Saturday night we went on the Luminary Twickingham Historic House Stroll. While I absolutely loved being able to see these houses, I was disappointed because 4 of the houses weren’t technically historic. Two were built recently to look like they were built way back when, while the other two were built in the 50’s…but with the same concept – to look old. I took photos of what I loved, but I was surprised at how much I hated.

stroll along

Andy and I despised the green doors since day one. We wanted to replace them with corrugated metal, however, we didn’t want to go buy brand new metal since it wouldn’t have the same appeal. Our patience paid off. One of the (old) train loading cars at the mill is being fixed up for an archaeologist, and they removed some of the metal that lines the back wall. It took a couple of days to haul the 12 some odd foot sheets up the stairs (wouldn’t fit in the elevator) and get them in place. It looks a million and one times better than those hideous green doors. Blech.

Before (look how ugly!)

During (so close!)

After (much better!)

Other finds around the mill

vertical house presents:

paleo
andy dale petty
the triceratops

on december 12th | 8pm | $5

at vertical house records (2211 seminole drive)

*show info on facebook
*read the GO article about the show!

Oh So Excited! In other news, we now have water in our kitchen. Whoda thought my dad knew plumbing? But he does, and he hooked up our kitchen sink this afternoon. Cooking was a breeze tonight…no more pouring water from gallon jugs or straining pasta off the back steps outside.

Today was also spent painting, moving the piano, cleaning up the house and yard. Very fun and productive. Now I’m going to try to finish restoring the lost pages from my journal. I’ve still got quite a bit, but I’ve covered a lot of ground in the past two days.

Pictures of this day’s success to follow suit.

I used greatest journal to host a lot of my pictures in the beginning of this journal, however, they have purged them all…all of them. I think I will hate the internet after I’m done figuring out what photo went where and re-hosting it.

BALDERDASH!

Neal finished the thresholds and the quarter-round in the kitchen yesterday. The thresholds really help make the rooms look better. Before, there was a gap between each room filled with dust and dirt from the past 100 years. Not to mention the nice draft that chilled the rooms. The t-holds were made of 100 year old pine (the same as our floors) boards milled together. I will put a coat or two of polyurethane and they will hopefully turn the amber tint our floors did.

It’s my turn to play catch-up. Tomorrow I’m hoping to spend the day painting (again). Now that the bathroom woodwork is completely done, I can finish painting that room once and for all. I still need to paint the trim in the dining room…and now the kitchen. However those will be tackled on Thursday. And on Friday we have a gas contractor coming out to update our gas lines! In addition to that nice electric heater we got the other week, we also purchased a ventless gas system for around the same price. This will heat up to 1000 square feet…and it’ll be good to have if we lose power this winter season (or any, for that matter). The price of both of these heating units combined is still way less than half the cost of a central heating and air system. But I’ve preached those words already, so I’ll end this subject now.

Today I went downtown to get a business license for Vertical House. I understand this should have been addressed sooner, but up until now we were just selling ‘online.’ I’m a wimp in the cold, so I only snapped a few shots on my walk from the car to the courthouse.

We’ve updated both our Vertical House sites! The one with music and photos…and the original inspiration (our house) and it’s renovation process.

[living room & dining room] [dining room & kitchen]

Andy’s Granny came over with his parents today so she could see the progress of our house. She said she loved it! We do still have a lot of loose ends to tie up, but it’s really starting to feel cozy. Our Christmas tree ornaments were being stored at Granny’s house, but she brought them with her. After they left we went to pick out a tree…and did our Sunday Mexican food ritual. We came home and decorated the tree to Sufjan Steven’s Christmas album.

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living room…with curtains, finally!

bathroom. chandelier works now! window casings once again. look at our pretty transom in place! can’t wait to have a washer/dryer.

bedroom. still need to hang artwork up in all of the rooms, especially in here. alice in wonderland.