in a senior or vet center right now given what's been going on this year, but I'm sure you've done your research.

[awomanwithahammer]

Honestly I almost didn't post most of that as it feels weird talking about the troubles and setbacks of this year because we're all going through something equally annoying/distressing/sad/etc.

Maybe I should be putting that stuff in the pandemic thread...

Anyhoo! Good luck with moving your mom. I hope it's a center that isn't one of the places that has been poorly handling the covid issue, hence the sudden empty bed. If it was me making that decision, I'd be terrified of putting anyone in a senior or vet center right now given what's been going on this year, but I'm sure you've done your research.

I posted a response in the "stuck at home with the corona virus" thread.

[Lily left the valley]

Sean came home, and we went out to run an errand. We passed four doors at the curb with a "Free Doors" sign on the way there, and picked these two up on the way home.



With the frame, it's even the right size to replace the cheap modern door on the side of the house. I was also told before that our side door used to be just like our front door--which although hidden behind a modern storm door--is also a French door. Given how many homes around here bought from the same company, the door might also be an Angel.

[Manalto]

Nice find, Lily! It will bring some light into your house and some period correctness into your home.

[phil]

I managed to scavenge 4 nice ones with divided panes like that. I like the doors but I dont know where to put them. I thought I might make a separation near my front door but I dont really know if I want a door there. They didnt feel very secure to use as outside doors but have a nice unpainted original finish. i thought I might use the wavy glass to fix some of my diamond shaped leaded glass which is missing. I kind of hate to wreck them but sometimes doors can be a good source of nice old growth wood.
I picked up a huge fir pantry door. It was nicely made for some custom application but not used. I cut it up and saved the opaque glass. I made a bunch of wood strips out of it and Im using that to shim out my baseboards, making them appear thicker.

I have to stop collecting doors as they dont store too easily, but like with antique kitchen chairs I seem to just love bringing them home with good intention. I've heard the word "hoarder" used but I think its derogatory I prefer "maximalist" more is more, not less.

I decided that the reverse of "hoarder" should be "waster" , since they keep buying the same things over once they are needed again and it sounds equally derogatory.

[GinaC]

Oh wow, nice find! Those are exactly like some of the doors in my house! Two of them are present, but the other two were probably taken off in the 50's when people stopped worrying about closing rooms off for heating/smoking/cooking odor purposes. (And I am waiting for the current "open floorplan" trend to be exposed for the sham it is.)

I'd also really love to replace mine, because closing them will help the heat to go up the stairs instead of just floating out into the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom, which is not where people tend to be at night.

[Lily left the valley]

I forget how I stumbled upon it, but I found a vintage linen door curtain on ebay that would work really nicely in the kitchen with the colors we have in mind. I have not yet been thinking about details to that extent for that room yet since we haven't even repainted in there, so it's more an "Oh, nice" sort of random find.

Floor Manager approved, but it's in the UK and I'm having a hard time justifying the cost ($hipping) to myself because I'm the one that handles finances and it's not a hard need right now. So I wrote the seller today asking for exact dimensions thinking that might help sway me one way or the other. We'll see how that plays into things.

I have been trying to find something similar here in the U.S. (even if just the fabric which likely exists...somewhere...), but so far no luck. Meanwhile, the curtain has remained available.

Am I over thinking this...should I consider myself Fortune's Fool?