My Not So Big Reveal

I'll admit that it hurt a little, temporarily giving up on the idea of a metal roof. We've been contemplating this decision for awhile now, and we really thought we could make it work. The man who came to give us our estimate was extremely cooperative on the pricing in return for having our blossoming homestead as a tour opportunity for eco-minded potential customers. Still, with the economy in the condition it's in, we were just sick at the thought of making such a big ticket purchase. We don't immediately need a roof (famous last words, right?), so it seemed most reasonable to postpone this project.

I'm a little disappointed, but there is plenty to keep me occupied. The gaps in our cold weather preparations are becoming glaring as our thermostat sits firmly at 65 degrees Farenheit. Time to channel the Spirit of Squirrel!

Lazy Day

This picture of my grandmother's shawl haphazardly thrown on a dining chair in the shadowy, barely there light of an autumn afternoon is the perfect image for this day. Raspberry leaf infusion warmed my child-bearing belly first thing this nippy morning and was replaced with hot chocolate in the afternoon as I filed away bit of paperwork after bit of paperwork. If you could see our bedroom floor... But that's exactly why you haven't. :)

Because my attention is shifting more and more to the home part of the homestead as colder weather comes on, I decided to try my hand at researching previous owners of our house. Though I'm extremely interested in the people who lived here before us simply because they shared this bit of life with me, I'll admit that I'd almost rather not know anything about them beyond their names. My imagination is full of romantic notions about things that might have taken place in this cozy little house, and I'd rather like to keep it that way! I know, it's silly. But it's true.

I'm researching these past owners anyway in the hopes that I'll be able to track down a living descendant and perhaps convince them to find a couple old pictures taken in this house that they may have tucked away somewhere. I'm still not sure how I'll approach them if I ever do manage to track them down, but the worst thing they could do is say no, right? And if my endeavor gets me a little closer to actual restoration instead of random estimations of what might have been, then I'm willing to risk an odd look or two. I'm a sucker for history.

I won't mention the name of the woman who owned this house just before us because, as far as I can ascertain, she's still living. However, I did manage to find another owner just by looking through the details of our title. We have a shared drive with our neighbors (well, we did, but that's a whole other story), so the deed detailed the implementation of the drive, agreed upon by both the previous owners of our home and the previous owners of the home next door. It was 1976 that the drive was put in, and at that time, the owners of our little bungalow were William K. Hamor and Lucile H. Hamor. A quick internet search didn't turn up anything for either of them, but I checked Tributes.com for obituaries and found that both of them had passed.

Lucile died first at the age of 83 in 1992, and William didn't follow until 2003 when he was 94. Interestingly, they both had June 1909 birthdays. It seems they were still living somewhere in Marion when they died. I may have located William in the 1910 census in Northumberland, PA, but I'll need other information to verify that this is in fact my William K. Hamor. I also need to track down a marriage certificate so that I can discern Lucile's maiden name and get more information on her. I'll be looking up Hamors in the phonebook before you know it! ;)

When More Vinyl Windows Go Bad

After yesterday's post on my condensating windows, I sat back and thought long and hard about the issue. I was willing to start looking for salvaged wood windows to replace ours with, but pickings here are slim, and I have to face the reality that most of my energy is focused on pregnancy and the kids right now. I wasn't sure I'd have the push to actually get anything done. I'd take my time, I thought. Things didn't need to happen NOW.

Then today I was cleaning our bedroom (don't get me started), and I realized that the ginormous pile of papers sitting under one of our bedroom windows was water damaged. How did that happen? I looked around to see if there was something that could have spilled on them. Nothing. Then I inadvertently placed my hand on the window sill to pull my big, pregnant butt up and felt moisture. Oh no. I haven't found the actual leak yet, but I know it's there.

Thank you, Universe, for giving me the motivation to get off my ass and get these windows done. :)

When Vinyl Windows Go Bad

No, that condensation on our window is not on the outer pane of glass. It's between the two panes. This happens in vinyl windows when the moisture seal fails, and though it's touted as a repairable problem, I'm trying to use it as a way to convince my husband to start replacing our windows with *ahem* salvaged wood windows. I have no idea how old these vinyl windows are, and the one in the picture already had this problem when we moved in. Why am I harping about it now? Because it's officially autumn when the thought of heat bills to come give me goosebumps, I'm pregnant and nesting, and so the house must be completely redone from top to bottom! NOW.

I hated our windows when we bought this place. My husband loves them. Nearly every window in the house has frosted glass on the bottom pane. I'm assuming this is for privacy, since we can nearly touch our neighbors if we stick our hands out the window, but it blocks light in an already dark old house and, well, it just looks tacky to me.

Shall I go into the possible dangers to our health that are posed by vinyl windows? PVC contains pthalates, lead, cadmium, light stabilizers, heat stabilizers, anti-oxidants, barium, and other chemical compounds.

High levels of lead are also found in PVC. Studies have shown that vinyl windows can deteriorate from the effects of the heat and sun. This deterioration releases lead dust at dangerous levels. Vinyl window shades containing lead have been banned in the U.S.

But vinyl windows are sitting in nearly every wall of my house. And we were worried about lead paint when we moved in. Hmmm...

I tried for several years to put our windows out of my mind because there's nothing I hate more than sending something that is working to a landfill. I'm not sure what the "right" answer is. Do I get the window repaired, knowing that the rest are soon to come but avoiding the addition to the landfill, or do I hope that someone will be able to reuse these and start finding salvaged wooden windows, which may have lead paint covering them that I have to either have removed by a professional (pregnant women DO NOT do lead paint removal. Period.) or otherwise encapsulated.

If you're in the mood for a funny but informative video about the dangers of PVC, check out Sam Suds and the Case of PVC, the Poison Plastic.

What I Really Need...

Is an awesome article on picture railing in 1920's bungalows. Anyone have one they'd like to share?

Though the weather has warmed once more from what was feeling very autumnal, my cold weather nesting is in full force. The garden is not really winding down yet (pictures to come if I can get myself to upload them). In fact, many things are just beginning, like tomatoes and peppers. Still, I feel the gardening season winding down, and my focus is slowly shifting back to the house. The attic is almost completely cleaned out, and once preschool starts for the twins, I plan to get working on decluttering and reorganizing their rooms. Something's gotta give if we're going to fit a 4th baby in this 3 bedroom house! Cross your fingers for a boy, y'all...

Oh. Yeah, so the picture rail thingy... Since I'm planning to start work on the bedrooms, part of that work is restoration. Picture rails were standard at this time, so I'm assuming our house had them originally. The problem is, I've been in several neighborhood houses very similar to ours and not a one of 'em has the picture rail. Hmph. Most of our walls (I think all the bedroom walls) are now drywall rather than plaster, so the rail isn't necessary, but well... It's authentic! I tend to get really picky about these things though, so I'm freaking out over the fact that I don't know what the original picture rails looked like. How could I possibly choose one without having something to go on!? Um, right? Well, so far I'm loving the 2 1/4" Stain Grade Hemlock Picture Rail Molding from House of Antique Hardware the best, but I'm having trouble actually picturing it in the room. I need a sample, I think, to see how well it goes with the rest of the trim in the house.



Of course, since the picture rail needs to be stained, that means the rest of the wood in the room is probably going to need to be redone. Oy. Just to be clear, most of it doesn't "match" now, simply from age fading, and the previous owner did the most lovely splattery paint job with apparently not a bit of painter's tape in sight, so the trim really needs to be redone anyway. I'll have to get a picture of all the horrifying paint details up sometime.

Man, I'm tired just writing about redoing all that wood.

One Mistake Among Many

That's my kitchen floor, burned to a crisp. French fries gone awry. Advice: don't put the cooking oil on your electric stove set on "high" while you are still chopping the potatoes for french fries. Also learned from a previous grease fire (which I did not start), do not keep your baking soda directly above the stove where you have to reach over or into the fire to get it.

The good news is, nobody was hurt. I remembered to put baking soda on the fire, thankfully, because the pan lid was doing nothing to smother it. The flames simply shot out of the sides. I took the pan off the stove and put it on the floor because I was afraid that the flames would catch the cupboards above it, thereby setting my entire kitchen on fire. We have 10ft ceilings in the bungalow, so I knew it'd give me more time to grab the baking soda if the pan were on the floor. There was an enormous amount of smoke from the fire, despite my quick action, and my entire kitchen was covered in a very thin film of black ash. I aired out the house last night, but there's still a bit of burning smell today. The Husband was NOT happy when he got home.

In less than good news, but not bad, the flooring in this kitchen needed to be replaced anyway, and not just because it was ugly. There were cigarette burn marks in it from the previous owners, and it was stained and scratched beyond repair. It's certainly not period appropriate for our home (but neither is the rest of the kitchen), so someday, when we have the money, this floor is going to be ripped up and replaced with whatever I can manage to discern was there before. For now, the answer is a rug. :)

The Shake or Heavy Metal?

Sometimes, on the journey to a simpler and more sustainable life, you're forced to make decisions that you don't want to make. I'm facing one of those decisions right now. The question is: do we replace our current roof with the eco-friendly metal roofing option, or do we go with an historically appropriate shake roof?

I'm sure there are people out there for whom one option or the other would seem obvious, but I'm really torn. I have a deep respect for history, which is one of the reasons we chose this house, despite the fact that it is at least an hour away from family, job, etc. Our little bungalow was built in 1927, and I knew immediately that I wanted to restore it to its former glory. This idea inevitably comes into conflict with my other dream to "go green." For example, there was no such thing as a composting toilet in 1927. Instead, they had toilets more like this or this. Do you have any idea how many gallons of water these use in flushing? LOTS.

But toilets aren't the issue here. I've already made that decision in our home for the time being. The issue now is the roof. We knew when we moved in a few years ago that the roof would need to be replaced soon. With each thunderstorm or heavy wind, more shingles come loose or off completely. Last year we had an issue with leaking around the chimney, which has been temporarily fixed, though the damage it caused has not. We're going to have to bite the bullet soon.

So, once more, do we go with the more sustainable metal roof or the historically accurate shake roof? I keep trying to rationalize each choice in my head, but ultimately the choice will probably be made with green in mind. And I ain't talkin' the environment.

We found a company here in Ohio that makes shake style metal roofing, so I'm going to call for a free estimate.

Here's a few of my requirements for the metal roof:

1. The metal shakes must be authentic looking. Yes, aesthetics are very important to me when it comes to something like a historical home, even if that home is not historically "important."

2. The metal must be coated with acrylic, NOT Teflon or PVC.

3. Must be Energy Star rated.

4. Must be drinking water safe. That water's going on my food crops, after all!

5. Must contain recycled content AND have end-of-life recyclability.

6. Must be LEED certified.

7. The color choices for the shakes must be varied and historically accurate.

8. The cleanliness of the manufacturing process will also be considered.

Treasures of my Garden: June 7, 2008

Anyone know what species of butterfly this is? It's a subtle bug. The colors are all shaded with gray, it seems.



A pair of trusting mourning doves foraging amongst the Hypericum and Echinacea... and sitting on my rosemary seedling. *sigh*

And last but not least...




I found this while ripping up some sod for the pepper bed (yes, I'm late getting everything in). It's a white porcelain something-or-other. Perhaps a knob? Seems a bit big and bulky for a knob though. The hole goes all the way through, so I know it was meant to be screwed into or onto something. In my odd sort of logic, I take this as proof that our bungalow bathroom once had white porcelain fixtures. LOL I REALLY want our bungalow bathroom to have had white porcelain fixtures, can you tell? :D