Evicting Norman Bates
Yesterday, I wrote about the stunningly creepy basement of the carriage house, and its scary you-know-Norman-Bates-lived-here studio apartment.
Wanna see?
EEK! This is under the kitchen, looking east. It is a tangle of electrical wiring, AC ducts akin to pythons trying to escape, and boarded-up windows. Oh, the horror. It has every appearance of many many many decades of no effort in making things neat and right. All of this disturbs me profoundly.
EEK!
EEK!
EEK!
EEK!
EEK! This old, rusty hot water heater serviced the studio apartment. It will soon be gone.
WHAT? No eek? To my amazement, this heater looks new and, I guess, was installed shortly before I purchased the property. Will it work? Or, was it filled with water which would have frozen in the winter of 2014/15 and damaged the heater?
EEK! The return Frankenduct cobbled together out of bits of metal. It will soon be gone.
EEK! There are four windows under the kitchen. Only this one is uncovered. Curiously, it matches no other sash. I believe that basement windows are precious and should be treated accordingly. Now…drum roll, please…wanna meet the scary you-know-Norman-Bates-lived-here studio apartment? Scroll down…
EEK! The apartment is L-shaped. This is looking east. I think a refrigerator would have been to the left, and a stove along the right wall? The ceiling is creepily low.
The sink is actually cool. I also like the pink/white tiles. VERY 1960s. I will save the sink, counter, and cabinets. I am hoping to be able to remove the wall tiles.
EEK! The bathroom is very small. More like something you would find on a boat.
EEK! The shower is tiny. The walls are ceramic tile and, it seems, in good condition. I have no idea what the shower floor is, and have zero desire to find out.
EEK! The wall tiles are plastic. Note that there are three different color plastic tiles. I did not see this until today, as the bathroom has no electricity and has been a dark hole these past seven years. The ceramic floor tiles are in good shape. The sink, methinks, is 1920s. It is too rusted to keep.
EEK! FIVE different color plastic tiles! Note the wall heater.
I love it! And wonder if it still works.
EEK! Yet another color of plastic! Was all this deliberate? A 1960s homage to the De Stijl movement in plastic? Or were all the tiles just leftovers from other projects? Methinks the latter.
EEK! The south wall has two windows. In 2014, the lower walls were covered with carpeting. Oh, the horror.
The south windows. Note the pair of muntins.
Remember this window from my previous post, on the north wall? I was confused by its asymmetry. Now, methinks it lost a muntin.
EEK! The west wall, and its two windows.
EEK! The west sashes. While I have zero evidence to support this, methinks that that these particular sashes (there are several more in the basement) are repurposed from the original carriage house configuration.
EEK! Looking to the bed area of the L-shaped studio.
EEK! There is a large closet adjacent to the bed area.
I had planned to gut all this.
Until today.
The De Stijl tilework amuses me, and I suddenly…to my great astonishment…want to restore the cramped bathroom rather than demolish it.
[Voice screaming in my head: YOU ARE INSANE!]
Then, too, maybe I will keep the kitchen sink wall. Having a toilet in the basement, and slop sink, will not be a bad idea. And, yes, such restoring will be done after Cody is living upstairs.
I plan to store lights in the basement. This will free up the third floor of the Cross House. So, squee!
All the insane ducting will soon be removed and replaced by rigid ducting. The cobbled-together return duct will be replaced. The fan unit will be moved slightly. A new gas line will be installed. The cost of all this? $5,400. Terrifying. Particularly as none of the planned redo is, well, vital. The HVAC currently works. The issue is, rather, mostly one of aesthetics as the new ducting will be neat-as-a-pin. And, yes, vastly more efficient. So, in time, in time, the upfront cost can eventually be recouped. This just may take several decades.
[Voice screaming in my head: YOU ARE INSANE!]
Another concern is mobility. With lights stored in the basement (something I have only recently decided to do), I currently have to walk through the basement with my head down in many areas, and have to crouch down in other areas. With the revamped basement, none of this will be required. And I am living for this. Rooms should not physically assault a user.
If everything works out with Cody, I am gonna guess that a few years down the road he will buy a house in town. He desperately aches to own his own home, and in a style he lusts after.
As such a point, I will (if able) fully complete work on the carriage house, and use it as whole house Airbnb. Methinks it will mint money. And this will, in the long run, make sense of the scary near future expenses.
And I will not miss Norman Bates as a tenant.
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Farewell Norman Bates you are so not wanted here.
“Pythons trying to escape.”
Hahaha
Thanks, Leigh! I’m always thrilled when somebody notices the writing!
Did not think the description was close but when the photographs were seen, those did look like enormous black pythons. 😉
The Frankenduct reminds me of some modern sculpture. Could the cats use art in their enclosure?
Ross, you should listen to the voices in your head and gut that bathroom! 🙂
When he bought it, my dad’s house was a weird time capsule of ill-considered interior design choices from 1945 to 2002. He bought it from the woman who had it built, so things were changed gradually over time as and how she liked them.
Most notably, the bathroom had robin’s egg blue porcelain fixtures, likely original to the 1945 build, but with square plastic tiles in pastel yellow with black accent stripes. Who thought bumblebee was a good colour scheme, let alone with turquoise??? It was eye poison.
My 1922 house was remodeled in 1949 and the bathroom has spring green tiles with a black border and the kitchen white tiles with a black border. I wasn’t thrilled with the bathroom but decided to keep them (and the cabinet and sink) rather than replace and just go with the color scheme and glad I did. I also kept the kitchen counters and original cabinets. I would have removed all of those yellow and black plastic tiles but kept all of the blue fixtures and gone blue and white tiles in the bathroom.
My parents had green fixtures in the front bathroom. The toilet and sink are long gone but they still have the green bathtub. I don’t remember the back bathroom but I think it may have been peach. All of it gone now.
Oooh, thanks for all the great…and scary pictures, Ross!
I love the before pictures because later when you show us the “after” pics it is all the more satisfying.
I have had some basements in past homes that were not habitable.
In my first little home, the basement door was in the floor ( that in itself is CREEPY) , and the south/east wall was still dirt!!!! A MOUND….A HILL of dirt! My oldest who was 5 at the time loved to go down with his little friends and dig with little toy shovels and their toy trucks. Yucky!!!
Ross, keep the bathroom, that sink can be refinished, and keep the kitchen as well. Maybe that area can become a laundry room. The plastic tiles are scary. But actually don’t look in bad shape. Way too many colors. Just a thought.
The utility work in that basement absolutely reeks of “I don’t care”. It’s actually worse than I’d imagined.
A house with an awful basement is hard for me to really feel at home in. I’ve decided not to buy houses based on their horrifying basement before. Sometimes it can be fixed, like the carriage house here. Others, like the house I rented in college with the stream that ran through it when it rained, not so much. And then there were the places with the basements that felt just plain bad. I don’t believe in ghosts, but some of them had what I can only describe as malice in the air. Forget it…
Judging by the boxes around the windows it looks like the ceiling has been lowered dramatically, probably to accommodate pipes and ducts. If you could get it back to its original height the room would become a lot more decent.
My initial reaction to all this is: gut the majority of this “studio apartment.” Everything is cheaply and slovenly put together. Yes, a sink would be nice and a counter. The shower seems a nightmare. Usage and purpose of this space.
I thought Cody wanted to live in the Carriage House and help with restoration?
He seems to be well positioned to be able to afford another house. He should follow his dreams I suppose. Maybe Emporia won’t be the place he envisioned.
I am happy he is there and you have some company.
I feel like a broken record at this point, but here goes…
The main reason for me relocating to Emporia is NOT to become Ross’s live-in handyman/tool boy.
It is to bolster the lighting business. It is what funds nearly everything, and is in desperate need of some full-time attention that Ross can no longer reasonably provide by himself, with so many other major projects going on all at once. I have a lot to offer, and my main focus will be to get lights restored and listed, not to endlessly work on the house. Only in my spare time will I be able to assist with projects related to both the big house and the carriage house.
Emporia, Kansas might not be my first choice of location – but even only having barely scratched the surface, I know that I’m going to LOVE this job, and if my day-to-day is doable, I can make ANY location work. Emporia is not a rust belt wasteland. Please don’t cast a negative light on what you feel the outcome of my time there may yield before I even start. I am very excited for this opportunity.
There is a lot of work going into the carriage house in preparation for my arrival, but with or without me, it needed to be done. My arrival merely rearranged the prioritization of this work. I am not investing into the property whatsoever, save a lot of paint and some elbow grease. I am eager to learn, but there is far too much to be done just to make the place habitable for me, which needs to be done BEFORE I move in, without me being there. I’d love to be able to be more hands on right now, but that’s hard to do from 500+ miles away. There will be plenty of other opportunities to help. This series of projects is not the right time.
I would really really like it if assumptions weren’t made about my finances. I am a VERY recent college graduate, with an HUGE amount of debt to hack through, and I am in no position to buy a house right now, which is why taking semi-permanent residence in the carriage house is ideal, so I can pay down my student debt and save up to buy something on my own. Hopefully within the next few years, that will be a realistic option. Right now, it just isn’t.
Hi Cody H: I feel badly that ai didn’t remember your interest in vintage lighting!
You are so talented! Your finds are genius!
Cody you have such an eye for detail and are gifted with such knowledge of period architecture, design and decor!
Your help with the vintage lighting business will be invaluable!! This business funds everything!
I am sorry if my comments and any reference to your life, situation and finances were misguided. It was inappropriate and I apologize.
Thanks kindly for pointing out my shortcomings.
I don’t always verbalize my knowledge of the whole Cross House picture. Several years ago I had the opportunity to visit and spend a couple days there.
Thank you, Sandra.
Yes, there seems to be some confusion how Cody and I will be working together.
Recently, I posted about Cody, during his visit, helping me on the scaffolding, and his tearing off the ivy covering windows on the carriage house.
Cody however was fully paid for his time. He also mowed the lawn twice. And was paid.
When he finds INCREDIBLE light fixtures I pay him a finders fee.
He also restored a number of fixtures during his stay and was paid.
In short, Cody’s job is to help the lighting business. He also wants to help on the carriage and Cross houses, but with the understanding that he will get paid.
You know, just as with Justin!
BIG hug!
Big hug back!
I was confused about it all.
I didn’t realize Cody was helping with lighting business.
Also I was totally amazed at Cody’s interests and finds! Recent college graduate and such sophisticated, erudite taste!
I am so glad he is helping and also assisting with other paid work.
So thankful for all your friends, workers and fellow bloggers.
Apologies if anyone made you feel bad! I know no one would do that – not in this forum. I was just impressed that a recent college grad had a chandelier! You have so much ahead of you and I (we) wish only great things for you. 🙂
BTW— what is that piled wood in bedroom area?
I didn’t finish usage and purpose of space…just a stopgap and no vision.
It seems like a drain of $$$$$…perhaps that gargantuan amount used to better purpose— other than ductwork and crazy flooring.
Crazy flooring and ductwork imperative expenses. Rest of $$$ spent elsewhere perhaps?
Sorry for 3 posts instead of one post!
Just had surgery Friday and still not clear headed.
Fabulous kitchen sink. May I suggest a bar faucet rather than a conventional kitchen faucet? I picked up a bar one on sale from the local plumbing supply because I needed something for my laundry sink and must say the high arching faucet has been very handy. Having both a toilet and a sink in the garage where the washer and dryer are has been very handy. If you plan on doing any work in the basement it is a huge convenience to have a bathroom close rather than having to trudge upstairs when feeling the urge.
If the kitchen cabinetry is solid wood, even stick built in place, it would be worth keeping. It looks sixties like what my parents originally had in their kitchen. They kept it when they remodeled and it’s in the hobby room storing all sorts of stuff. I doubt a stove would be against a wall covered in carpet. I don’t think anyone would be that stupid.
It is a shame about the bathroom sink. Are you sure it cannot be cleaned up and then refinished? Because you know someone else is going to do that when they buy it from the local salvage yard.
My house didn’t have plastic tile in the bathroom and kitchen. It had some sort of thin fake board with a fake tile treatment on the surface. It has all be ripped out and replaced with real tile. I would not keep that fake plastic tile and yes, I suspect someone just bought a lot of leftovers and then had no imagination at all when installing them. I wouldn’t keep any of that tile. I would rip it all out and then put in new (with new grout) in the bathroom and kitchen. Same with the disgusting shower. It likely has tile under whatever is on that floor, it leaked and then some sort of membrane was put over it to try to stop the leaking. The shower is a disaster and should just go away; complete gut. I would reuse the sink once it is refinished and if the toilet can be cleaned up, that too but get a new seat. If it can’t, toilets are cheap enough. I would give a try to cleaning up the sink and then refinishing it or having it professionally refinished as those are really desirable. If things could be cleaned up nicely I would even consider putting a small bar fridge and maybe a microwave down there in the kitchen area in case of marathon work sessions. Hot cocoa, coffee or tea in the winter, being able to microwave popcorn or a frozen dinner for lunch would be convenient.
What you really need is adequate work lighting down there.
Cleaned up the basement will make a lovely storage/work space. Security for tools and materials. A good sized work bench with chair and plenty of shelving for organizing tools and materials. Plenty of hooks on the beams above and on the walls for hanging your light fixtures. You could even construct a photo box in one area to take nice photos of your light fixtures.
Neat post. I’m sorry but I don’t get excited about the old sinks that have separate hot and cold water. (I had stayed with my parents for a time and the bath I used had one. Real pain for real life living). Your excitement is so infectious. Thx! 🙂
As I looked at the pictures, I was thinking that it would be a mistake to tear everything out. I am glad you came to the same conclusion. You can probably create some value out of what you have down there, and the alternative is just an open room that will have zero value.
On another note, the house that I grew up in was built in 1956. Our bathrooms had the exact same pink and light blue color tile in the bathrooms. My dad still lives there and there are some old leftover boxes on the tile in the garage. You can have them if you need or want them – they long ago renovated but never got rid of the extras.
I love love the pink and white mosaic tiles! They same exact tiles were around the tub in our 1962 Lake House. I saved them (cleaning the grout and glue off all 5K of them) and reused them on the the counter. In my research on them, I discovered they were sold at Sears as a DIY in the 50’s and 60’s. The Lake house was %100 home job done as inexpensively as possible, so I know based on that they were an affordable DIY alternative. We had the yellow version in the kitchen (which was also saved)
I heartily concur with all the proposed changes, except maybe keeping the bathroom. I know you’re a miracle worker, but that bathroom frightens me.
In other news: “Frankenduct” is my new favorite word. I’m going to use it every chance I get.
My grandparents and most of their many siblings lived in homes built in the late 50s and early 60s, so I am well acquainted with plastic wall tiles in assorted colors, although most of the bathrooms I knew were all done in one or two colors, not a half-dozen. My grandparents’ was pale green; one of my aunts had a bath that was a peach color that looked like it had a glittery mist swirled through it. All you need now to complete yours is the medicine cabinet with the vertical fluorescent tubes on either side that flicker and hum for a few seconds when you turn them on 🙂
I can’t for the life of me remember where I saw a med cab with flour. lights like you said, but it made me laugh out loud. Thank you!
What possible reason for carpeting the walls other than to dampen the sound of the screams?
Jordan, carpet on the walls was a thing in the late 60s/early 70s, particularly in basements and lower levels of split level homes. It did help insulate for both climate and sound attenuation. Personally, I thought it looked awful, not to mention “who’s gonna clean that mess?”