That Was October

 And it was full of a whole lot of fall goodness.

There was Ida (and I believe Mommy and Daddy's too) first trip to a pumpkin patch. I desperately wanted to take her to one last year for her first Halloween, but with the demands of a newborn's schedule coupled with the fact that all pumpkin patches were at least a half hour drive from our house in Seattle, it just wasn't feasible. So it was pretty wonderful how relatively easy going was this year!

Pre-pumpkin patch sustenance. While coffee options in Toledo are much better than expected, pastry options are a bit lacking. But these doughnuts almost do too good of a job making up for the wanting categories: scones, croissants, maybe-not-healthy-but-some-redeeming-qualities.

The haul from Hoen's Garden Center. They have a big fall festival the second weekend in October every year with lots of activities for kiddos and a humongous pumpkin patch. I think we'll make going there a tradition. They are open all year and it's just an all around nice greenhouse. I can see going in the dead of winter for a green fix as they have a nice houseplant selection too.  

I got the mums there the week prior. And despite the fact that chrysanthemum blooms are apparently a delicacy to deer, they are still going strong. In fact I think the deer eating them has been equivalent to pinching back the blooms because they are loaded up with buds again.

That's the front porch pumpkin pile from every angle. Ida has greatly enjoyed waving hello to the pumpkins several times daily.

And here's the back, but only from one.

Fall really suits our new dwelling I dare say. I took this pic on a rainy day when Greg's parents were visiting and I was desperately trying to plow through some yard work despite the weather. 

It was kind of a shame to say goodbye to this one, but I wanted to breathe some new life into the hanging baskets on the back porch for the remaining frost-free weeks. 

 And so far we haven't had a hard freeze. In fact it was in the 70s last week! So these specimens have grown a little and are still looking good. 

I also, only about four months after I initially started working on it, finally managed to plant up this bed out at the far corner of River Road and the little side street we're on. It had become a weedy mess over the course of the summer, though the shasta daisies tried to hold their own. The soil in the bed was really compacted and I found a ton of coal as I was trying to turn it over. I suppose from the old roadbed?  Looking at some old documents that actually pertain to the house next door that were given to us by the people we bought our house from, there was originally a right-of-way reserved for an interurban rail along River Road. Then when the plans for it fell through, the right-of-way was given over to widening the road. Maybe they went back and reclaimed part for the sidewalk? It's a theory. Some rusty bolts, a few shards of glass, some chunks of concrete, and a piece of terra-cotta waste pipe were the only other artifacts to report. Anyway, none of that explains the real mystery which is why our front walk ends where it does.

Overall it has been an absolutely beautiful fall, one that's made me appreciate being back in the midwest. Though I may be singing a different tune here in a few months when we're in the freezing depths of winter.  

In toddler news, this one is now pulling up on everything and I would guess is only a few weeks (or days, who knows!) away from first steps!

We became members at the Toledo Museum of Art, which is a really wonderful institution. And I say that even though we've barely scratched the surface, having only gone to the cafe and to see a couple of the galleries including the new Degas and the Dance exhibit. To promote it, the museum has installed murals of dancers from Degas's work all over town and it just so happens one is right next to our neighborhood coffee shop.

Some of the fall color in the ravine at the back of our neighborhood.

We are still plugging away on the house, working mostly on decorating at the moment, and a little trying to make the place more winter-proof, nothing too crazy. My dad came to visit while Greg was away on a business trip and we tackled painting the first floor powder room. I got slightly artistic with the coat of color, hand brushing it on, helped along on one wall at least by this tall glass of pinot noir. I will share some before and afters eventually, we are having an electrician come to properly install a new (old) light fixture next week, and I am still searching for a mirror. 

We've been working in the dining room too, not sure if I mentioned, but we painted it back in the summer (also with my dad's assistance during his first visit). Then he and my aunt gifted us some furniture earlier this fall including a china closet which now resides in the space and has helped it significantly to feel less cavernous, along with these curtains which were hung with the help of Greg's dad during his parents most recent aforementioned visit. When I saw these panels, which are from Anthropologie, online I knew they were the ones. We decided rather than wasting money on temporary window treatments, we'd go ahead and spring for forever ones in the living and dining rooms this year after we tore down the late 1980s monstrosities that were there. And I'm glad we did. You can't beat how the morning light filters through those cutouts. 

Finally, we topped off the month by hosting a Halloween party on Halloween Saturday for neighbors before trick-or-treating hours. We invited everyone around our block and up and down River Road a little ways as well as the most recent two previous owners. And we had quite the turn out, probably somewhere around 45 people! We originally intended it to happen out in the backyard around a crackling fire, but the weather had other ideas, so everyone had to migrate inside to get out of the mist. It was a great time, though a little bit of a blur of faces. But we really wanted to at least meet people besides just in passing, especially the other neighbors with little kiddos, and on that count it was a success and I think there will be some playdates in this pumpkin's future. Another piece of furniture that was gifted to us was my family's cedar chest and in it was that jolly jack o'lantern, circa early 1980s, worn once upon a time by yours truly. So that made costume procurement for Ida this year easy. I grabbed a cape and a hat from Target the day before and was the least original thing ever, a witch. I got a bat costume (not Batman, just bat, he would have been much more pleased with the former) for Greg that he never even got the chance to put on.
And that about sums it up!

More Architectural Archaeology, Window Edition

After we moved in this spring, I was determined to put some flowers out to brighten up the landscaping, which for the most part consists of lots and lots of drab, overgrown evergreen shrubs. I got a couple of flats of impatiens because I didn't have time to get creative and there isn't a much more sure thing when you need bright, cheery, plant it and walk away for the rest of the summer. When I was planting up the little bed in front of the bay window, about where I have the mulch pushed back to in the photo, I struck concrete, going all the way across the bed. I wondered about it, but wasn't too inclined to investigate further at the time.

Early in the summer we had a couple of extremely heavy, sustained rains during which we found out just how not water tight our basement is. The ceramic block walls leak like a sieve and in places on the unfinished parts we witnessed water literally pouring in. The finished side has been waterproofed with a drain around the perimeter going to a sump, but on the unfinished side, the water just trickles across the floor at will. Bummer. (This robin followed me around the yard every time I went out to plant something. He had quickly caught on that I was good for serving up his dinner.)

We were checking up on things on the finished side of the basement when we heard a "drip, drip, drip" coming from behind a big mirror hung on the wall behind the bar. (It is worth noting here that all of the finishes on the finished side of the basement, like much of the decor in the rest of the house when we bought it, date back thirty years. And we currently have all of our yet unpacked boxes and unused furniture jammed willy nilly into this space. So when picturing, please include lots of knotty pine paneling finished an obnoxious orangey shade, the dingiest green no-pile carpeting and popcorn ceiling. These elements then packed full of chaos.) So we grabbed the ladder and a screwdriver, down came the mirror, and lo and behold, there was a window. The entire rest of the house besides the basement has the original leaded glass steel casement windows. The basement windows were all (we thought) replaced with glass block at some point. But nope, there behind the mirror was an original, same as above grade complete with oil-rubbed bronze hardware, but with steel muntins instead of leading. Outside of the window was completely dark, but the "drip, drip, drip" we were hearing had a hollow ring to it, so we guessed the window well had been covered over versus filled in. Eventually I made time to dig things up and see exactly what was going on on the outside. And sure enough, there below a bunch of dirt, plastic sheeting and chicken wire (ugh) was the iron grate, same as covers all of the other window wells, and below that the unfilled roughly five foot deep well.

Needless to say, after being covered up for the last probably quarter century, the whole thing was (is) in pretty bad shape. The window frame is extremely corroded on the outside which has resulted in a lack of support for the casements, which has resulted in their becoming misaligned, This along with disintegrating glazing has resulted in several of the beautiful frosted/textured panes of glass cracking. :( This all also means that it's been leaking for who knows how long which has resulted in all of the trim on the inside rotting away. 

The plaster above and below is also cracked and crumbling and the paint is peeling off the plaster walls to either side of the window behind the paneling. I tested for lead and while I got a negative for the outermost layer (a rusty red color) the residue left on the plaster from the innermost layer (a bright yellow), not surprisingly, tested positive. 

I consulted with a lead abatement professional who advised that we could safely clean up what was exposed ourselves and that as long as the rest stayed contained behind the paneling, there was no immediate concern. Our goal is eventually to tear out the paneling and see what condition the plaster behind it is in. If it is in good enough shape, we'd like to deal with abating the rest of the peeling lead paint (if there's a lot, with professional help), make necessary repairs, and leave it exposed. If it's in too bad of shape, we'll still abate the lead and then decide whether to go over it with drywall, paneling again, or some combination of the two. 

It is quite the conundrum to me why anyone would ever think it a good idea to cover up what amounts to a gaping hole in a basement wall with the scantest of materials and then just go on and pretend like it never existed. I have a couple of theories. That despite their plausibility honestly make no sense. 1. This window is directly across from where the television was mounted, so the window was covered up with the mirror to eliminate glare on the screen, and so there wasn't weird light shining out from behind the mirror during the day, the well was covered over too (one palm to face). 2. There was wiring run to install outdoor lights at some point, including two spotlights tucked into the dirt on top of the window well. So, the well was covered up in order to be able to place these lights and then the window was covered on the inside, because you know, who wants to look out at a big black hole? (gah, second palm to face). Like I mentioned, the other four windows were replaced with glass block. I am confident this was not a case of running out of cash to finish the job. I'm also confident the window must have been in pretty bad shape when it was covered up (as the others probably were, hence their being replaced). Thus my theories as to why it was just buried.

 So the bright side is, we have an original basement window! We are facing the fact that in the next five years ALL of the windows in the house need to be restored. The steel is rotting away at the bottoms of the casements and frames. And the leading is loose and cracked in places. When we had the aforementioned heavy rains, there was actually rain trickling in through the leading in spots. So it's easy to imagine how the cold winter air will do the same. As far as maintenance, there's been some patching at the joints of the lead cames, some glazing compound stuffed into the rotting bits, and a little paint applied to the inside and a LOT of paint to the outside (a good few of the windows are painted shut). So these beauties are in need of some tlc. I am starting to research companies and am having fun guesstimating what the price of this undertaking will be. 

In the meantime we had the iron grate over the well repainted.  I need to find some flower pots to stuff the lights in. And we have yet to figure out how to try to temporarily seal up the window. I excavated the concrete edge of the well (using an archaeology aka masonry trowel for a nice straight back wall of the flower bed) and stacked up some brick that was buried  holding the plastic sheeting in place to keep the dirt from the bed from washing back. Hopefully next spring we'll be tearing out those massive shrubs and doing some reworking of the front bed including some regrading.

And that concludes this edition of architectural archaeology. Whew. Let me tell you, this restoring old houses stuff, it's not for the faint of heart. I mean I love it, the glimpses into the past, the planning and problem solving, the dreaming of how it could be. But it entails quite a bit of stress too, that's for sure. Part of what's currently getting to me is the sheer quantity of work to be done and that both time and money are limiting factors at the moment. We don't have the time to diy things at a meaningful pace right now nor the money to contract very much of it out. And little fires keep popping up and needing to be put out that eat into the time and money we do have. And prioritizing what to spend these precious resources on can also be tricky, like trying to line up a whole bunch of moving targets. When I look around I can't help but see "the vision" and not being able to just execute it  at present can really bum me out if I let it. I am trying to keep perspective and remember that all this actually amounts to a whole lot to be thankful for, but I'll admit I've not been doing a great job at it. But we've just come off a very nice weekend with a good measure of both r and r and getting some things done. And we have family coming back in town this week to mind the little while we start to untangle the basement chaos. So onward and upward! 

One

To celebrate our Squee's first, the day of we went for the first time to the Toledo Zoo, which is just a few blocks away from home.

We took a fairly quick tour around. Given the facts that Ida didn't quite get where she was or what she was looking at yet and that coming back is quite doable since it's a five minute trip, we didn't feel compelled to make a day of it. We did decide to get a membership as it is hard to argue the potential entertainment value for an increasingly active and aware toddler. And the Zoo is a big tourism draw for the city so it's also hard to argue against supporting it. We didn't make it into the Aquarium which is newly renovated as of this spring, decided to save it for a rainy day activity.  

My favorite exhibit was the architecture. This is the amphitheater. They hold a summer concert series here and actually get some fairly big name acts. 

The penguins were the first animals we stopped to say hello to...

which factored in when it came to choosing baby's birthday present/zoo souvenir.

The evening before we made these chocolate zucchini cupcakes to mark the occasion food-wise. They were a hit. Even sans the buttercream icing for the birthday girl. I didn't realize I was making a double batch, so as a one year old and her mommy and daddy should probably only indulge in so many cupcakes while they're at their freshest, tastiest, twelve of Greg's co-workers also got a treat.

The following weekend was Labor Day weekend, and we decided to go back to Illinois so that Ida could have a little celebration with family and friends. Good friends graciously agreed to host.

There were more cupcakes, this time not mommy and daddy made, but from Cream and Flutter a lovely bakery in downtown Champaign.

We put out snacks and adult refreshments too, because let's be honest, a one year old's birthday party is generally more for the benefit of the grownups than the kiddo.

Decorations were simple, just farmers market flowers and garlands from Elisabeth Nicole. I did a lot of hunting around and I can safely say that she has the prettiest, most unique garlands on all of Etsy. And the best part is, they are reusable. They are of such a nice quality, I can't wait to put them back up, possibly in Ida's room or maybe at the holidays.

 

We had a good crowd of twentyish all together, and it was really fun to get to see Ida interact with everyone, especially the other kiddos that came. She is such a people person.

All of that socializing led someone to need a mid-party nap.

Then we rallied for cupcake time. I mean, cupcake, what cupcake? Like mother like daughter. :D

After baby was tucked safely in bed, mommy and daddy got to enjoy a nice evening out with friends at their favorite restaurant in Champaign, Big Grove Tavern, followed by a nightcap at Quality courtesy of Grandpa (my dad).

The last few weeks have been fairly hectic and have included a battle against grubs set on devouring our entire front lawn, another trip back to Illinois to retrieve furniture being gifted to us by my family, and a visit from my family. So as usual, I've been neglecting things here and the backlog of posts continues to stretch off towards infinity. Hopefully we're coming up on a more peaceful spell. I am so ready to ditch being stressed and enjoy this lovely fall weather we've been having!

Architectural Archaeology

I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how things were in the past. That's my job when I'm working in my field (archaeology/architectural history) and I can't shut it off. Ever.

Likewise, I'm always thinking ahead, visualizing what I'd like to do with a space, be it a room or a garden bed. 

And sometimes all the time I spend standing, staring, spacing out pays off and I observe something meaningful. Sometimes it's that the light is just right and the knew bit of knowledge pops out where it was invisible before. Most of the time it comes by way of something I've seen time and again, just never given consideration too. This time I think it had to do with moisture content. 

I was working outside on Friday and I think it had rained Thursday night. I was taking a break near the front porch when a I noticed a little rust stain on the porch had a match a couple feet away. They are the two "L" shaped marks in the foreground and they mark the doorway.

As soon as I saw them, I saw the line extending away in both directions and then around on the side as well, just outside the posts.

Our porch was enclosed at one time.

The next question was whether or not this had been an original feature or something someone added later on. So I looked up, and saw the little overhang there extending out past the posts, and concluded that the soffit must have been constructed with that little overhang to accommodate the upper framing of the enclosure. So when it was built, the porch was most likely screened in. Side note: It makes me sad that at some point someone added these massive gutters that hide those sweet little corbels, though I do concede there is a lot of roof up there for the rain to hit.

This is our back porch sans that overhang and any indications on the floor that it was enclosed.
Starting in the 1930s and continuing into the 1960s the Works Progress Administration issued grants to municipalities to fund the photography of properties for tax assessment purposes. Back in Seattle, the Puget Sound Regional Archives held the collection for King County and many King County Assessor's property records, available here, contained the image(s). In Toledo, the Toledo-Lucas County Public Libraries holds the collection for Lucas County and they have digitized many, if not all images in their collection which are searchable by address here. Unfortunately our house is not to be found among those properties online, so I am really hoping that they are still in the process of making images available, and that I will be able to find a hard copy in the archive. And I hope that whenever our photograph was taken, the enclosure was still there as who knows when it came down. 
Because I can't stop wondering what that enclosure looked like exactly and how it would have impacted the overall look of the house. The living room takes up the entire front gable end of the house and the dining room the entire side gable with it's window (with the stained glass carnations above) facing out onto the porch. Though you can't see it in the photos, as you step onto the porch, the front door is there on the right, leading into a foyer that links the living and dining rooms. So surrounded by formal spaces, I would have to think the enclosure would have been designed to be in keeping. Nowadays front porches have fallen into disuse/nonexistance in our air-conditioned, non-face-to-face communication age. And screened porches are found at the back of homes in the private realm. But in thinking back in time, it makes perfect sense that here the front was screened in. Besides being larger than the back porch, the front porch faces east, while the back faces west, and I can attest that as the summer sun sets, it gets pretty hot and bright. The front porch would have been the relatively cooler place to be, so why not make it bug-free as well? (I might add reconstructing the enclosure sounds like a pretty good idea after some of the mosquito attacks endured this summer.) So there you would be sitting, sipping your Canadian whiskey, waiting for your friends or associates and hopefully not your enemies or the G-Men to call on any given summer evening. At least if you were one of the previous owners of our house. We just met a neighbor this past week who knew the next family to who live in the house, during the 1960s and 70s and she mentioned that the father (who was superintendent of the state mental hospital) was a man of few words who spent the majority of his time sitting on the front porch smoking his pipe or upstairs in the attic weaving on his loom. So maybe the pipe smoke kept the bugs at bay for him, or maybe it was still the screens. Hopefully the archives and oral histories will tell. :)