The Slatted Window

It's been awhile since I've posted anything! I am going to try and update the blog. Now that we are living in the house projects are going a litte slower. Things take 10 times longer when you have little 'helpers'. :)

 

Before we moved in we knew the window in the master bedroom would need to be replaced. We plan on replacing most of the windows in the house but this one was a top priority. It was an older window with slats on the outside. There is a screen covering the slats then these 2 pieces of thin wood that slide back and forth so you can open it. One side had the slats (see the next picture) the other side didn't. It didn't have anything except the sliding wood! A perfect way for someone to break in. We actually did have someone crawl through there when we were out of town. Our friend was watching our house while we were gone and she couldn't unlock the door so she had her son climb through the window! She said it was super easy, scary!!

 



Before.

Slats.

No slats.

From the outside. Ugly right?

 

We had our contractor come out and replace the window a couple of weeks ago. Just in time for the temperature around here to drop to freezing!

Removing the old one.

When they got the window out they said they found a souvenir. When these houses were built, the windows were on a pulley system. There were weights that hung down inside the walls to offset the weight of the heavy windows. He said when someone would come in and replace a window a lot of the time they just cut the cord and let the weight fall. He pulled it out for us before they closed it back up.

You can see the wheel where the rope would go through. We have seen homes that still have the rope and wheels exposed but they are usually painted over and the windows don't open/close any more. We had no idea they were in there because the new window covered them up.

Finally, our new window!

With a sliding part and screen. Hopefully no one will try to break in. :)

The finished Floors

Refinishing the floors has been our biggest project so far. It was nice that we had someone else do it and we didn't have to worry about messing it up! It took the guy about 4 days to do it and we are so happy with how they turned out! He had to sand several layers off and was working one night until 3 am! Now if I can keep them looking nice I will be happy. :)

He found a spot that needed to be patched in front of the kitchen

 

This is the patch over the weird secret hiding place.

 

Living room after day 1 of sanding.

Master on day 1

Master on day 2

Craft room on day 2

Master finished!

Love the finished living room! So different from what it looked like before!

The craft room came out the best. Remember the dark square in the middle? Gone!

Finished patch. We don't really love that you can really tell the difference between the old and new wood but what else could we have done? We are hoping the new wood wears a little and starts to blend better over time.

The hallway.

 

Here are the before and after photos:

 

 

 

I thought I should throw in some pictures of the one room we had carpet put in. Much better than the sparkely linoleum right?



 

The Move

I know I have been neglecting the blog, but we are in the house! We moved in Tuesday night and I have been busy dealing with boxes. Lots and lots of boxes. Sigh. I will catch up on posts soon!



The Questions

The thing I love about old homes is that they are mysterious. We always wonder what they were like 100 years ago. What kind of decor and furniture? What were the tenants wearing when they walked through the rooms? Were they business men or farmers? Wealthy and well known or just a plain family?

All of the houses we looked at prior to buying this one had some sort of remodel/add on done. I don't think any of them were in their original state and design. Now that we are in this house and starting to tear things apart we have other questions like, "why would you put linoleum down on a bedroom floor?"

Seriously? It's sparkly.

And what is this? The linoleum stops part way through the hallway and the wood is exposed.

 

We discovered that there used to be a wall where one of the bathroom doors now stands. Did you need to cut it open and put 2 bathrooms right next to each other?

Right now we are really trying to envision what the master and craft rooms used to be. The shape of the darkened areas suggest that the wall where the closet is did not exist. Neither did the wall separating the two rooms. Our current theory is that it used to be one large room, perhaps used as a dining room and that the stairs actually came down and landed in that room not the current living room. It's typical for these older homes to have the stairs towards the back of the home or not right in the entry way (although there are a lot that have them right when you walk in the door). Maybe one day we will do some major demo and put it back how we think it may have been in 1912.

 

The Centruy Old Wood Floors

I am really excited about the projects that are going on this week! One of the things I really wanted our house to have was original wood floors. At least in the main living room. When we got in and peeled up a corner of the carpet my hopes of this happening dwindled. The floor in the living room looked horrible! Our contractor mentioned that they might not be salvageable. My heart broke a little bit. The floors in the other 2 rooms and hallway seemed to be in good shape.
We were given the name of a wood floor guy and had him come out and look at it. He said he would be able to refinished the floor in all 3 rooms! Yay! My hope was restored! So, all of the carpet came out and the work began. This is supposed to be a 3-4 day process. It's also one of the more expensive projects we are doing so it's kind of a big deal. I can.not.wait to see the finished product!

This is the living room. We are not sure what is covering the wood. Wool? Horse hair? Carpet padding that was on there way to long, deteriorated and got stuck? Who knows!

 

There is this weird patch in the corner of the room. I really wanted Daniel to pull up some of the boards to see if there was hidden treasure under neath. He didn't want to mess with it. :(

 

The hallway that leads to the master and craft room.

 

See the difference between the living room and the hallway? Why are the floors so different? They were both covered in the same carpet so they must have been covered different a long time ago!

The master. This room has the same weird dark square as the craft room. Russ (the floor guy) thinks at one point it may have been partly covered in some sort of vinyl and the glue darkened the wood over time.
This is the second day Russ has been working on the floors. I went over there to check on the paint in the master and I have to say, the floors are looking pretty nice. The paint color in the master, not so nice. We bought the wrong color. Oops. Anyway, he should have one layer of whatever he is covering the floor with on tonight. I might try to sneak over there and see it. :)

So for now, here is a sneak peek of what the living room looked like after 1 round of sanding!
  

 

The blue room demo

Our kids call this the 'blue room' for obvious reasons. This was the place they would play or watch movies while we were working. This week we Daniel started the demo process. I am willing to help paint or pick out trim but sanding the texture off the wall and patching holes and cracks is not my thing. Daniel is very good at it and has been working on this room the past few nights. My vision for this room is super cute, can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

 

 I guess the 100 year old walls can't handle the scraping and pounding. There are a few of these that need to be repaired.

 

The one place

We spend a fair amount of time over at the house. Usually if I am there so are the kids. It's kind of a mess with all of the wall scraping and carpet removing. I really wanted one place in the house that feels "done". The kid's bathroom is in pretty good shape so we are not going to be doing anything with it for awhile. So I took myself to Target and got some pretty things for it! A new shower curtain, rug and towels. I love it. Now on to unpacking the bathroom things I took over there...