Show us your vintage home!

[dhermann1]

Fireplace

Big Man: I'm looking at that fireplace again, and I'm thinking it seems to be a relatively small hearth. That makes me wonder if it was designed as a coal fire place. Was there ever a coal bin in your basement? Just a thought. I've seen similar fireplaces and was told that's what they were for.
That color is wonderful. Rich and warm, and it compliments the rich color of the wood. Great job!

 

[Big Man]

Big Man: I'm looking at that fireplace again, and I'm thinking it seems to be a relatively small hearth. That makes me wonder if it was designed as a coal fire place. Was there ever a coal bin in your basement? Just a thought. I've seen similar fireplaces and was told that's what they were for.
That color is wonderful. Rich and warm, and it compliments the rich color of the wood. Great job!

This fireplace is a little bit bigger than it looks in this photo. There is a fireplace in the room behind this one (common chimney) that my grandfather "closed in" to burn coal sometime between 1917 and 1920. The fireplace in the dining room burned wood, as my grandmother used it for some of her cooking.

In all my growing up years, I can only remember one or two times she had a fire in this fireplace (the room was used as her bedroom from the earliest of my memories). However, the brick in the fire box definitely indicate many, many fires were in this fireplace over the years (prior to the 1950's).

As to the coal bin, there was (and still is) a "coal pile" outside in the side yard. It's been there in the same place for as long as I can remember. In the winter, my grandmother used to keep eight or ten buckets of coal on the back porch "in case of bad weather" where they couldn't easily get the day's coal supply from outside. She was always "prepared", but funny that it never got "too bad" and even in the harshest of weather the "reserve" supply of coal was never allowed to be used.

 

[texasgirl]

Wow, BigMan, I've been following your journey- it's fantastic! So warm & cozy feeling

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Here is our house just before Ike hit (I've posted it earlier in the thread already).

And after:

And luckily not our vintage home (no one was injured).

 

[Big Man]

Wow, BigMan, I've been following your journey- it's fantastic! So warm & cozy feeling

Thank you. My "Maw's" place has always been "home" to me. Without question, the best times of my life have centered around this old house. It's not fancy, and is an example of how "plain folks" lived during the "good old days". I've tried to keep the place in a way that if my grandmother walked back through the door she would recognize it. Also, it's a way for me to "stay connected" in a way. I can still see her sitting by that kitchen window waiting for my aunt Hazel to bring me home from school. I used to spend every weekend there and all summer there from the time I started to school until I was in my late teens.

Those were really the good old days ...

 

[carter]

Big Man, I have pictures of my grandparents farm home that I spent the first nine years of my life on as well as many summer days into my teens. Though it's no longer in the family the memories are as you describe. I'll scan those pictures and post them one day.
Your restoration project on the dining room has been fascinating to watch. After stripping all the wood for the fireplace, I can understand why those doors and the trim "looked really good painted white". I'm looking forward to the culmination of your efforts.
We had a coal-burning furnace in the basement of our farmhouse. I remember that the big central grate in the floor would get so hot you couldn't stand on it.

J.M., We lived in Houston from '92-'94. I remember one hurricane alert but nothing like you folks just went through. Glad to see that no one was injured in the last house pictured. I take it your home did considerably better.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

We just lost a section of shingles and part of the fence, my boss had four big pine trees fall on his house (a nice 50's ranch) and they can't live there for at least the next three months. So we consider ourselves very lucky overall. Our power was off for eight days, but we have friends that just got their power back yesterday.

 

[carter]

We had frequent power outages when we lived in Spring Branch. Almost every time there was storm of any size. Never for as much as a day. It's a real awakening when you're without electricity. Especially where it stays humid. Perhaps the best part was no TV.

I'm sorry to read about your boss's home. Hopefully it'll be better than before Ike when they finally can move back in.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

You know some (actually most) people thought I was nuts but I was starting to like not having power. No electronic devices, and going to bed when it was dark. It felt very liberating. Sometimes I really hate modern life.

 

[carter]

It certainly hearkens back to a simpler time.
Not totally better but certainly simpler. One of the reasons why I like to sleep with the windows open as often as possible.

 

[Big Man]

Well, I finally finished the staining/painting project I've been working on for the past couple of months. It was slow going, having only Saturday's (and not all of them) to try to get any work done. But, this weekend, I was able to get everything finished. Well, almost - as I still need to do something with the floor. It could use a new coat of paint, and the big piece of linoleum covering the majority of the floor is just about shot. But that's another project to take on a little later.

Here is an "around the room" look at what I've done.


Looking from the kitchen door into the dining room (with the "front room" visible through the open door straight ahead). The chair is one of five left of my grandmother's dining room suit. The picture on the wall above the chair is of the big Brown family reunion in 1928. I was looking at that picture again yesterday when hanging it up. There must have been 50 or so people there for that reunion. My dad, who was four years old at the time, is the only one left living. Not just the only one from his family, but the only one from all the attendants at that reunion. The two pictures on the wall between the doors are two of my favorites. The top one was a picnic with my grandmother, two aunts, and my mother and father, baby sister, and me. I always felt that that picture represented the "good times" in my life. The picture below is of my children and one of my grandchildren (I only had one when this picture was taken) on a trip we took to Spruce Knob, WV. It was a great trip, and it reminded me of the "togetherness" I always enjoyed growing up.

Moving on around the room is the door to the porch. Growing up, after Sunday dinner we'd go outside and sit on the porch and talk. My grandmother always had a rocker she sat in, and my dad (when he didn't go into the front room and take a nap on the couch) would sit in a chair under the tree in the yard. I'd play in the sand pile under the tree. Often times visitors would come by and sit and talk with the family. Sunday visits are something I really do miss.

The sideboard in the corner was my grandmother's. I thought about refinishing it, but after the time and effort on the fireplace mantel, I think it looks really good painted , besides, it's been painted for a long, long time - so why change it now. When my grandmother bought a radio (about 1936), it sat on that sideboard. The antenna wire ran through the window to the right (there's still a place in the window sash that was carved out for the wire to run). The white candy dish on top of the sideboard has sat in the same place for so long that there's a permanent mark outlining the bottom of the dish.

Looking from the front room door towards the kitchen. The picture on the wall is my grandfather and grandmother on their wedding day, 20 December 1904. The little table has been around the house forever, and I use it as a desk. Looking into the kitchen you can see the "new stove" that replaced my grandmother's wood cook stove. The stove is a Hotpoint that my parents bought about 1947 or 1948. It sat on the back porch for several years before my grandmother finally allowed it to replace her cook stove.

And finally, back around to the fireplace. The door to the left of the fireplace is the pantry. There is a "pass-through window" into the kitchen inside the pantry, although none of us ever figured out the real usefulness of that (except to let cold air in the room during the winter).

The door to the right of the fireplace goes into the downstairs bedroom. That bedroom was probably used as a sitting room prior to the time my dad was born (1924), but has been a combination bedroom and sitting room ever since. There's no shortage of doors in this house. Every downstairs room (including the bathroom) has a door opening to the outside - and the front room has two outside doors.

There were times during this project that I asked myself, "what the hell was I thinking" (especially about five minutes after I started taking the old coats of paint off the fireplace mantel). But now that it's finished, I'm glad I did the work. The room needed painting (the last time it was painted was by my aunt in the late 1960's or very early 1970's). Also, by peeling off old coats of paint, I was able to discover what I believe was a pre-1930's paint color, and was able to match it fairly close. Now, on to the next project ...

 

[J. M. Stovall]

That looks really spectacular Big Man!

 

[Big Man]

That looks really spectacular Big Man!

Thank you.

 

[Miles Borocky]

I live in an old building in SF right off Ofarrell and Hyde streets. Ill snap some shots of the foyer later.

My place

and the permanent fixture . . .

LD

Lady Day,
I am envious of your Anatomy of a Murder poster. Excellent iconography!

 

[Josephine]

Well, I finally finished the staining/painting project I've been working on for the past couple of months.

Big Man, it looks absolutely fabulous, very "polished". Really, really great. :eusa_clap

 

[Big Man]

Big Man, it looks absolutely fabulous, very "polished". Really, really great. :eusa_clap

Thank you.

 

[The Shirt]

Big Man - what a lovely restoration project. The color of the walls is quite nice and I cannot believe how perfect the mantel turned out. Removing paint is drudgery in my opinion and I would have given up. Your fortitude really paid off - it's just lovely!

 

[Big Man]

Big Man - what a lovely restoration project. The color of the walls is quite nice and I cannot believe how perfect the mantel turned out. Removing paint is drudgery in my opinion and I would have given up. Your fortitude really paid off - it's just lovely!

Thank you. Believe me, I wanted to give up. But once I started, there was no turning back. I had to finish. But to do it all over again, well, it didn't look all that bad painted ...

 

[Down2BDapper]

Sorry these are a little blurry, but...

This is the outside of my apartment taken last Winter. My window is behind the tree.

This is my room.

This is my entertainment centre.

My bed.

My writing area.

 

[AmateisGal]

Big Man, you did such a FABULOUS job. I just love the colors and how warm and comfortable it all feels.

But what you said here: "Sunday visits are something I really do miss." really resonated with me. We used to do a lot of Sunday visiting growing up. We'd go to both my grandparents' homes and visit and that was just what we did on a Sunday. In fact, going to visit my great aunts and uncles and cousins was part of life. Now, everyone is so busy that no one has time for good old-fashioned visiting anymore, at least in my family. It has to be a wedding or a family reunion or something like that to get us all together for a good visit.