Beebe -- our 1935 Bungalow on Baker Street.

[Lily left the valley]

Lots of stuff that's hard to make it sound interesting has been ongoing. Nothing image worthy yet, but some bits are coming together.

We stopped by PYCA today. She was so nice, gushing about the house again. She was so amazed at how much was still original. She asked if I still needed shelves in the cellar, to which I said, "you've seen it. You know I do." Then we laughed.

She also had an older and sturdy though light metal shelving unit she had picked up at the clean out because it was part of the deal, but she didn't want (some rust that will need wire brushing at the base), so I took one half, Floor Manager took the other, and we beat the rain home without having to break into a run. (Don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but the shop is a short walk from Beebe. Ten minutes if you lollygag along the way.)

It went straight into the cellar, and I'm a bit tuckered at the moment to sally back down there with the camera, but they're average looking for the time, so no loss, I don't think, as folks can imagine it in general.

I now have a glimmer of hope that some time before July's end, I may have some reasonable set up started in the cellar for a workbench and tools.

I also found this beauty while we were there. I wish the picture was better so folks can see how lovely and perfect the cast details still are. The decorated shaft of the bolt is 4" long. The mechanism works well. It has some heft, let me assure you. You would not want to get socked by someone holding this in their fist. I'm not sure where this will go yet, but you know I have a few notions already.


And now I'm staring out the window, and realizing the sun is beating through the clouds again. Glad I managed to get one load of laundry out on the line and dry despite the early morning shower where I almost went right back out and brought it in.

I still have some yard bits I'd like to squeeze in today, but it's been a long day already. I was trying to beat the rain by starting laundry at 7am. (Not a lark, nope. Not one bit.)

Sounds like you're making great progress and scoring lots of great stuff!{snip}

So far I've managed never to fall down any of these stairs but at least you'd only bump into the door on the other side of the stairs (less than 3 feet away, those stairs are usually only 80 cm wide) instead of falling straight down the stairs.

We are darn lucky, I think. It also helps that the PYCA lady is an old house lover herself, and she knows how much it means to me to get wonderful stuff like this.

Interesting that the step down is more typical there. I want to say I've seen it in another home before (and just as narrow), but I can't recall where.

Who knows when we'll have sleepover guests, so cart before the horse, so to speak.

[Texas_Ranger]

I think I actually took this picture to show the horrible quality of the DIY store special doors in our AirB'nB but it does show the step, looking out of the front bedroom. Stairs are just to the left of the door frame. The second pic shows the stairs going up, these beasts are steep and narrow! I measured just for the fun of it, slightly more than 45 degrees! I believe each step was 21 cm deep and 22 cm tall. The whole house was only something like 3.9 m wide!

[Lily left the valley]

So we finally got the first task we had set for ourselves done--setting up a weekly chore calendar on a white erase mini weekly calendar/corkstrip thingy I had. It sounds silly, but it was really needed. We even filled in a few non chore household projects to set short term goals, like "put together white bookcase" sorts of things. We specifically agreed to set one day aside in any given week for no chores. Using the white board gives us flexibility, because we rarely know his schedule more than a week in advance, so we can alter it each week that he'll be busier so that he doesn't feel overloaded.

One of the other things we marked down for this upcoming week is starting to get tools moved into the cellar. That means of course there will be next to no rain at all, so I'll be going mad working to organize what we have furnishings wise, and planning out what to build soon after as the yard gets less time than I'd like.

One thing I did realize from my bout of insomnia is that when I don't get enough sleep, that's definitely a time when my brain runs wild, seeing every last bit that needs attention everywhere at Beebe. Fortunately, the longer days are now on the downward spiral, so that should help a bit.

We also discussed screen repair. Since we have different sized windows to an extent, I'm going to reuse what I can going downwards. Using one of the bigger sized from the dining room for a kitchen repair. Using the kitchen screen for the ripped out cellar screen. That sort of thing.

One thing I realized today was how much of the exposed wood on the exterior just plain has no paint anymore. Some of it at least needs some bloop or something. Very, very dry.

I'm also trying to plan when we might be able to swap the stairs around on the side door. I know this technically isn't a fire that needs to be put out, but the longer we wait to do that, the longer I don't fix the other issues related to the porch which have caused the rot under the sill that will also finally be fixed then. I don't know if we'll get to it this month, but I'm also thinking August might not be the most fun time to do it heat wise. So it may have to wait until September if I can't figure a way to make it happen sooner.

One thing I did realize I need to do is draft out the property so I can actually start planning the yard out with all the bits we hope to do. I know this doesn't mean we'll do it all at once when we start working on it, but I also don't want to do something--we'll call it Step 1--thinking it's ok, then realize later when I get to Step 2 that Step 1 is now done wrong because I didn't map things out and my best guess on how things would work was off even if close. So...me and rope and a tape measure this week or next, depending on how the other planned things go.

I think I actually took this picture to show the horrible quality of the DIY store special doors in our AirB'nB but it does show the step, looking out of the front bedroom. Stairs are just to the left of the door frame. The second pic shows the stairs going up, these beasts are steep and narrow! I measured just for the fun of it, slightly more than 45 degrees! I believe each step was 21 cm deep and 22 cm tall. The whole house was only something like 3.9 m wide!

The stairs to the second floor at the servant's quarters I used to manage were an awful lot like that, sans carpet. No drop landing, though. The stairs there were narrower, I think, looking at your picture. You couldn't even get a standard slimline sofa up it without removing the hand railing and the footers on the couch. When we lived in the upstairs apartment, both of us fell down the stairs when they were wet--not at the same time, though.

You can see the "step" in this unrelated picture I took before. I thought I had one from the other direction, but this shows the step up to the hall. Only the room that picture was taken in has the step up directly into the room. The other two bedroom doors are at hall level.

Ah! Found another angle from the listing photos. Doorway to the right is the one I was taking a picture through in the above image.

[Lily left the valley]

Yesterday was four months to the day we closed on Beebe. That just occurred to me when I noticed the date, and remembered our closing date. Time has flown by, and thanks to this site, I have a recounting of the search, the insanity, the find, the loss, and the regain and held.

Sometimes, it feels unreal--that we not only own a home, but that it's a bungalow that retains so much that makes it a bungalow and wonderful. Beebe is quirky and overlaps periods in what she has. This is much like we, her inhabitants, are--a product of our time, and influenced by the times before and after and will be into the future.

There were honestly times when I thought home ownership was a dream that would never be realized. Yes, we do have a mortgage, but as long as we keep paying, it's an affirmative path towards making it singularly our home.

I still can't believe our crazy idea of moving to somewhere that we knew no one is working out, even if we haven't had much time to build a social network here yet--thank goodness for the web! I like my alone time plenty, but I do very much like sharing the company of good people too.

I'm still finding my pace here, and trying to get back some semblance of who I was working to be prior as it might fit within the context of living here. That, like the love we're putting into this house and the property that came along with it will take time, I know, and every day will be an exercise in quelling the flaming heart of wants.

It's amazing to be here right now, in the comfort of our home.

[Texas_Ranger]

The landing situation certainly doesn't look ideal but not all that horrible either. As much as I usually loathe that stuff I might actually think of some kind of LED strip light as a warning for guests if that was my house.

Not sure how wide the stairs were but my best guess is 80 cm at the base (30"), a bit less if you count in the handrail. Typical width in Austria is 120 cm (48"), maybe 100 in a very small house so 80 feels really cramped!

[Lily left the valley]

We managed to pick up some roadside freebies today while running an errand: 1 shower pole style caddy, a baby crib mattress (I'm planning to use it as part of an outdoor cushion making project), and two wire and frame wall shelving units that need some spot welds we plan to use in the craft room since there are no closets of any kind in that room. Oh! And I found a turned wood post topper, a brand spanking new wood baby gate (yes, another project in mind for that), and a surface rusted more rectangular than square spade with a broken shaft when I did a walk about today to clear my head.

I didn't take any pictures, but they're about what you'd expect, and you'll see images later when they get past the fixup stage. Not sure what I'll do with the post topper yet, but I can always give it away later, and it's small.

We wound up making a rather huge decision today regarding the front yard. I got the idea from a house in town I'd walked by that had a similar though larger slope. More on that in my garden thread.

I'm a little frustrated that I didn't get a lot done at Beebe today, but I know there will be days like that. We did spend a reasonable amount of time today after Sean got home discussing poor folk short term solutions to some of the projects that are stalled due to lack of funds. We've not made any firm decisions yet, but I'm very glad we at least talked some things pretty near to decision level, and now we can mull them over on our own before getting back to them. Nothing is a pressing matter or something that could endanger anyone with such fixes. They'll just be temp not so cosmetically pleasing solutions to minor matters.

I did manage to talk Sean into starting to go through the comics, and separately boxing the ones that he does not want to sell no matter what. I have been slowly setting things aside for sale, as I am getting nervous about the lower checks he's been getting because they cracked down on his OT. We're not nearly where I wanted us to be by now for certain project funds like the insulation. So if I can make up for that by selling what we don't need, all the better. Less clutter in our way, and more peace of mind.

The landing situation certainly doesn't look ideal but not all that horrible either. As much as I usually loathe that stuff I might actually think of some kind of LED strip light as a warning for guests if that was my house.

Not sure how wide the stairs were but my best guess is 80 cm at the base (30"), a bit less if you count in the handrail. Typical width in Austria is 120 cm (48"), maybe 100 in a very small house so 80 feels really cramped!

Both of my inlaws (which is honestly who we're worried about the most) have minor ambulatory issues, hence the concern. I wouldn't want to go as far as an LED either, given how rarely they'd be visiting. If either or both of them end up staying with us long term, we'd be more likely to yeild the downstairs office and move that into what we currently call the guest bedroom. Especially since that room is the one with no radiator in it.

We've talked about possibly back to backing an outlet in the hallway against one that's in the bedroom to put a nite light for company. They have the ones where you can direct them, and I think it will be adequate. It's one of the things I'll talk to the electrician about when we finally finish culling the list of all the little bits we need them to do when we hire one.

Our stairs are a bit wider at 33" (just shy of 84 cm), and the platform at top is 36" (91 cm ) wide under the step lip on three sides and 26" (66 cm) deep measuring from the nose edge back towards the hall wall. The really interesting thing is that there is another "step" along the wall you face as you come up to a fairly generous strip that is the same level as the hall to the right as you come up the stairs. We're not sure what it's for, but we've been using it as a landing zone for stuff that is coming up or needs to go back down. I forgot to measure it, but right now there's a big box for a combo printer/scanner/collator up there with a few more boxes that are empty now or had stuff in them (the dreaded mix boxes) that needs to go back down. I've slowly grabbed one on the way down each time.

[awomanwithahammer]

I also found this beauty while we were there. I wish the picture was better so folks can see how lovely and perfect the cast details still are. The decorated shaft of the bolt is 4" long. The mechanism works well. It has some heft, let me assure you. You would not want to get socked by someone holding this in their fist. I'm not sure where this will go yet, but you know I have a few notions already.

I have to ask--what is it? It's beautiful, but I don't recognize its function.

[Lily left the valley]

{snip}
I have to ask--what is it? It's beautiful, but I don't recognize its function.

Door stop/lock. You step on the bit at the top, which pushes the bolt in place, and then you can push the round button on the front there with your foot/hand which unlocks the bolt.


The project I first thought of, to be honest, was using this as a dutch door bolt for the dining room.

[awomanwithahammer]

Oh, I see now. I actually think using it on the dutch door would be nice. It would be more visible than way down at the bottom of the door. It would depend, I guess, on how easy it is to operate by hand rather than foot.

[Lily left the valley]

Oh, I see now. I actually think using it on the dutch door would be nice. It would be more visible than way down at the bottom of the door. It would depend, I guess, on how easy it is to operate by hand rather than foot.

The mechanism is fairly smooth, so it's not hard to hand operate in the push down to secure motion. I'll likely use the heel of my hand more than a single finger, though. The button you push to release is easy peasy.