Show us your vintage home!

[1mach1]

Looks great Big Man. You sound just like my Dad (which is a compliment). If there is anything I have learned, it's safety above all, and take pride in your work. Looks like he did a nice job!

 

[Big Man]

Looks great Big Man. You sound just like my Dad (which is a compliment). If there is anything I have learned, it's safety above all, and take pride in your work. Looks like he did a nice job!

He did a great job. I couldn't have done it without him. Well, I could have, but I really (and I mean REALLY) didn't want to take on that high part myself. It would have been nice to finished out that last little piece, but I'd rather err on the side of safety, especially when thunderstorms and ladders are involved.

 

[esteban68]

+1, plus a handsome looking piece of luggage and comfy looking club chair.

The house is a 1921 corner/ end terrace...It was built as part of the garden City movement on land previously owned by the Duke of Devonshire....It was specified by the Duke that the estate should be built that way with plenty of trees and green spaces.
The fire surround isn't original but is old, pot bellied stove is around 80 years old and locally produced, tall candle sticks are original victorian jobs as are the small moveable ones either side of the fire place, club chair is classically styled but only about ten years old, coffee pot on top of the stove is a French one from the forties, luggage is a briefcase from the fifties and pretty timeless, cupboard behind the bag is a twenties/thirties item....dogs are daughters a blue Staffordshire Bull terrier and the bigger one an American bulldog? cross Staffordshire both have fantastic temperaments.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Did some planting around the house, last week.

I've always wanted a cluster of birches in the corner of my yard, and now I do.

Hydrangea:

Mums:

Hops:

Don't know what this was, but had to move it in order to make way for some of the others:

 

[esteban68]

It startling to come together Tom, Big Man that's a decent amount of painting to get through in a day.....I really like wooden clad houses like the ones you have over there sadly apart from a few in Norfolk and possibly a couple of other places in the UK you hardly see any over here, allegedly due to the Great Fire of London in 1666.

 

[Fading Fast]

Tom, it's been really enjoyable to watch the progress you are making on your home. I love the plantings.

Big Man, as noted, the fresh paint really makes your beautiful windows stand out. (And a hearty well done to you and your son.)

This week, one of the guys on the contractor's crew that is doing the demo in my apartment (not only don't I have the knowledge or skills, but NYC coop board rules and the DOB would never allow me to do this work myself) - sent me a picture of the kitchen when they finished demo. A few fun things to note:

- The floor is down to the "ash" layer, which is the original insulation between floors from 1927 (and I was over there Friday and it is ash)

- The big exhaust tube you seen is part of a Hepa air filter machine that really did a great job of taking down the particle count in the air (and is a coop board requirement)

- Those pipes you see in the right hand corner can't be embedded into the wall (it's a firewall between apartments) and they are reeking havoc with are refrigerator placement

- That little radiator is original to the apartment and we are simply going to strip it and, if the metal looks good, just put a sealant on it, or, if the metal is too beat up, we'll paint it. Either way, he'll be going right back into his home since 1927

Hopefully, in only a few months, you'll be able to compare this to the finished work in the kitchen.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Thank you for the kind words. I'm nuts about plants and on top of what I posted, have planted about 15 tiger lilies, 35 bridal wreath plants, 10 arborvitaes, and 13 rose bushes.

FF - I'm enjoying watching your project and you certainly aren't messing around! Good to see a project being done right and done accurately.

 

[1mach1]

FF, can't wait to see more pics of the progress.

Tom, good looking yard. I always find planting new stuff to be loads of fun!

 

[dh66]

FF thanks for sharing that photo. The ash layer is a new one to me, I've never seen anything like that down here. I assume it's as much or more for warmth insulation than noise.
Also, I assume that at one time those pipes were inside some kind of casework, thus hidden. What kind of sink are you planning to install? And where exactly are you looking to set the fridge?

 

[Fading Fast]

FF thanks for sharing that photo. The ash layer is a new one to me, I've never seen anything like that down here. I assume it's as much or more for warmth insulation than noise.
Also, I assume that at one time those pipes were inside some kind of casework, thus hidden. What kind of sink are you planning to install? And where exactly are you looking to set the fridge?

Hi, our guess is as good as yours (and the Super's) on the ash layer - "insulation" is everyone's guess. There is now a fresh layer of concrete over it, so the ash from 1927 has now been re-entombed.

The pipes were all behind the back wall of what were the lower cabinets. Having never done this before, I didn't think to measure to see if the back wall of the cabinets went as far back as the actually kitchen wall (which, we now know it didn't) and, thus, the pipes only became visible when we took the old cabinetry out.

We plan to put the refrigerator in the back right corner (where all the pipes are), but now it has to come out 3 inches on both sides of the corner which doesn't sound like much but messes up a bunch of things (the refrigerator door won't open all the way [big problem - has to be addressed] and we lost precious counter space next to the sink [just an annoyance as you want to be able to put as many dishes, etc. there for washing, drying).

We are installing an under-mount Shaw's fireclay sink (not a farmer's seat - no visible apron front) with a wall mounted faucet.

 

[Fading Fast]

1927/8 coop apartment update:

Below is a picture of part of the demoed bathroom. It had been redone about 10-15 year ago and was a mess (the work was so poor that tiles were coming off the wall and the floor was lifting up). We will be restoring it to a 1920's aesthetic. The second photo is of the original radiator from that bathroom (about the only original thing that survived the remodeling) that we are having striped, cleaned, resealed and re-installed. We also are getting an original medicine cabinet from another apartment in the building where the owner doesn't want it (they are going to make their apartment modern looking). So at least this bathroom will have an original radiator and medicine cabinet and, hopefully, a 1920's aesthetic overall.

As a reminder, the other bathroom in the apartment is +/-95% original to 1927/8 (and the last still-in-good-working-order one in the building) and all we are doing there is painting, re-grouting (original grey color) and replacing some tiles that had been replaced (badly over the years). The Super gave us a box of original tiles that he's been collecting so we will be replacing the replacement tiles with original 1927/8 ones (yes!). The third photo is of the radiator from this still original bathroom - again, we will strip, clean, paint and reinstall it.

The last photo is of all three radiators - the third one comes from the kitchen and there was much debate today if it is original or not to the building. It doesn't look it to me, but one plumber thought yes and another thought no. Either way, we'll strip, clean, seal and reinstall.



Original radiator (he came from the wall in the upper right of the above photo)


The other original radiator from the basically all-original bathroom


All three radiators with the "controversial" kitchen one in the center

 

[Big Man]

My son came by this afternoon and climbed the ladder again to finish up on that last little bit of the wall we had to leave last week due to the storm. I'm glad this is one more project that I can now mark as "done."

 

[Fading Fast]

More from the crazy demo / reno world of our 1928 coop apartment:

These three are the bathroom being demoed. It's a pretty small bathroom (tiny by modern standards, normal for a pre-war apartment). For those who've been following this project, this is the bathroom that had been redone 10-15 years ago (and was falling apart), the other bathroom that is still original to 1928 will be left untouched other than painting and some tile repair (with surplus original 1928 building tiles - Super got them from other apartments that were demoing them out).








This is an original 1928 medicine cabinet that another owner was throwing out (they are doing a modern renovation), so we got it and will be putting it into our restored bathroom (so while from another apartment, the medicine cabinet will stay in the building and live on, hopefully, for many more years with us)




This is some crazy "channeling" they are doing to sort out the electric in the living room




And these are the original beams in the living room ceiling. We took out moldings that were added to them in the '80s and they are currently fixing them up and returning them to how they looked in back in 1928 - they are getting close and they look great. Simple, classic and so much better than when they had the 1980's extra molding added




Finally, we discovered this, this week. This is the outside wall of our kitchen (it's in one of the building's common fire stairs). We thought this was some old electrical box or something as there was nothing on the inside wall of the apartment that paralleled it. But during demo, we discovered that it was a metal box that the electrician said was never an electrical box, but was a box that open from the outside of the apartment and from the inside.

My best guess is that it was for milk deliveries (milkman left milk in the early morning by opening the outside, and you got your milk, when you woke up, by opening from the inside). Daily milk delivery was normal back in the 1920s. That said, it's just a guess, so please let me know if you know or have a thought as to what this is. The final shot is how it looks from the inside today. It's hard to see the box with all the wires, but again, the electrician says it's not an old electrical panel, but is a convenient space to run wire through now.

Outside wall shot of the possible milk box


Inside shot of the same box (it's the yellow box behind all the wires)

 

[LizzieMaine]

That portal is indeed a milkbox. The apartment I lived in during my tenure in California thirty-odd years ago had one exactly like it. They were very common at the time -- the milkman would have a master key that fit the outside lock, and the tenant would have a key to open the inner lock.

 

[Fading Fast]

That portal is indeed a milkbox. The apartment I lived in during my tenure in California thirty-odd years ago had one exactly like it. They were very common at the time -- the milkman would have a master key that fit the outside lock, and the tenant would have a key to open the inner lock.

Awesome, I thought so as it looked similar to - but not exactly the same as - one we had in the old house I grew up in. Also, I couldn't come up with anything else for it.

And I forgot to mention it, but we found horse hair in the bathroom walls that was used for insulation.

 

[Fading Fast]

Big Man, nice job on the house - it looks great. Perhaps you and your son want to reward yourselves with, oh, I don't know, a '53 Chevy Bel Air? :car:

 

[Stearmen]

Awesome, I thought so as it looked similar to - but not exactly the same as - one we had in the old house I grew up in. Also, I couldn't come up with anything else for it.

And I forgot to mention it, but we found horse hair in the bathroom walls that was used for insulation.

They would also mix horse hair into the plaster for strength! It's all over my house.

 

[Stearmen]

This is some crazy "channeling" they are doing to sort out the electric in the living room

That is why I have decided not to add ceiling lights to my parlor! I think floor lights will be fine.

 

[Fading Fast]

That is why I have decided not to add ceiling lights to my parlor! I think floor lights will be fine.

I hear ya. You'll notice there is no channeling going on in the ceiling and for all but a very little bit, the living room is the only room we are doing this craziness in as it had a mishmash of wiring going back to 1928 that needed to be rationalized.

 

[Big Man]

Big Man, nice job on the house - it looks great. Perhaps you and your son want to reward yourselves with, oh, I don't know, a '53 Chevy Bel Air? :car:

The temptation is there ... and is almost overwhelming.