Oliver’s Bungalow Blog

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House Tour: Upstairs Hall Before

Christine
In September of 2003…
This is the upstairs hall, looking toward the front of the house, door to the front bedroom straight ahead, door to the side bedroom on the right, door to the linen closet on the left, and just next to that is the staircase to the first floor.
This is a good view of bad plaster patching. Don’t worry, that’s all fixed now. The open door on the left is to the back bedroom, and the open door on the right is to the bathroom. We made some major modifications to this area to enlarge the bathroom, but nothing you would notice today if I didn’t point it out. Which I will do. So keep this spot in mind when we get to the back bedroom and the upstairs bathroom.
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Newel Post

Christine

While I am on the subject of staircases, I have been curious about what treasure may be hiding in the depths of my newel post. Well, more than curious, ever since I read this post by Kristin at 1902 Victorian, who was disappointed when she didn’t find the much hoped for old house documents.

Unfortunately, I didn’t learn about this until after all the woodwork was refinished, and now I am afraid to mess with it. If I broke the cap while prying it off, I’m pretty sure we couldn’t replicate it. I know we have saved nearly every scrap of chestnut wood, but I don’t think we have anything that thick.On the other hand, there could be something very valuable in there. No, I don’t expect to find money, but blueprints would be terrific.

So the question is: should I pry the top off the newel post? I might get lucky, but the odds are against it. If I don’t, I’ll never know. Maybe I could get at it from the basement ceiling?

What would you do? Has anybody done this with success?
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House Tour: Staricase After

Christine
And now, in the fall of 2007…
All the paint has been stripped from the wood work, the plaster ceilings have all been repaired or replaced, that wallpaper border is long gone, as is the carpet from the floors and the stairs.
Funny story about the stairs. When it came time to strip the baseboard trim on the staircase, they couldn’t get to all of it without taking the carpet out. Now, I wasn’t in love with the carpet, but until this point I hadn’t really thought about pulling it out. I mean, it was in okay condition, it wasn’t quality to begin with, but still… When it was all said and done, all the carpet in the house was torn out. It made a good drop cloth to protect the lovely original wood floors hiding beneath.

So, back to the carpeted staircase. We started pulling the carpet off at the top, worked down to the landing, so far so good. Okay, this was going pretty easily and quickly. A bit of grotty padding, lots of staples. Down each step, closer to the bottom. I’m laughing, loving how great the treads look. I should have known better than to rejoice until the job is done. So naive.

It is all going great until we get to the bottom step. Oh, you aren’t going to be live this. Wait, yes you will. You housebloggers know what horrible things previous owners can do to a house. You see, the first riser, first tread, and second riser were covered with more than just carpet and padding. Someone had tried to put sheet vinyl on the stairs. Yup. Sheet vinyl. And not just any sheet vinyl, it was that fake parquet-looking stuff. You know it. You’ve seen it. Oh I wish I had taken pictures. Why didn’t I? Well, it is still vivid in my memory, almost three years later.

It took me four days, my favourite putty knife, some whining and crying, and many bottles of dollar store nail polish remover. Why nail polish remover? Because the acetone cuts through the adhesive pretty well. Just saturated cheap paper towels, laid them over the gunky steps, sealed it with dollar store cling film, let it soak for a few hours, went back and scraped till my arms were sore. Repeat.

That bottom stair tread is still darker than the rest. And of course it couldn’t be flipped because it is the only one that has the curve. Figures, right?

You can see a close up of that particular stair here. Just look under the puppy.

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House Tour: Staricase Before

Christine
In September 2003… Bland carpet, painted balusters, painted woodwork…
The view from the upstairs hall, showing the landing and its window. Nice curtains, huh? Gotta love that skinny wallpaper border, too. Really. The crooked, aged plaster ceiling is where you want to draw the eye, right?
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House Tour: Downstairs Bathroom After

Christine

This is the downstairs bath, adjacent to Oliver’s room. Now part of Oliver’s suite. I believe this room (as well as Oliver’s room) used to be part of the back porch. While two windows are definitely original to the house, and look like they have been in the same place since 1930, I’m not sure why they would have been on the porch.

Oliver spends hot days laying in the shower. Sometimes I run the cold water for a few seconds before I leave in the morning. The large shower head continues to drip water (not from a leak, just pressure) for a while, and I have seen Oli chase the drops, trying to bite them. So, fun and cool.

The shower pan, sink, toilet, and all faucets are from American Standard.

I love the taller toilet. I belive American Standard calls it right-height. They are between 17 and 18″ tall. I think most “standard” toilets are between 12 and 14″ tall. Trust me, those extra couple of inches in height make a big difference. I realize this might be a strange thing to talk about in some circles, but I want to let any housblogger out there know: if you are replacing your toilet, and going with something brand new, give the taller toilet a try. I’m not a tall person (5’4″), but many in my family are a bit on the tall side. My fibromyalgia causes pain in my hips, and I seriously appreciate not having to crouch so much. Okay, that’s enough about toilet preferences.

The counter and the shower walls are Swanstone. The cabinets are from KraftMaid. The floor is cork.

Oliver likes the cork floors because they do help to insulate a bit better. It can get very chilly in this bathroom during the winter since it is over an uninsulated part of the basement.

I’m very pleased with this bathroom. We had it completed before we gutted the upstairs bathroom, so we would have a place to bathe and other necessities. I know it isn’t very old looking, and I never intended it to be. We are fairly certain this bathroom was not part of the original floorplan, so it didn’t have to look original. Instead, we tried to keep with the overall feel of the house. Quality cabinets, fixtures, faucets. High ceilings, and original woodwork.