Lots of things happened this past month, including small progress going on around here these last few weeks with my creed of PURGING ONCE AND FOR ALL.
In my quest to get rid of the things left behind in our house or no longer need, I’ve donated a good haul to a local thrift store…
…and took a small load to a nearby auction house, just to test the waters.
We made $16. Haha.
But hey, it’s $16 from stuff that was mostly left here by the last owner or we no longer use, and we didn’t have to price them, make yardsale signs, and get up early only to make diddly-squat.
I’ll chalk that up as a win.
And I’m taking a BIG load to them soon.
Using Facebook’s Marketplace, I sold a giant wall key…
…and my blue and gold dresser I painted years ago that no longer works in our home and has since been taking up room in our awful-mess-of-an-office. Made a decent profit on it, so…woot. It also went to the home of a family that knows some other good friends of ours. Small world.
Switching topics here, a huge THANK YOU to all who commented on my kitchen dilemma post and gave ideas and encouragement. I also now have actual measurements that I can present to you!
Drumroll!
I know. This totally made your day, right?
Riiiiight.
Speaking still on the kitchen, I’m slowly working on a post about antique stoves and why we should all consider them.
But this post is so research intensive.
And then it got sidelined when I had to research a bit harder on fridges again because our fridge is leaking.
We don’t even have it hooked up to water.
Why does every large appliance in our kitchen LEAK?!
We did find that ice is weirdly building up in our bottom freezer. So every few days we’ve been scraping ice so we can try to prevent it from leaking again.
Another reason to find a better fridge soon.
And stove.
And dishwasher.
So. Much. RESEARCH.
Ugh.
Can I ask you good people about what to even look for in a good dishwasher? I have no idea. Never owned a dishwasher.
Oh! But some cool news! (this post is very A.D.D.!)
I MET SEAN ASTIN!
You know! Rudy! Samwise Gamgee! Bob! Goonies!!
I’m a HUUUUUGE Lord of the Rings fan/geek, and I suppose I proved it because I drove my 2-wheel drive car in a crazy blizzard through a foot of snow on our un-plowed roads to hear him speak!
He seems to be such a sweet guy, and it was amazing to get to chat with him about his movies and be that awkward fan.
BUT WAIT! MORE COOL NEWS!
I’ve been digging through old deeds and found out the names of the original couple who (allegedly) built our house!
Franklin H. Hain (born 1870) and his wife, Sadie J. Hain. They had two children: Richard, born 1906, and Helen, born 1910.
From what I’ve found, Frank was a school teacher for many years, and then between 1907-1921 he and his brother, Charles, operated a hosiery mill.
Pretty neat!
No luck yet finding the date for when the house was built, but I’m sure I will soon. I did uncover that the lot the house sits on was parceled and made into a lot in 1895.
Have a good Easter with family and friends, y’all!
12 Comments
To find the age of our home, we looked at the year property taxes changed from just land tax to house tax, if that helps…
I’ll try that, thanks!
Hello again!
Some more thoughts about the kitchen since you were kind enough to include measurements.
First, I’m sorry about the leak(s). I totally understand your desire to buy new appliances ASAP, but if you can somehow find a way to muddle along with the old stuff (and it may be as simple as buying a new rubber sealing strip on the fridge door to stop ice build up) do that rather than buy appliances that might not work with your final design solutions. I can’t imagine anything more frustrating than having my new appliances dictate a kitchen layout I hate in the long term.
Next, I admit that despite the measurements on your kitchen sketch, I’m still confused. I recognize the radiator and the fact that the door to your pantry appears to open into the kitchen, BUT I can’t figure out:
1. which is the false door,
2. if you have open arches into adjoining rooms or functional doors (functional, I think), and
3. If there is a stair to the basement between the front entry and the kitchen?
There area a number of other questions I have about your existing floor plan that would likely be answered if you could label what I’m looking at. (I’m not as familiar with your blog as Rosemarie is! I feel like I’m coming into a movie halfway and need to catch up! :-)
A couple of observations. One thing I learned from experience is that I had no real idea of what architectural changes were within my budget until I spoke with a professional. I’m not talking about an addition; I’m talking about other possible solutions like adding a structural beam to replace a load bearing wall, or relocating the kitchen to a different part of the house entirely. (If your basement is unfinished, this might not be as difficult as you might think since you have easy access to what’s beneath the kitchen floor.) Often what looks like a daunting change is actually the least expensive solution to a flow issue.
It’s obvious that you and your husband are fans of older authentic design, and I applaud your wish to preserve the beauty of the original architecture, including the radiator, chimney and exterior architectural symmetry. The first question I would ask myself is how much space do I really need in my kitchen? It’s likely that when the house was built the kitchen was used for cooking, period, and likely that was by one person. Of course you can preserve the architectural integrity of the original floor plan if you use the house the same way. But if, like most young families, your kitchen needs to accommodate several people at a time for varied activities, you likely have three choices:
1. An open concept kitchen/dining/living space (Which would compromise the authentic architecture)
2. Relocate the kitchen to a larger room within the house (Which involves moving plumbing and utility lines) or
3. Steal additional space from adjoining rooms to add to the existing kitchen footprint.
Since you and your husband appear to prefer authentic American Four Square architecture, inside and out, it looks as if it will be important to be able to use every square inch within the designated space. That makes the area near the window particularly tricky. Not only do you have the window height to contend with, you also have the tall radiator and the door that opens towards it.
Let’s look at the door first, since that might be the easiest problem in the short term. Even without moving walls, you can likely remove the door to the pantry and echo your kitchen details so that the space is visually incorporated into the kitchen. If you follow Young House Love, they tackled a space problem by moving the fridge and microwave into the pantry area in their beach house reno. Perhaps you can enlarge the door opening and locate your stove beside the chimney? The opens up the opposite corner for storage, a sink and counter space.
As for your too low window, you can put a pice of movable furniture there – either a table or a chest on casters if you need the storage. If you’re set on preserving the radiator, that shallow plate rack is a wonderful visual and practical solution. Keeping your dishes there also frees up cabinet space.
I understand your concern about preserving the window symmetry from the outside, but there are ways to disguise different sized windows on the same exterior wall. Remember, there is no difference to the viewer between mathematical symmetry and a fool-the-eye symmetry of balanced forms. You might try experimenting with free graphics programs to see if you can fool the eye with exterior landscaping in front of the kitchen window, for instance. My thought is that it may well be easier to ‘fix’ a smaller window “look” from the outside than deal with a compromised kitchen configuration. You’ll be spending a lot more time inside the kitchen than you will looking at that particular window from the outside. Having said that, figure out which compromise feels right for your family – there is no one right solution.
If stealing space from adjoining rooms is your chosen solution, I’d look first to that back door wall currently used as the pantry and laundry room. I’d also check with a professional to see if *gasp* moving the basement staircase is as difficult/expensive as we suspect. It might not be. My point is to look at the house as a whole instead of just the kitchen. If you want to keep the traditional Four Square room configuration, a whole house approach will likely serve you best in the long run. I know it sounds like only rich folks can afford an architect, but often it’s an architect who can see solutions we can’t, and can keep us from making expensive mistakes. They’re not just for houses in Architectural Digest and clients with lots of money to burn.
Anyway, that’s my long winded off the top of my head response. Good luck with your project! Take your time and do what works for your family. Wishing you the best!
Hello! You have so many amazing thoughts here, Linda! Thanks so much for taking time out of your day and Easter dinner prep to send me solid advice! :) Each of those three options you laid out we’ve been bringing to the table and agonizing over, lol. It is so true about pros, and I’m glad you brought it up, as we are making moves to bring some pros into this project because, as you said, architects/kitchen designers/engineers/general contractors can see solutions we cannot and give us more of an idea of what we can and can’t do when planning.
I’ve learned from many of your suggestions/questions that I should follow up with another post about our thoughts on the kitchen, as there’s a lot of details I can see I failed to address, so thanks for bringing that to my attention!
All the best to you! :)
One other thought while you go through your How-Do-I-Make-My-Kitchen-Work-NOW phase. I was looking at the piece of furniture you currently have beneath your kitchen window. I’d suggest reversing the masses so that the solid bit of what you put there (drawers, cabinet, shelving, etc. is below the windowsill while the counter height surface is the table. That way, less mass is blocking the window which I suspect will look better both inside and outside while providing you with the storage you need.
Me again. (I keep thinking of your kitchen as I prepare for Easter dinner)
Another idea for your window might be a counter height table with swing out stools built onto the legs. Something like this, but only with two stools on one side, rather than a free standing table. They can be attached to table legs so that they swing under the table surface when not in use. http://www.etsy.com/listing/560822605/swing-out-barstool That way the counter height table can serve multiple uses – prep space, coffee station, homework space when the kids are older, etc. You can even put a glass shelf across the window to grow fresh herbs right over your prep surface. The glass shelf is an easy instal with quarter round moulding.
Okay. Back to Easter dinner prep!
I really like your idea of swinging bar stools near the window! Thanks!!
Sorry to create more work Kelly but I think you need to include the pantry and laundry/mud room and associated windows and doors there to really get the full picture.
Is it possible to do something as simple as move the doorway into the mudroom toward the fridge about 12″ or so? That would give you the depth you need in that corner to have a bank of cabinets with countertop, or floor to ceiling built-in hutch type piece like you have pictures of in a previous posting. You could actually “steal” space on both sides of the fridge and do the same thing in both corners, but doing both sides would involve losing the radiator, which you probably don’t want to do.
A very interesting idea, Suella, thanks! Right now behind that part of the wall is where our washer/dryer are stacked, but if we do go so far as to move our laundry room, it would be an idea to tinker with. :)
My fridge has a bottom freezer and was doing exactly the same thing – it cost me $50 to have someone come fix it!
Basically there is tube in the back of the freezer where excess condensation is supposed to drip down onto the evaporation tray – and that tube has a nipple at the end – and the nipple gets clogged up with gunk (bad design).
Once the nipple is clogged, the condensation can’t escape, and backs up into the freezer and freezes – if you pull your drawers out of your freezer, you’ll see that the grill at the back of the freezer is all full of frost. Once that fills up, water leaks onto the bottom of the freezer and freezes there, and ultimately leaks out onto the floor of your kitchen.
SOLUTION!
1) remove the stupid $#&@ nipple at the end of the tube and clear it out
2) get rid of all the ice that has built up
3) enjoy your fixed fridge
I called a handyman recommended by a friend of mine – he said he knew exactly what the problem was, and spent an hour or so to fix it – and he wasn’t even a refrigerator-specific repairman :)
You are a WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL PERSON! Thank you so much for the answer to what is likely our fridge’s problem! We’ll take a look at it this weekend and see!