Magnolia House

Blue Tape Marks the Spot

So we spent last weekend polishing the kitchen floor, so we could be happy about our dirty old kitchen until we remodel it in a few months.

We're going to stick with the old range, and elements of design that keep us on the retro side to stay in sync with our old house.

White cabinets, white and chrome appliances, farm style sink...

Cynthia's been dreaming and designing, so I come home each day to a few more elements thought through.

And blue tape marks the spot. Here's what our kitchen looks like this morning...

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  And...

            

 

 

 

It's going to look  great in 2013!

Covering Things Up...

With a quote of $350 to grind out the huge stump, I decided to let nature take it's course instead. That was my daughter-in-law Cate's idea in the first place. Today I drilled it full of 1" holes, filled them with nitrogen fertlizer, covered it over and wet it down.

It will make a nice flower garden, and we'll plant our new tree closer to the house.

Something else Cynthia can't wait to cover over is the kitchen floor. She's decided we MUST do something temporarily until we do a full on remodel.

So here are the self stick tiles she's thinking about...

 

Downstairs Bath and Butler's Pantry

We finally finished up most of the downstairs bath. We still need to paint the outside of the tub, and the floor vent, but, hey, I'd use this room.

This room was pretty much stripped. We tore up the floor and found evidence it used to have a claw foor tub that was replaced probably in the 20's. Crazy to think they remodeled to get rid of the claw foot, and we remodeled to add one upstairs.

Now with the old fiber glass shower gone (that was covering part of the window), the original tub (as we found it) with a shower added,   all new plumbing and electrical, a tile floor, and some faux paneled walls, it's a pretty nice place.

The cabinet in there came from the thrift store and fits perfect.

 

 

Also finished now is a counter top in our butler's pantry and some paint on the walls.

We put the counter in at bar height (42"), only to realize it just didn't feel right. So we lowered it four inches and cut the legs off the chairs.

Cynthia reminded me only to cut off four legs on each chair.

Our butler is especially appreciative. He sits here in the morning with his Macbook and surfs the net for cool recipes and cleaning tips. 

We still have flooring to replace in the pantry, kitchen, and laundry room. We're debating all the various options...

 

Little things

The other night just as we were going to bed, we started pulling at the wall paper in the kitchen (it's painted over).  It was kind of bubbled up and we found the wall was wet underneath.  On the other side of the wall, the water heater pipe was weeping a little, just enough to get everything good and soggy. 

So Saturday I took time to go through the attic and under the house to see what challenges lie ahead.  In the attic I found four nine-light glass cabinet doors that used to be in the dining room.  Underneath the house I found why the floor has sunk so badly in the dining/living room.  Near as I can figure the cabinets that were taken out also had a column built in that carried the load of the upstairs.  I've seen picures of this design in other craftsman homes.  The net result is the weight of the upstairs pressing on the floor between the joists.  It's dented the floor in like a trampoline.  I'll be working up a fix for that.

Anyway, back to plumbing.  The drains under the house are all rotted, some are held together with duct tape.  Seriously!  One of the clean out plugs was missing under the kitchen so when the dishwasher drained, it poured on under the house.  I tried to unscrew a different drain cleanout and the pipe just broke off.  So at the end of the day, both cleanouts have temporary plugs so we can keep going.

I replaced the water heater piping so we're good to go there.  We cleaned out under the washer and dryer, added correct ducting for the dryer, added a proper ground to the washer, and cleaned the hose screens so the water will flow (Cynthia was adding water to the washer by hand to speed up the process last week!).

So we're gradually fine tuning the obvious.  Still very excited to restore this house.  It's already our home even though we haven't found our toaster yet...