Hardwood Heaven

I can hardly describe the feeling of happening upon a houseful of hardwood floors. After some discussion about why a certain bathroom was carpeted, we determined the situation deserved a further look. And under those carpets Richie so diligently cleaned just the day before we found hardwoods & tiles and good old fashioned fabulousness.

My father-in-law untacking the "tackless" carpet strips in the hall closet. Our first taste of our beautiful red oak floors.

The afore-mentioned tile in the jack 'n' jill bath. It matches the blue bathroom's flooring perfectly - only in brown.

Under the old carpet in Zach's office we found "cork" tiles. We're still not sure whether they were actual cork or faux cork. Modern cork tiles are much more flexible & a little thicker but the architectural records call the den flooring cork.

Unfortunately, we had to make the tough decision to sacrifice these tiles to the sands of time. There just wasn't a good way to salvage the tiles once we began to remove to the staples & tacking from the carpet.

Don't fret mon frere! We've got an exciting substitute that is era appropriate & just might match our slate a little better.

In yet another visit from fate, my husband found a letter dated exactly 50 years ago today. June 30, 1958 addressed to Avriel Shull from the original owner listing the last items of action on the construction of the house. Too fun.

After an exhausting day (demonstrated here by Maureen, my mother-in-law), we retired to the porch.

Well, all of us except my sister Missy, who actually offered to drag her lawn mower over to attend to my overgrown lawn. HOORAY FOR BIG SISTERS!! It really helped our house start to feel like a home!

Rachel brought over dum-dum pops to share but sort of forgot to actually let any of us have any. But you can't stay angry at that face!

thank you thank you!!

thank you so much to all of our volunteer movers today!  they are: Mom & Dad, Mom & Dad, Betsy, Tyler, Trey, Abhi, Nikki (not even related!!!), Richie, & Veronica.

and thank you too to Veronica for covering every last inch of those shelves for our linen closet.  you did a fabo job baby!

Cleaning House

Oh my gosh. What a day we had Saturday.

My initial plan was to only come in a remove contact paper throughout the kitchen & closets. Then steam clean the carpet & move onto wiping the whole house down so we could move right in on Sunday.  WRONG-O buddy-o.  Our kitchen has wood doors on the cabinets because it was renovated in the mid-80's but the original pink metal cabinets & silver metal shelves are still there. 

We had a minimum of 2 layers of contact paper to remove on each of the 22 shelves & 6 drawers under which we found that many had considerable rust damage.  

We decided that it would be best to get the rust under control in case we decided later on that we wanted to salvage any of the cabinets for a later redecoration.  It took all day to get the shelves & drawers un-gooped & that project went well into Monday afternoon before the shelves were lined with (non-sticky) shelf liner to protect the fresh paint (and our taste buds).

We stuck to the original color scheme & fixed up the silver shelves with snazzy, shimmery Rustoleum paint.  The drawers we matched with pepto-pink Ace Hardware spray enamel.  Not an exact match but the best we could do considering!

My mom & I spent all day on the floor trying to peel this nonsense off.  I do not recommend contact papering any metal shelves. I believe (after about 8 hours of consideration) that because the metal in non-porous, it really gets shellacked on there over the course of 50 years.

We DID, however get the carpets cleaned all thanks to my brother-in-law Richie.  

Thanks, Rich!

ready or not, here we come!

This has been such a serendipitous experience from the very beginning. It's hard not to feel like this house was always destined to be ours.  The sellers have worked hard to clear out what is pretty much 51 years of accumulation and they've even done it ahead of schedule.  So we'll be getting in there on Saturday to start cleaning & making the place our own.

It's going to be a task.  It also looks like we're going to need some more electrical work done.  At least some of our house has grounded wiring which is great.  However, a lot of it doesn't including the den that will soon house Zach's equipment & computers.  That means we have to get it done to cover our butts & keep his stuff safe from power surges.  Just the first of what will be lots of little repairs on the way to having an up-to-date house with all the charm of the 1950's.

Can't wait.

old photo

We got this picture from the former owners when they were packing up.  They believe that the photo was taken by Avriel Shull (our architect) not long after the house was built.  You can see that there aren't any trees in the picture. Amazing considering the current state of our yard!

We're down to just a few days until we move in and I cannot wait!  The family who lived in the house for the past 51 years have gifted us a whole slew of furniture, tools, and gardening supplies.  I'm especially looking forward to showcasing a perfectly wonderful sunburst clock that he got from LS Ayres way back when.

avriel shull mutimedia story

Zach & I are very excited to start work on a story about Avriel Shull. We realized that everywhere we go people seem to be learning about her work & the impact she had on Indianapolis architecture. Of all the people that know about her, no one has ever put together a compilation of her works. So we thought, why not us?

To begin, we're thinking we'll put together some multimedia stories combining pictures with some audio interviews. As we move forward & things begin to unfold, I'd like to put together a book that will showcase her work with stories from her clients & colleagues, as well as those of us that never knew her but can respect her work & make an effort to restore & revitalize her homes. I'll keep you up to date with the postings so stay tuned.

the closing

Went perfectly fine. We now know that we will get possession on the 30th & I cannot wait! In my perfectly nerdy fashion, I have compiled all the important things we need to move & put them into a bright pink binder. I have also scheduled out our packing & mapped out the location of the furniture in order to ensure a quick & efficient move.

If you're looking for something to do the 29th & 30th, let us know & we'll add you to the calendar! Finally, I'll have some real stuff to blog about on my blerg.