This Old House

A picture of our house in 1988.

Thought I would finally introduce you to my house today. It's drizzly, it's cold, and Aaron is absent from school today. My goodness, I've got uninterrupted time on my hands! I can't remember the last time this happened.

I started cleaning out my desk, and found my old photo albums. That lead to one thing after another...without further blatherings...here's the house. I'll introduce you room by room over the next few months ok?

The first picture at the top really isn't a good representation of when we first bought the house. We'd already done some work on it at that point. The following picture IS a good representation of the back of my house. Remember my sis-in-law that came by last weekend? That's her there! (Sorry Sherie. Love the socks.). She helped us quite a lot.

This is exactly what the house looked like the day we took possession in May of 1988. Playpen and all.

Here's a more accurate pic of the front of the house when we first got it. What I do know about the house: It was built in 1869. The Tucker Family owed it for 80 years, and it was Darlene Tucker (Marvel) that lives in the house up the hill that we bought it from. It was being used as a rental when we purchased it. It's a happy house. I can't put my finger on it, but there are good vibes here. About 1990, on a cold wintry December night, a frail old figure appeared at my doorstep. I opened the door to a wisp of a woman, looked like she was 90, if a day. She told me she'd grown up here and she'd love to see inside again. I whisked her in as quickly as I could. She said the house has pretty much remained exactly the same. She told me a few things about the house that confirmed some suspicions that we'd had. My bathroom (the room you'll see today) had been a pantry. One of the bedrooms had been two bedrooms. Makes sense that there were two doors going into one room. I could tell a wall had been knocked out.

Here's a pic of me, standing in the threshold of the bathroom and kitchen. I remember feeling a tad overwhelmed in this photo. Isn't the kitchen wallpaper lovely? This is what the kitchen looked like when we first bought the house. There wasn't a bank in town that would give us a mortgage on this house, because of the condition it was in. We bought it on a six month balloon contract from the owners. We had six months to make it livable. I'm not going to go into all the detail about the house right now, this post is going to be long enough. Suffice it to say, I ran to the mailbox, cause I didn't want anyone to know that I lived here. It has certainly been an adventure.

The bathroom, upon arrival. Yep, that is orange glued down carpeting. It was so lovely. (insert sarcasm here)

If you are eating or drinking anything right now, please put it down.

Here is the toilet the day we walked in. Seriously. I had to clean that thing. We didn't have money to buy a new toilet. Once we ripped up the carpet, we found that the toilet was falling through the floor. It was just about in the basement. The original oak plank flooring was under all of that carpet. It was ruined by water. The entire floor was torn out and replaced.

Now, here are the afters. I took these pics today. It's so gloomy outside that I had to use a really high ISO, and try to hold the camera extra still. Sorry for the poor quality.

Here is that same spot that I stood in 20 years ago. My house has gone through MANY changes. This is how it looks today, it probably will look a lot different in a couple years. I change things....alot.

When we tore out the floor and finally replaced the toilet, Glen put it in on an angle. I like it like that alot! Now, I do think this is the fourth or fifth 'look' my bathroom has had. It was very primitive country at one time, rather traditional once, and now this. There are some things I don't like about it, but I'm letting it go. I've bigger fish to fry that to worry if I should have something on the back of my toilet. Should I? Oh crap...now I wonder....I also realllly hate how close the bathroom is to the stove. I just can't think about it. It's an old house. I'm not remodeling. It's just is what it is. Oh, it's also the only bathroom in the house.

Glen made these built in corner cabinets for me cause I always had so much junk to display. He also made the base cabinets and counter tops. I'd like to change them, but it just doesn't seem too important to me anymore. I just keep painting them different colors. :-)

I know what you are thinking. Yes, we actually use this tub and shower. Yes, it's wood. Yes, yes yes. Wonderful story about this tub. My sister-in-law Sherie and I were shopping in Shipshewana, Indiana and she found this tub filled with pillows. It was $110 I think. Might as well been $1100.00 at that time, we were so broke. Couldn't pass it up though. It's from the Civil War era. General Grant's home in Galena, IL has the same tub! When I look back at it now, I feel like we stole the tub, it was so cheap.

Did you know that most of my furnishing are from the trash? Yeppers. This lovely little chest was part of a dresser that I found in the garbage. Someone started to strip it, but didn't finish. I love it just like it is. One of my favorite things.

A closer look at the tub. It's lined in .....I'm not sure.....tin? Copper? All I know is I love it. The drain and overflow are so lovely and detailed. When you sit in it, you can have water up to your chin. Several friends have come over just to take a bath. I light candles for them, bake cookies and serve them tea or wine. It's a spiritual experience. I'm not kidding. There is healing in this tub!

Glen, in his infinite craftiness, put an old pump for the water to fill the tub. I love it so much it hurts. I started to clean up all my 'product', but hey...gotta keep it real.

A couple of my favorite little vignettes in the bathroom. You do know it's all about the vignette don't you? A little card that a friend gave to me, framed. My gardening soap and hand brush, and a couple of old bottles. I love old bottles. I have a little collection.

I light the candles on this shelf when I bathe sometimes. It lights up all the little bottles. It's very beautiful, and calming. Sigh. Then I see that Glen left the Blue Lagoon ladder out in the middle of the yard. Nice.

If you are interested in what brought a girl from the Southside of Chicago, out to the sticks of NW Indiana, how I slept with an axe for the first two weeks here, how the flies didn't even want to live here........tune in next time.........