1900s American Foursquare

[chocolatepot]

And now that I look again, I see that your staircase newel is the same as mine. I guess here in Northeastern Vermont they were still using styles from 10-20 years prior.

This comment made me think of something. Newel posts in this style were made for probably 45 years. I have catalogs from the 1890s through about 1940 that feature similar newels. For as long as they were made and as many companies that made them, I rarely see this particular newel post in any of the architectural salvage businesses I frequent. You would think they would be all over the place.

Nearly every house I went to look at, barring one or two that were probably very budget when they were built, had newel posts and stairs in this style - that's partly because I specifically wanted to see pre-1940s houses, but it also speaks to their popularity! Interesting that they don't turn up in salvage yards. I wonder if it's because (I'm not biased at all) they're so beautiful and timeless that even when people are updating their homes, they keep them?

You have the same weird bathroom layout that I do. I've looked at most old floorplans and usually the tub is right under the window.

The apartment I'm in now, in which the bathroom probably dates to the late 1920s, has the tub right in the window, and I definitely prefer that arrangement. But if the wall boxing in this tub were gone and the space had some more natural light, I'd like that too!

Re: the kitchen layout -

The back half or third, including the fridge alcove and the dropped ceiling, is newer than the house - it was originally a porch, and got enclosed at some point, probably in the early '80s with the rest of the big changes. I would bet they put in the outlets as a just-in-case move, as there's a door just to the right that disincentivizes you to put a table or appliance there permanently. (I have a small 1860s(?) table that I'll probably put in the middle of the floor instead, unless I find a better place for it.)

[chocolatepot]

I renamed my thread as it's official - yesterday I closed on my house! I did a walkthrough and took home a key ... but I won't be moving in until the end of December. The house is still occupied by the previous owner's daughter and her friends, who need until the end of the semester + a couple of weeks to move out. It's so exciting!

[phil]

...maybe that alcove where the fridge/shelf is used to also be a direct entrance into the dining room?

I was thinking either that, or if it's against an exterior wall, that it could have been an ice door there originally. Some houses from the 19-oughts up through about the early 1920s had a small door that allowed a block of ice to be inserted directly into the cold room from the outside. I've assumed this was done so ice wouldn't drip on the floors and so ice deliveries could still be made if no one was home.

Ive seen some houses that have a door usually near the kitchen that is split in half, or a half door. the purpose was so you could hang your laundry on the line in cold weather without letting all the heat out.

Congradulations , It looks really nice !


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[1918ColonialRevival]

Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing more updates!

[Gothichome]

Congratulations Cassidy. I look forward to following your old home adventures.

[Texas_Ranger]

I suppose as a short-term measure painting those German oak kitchen fronts would improve things considerably! Finishing oak in such a grim shade of brown was a fashion trend in the late 19th century I believe, usually combined with leaded glass. I can't say I like the original style either. The 1980s revival was often combined with poor lighting to make matters worse. Do you remember those old energy-saver bulbs that took five minutes to get to full brightness? Put them into parchment or fabric lamp shades in a dark brown kitchen and you've got a recipe for nightmares!

[chocolatepot]

It's been a very long time, but although I closed on the house at the beginning of November, the owner's daughter and her friends were still allowed to live there until the second week of December. I hired movers for the Monday after, but spent a lot of time before and after that moving boxes on my own to save money. It was a very drawn-out and painful process, but I'm now at the point where I don't have boxes everywhere, although not everything is where it needs to be yet.



Meet my little monster, Bonnie! She's about five and a half months old. She doesn't meow, only squeaks, which is adorable.

No opportunities to make any changes yet - because so much furniture was left and I needed to get mine in quickly as well, I didn't have the time to repaint or anything. But I quickly clogged my kitchen sink, which led to the discovery that the pipes were completely corroded from years of people using chemical drain cleaners (they split), and which also led to the non-functional garbage disposal being professionally removed. The upstairs bathroom faucet was leaky, and that resulted in a new one that's more to my taste and a bit more 1910s!

I've noticed that the wall between my bedroom and the room next to it seems to be newer than the rest of the house - I fell into it one day right next to the door, and noticed that it had a certain non-plaster-and-lath spring to it. Then I noticed that it actually overlaps the doorframe, and then I noticed that the frame for the door for the other room is also slightly smaller than the other frames on the floor. I don't think I will take it out, particularly as that wall holds the vents and I think all the outlets, but it's good to know.



I definitely won't be making any big changes soon, but I am starting to think about what I will be doing in more detail. The living room is a warmish shade of brown that just seems too dark to me, although it goes nicely with the faux-medieval ceiling - I want to replace it with some shade of sage green, which was also quite popular among Aesthetic/Pre-Raphaelite types. (I would LOVE to do a frieze, either some paper from Adelphi Paper Hangings or a stencil, but that's another level.) The moldings in the room also seem like recentish replacements and are springing off the wall in a few places, so I might take them down and replace them while I'm at it.

Starting to put together a budget and plan for the bathroom. That'll be a big one!

[mjt]

Cute furbaby. And congratulations about the house! Looking forward to see what you do with it.

[Lily left the valley]

Woo! Acquisition of old house achievement unlocked!

I'm sure your monster will help you settle into your new home. I see there's already been furnishing and entertainment offered up to her so she doesn't munch your toes while you sleep.

Without planning to, we ended up buying our house pretty much down the street, around the corner and another block up from where we were renting. We also made many trips by car (and me using my garden wagon when he was at work) before we got a box truck for the stuff that just was not getting moved any other way. (My spouse got swept up in the moving savings to the point of talking madness about pushing our parlor piano from the rental to the new house. When I pointed out the incline difference between the nearest intersection and our home on top of that hill on google maps, he stopped talking about it.)

Do keep us apprised of any other discoveries like the non-springy wall. Sorry to hear about the early plumbing headaches. I guess we were lucky in that nothing went awry with ours until seven months after we moved in!

Also, if you haven't seen Mick's thread about his home, take a look at what he did in his dining room. It seems comparable to some of what you are pondering (color/frieze) for your living room that it might help you decide what you want or not. I'm a very visual person, so I find it very helpful to look at what others have done and that helps shape plans, but YMMV.

Also remember that you can always paint the walls sooner, and do detail additions later. You've got time to pick a color before the weather is better for painting (ventilation/drying wise) if it really starts to drive you insane.
Looking forward to your future posts about discoveries, settling in and all the other bits that go with wonderful older homes.

[chocolatepot]

Been a long time, but not much happened this year ... My dad and I scraped the house and started priming a wall by hand, then decided to switch to a Graco Magnum X7 sprayer. We're converts!

I tried Sherwin Williams's "Lemon Chiffonade" on the first coat, but it seemed too pale, so in the end we went with "Butter Up". This is both more to my taste and closer to the "cream" on the 1916 Aladdin house paint card! Now we just need to make the window frames white - and I'd like to work some black into the trim somewhere as well. The original windows are all painted black on the outside, you just can't see them because of the triple-tracks. (Not that any of the triple-tracks are visible in this photo ...)



Speaking of triple-tracks, is there anything to be done with them? Mine are old and aluminum, so replacing with the newer dark ones would still improve the look of the house from the sides/back, but I would really love to switch to seasonal screens and storm windows instead. But as far as I can tell, Lowe's and Home Depot don't sell individual screens and storm windows. I've seen posts here about building your own screens, which is a project that seems a bit beyond me (sew a bustle gown? yes. build a screen? ... maybe), and constructing storm windows from scratch definitely is. For now, anyway.

And in even more important news, Bonnie has a brother:



Bonnie is now just over a year old, and Clyde is a little under. He's much more outgoing than Bonnie and pushes the poor girl around, but she often goes right back to playing with him afterward, so I think things are okay.