A Bit of History

The following is put forth to give a little insight to who I am and what sparked my desire to build a shop and try to take on woodworking. I love to make something out of nothing. I have no idea whether I'll be any good. I only know I really want to be. Sylvia and I bought the following house when we first started"shacking up". It took us over eight years to complete. Along the way, we bought five acres in the country. One night Sylvia had a dream, basically telling her we needed to move. Since her Mom's side of the family have all been somewhat precognitive, we pulled the old house together, sold it, and have been developing our place in the country ever since. So, after more than 13 years, my shop is almost complete and I get to start living my dream.The following is from an email I wrote to Kari (The Village Carpenter) because Sylvia and I had seen a picture of Nancy's garden and were blown away at how much it looked like Sylvia's original garden.

If you don't already know who Kari is, you owe it to yourself to check her out. Not only is she a woman in a typically male field,she's damn good and has lovely nails.

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OK! First, Notice the lovely wall colors! There were also nasty acoustic tiles on the ceiling. We are in the dining room looking into the living room. That "thing" in the corner was the only downstairs heat. There was also a "window banger" in the living room for A/C. We later installed a central HVAC, which if you'd like a bizarre story, I'd be willing to share.

This, quite a few years later is the front of the house (after the backyard fence and automatic sprinklers were installed).

Ooh! Here we have the mudroom. Later you'll see the outside of this addition. Notice they actually built on to the back of the house...It actually is a converted porch, sloped and everything.

Early people of this land had a thing for doors! This is the "during" shot of the kitchen. There are actually four...FOUR! doors in the kitchen. The left door was taken out (it goes to the foyer) and the right door leads to the "root cellar", which was originally where the coal was deposited.

Here is the before of the kitchen. Again, notice the acoustic tile..and what a beautiful floor! And ew, it was nasty, gross, dirty!

The west side of the house shortly after we'd bought it. Notice the window by the tree in the shed addition. Yes, that's plywood. They boarded it up and put a shower stall over it.

That's right get mad at the wall..not at me! I had said..."oh, a little paint and it'll be sweet!" We first tried to preserve the plaster walls and redo the woodwork in place...

OK..really out of order..pay no attention to this yet..(Sylvia filling in two of the raised beds I built her) The other garden you'll see came first.

Well..what do ya know! There it is! Look familiar??????

The living room after the remodel. We put a nicer acoustic tile on the ceiling (all the seams were caulked and it ended up looking like a really nice tin stamped design.)I did most of the ceiling and crown molding while Sylvia was home in Germany. She thought the big crown molding would be to gaudy. She changed her mind when she saw it in place.

The dining room..a basic mirror image of the living room. I miss the wood trim and the nine inch mop boards.

This bathroom was GGGGRRRROSS!!! The old couple that lived here (son of the builder and his wife) hadn't been upstairs in about five years. Evidently before he'd moved downstairs, he'd lost his ability to aim...

Again, out of order. The kitchen after. You are looking directly at where the door to the foyer used to be. The floors were not salvagable (spell check says that's not a "real" word") Well...screw spell check. Notice the soffit is directly in line with the edge of the cabinets. Things go like this in our house..Sylvia: "I want the box on top to line up with the bottom." Vic: "But, that's not hows it's done." Sylvia: "Well, can you do it?"Vic (begrudgingly):"I don't know, I'll try." (See that's the reason she keeps me around, I have no idea that I really can't do stuff!!)
Ta Da..go back to the nasty picture of the bathroom. .....Much better...no more nasty urine smell either....BONUS!
Well Kari and Nancy, I hope you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me. Designs by Vic and Sylvia...mostly Sylvia...it's really her house...even in the new one.