Bathrooms and Hallways

Once we removed the ceilings from the large combined space of the living room, dining room and kitchen, we noticed that the bathroom ceiling seemed really low by comparison. It was kind of surprising, since we have been living in the this house for more than a year, that no one ever noticed the discrepancy in ceiling heights.

Opening up the ceiling gave us more than an extra 18 inches in height - it also allowed us to see the piping for the upstairs bathroom. We saw a really large open corridor all the way to the ceiling upstairs. We weren't sure what it was at first. However, removing the two cupboard added to the upper bathroom gave us access to the upstairs pipes and enabled us to see the space more fully. We found more than 10 square feet of space that was not being used effectively in the upper bathroom. We could see the original studs and the lines for the lathe and plaster, so we know the old bathroom was at least 10 square feet larger. Of course, the upstairs contains more work - but that is for another day (or more likely, another year).

Once we removed the ceiling from the downstairs bathroom, we began to review the wall lines around the chimney between the dining room and kitchen.

The chimney is actually the square block area behind the light switch plate that you see on the left in the picture above.

First, Daddy and DJ broke out an exploratory section, just to see exactly what we were working with. We weren't sure if this funny angle was original to the house or not. During discussions with previous residents, they never really seemed to know what I was referring to; now we know why. This part of the house was significantly modified. We are not sure why, but we guess it was to make the kitchen about 3 feet wider. Since historical accuracy is more important to us, we are attempting to put it back to the way it originally was. Down came the walls!

So, you might be wondering how we determine if something was original or added later? In this case, it was actually quite easy. They had filled the space with their garbage - new drywall scraps, McDonald's containers, etc. We were like, "really"? It just seemed so wrong to us that this what the flippers used the space for. All of that had to be cleaned out first.

With DJ's strong muscles, it didn't take too long for the "men" to get the wall down. Once the drywall was broken off, it was time to remove the screws. Good thing he has his own power drill to make short work of those screws, too!

He is so "helpful"! Once everything was torn down, we saw that we made the right decision. We could see the original base moulding and chair rails still attached to the chimney. We also found some wonderful colors in the plaster. There is still a lot of work to do, but we have definitely made some progress today. Thank you DJ for all your hard work!

Our Cold Cellar & Missing Dumb Waiter

One of the joys of owning an older home is all the history that can be learned along the way. For example, a cold cellar. Now, I had heard of a "root" cellar, or in the case of our home, a "fruit" cellar. However, I had not heard of a cold cellar. When interviewing Mr. Schmidt, he had inquired if the original cold cellar was still in the house. At the time, we had no clue what he was talking about. However, using the description he provided us, we did a little bit of searching and discovered the spot where the original cold cellar had been located.

Prior to the invention of the ice box and before electricity was installed, some homes featured a separate cold cellar - a box located in the basement that could hold perishable items. Some of these cold cellars incorporated a dumb waiter to make it easier to raise and lower the food. We even learned that some of these dumb waiters carried the food all the way from the cold cellar in the basement up into the kitchen or pantry. Based on a review of our flooring above the cold cellar, the original dumb waiter most likely only raised and lowered the food within the basement itself.

This architectural drawing was found in a construction manual from the 1800's. Based on the plan above, you can see why I think that this is the one that closely resembles what we have discovered while excavating our own cold cellar (as if we did not do enough hole digging and excavating between the outhouse and well!). I am hoping that we can use this plan to reconstruct a simple dumb waiter and start using the cold cellar. I think it will be a neat experiment, especially working with the kids to track the temperature every day. Because I do the bulk of my shopping once a month, I have to freeze a lot of things that are normally refrigerated, such as butter, hard cheese, and cream cheese. If this system truly works like an electric refrigerator and is able to maintain a safe temperature range, I will be able to stock up without having to rely on the freezer.

Because we had to use a sledge hammer to break through the concrete "repair", we do not have the smooth sides all around the top. I am hoping that this is something that Dave will be able to fix. As part of our restoration process, we are hoping to build a lid, since the previous owners put the door to the this area of the basement to the left of the cellar. It definitely makes it a challenge to do laundry or obtain food from the pantry.

Based on my research of dumb waiters, they consisted of a wooden box slightly smaller than the cold cellar, with anywhere from two (2) to four (4) shelves and a pair of screened or mesh doors, similar to what you can see on the old pie safes. This allowed the cool air to circulate around and through the storage box itself, ensuring the food stayed cold. Since our cold cellar is only two (2) feet deep, I am hoping to have three (3) shelves. This makes the shelf spacing comparable to what we currently have in our refrigerator. I am also hoping to use tin for the doors, so that I can punch my own design.

While we were able to fairly easily identify where the original cold cellar was located, we had no idea what we would find. I mean, we did not know how the cellar had been filled prior to being cemented over. I thought that it might have been filled with sand and debris, similar to the outhouse and well. We initially tried drilling a few exploratory holes using a drill with a concrete bit. No matter how far down we drilled, all we saw was concrete dust several inches thick. We began to fear that they had used concrete to fill the entire opening. What a nightmare that would have been! Dave began tapping the entire surface area and discovered a hollow sounding spot. We began to pound away in that area until we broke through the concrete. Fortunately, the concrete itself was not that thick. It turned out that when they took down one wall of the rain cistern to open up that portion of the basement, they used the rocks and concrete debris to fill the space. Once we were able to remove the concrete top layer, it was just a matter of lifting out all the large rocks and jagged concrete pieces.

The really super fine concrete debris we are thinking about using in the driveway, similar to gravel. The larger rocks we would like to use to build a permanent fire pit.

Overall, I think that this was another fun and exciting discovery and restoration project for us. Once we have the dumb waiter rebuilt and finished, I will be sure to update with photos of the finished cold cellar, completely stocked!

Time Flies ... Literally

This week has been an incredibly busy one! Wow, time can truly fly by and we learned this in more ways than one this week. Because we accomplished so much, we have decided to split it up into several posts for you. In a nutshell, though, here is the list of everything we accomplished this week:

• Removed 30 cedar tree stumps;
• Trimmed the silver maple;
• Discovered and dug out the original well;
• Called Diggers Hotline to mark our property;
• Removed the vinyl siding from the porch area;
• Researched original meters;
• Discovered the original laundry chute's location;
• Discovered the hard floors in the downstairs bedroom;
• Discovered the hard floors in the living room;
• Researched the history of the home; and
• Had a wonderful interview with a prior resident!

See what I mean about the time just flying? A lot of this was done in part due to the research of the history on the home and the wonderful interview with a prior resident, which is what I wanted to write about today.

The house was built in 1920 by Joseph and Ella Pockat. Mr. Pockat was a bricklayer that absolutely loved his craftsmanship. (This explains the 6' x 5' x 8' brick lined outhouse pit!) The house was built with a fieldstone basement, NATCO hollow tile bricks, and then finished with stucco. Unfortunately, Mr. Pockat was fatally hit by a train in July 1941, at the age of 49. He and his wife did not have any children.

Mr. Pockat also helped to build the house next door to ours for his wife's sister. His sister-in-law was married to Mr. Schmidt and together, had a son named Armin Schmidt, who was born in the house next door in 1921. On Thursday, I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Schmidt at his current home for a couple of hours. We were joined by Mr. Schmidt's daughter and niece. Together, we were able to piece together a lot of the history of the house.

After Mr. Pockat built the house, the second story was used as an apartment for various family members. What is now our girl's bedroom was actually the kitchen. And the master bedroom was used as a living room, with the boy's bedroom used as a bedroom (no surprise there). Additionally, the back of the house featured a two-story, glass enclosed double porch. This area was used as a greenhouse, sleeping porch, and a place to hang the laundry on those cold wintry days.

Mr. Schmidt was living in the apartment with his father in 1941. Armin had been kicked in the chest by a horse and was recovering when the call came in at six o'clock in the morning advising of the untimely circumstances of his uncle's accident. Afterwards, Mr. Schmidt (senior) purchased the home and resided here until the 1960's. Mr. Armin Schmidt married and purchased the house next door, on the opposite side. In other words, all three houses were "in the family" at one point or another, with our house in the middle.

Mr. Schmidt's daughter and niece also lived upstairs in the family rental suite and were able to remember the layout of the house very well. Together, the three of them were able to walk me through a rough, hand-sketched floor plan, pointing out various things. It was during this time that we learned that our well was "approximately 15 paces from the backdoor". (It was!) We also learned that there had been a laundry chute that was accessible from two separate doors: one in the kitchen and one at the bottom of the stairs. (It was!) We learned that Mr. Schmidt was not a big fan of refrigeration and so used a dumbwaiter type of system and a hole in the basement to keep his food cold. It was supposed to be located at the bottom of the basement stairs right before the rainwater cistern. (Guess what...it was!) We also learned that there used to be a small bathroom in the basement where we now do our laundry. (This explains the extra covered sewage hole we were wondering about.) Mr. Schmidt asked if the "fruit cellar" was still in the basement. He seemed pleased to learn that it was and that it is the exact same room that I am using as my pantry! We learned about the original metering system, the original color of the outside of the house, and that at one time, the entire house consisted of all wood floors.

Unfortunately, Mr. Schmidt had to sell the home when his father was placed in a nursing residence (this was roughly between 1960 and 1965). At the time, a Mr. and Mrs. Mautz were renting the unit upstairs and ultimately purchased the house. While the family lost track shortly after this, they recalled that the Mautz's did sell the home. Based on our research, we believe that it was at this time it was sold to a family known as the Schroeder's. It was the Schroeder's that did most of the remodeling to the house, according to our current neighbors. While the Schroeders were in residence, the porch was removed, the well and sidewalk buried under the dirt, and the siding and windows installed.

No one really knows what happened to the house after the Schroeder's. Apparently, it was vacant and then owned, rented, etc. and at some point, went into foreclosure. It was bought out of foreclosure by the company that ultimately sold the house to us. And we are doing our very best to turn the clock back almost 100 years to restore this beautiful home to what the family originally remembers it being. A home filled with love, laughter, and both good and bad times.

A Well That Is Not A Well

Today we discovered that our well, is not a well, and that it is actually the old outhouse collection area. Can everyone just say yuck with me now? My poor husband has spent the last two days digging out the outhouse. It's not all bad news, though. In addition to some highly fertilized soil....

...we found bottles, bottles and more bottles. And some of them may actually be worth some money, which would be nice. We also found some old wood stove components, like the top, the covers, and some of the doors. (Pictured in the background behind the bottles.)

And that is not all...apparently the hole in the ground was filled with more garbage. We actually filled a barrel with old rusted tin cans. Some of them were coffee cans; others were sardine. A majority of them, though, were unidentifiable. There was also a lot of broken glass, old wood and just junk in general.

We were also blessed to find some odds and ends type of things. These were old vacuum tubes, light bulbs, bricks, rusted brackets and more. The interesting items that we thought were cool we placed temporarily on the garage window sill for further analysis. (The coffee mug was not a find; it was my husband's morning sustenance!)

Anyone any good at identifying china patterns? We found a lot of broken pieces, many of which featured gold edging, trim or designs. Our thought is that after we clean up all the pieces, we will mortar them to some wood and make a variety of hot plates for our dining room table. It will make a really interesting conversation piece or two!

Based on the amount of dirt removed and the quantity of trash and treasures discovered, can you guess how big the outhouse was? It was huge! We could probably bury all eight membes of our family in it! It measures approximately 6' x 5' and 8' deep. And my poor, wonderful husband shoveled it all out by hand (I was not allowed to climb in and help too much!). Say hi to Dave!



Old(er) Photo

Dave contacted the auditors again today and asked them to send us the picture that they had on file. They were actually willing to do it, which greatly surpised us. We are so thankful to them. While this picture was obviously taken after the siding was put on (we think about 3 owners ago, according to one of our neighbors), we at least now know what the brickwork looked like around the porch. We can only assume the exterior of the house was similar when it was originally constructed.

I wonder if my paint removal process will work on masonry or if we should try pressure washing or sandblasting first. Believe it or not, someone actually painted the beautiful brickwork the same color as the vinyl siding on the house so it completely blends in!

We also happened to recognize the realtor's sign in the front yard. So I gave them a call today and asked them to check out any files that they might have for this address for pictures of the interior, as our search for the original floor plan layout continues. I will be sure to share if they do happen to find any.

In the meantime, work on the stairs has continued. The process has gotten easier, though. The trick was to use a lot more of the stripping gel - you almost have to paint it on so that the stairs look like you painted them orange. It only took me a couple of hours to get four more completed today. We are now at the halfway point to the landing (which I am NOT looking forward to). I can only pray that the landing comes as clean as the stairs and as easily.

Bricks, Boards, and Bats

Today was a day of research and discovery. Dave made a few calls to the city and their auditors and found out that the house was actually built in 1920 and not in the 50s as we has been originally advised. He was also informed that the assessor's photo of the house showed a red house with white trim. This piqued our interest and so we began looking around the house and garage.

First, we found a loose, hollow clay brick. We discovered that these particular bricks were manufactured in Illinois for NATCO, or the National Fireproof Co. They are a reddish color and based on the untouched bricks under the front porch, were cemented together with a white mortar. Why would someone cover up masonry with vinyl siding is something that I don't think I could ever understand!

While under the porch, Dave also found a board stamped with Dawley Lumber Co. Marion, WI. While we knew that Marion had a mill at one time, we were as of yet not aware of the lumber company. A few online searches did not result in any more information other than references to them in various hardwood and lumber books. Examination of the basement ceiling showed where some old vents had previously been placed, but since moved. We also found several pieces of wood built into the foundation that still had bark on them. All very interesting, but we continued our search for more clues - namely, board identification numbers, on the off chance that our house was a kit home.

Dave moved up to the attic for more searching and found something else - but not what we wanted or expected! Apparently we had an unexpected resident in the attic, which Dave enthusiastically removed, to the thrill of the children and my dismay!

Now, if we could just find some floor plans or blueprints from when the house was originally built!