Picky, Picky

I've got a whole list of antique furniture I'd like to bring home to the Einsel House, but I realize it will be years before I could ever find (and afford) all the pieces I want.  The highboy style dressers in our bedroom and Neil's are nice, but I daydream about replacing them with something more Empire style from the mid nineteenth century.   Like the one pictured to the left - it sells on New Year's day at the same auction house where we bought our kitchen island last year.

A couple of blanket chests sell the same day, and I can just see one setting in front of our couch, holding the blankets that for now are just stacked on the floor.

Another piece I can see in the Einsel House is a corner cupboard.  And I've got a few specific requirements for this corner cupboard.  Since it would go next to the open shelves in the dining room, I want the corner cupboard to have solid doors.  The cupboard also will need to be a bit on the small side, as there is only three feet from the corner of the room to the register along the east wall.  In about a year of searching I've only seen a few such cupboards available (and none of those close enough to be convenient).   So imagine my excitement earlier this week when I went on Craigslist and saw this:

And only about 10 miles from us!  I called the phone number listed and arranged to look at the piece after work yesterday.  Charles could tell how excited I was about the cupboard and told me if it was what I wanted to go ahead and get it. 

So a little after five last night I got home, put away my purse and told Charles I had enjoyed chatting with the cupboard's owner for about half an hour, and that he had grudgingly come down to my price.  And that I didn't buy the corner cupboard.   Of course, Charles' first words were, "Why not?".  The answer is that I'm picky.  Walking up to the cupboard I had immediately sensed something was not quite right.  It was made of pine.  And when I opened the upper door and saw the narrow beadboard interior I realized the problem.  A closer look at the hardware confirmed it - the cupboard dates from around 1920, give or take a few years.  It was the right size, the right shape, the right color, just not the right age. 

The cupboard's owner might have just been trying to make me feel better, but when I finally (and apologetically) told him I couldn't take the cupboard he said, "I understand.  I'd think twice myself before putting that cupboard in an 1840's house."   I'm well aware that I'll probably never find a true mid nineteenth century walnut or cherry corner cupboard for the price I was offered yesterday.  But I woke up this morning with no regrets at yesterday's decision.  I suspect this means I'm an antique snob.  If so I can't deny it. 

(And sorry I've been scarce around here.  I've been having fun with some writing of a slightly different sort lately.)
 

Drip Edge

Since Kate asked on my last post - "Is that horizontal strip above the door a drip edge?" - I'll answer here.  Yes - it is a drip edge. 

To the right is a simple profile of how the drip edge fit together.  (Just pretend that the garish bright yellow and red are a more respectable tan and maroon - Homestead Resort Parlor Taupe and Carriage Door to be precise.)  I used my mom's SawStop table saw (and my dad's help) to make the angled cuts and everything fit together pretty easily.

The drip edge is functioning exactly as intended.  I know this because at the end of my last Saturday of outdoor work I spent 40 minutes on a stepladder in the rain wiping Carriage Door-tinted rain splatters off of the Homestead Resort Parlor Taupe drip-edge.  (It had been overcast all day, but the forecast for that Saturday had no mention of "rain" and given my dwindling number of days with temperatures above freezing I figured I would be safe painting on a forecast of "mostly cloudy".)

The hinges and latch for the doors that will go under this drip edge finally arrived last Friday, so I should be moving on to door building soon.

In the Details

There's an old barn just south of here on the county line that rests quietly in a grove of trees.  

I've been known at times to take a slightly longer route than necessary just so I could enjoy the scene pictured above.  Still, I had been driving by this barn for several years before I noticed a little detail near the gable peak.

See it?

This whole summer as I was working on our little Einsel shed I've had the old barn in mind.  So earlier this summer, with camera in tow, I stopped at the old barn. Although I knew there were three stars in the old barn's gable, it was only from inside the barn that I realized the peak was a five point star while the two lower were six point stars.

And so, the south facing gable peak of the Einsel shed:

I am so thrilled with how this turned out.  There's no corresponding interior picture from the shed, though.  Behind my stars are boards painted black with several holes drilled through to provide ventilation.  Secured to the front of the black-painted boards is a layer of screen to hopefully prevent wasps from nesting inside the shed. 

I've really enjoyed my work on this side of the shed, bringing to reality the details I've seen in my mind for so long.

Obviously, I'm not quite finished yet.  The upper right corner will continue out to incorporate the new awning, and I've got two doors to build and install.  With Thanksgiving and December around the corner I figure my outside work is basically done for the year, but I'm hoping my mom won't mind if I use her (heated) shop - and perhaps advice - while building the doors.  The door hardware I ordered is on backorder right now, so I've got a little time anyway.  (Oh, and since I'm guessing some may be curious, the thick wire hanging off of the roof is from the lightning rod.  I'm thinking eventually it will be rerouted to hang over the back of the shed instead of the front.)

I'll have two sides of the shed to finish next summer, but I'm quite pleased with what I've accomplished so far. 

Not too bad considering what the poor little building looked like last May:

: )

South Side of the Shed

Here's a quick pictorial catch-up on the last couple weekends of work on the shed:

My goal is to get this side finished before winter.  If Mother Nature cooperates (and I can keep myself away from Wii Tetris) I think I'll make it.

I'm Going to Choose to Take That as a Compliment....

A couple of weeks ago I was out working on the shed when I noticed a vehicle pull into the end of our driveway.  It stopped at the end of the drive, but looked like my parent's vehicle, so I figured they were picking up the mail and would then come up to the house.  But no one got out of the car and it never progressed up the drive.  Just about the time it dawned on me that it was not my parents, the car backed out and drove (very s...l....o....w....l....y) down the road. 

I'm going to assume they were just admiring the house and not scoping the place out for less savory reasons.

But whoever that visited a couple weeks ago was just completely outdone.  10 minutes ago Cecilia looked out the window and said, "We have company!".  Sure enough, a silver minivan was coming up the drive.  I slipped on my shoes and went out to greet our visitors, but as I opened the door they were already turning around.  I began to walk down the sidewalk anyway and sure enough, just between the barn and shed the van's brake lights came on.  I got about half-way to the van (they had to see me) when the driver let off the break and took the rest of the lane at a pretty good clip.  They headed north out the drive.

I'm not sure what to think.  I'm guessing they just came up the drive to get a better view of the house, but I admit I'm puzzled (and a bit concerned) nonetheless.  I've got a few tools I've been keeping out in the shed, but they'll be locked in the house before nightfall tonight.

Guest Post at Old House Dreams

I want to thank Kelly at Old House Dreams for allowing me to author a guest post on the Seneca County Courthouse.

I mentioned earlier this year the county commissioners’ attempt to close the Seneca County Museum and auction off its contents. Thankfully the museum now appears to be safe, but the county’s 1884 Beaux Arts Courthouse remains on the chopping block, with bids for demolition set to open on November 8th.

So please head over to Old House Dreams, and if you feel compelled please consider contacting the Seneca County Commissioners and urging them to save this irreplaceable building.



Artist's depiction of renovated courthouse



More Salvage

I'm anxious to return to our shed this weekend, but before I do I wanted to put up one more post about salvaging from the old Second Empire brick house.  I've made a total of six trips to the house, which sounds quite impressive until I admit that four of those trips were made in our 10 year old Ford Ranger and it doesn't take a whole lot to weigh the back of that little truck down.  Still, I have a decent pile of material from the old house that will live on here at the EH.

Gathering salvaged bricks from the house isn't quite as simple as it may seem.  The walls of the old house were three courses of brick deep, but only the exterior layer of bricks were fired.  The two inner courses were made of (cheaper) unfired bricks.  These look almost identical to the exterior layer but they are porous.  I remember nearly twenty years ago when my mom laid her first brick walkway only to have half of the bricks disintegrate after a couple winters of the freeze-thaw cycle.  I would rather not repeat that experience with my own brick path.

As the picture at left shows, it was easiest to gather exterior bricks by taking apart the few sections of wall that were still intact.  And although it's difficult to tell in the pictures, I could also identify exterior bricks by the color of mortar on them.  This appeared to be lime based (white) on the exterior course and clay (?) based (tan) on the interior courses.

Back home and neatly stacked, my brick supply for next summer looks like this:

My seven salvaged stone lintels are stacked just beside the bricks:

I'm thinking that when we tackle rebuilding the stone bridge I will try to incorporate these lintels as steps from the bridge down to a path along the creek.

I also brought back three large corbels pulled from the wreckage, and two matching baby corbels I found on my last trip.  These are obviously not the right style to try to incorporate into the Einsel House, but I think they should make some amazing supports for shelves in the shed. 

Finally, one last picture from the old house.  When I climbed up on the pile of rubble I was shocked to find this section of the old mansard roof still partially intact:

There were three different shapes of slate shingles incorporated into this roof - rectangle at the very top, diamond in the center and hexagon at the bottom.  I have such a difficult time understanding how someone could look at this house and not think it was worth saving.