The Before
.
This is the kitchen of the carriage house.
Remember this image.
For, it might look really different in about six weeks.
After much progress in the basement regarding rewiring, redoing the HVAC, and cleaning, everything just halted. Justin has been unable to work on the house for almost three weeks now.
And while I have a ton to do with Cody moving in at the end of October, most of this FIRST requires that the jacking up be done, and new floor joists sistered in.
And I have no idea when that will be finished. Neither does Justin. The house will return to level when it is ready to.
So…I decided to change plans.
Cody was advised that when he moved in the kitchen will look about as it does now, with a sink installed though, plywood counters on 2x4s, and an old stove and old fridge.
But the kitchen is wholly separate from the part of the house being jacked up. What if I worked on it? What if I made it pretty?
In addition, Cody has decided the make the Secret Room on the first floor his initial bedroom as the large bedroom on the second floor will likely still have ominous cracks lacing across it that need repairing. With this suggestion, I decided to rethink what was to be a powder room on the first floor (off the pantry), and to make it into a full bath. It is large enough.
Cody then decided that his office would be the bedroom on the second floor in the SW corner. He asked if the second bath could instead be a storage room with a slop sink. And he will use the east bedroom (what I think of as the sun porch) as storage for lighting bits. In short, he will use a suite of rooms on the south side of the second floor as his work spaces. This is an excellent idea. These rooms are also, basically, in ready-to-go condition and not impacted by the jacking.
Thus, his eventual suite on the north side (bedroom, walk-in closet, and turret bathroom)—all impacted by jacking the house back to level—will be ignored for now.
The living room will also, likely, still be a mess when Cody arrives. He said he could live with that for a while.
So…stay tuned. Things are afoot.
Ross is excited. Just think, soon, soon, there will be green glass handles in the kitchen.
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I love those handles.
I have them in my bathroom.
I also love that sink sitting on the ground in what would be the kitchen.
The new configuration sounds like a good working idea. Plenty of natural light , working space and storage on the second floor. Having the bedroom on the same floor as the bathroom and kitchen also a good idea.
Cody joins the brotherhood of life among the ruins, and will soon grok the concept of hysteresis–the dependence of a material’s state on its history. I.e.–old wood develops a “memory” of how it became bowed–“The house will return to level when it is ready to.”
45 years of restoration in, my house continues to adjust– to the weight of a 6′ clawfoot tub in a former hired girl’s bedroom, the excavation of a basement under what was a crawl space, opening archways between cramped 1890’s rooms. That old song “Shim-shiminey, shim-shiminey, sheree” (apologies to Mary Poppins) describes and will describe wedges under tall furniture, re-hanging doors, and the odd cracks and pops in the night as a superannuated wooden structure grudgingly adjusts to a new equilibrium.
My old house isn’t quite that old or that skewed. However I do have a small fault running on a light diagonal through my property from the alley to the street. It goes through the garage and the house. I think under both the kitchen/dining room door and out the front door. Every once in a while there will be a little shaker and the door will either start to stick or start to swing freer. Right now the garage slab must have shaken a bit as that door is now rubbing on the slab when I go to do laundry. It’s just something I’ve learned to live with. The biggest problem is hanging a cabinet over the stove as it can either be level or it can rest against the original cabinets but not both. There is no such thing as flush.
My favorite haunted house movie “The Changeling” has a line from the caretaker, Mr Tuttle: “It’s an old house…it has habits…it makes noises…” Our house, like most, makes it’s own sounds and when we travel, I miss them.
Mine if very quiet, even when a little shaker is rearranging the foundation a bit. The floor is also pretty solid so can’t recall any squeaks. But you can hear me walking on it as I have a considerable crawspace. For some reason the dogs can tell when I’m heading to the kitchen door to let them in at night and they are waiting right there. About the noisiest thing are the original wooden double hung windows when I raise and lower them. Not only the rubbing of wood against wood but also the sash weights going up and down in the pocket.
In fact the house was deathly quiet after my Ramses died. I was going to wait 6 month before I got a new puppy. I lasted 2 weeks before I started looking. Adopted Diana PawPrints 5 weeks after he died. I need to hear breathing and the shifting of weight again or I couldn’t sleep. I’ve had dogs sleeping in the bed with me for almost 30 years. I imagine this is how couples feel when one passes after being married for so long. The house is just too quiet. Especially the nights.
And the green sink as well?
Green glass handles in the kitchen, green sink, green eggs and ham!
That Sink….be still my ♥️ …!
I’m living for those green handles!!
I love seeing all that natural light flooding the upstairs. Even though the inside is a work in progress, that light is so welcoming.
Love the handles and sink. My brother has one on the farm and the house my parents lived in has one too. So jealous. And love the green handles! And, always good to have a plan B, C, D, …… 🙂
The new plans for the carriage house sound like a good idea. Cody knows what he’s doing. But, sure tease us with the green handles. Can’t wait to see them in the kitchen.
I have some vintage green glass knobs that I bought last year, but won’t be using. Let me know know if you’d like to have them.
These are the matching knobs:
https://www.amazon.com/Polished-Hardware-Romantic-Decor-More/dp/B01FV4FM2U
For me, I prefer the Jadeite for a kitchen but then my kitchen was remodeled in 1949.
https://www.amazon.com/T112VM-Hardware-Romantic-Decor-More/dp/B0731PLFJT/ref=pd_lpo_3?pd_rd_i=B0731PLFJT&psc=1
I just love hardware. Door sets and hinges and especially knobs and pulls. I’ve replaced them on some of my furniture and on all of the built in cabinets. I have the green glass pulls and knobs in the bathroom to match the counter and I have cobalt blue in the kitchen, just because I love cobalt blue glass. (And my cookware is cobalt blue enameled.)
I wanted glass and nothing too ornate in both for ease of cleaning. I can’t be washing and wiping my hands down every time I need to open a cabinet or drawer while I’m cooking, so I need them to be easy to clean.
I’m ready to put a door knocker on my door and am looking at something period to circa 1922. Must be metal and I do not want to drill through the original door to mount it from the inside.