In the words of the famous Yoda

"Do or do not. There is no try."

So I have made a list with all the things I need to do (paint trim, touch up paint, etc.) and some things I want to do (create art, add rug, etc.) for each room as well as back yard and front yard and added a check box at the end of the line to get me going again on those many little projects before all of my spare time gets swallowed up again. It also helps the husband to see all the points on the "honey, let's do" list spelled out and ready to pick from.

I'm usually not big into lists but this time I think we really need one or else we're going to loose track and big time momentum. It was definitely easier to get things accomplished when we weren't living in the Ugly Duckling but just made time, every day, to stop by to paint and prep and prime and fix and beautify than now were life tends to get the better of us most of the time. This weekend, I got to check off three boxes already and boy, did that feel great!

Almost 30 years ago

In 1985 a group of people dedicated to the preservation and recognition of the Springfield neighborhood in Jacksonville kicked off a huge undertaking: surveying and cataloging every historic structure in Springfield for the application for National Historic District.

Springfield Heritage Education Center, short "SHEC", is working on making these masterfiles and photographs accessable on their webpage, along with more history, anecdotes and photographs of Springfield through the ages.

Check out the webpage here.

If you like to learn more historic tidbits about our neighborhood and find historical houses and neighborhoods generally squeal-worthy, sign up for their monthly newsletter!

While I haven't been able to get my hands on our house's master file just yet, I was able to find the picture taken in 1985 for the historic district application. Woot!

There it is, our little old house. While the years haven't been too kind to the exterior paint job and it doesn't look as fresh and new anymore, it hasn't changed a lot. The wrought-iron railing had already replaced the original wooden railing (which is a bummer since I was hoping to maybe find a picture with the old railing intact), the Crape Myrtle and funny-looking loquats hadn't been planted yet, the door to the right was much uglier than today's replacement (Thank God for small blessings!) and the clump of lilies at the step-up to the front yard was already planted. Would you believe that these lilies have been there for almost 30 years?? I certainly didn't (and now I feel somewhat bad about wanting to move them).

Other than that, our little house looks like our little house.

After mooning over the old photograph for a ...ahem,while, I did discover one little detail that had me squealing with excitement. I missed it at first, but you know, you have to get a little up close and personal.

Closer.
Closer still.

Do you see it?

Oh MY GOD! Leaded glass sidelights!

While our original entry door, bereft of its transom window, was already on the left side of the house, almost 30 years ago it had leaded glass sidelights! Aren't they beautiful??

Not only are they beautiful and I'm excited to have a picture of its past beauty, but this picture will be great proof of how the door originally looked like when we apply for the permission (Certificate of Appropriateness," short COA) to restore it. Woot!

I feel like dancing. How about you?

Radio Silence

[source: toothpastefordinner.com]

I'm sneaking in a few minutes of private computer time at the office so that y'all don't feel like we've fallen off of the face of the earth.

We did it!

We moved!

We slept at the Ugly Duckling!

We used the brandnew stove and sink and fridge and dishwasher!

We ate take-out for 2 days!

It's a mess!

It's dusty!

There're boxes -everywhere-!

It's heaven!

[We've been promised TV, internet and cable by Friday. Once that is straightened out, regular updates should resume. Really!]

Curb appeal I

Since the weather changed to Florida Spring Mode last week, we'd been itching to work on a few minor changes on the outside of the Ugly Duckling. The weather has been gorgeous (of course, now that the roof is all fixed) with balmy temperatures and sunny skies and working out of doors sounded like a great idea. We didn't do anything big. We just tidied things up a bit.

[Before: check out the white cap stones halfway up the porch columns]

There's the husband prepping the capstones. With everything being all white except for the porch floor, steps and lower capstones the porch seemed to be floating in mid-air. So, armed with a gallon of dark grey exterior paint, a broom and some gardening tools we went to town.

First, we cleaned up the weeds creeping up between the pavers leading up to the porch steps. It's something my Mom made us do a lot when we were little and it's like bicycle riding - you don't forget the motions. Heh :o) It looked much cleaner right away, too.

Then husband started to clean and prep the cap stones of the columns while I hoe-ed away on the clumps of patchy grass growing up against the front of the porch.

[There he is, de-glossing the capstones. The lower ones were painted grey but showed paint splatters from projects of the previous owner so they needed a clean and matching coat of paint too]

The grey we picked up is a much warmer grey with a lot less blue. It went on like butter and gave the porch a bit more 'oomph' - just what it needed. There's plenty of paint left - enough to paint the porch floor and steps once we've refinished the porch floor a bit (like filling little cracks and holes left from the railing)

[In progress: Cap stone painting in progress]

I'm thinking about tinting some white exterior paint with a sploosh of the grey we used on the cap stones to paint the bottom part of the columns. That should help ground the porch even more and give it some more substance.

Stay tuned for Curb Appeal II - the sequel !

Meet Griswold

This is Griswold. He's from Pennsylvania, and after a short sabbatical he will be in charge of receiving the mail at the Ugly Duckling again. Griswold has been in this profession for many years and his experience is extraordinary even though he lost his outgoing mail clip and the newspaper hanger at some point in the past 70+ years.

"Griswold" is a Griswold Erie, PA No 106 cast-iron mailbox. Right now he resides next to the formal entrance door that leads to the living room (the door was moved from its original place most likely when it was turned into a duplex the first time around) but we will move him over to our actual entrance door and return him to "mail duty" because we love his quirky looks.

Don't you love his squint and perpetual "oh" mouth? We certainly do!

Big steps - little steps

Learning to dance an Old English Folk Dance we loved to imitate our dance teacher's "BIG step, BIG step, leeetle step, leeetle step" with a slightly exaggerated Eastern European accent. Our contractor's warning that the beginning and the end of a rehab feel like a whirlwind and that the middle seems to drag, somehow follows the same idea. Looks like she's spot on, too :o)

Right now, things are dragging a bit. Our electrician is working at repairing, updating, moving and installing fixtures and outlets so that electricity can be restored to our Ugly Duckling. This is such a lengthy process [most likely a week] because the Ugly Duckling has been vacant for so long that JEA requires a re-inspection before turning on the "juice" again. Until then, all carpentry work and any work after 5:30pm is on hold because you can't use any power tools and it still gets dark early.

We got bids for the HVAC system which of course turned out a little higher than we'd hoped because code now requires that the compressors are at least 4 ft from the next house. That means the one that was installed on the right side of the house needs to move into the backyard and copper lines ain't cheap.

Plumbing will be equally fun since we discovered that the original cast-iron stack is still in use. As we're vehemently opposed to "shit hitting fan" moments in the near future should that stack decide to rust through on us, we'll have it replaced. After all, the walls are open and the plumber is already in the house. Right? Right.

In good news we have word that my super special tub beauty will be delivered today, the kitchen plans are finalized, my pretty pretty sink is here, the walls in the Little Man's room got their second coat of paint and the rain gave us a 2-day break (it'll be back for a brief stint tomorrow and then leave fo good).

Mystery solved!

Matt and Heather aka "The Perrys on Perry", nailed it on the head - hidden away under layers of paint and caulked into the wall for safekeeping we discovered the original set of pocket doors between our living and dining room! Christmas in February! Not too many original features survived the Ugly Duckling's long history as rental property so this discovery has us all giddy and excited!

A narrow piece of wood covered the opening at the top. It came out quickly tapping it lightly with a hammer. Original tracks are still in there. So was a lot of dust and a few smaller chunks of plaster.

Here's the hubby chipping away at half-inch think caulk and layers of paint. I took it from there - the sweet advantage of only working part-time, heh. And after 2 more hours (and many many decades) I managed to wrangle the left door out of its pocket.

Unlike the rest of the trim work in the Ugly Duckling, the pocket doors aren't covered in layer upon layer of paint which makes us believe they were retired fairly early on in the history of the house. Thank God, because I doubt the doors and their original hardware would have survived in place and unpainted for that long.

Close up of the beautiful hardware

So, now our livingroom looks like this

Pardon the dust, we have a teeny bit of construction going on at the moment and I didn't get around to mopping the floors ... yet :) The current weather isn't helping at all - gloomy skies make for gloomy pictures.

To the right you can see where we re-opened the now archway, future french doors to the entry hall. On the left is our humongous bricked in fireplace (we have plans for that), straight ahead you can see a pocket door peeking out from its pocket (it's still a little shy and doesn't want to come out all the way but who can blame it? I'd be shy if I'd been caulked into a wall for decades) and beyond that the dining room (filled with old kitchen cabinets). You even get a glimpse of the breezeway to the kitchen in the farthest right corner of the dining room.

Babysteps

Today was the official first day of our rehab: after returning home from work we met with our General Contractor over at the Ugly Duckling for a final walk-through and to create a plan of action. We have 45 days to bring the Ugly Duckling up to par to pass the 4-point inspection for roof, electric, plumbing and HVAC required by our insurance, and fortunately our contractor team from Glory Homes Inc is optimistic that we will meet this deadline just fine (especially since we're shooting for 30 days max and have told the sub-contractors that ...heh).

We signed some more paperwork necessary for building permits and certificate of appropriateness since we're in a historic district, took some more pictures, scribbled on walls and mused over and pointed out original features and how to bring them back so that our Ugly Duckling can go from this

to this!

Sold! Err ... Bought!

After 9 months of searching, touring, comparing listings, cleaning credit history and gnashing teeth while waiting we did it! We are officially home owners!

Our closing was as uneventful and anti-climatic as the day I went to my final interview for my permanent resident card aka "the Green Card": smooth sailing all around. No drawn drawbridge across the river, no trains, no traffic to keep us from getting to the title office in time for our appointment at 3pm, no hold ups, last minute demands or issues to stop us from finishing the last step. There were only 5 people involved in this courtesy closing: the three of us, our agent and the clerk of the title office. After signing the equivalent of a small tree in paper we were done and out of the office in hardly more than 30 minutes. Well, except for the keys. Essentially, we bought a house with a lock box which may or may not get removed by the seller's agent (and we still have an extra one that we ... ahem, found in the backyard the day after the first compressor had "walked off") and the keys to the house were in there and not at the title office.

We hugged our agent good-bye (which felt weird after spending so much time together during the past 8 months - maybe she'll take me along to house tours if I ask nicely?) and then drove over to the Ugly Duckling to tell her (yes, I consider our house a 'she') the good news and pick up our keys.

To me it feels like the house is holding her breath and I just can't wait to get started on all the projects we have planned for our little old house (see our Masterplan and moodboards for some of our ideas). So, here she is, our Ugly Duckling:

Welcome to the family!
We are looking forward to spending a lot of time with you!

Just a few more pages

... till the end of the chapter!

And just a few more pages until we start - finally ! - a brandnew chapter in our book going from "The long arduous annoying exasperating tiring frustrating exciting hunt for and purchase of a home" to "1001 exciting and not so exciting moments of rehabbing a historic home" followed closely by "The great mystery of paint colors, window treatments and decorative touches" - short and sweet, in a mere 17 hours we are going to become homeowners!
Squeeee!
Today I ducked again into the library to learn more about our Ugly Duckling's history. Researching the more recent history isn't nearly as fun - the books are newer and cleaner lacking the charm and mystery of the rumpled pages of old books gilded with age and sadly, the entries aren't nearly as exciting. Professions aren't listed as regularly anymore, and the names in their contemporary familiarity ring less intriguing.

It's also kind of sad to learn that in its long history, the Ugly Duckling has never really been a long-term family home. Except for the Parnells who lived in the Ugly Duckling between 1941 and 1966 and Mrs Bertha Babcock who lived here from 1971 until 1984, the house passed from tenant to tenant with few of them staying much longer than 2 or 3 years at a time.

Hopefully we will be able to break that spell and give the Ugly Duckling its if not forever family at least a long-term family that will take care of it (funny, I think of the Ugly Duckling as 'her' most of the time even though she's not one of the Grand old ladies of Historic Springfield) and cherish it. And no, we have no plans on renaming the Ugly Duckling "George"!

Enough sappy babbling - more tomorrow!

Sometimes you have to kiss a frog to get a Prince

I have jokingly said that I won't show Before pictures of the Ugly Duckling unless I have a few After to go with it, and well, truth be told, it's not really so much of a joke than the knowledge that a lot of people just have problems seeing the sheer potential in a house that is old and has been neglected for a number of years, not to mention vacant.

Houses need owners and this is especially true for historic homes. They are imbued with character and spirit but they need the love and care of an owner to show their full potential.

Yeah, I know, it's the cheesy infatuated ramblings of a historic house nut and while I might be biased (and I admit to it happily) I'll leave you with this video created by a neigbor that might convince you that while biased I might be right after all ;o)

Enjoy!

[blogspot didn't let me embbed the video so here's an old-fashioned link]
Kiss a Frog - Get a Prince

Breaking News!

We finally finally received the news: the city has agreed to a partial release of the lien and we should now be able to close on the Ugly Duckling on or before January 28th, 2011.

And there was much rejoicing in the house!

No, we aren't holding our breath (just skipping and squealing a little bit) because if we have learned anything throughout this entire house hunting adventure is that anything can happen anytime. I'm still signed up for an MLS mailer and keep a close eye on any movement on the market in our neighborhood. You never know ...

I'm not sure how much comfort it is for you out there still at the beginning of a house hunt or maybe even just toying with the thought of maybe someday buying your own home that our real estate agent assured me that we "got to see it all" so far and that she feels sorry for all the hassle we've been going through (fortunately with her by our side - I'm sure I'd have lost it entirely by now if it weren't for her levelheaded assurances and advice). HGTV certainly shows this whole process in a very rose-colored light (or would that be Honeysuckle for those paint aficionados?) and these days I have a hard time watching "House Hunters" without resorting to cat calls, snorts and snarky comments aimed at the screen peanut-gallery-style.

I can only imagine the reactions if we'd tried to wait out the seller's response over a cup of coffee at "Three Layers", the bestest place for a cup of coffee and some wicked good pie (or a glass of wine) in the 'hood. Heh, they'd be charging us rent by now!

Anyways, the later the evening, the longer my sentences so that's it for tonight! If all goes well I'll finally get to show off the Ugly Duckling in all its filthy, dirty, neglected glory in a little more than a week and get started on those "before" and "after" shots!

I'm done waiting - Are we there yet?

Running circles

"Holding pattern" is the new black this season.

Sorry I haven't been blog-productive these past couple of days but the rainy grey [greige?] weather combined with the endless waiting game had me in a real slump this weekend. I spent lots of it on the couch, my nose buried in a book and my free hand balancing a cup of tea in my beautiful beautiful Oresund mug [I love it! It fits perfectly into the curve of your hands and I adore the blue color with the speckled rustic white and happy yellow] or playing boardgames with my 2 men.

So, what's new in the house buying business?

Not much, unfortunately. Today we finalized our home owner's insurance. I know, how exciting! We went with yet another neighborhood recommendation and weren't let down at all. Our insurance guy was incredibly helpful and very very quick to respond to our questions and requests throughout the entire process.
No news from the city yet.

9 days until closing ... theoretically. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Something bigger than google maps

Much much bigger, in fact. And much more fun, although I must confess I love google maps street view feature.So we enjoyed another Thursday at the library downtown. This time I trekked out with the munchkin and three of his neighborhood buddies and while they enjoyed the afternoon kids program, I ducked into the Florida collections for some quality time with a few maps I'd wanted to check out ever since I heard of them.
The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Then created as a tool used by insurance companies and fire departments to assess the risk of fire for neighborhoods and properties, they are now a great tool in your research of your property's history. You can find out whether your house changed shape (a porch added or enclosed, an addition built, etc.), if it had outdoor buildings at some point (a garage, a shed, a carriage house, etc.) and what the surrounding neighborhood looked like.
Our library has actually digitalized a great deal of the Sanborn maps (check it out here) but unfortunately not enough to show the street with the Ugly Duckling. So off I went to wrestle the maps in person.
And wrestle them, I did. Boy, they look nothing they today's AAA maps! Nothing at all.

(Meet the Sanborn Map Collection - yes, they are that tall)


(Loooove those rumpled looking yellowed pages)

(Yep, that's my hand. You need two of these to carry one of the maps)

The librarians working the special collections upstairs are always incredibly helpful and nice and I feel quite at home up there. So while they put out the call to find the librarian who could answer my question on how these maps are set up, I decided to simply try my luck.
I'm a very visual person and a hands-on approach usually works much better for me than listening to or reading instructions of any sort. 3 misses later, I scored my first map with the right street. Woot! Granted, waiting for the librarian to point me to the right map would have been a little easier on my back and kept me from toting 3 heavy (40-50lbs is my guess) maps back and forth between their shelf and the table that's big enough to hold them.

(Our neighborhood in 2924 - the different colors indicate building material (pink is brick, yellow is wood frame, etc.)

So, there you go. That's how you find out if and how your house changed shape. We were able to go back to 1924 and confirm that the utility room with outside-access only had been a porch in the early years (the drywalled-over window was a dead give-away too, heh) . I was surprised that that was pretty much the only area that was enclosed and added to the structure at some point, even though I still think that the upstairs kitchen/future master bathroom was an open porch. I'm sure future demo will help us solve that riddle.
Way back there was a tiny garage in the Ugly Duckling's backyard but other than that, it has stayed in a rather unaltered state. And if we have any say in it, it'll remain on the map for a number of years to come :o)

History

The year was 1915.

Woodrow Wilson was President.
World War I, then known as the "Great War" was

in full swing in Europe, though the United States

would remain neutral for just a little longer.

The RMS Lusitania, a Cunard ocean liner turned

auxiliary cruiser at the beginning of the war, was sunk by a

torpedo fired from the German subamrine u-20 just off the coast

of Ireland - an incident that sparked arguments until this day.
A little closer to home, the Mexican Revolution was ongoing.
In the US, the struggle for women's right to vote was at its peak.

The automobile was rapidly becoming a common means of transportation.
For entertainment, Americans went to the theater to see Vaudeville

shows and silent movies. If they opted for an evening at home, there were

many musical selections available for the acoustic disc phonograph, which was now a fixture of many American living rooms.

In January, the first transcontinental phone call is made.

And construction began on the Ugly Duckling.

Lien on me

Remember that lien thing I mentioned in passing in this post?



Our city has some weird regulations when it comes to liens, it seems. (Although if you ask me it's less of a weird lien regulation thing, than a simple screw-up in a city department. None of the paperwork we looked at makes sense) This lien is actually not -for- our Ugly Duckling but for another property that at some point belonged to the same owner. Then that owner lost the Ugly Duckling in foreclosure and accumulated liens on the other property. Our city then happily slapped a shared tag on both properties - maybe to up their chances at one day getting their money? (And if that doesn't make any sense to you - join the club! I'm trying to follow the train of thought behind this but, boy, it escapes me entirely)

Yeah, well, and now that one's come back to bite us in our rear ends for a little longer because unfortunately you cannot close a deal on a property if there are any liens and/or back taxes on it. We have filed for a partial release but both our bank and our real estate agent recommended we push back our closing date a bit to give the city a bit more time to respond.

Grrrr ...

If walls could talk ...

Ever since discovering the first Young Reader book about the history of Egypt I've been hooked on history. I'm a history nut geeking out over archeology, old books, books about old stuff, barely legible documents and ancient tomes, recipes and patterns, and more. I'm even a member of a group that recreates the Middle Ages and dabble in calligraphy and illumination, medieval cooking and other assorted medieval crafts.

It wasn't really a long step from that to trying to learn more about the house we're about to make ours in just 19 more days! *keeps fingers crossed*

Fortunately and much to my delight, the main branch of the local library houses a treasure trove of resources for the genealogist and Florida history lover. Up underneath the roof in the Grand Map room is where I can be found when the munchkin participates in one of the awesome kids' programs. For about an hour I get to browse the old city directories for glimpses into our house's past. I have yet to swing by the property appraiser's office to track down the actual past owners but so far I've had too much fun digging around in the old city directories for information on who lived in the Ugly Duckling over the past 95 years.

From what I've gathered so far, our house appears to have been a kind of modest starter home: Few occupants stayed longer than 2 years at a time and most held rather modest Middle-Class jobs. Hubby, of course, is tickled pink that the first ever occupant's name is "Mead". How befitting for a hobby brewer to soon be living in "The Mead House" ... heh.

I've added the Ugly Duckling's genealogy as a separate page to the top navi bar - I'll update it as my research comes along. We're planning on ducking into the library again this afternoon so I might have more to post tomorrow or Friday!
Enjoy!

Update:
Well, so I couldn't wait :o) I added a few more years to our house's genealogy of occupants. I also got the library clerk to show me to the Sanford maps and the prospect of finding a map with our house has me giddy with geeky excitement. Next time I'll bring the camera. Promise!

Hi & Lo

So far, the whole house hunting adventure has been a wild rollercoaster ride. Highs chasing lows, frustration followed by moments of euphoria and excitement replaced by bouts of "wanna-bang-my-head-against-wall" feelings. Here's the latest high and low our house acquisition Gods threw at us:

Hi :o)
Christmas eve we received our own personal house-hunting gift in the mail: the loan approval! Hurray! It looks like we've mastered most if not all of the required paperwork to get our financing ducks in a row.

Infused with renewed enthusiasm and reasonably sure that the in-laws would be able to see the potential hidden in our little dirt Ugly Duckling we drove over to the house for a quick tour the day after Christmas.

Lo:o(
That's when we discovered that the Ugly Duckling had been broken into. Not like there was much to take considering it's empty and has been vacant for more than a year but the thieves made off with the downstairs furnace, both ac compressors and a window unit. They also re-opened the window opening from the small outdoor utility room to the kitchen that had been dry-walled over. You know, I would have been okay if they had taken all window units and left it at that but nooooo ... they had to take the furnace as well. Oh, and the vent cover for the big floor vent inside the house (alright, that was ugly too and slated for replacement but still ...) Grrrr...

We'll drive over later today to make sure the bank's property contractor secured the backdoor of the house as promised and we're going to be armed with our own plywood and screws, just in case. Can't take any chances. This time they just 'took' things, next time they might 'leave' something behind (a squatter or two, human body fluids or God knows what other crafty thing they could come up with).

Now, this is not the Wild West. AC compressors are stolen all over town these days (although I believe it's even more petty than stealing a baby's lollipop - seriously, stealing somebody's ac in Florida??) and fortunately we'd factored in a new hvac system into our reno budget (but would have loved to use that money for something else instead ...). Oh well, here's hoping that this "Lo" will become a "Hi" somehow :o)

Update:
Thanks to the mad communication skillz of our awesome real estate agent the bank is offering us the choice between a replacement furnace-compressor system and a reduction in purchase price. We'll be going for the reduction in purchase price since that gives us the chance to pick the system we want. Phew!

Unveiling upstairs

Here I am, playing catch-up on Thursday evening. I'm tired and there's a little naggy headache sitting right behind my eyes telling me that yes, indeed, the weather changed, thank you very much. The temperatures are now much more to my liking: balmy 70 degrees during the day work just fine for me :o)

Anyways, today was the day of updates: I have the land surveyor's report in my hot little hands and also received a copy of the appraiser who checked out our little old house to see if, from the bank's point of view, it would be worth investing money into. We are golden: purchase price plus renovation costs puts us almost a whooping 30% below the appraised value. Hurray!

Of course, it wouldn't be a house hunting adventure if you didn't hit a SNAFU somewhere along the line. Ours involves a lien, not on the property, but tied to the pre-foreclosure owner, and funny, funny, our city's policies regarding property liens are a bit on the wonky side. I'm sure it'll all work out *keeps fingers crossed* Wish us luck! (Our real estate agent is confident it'll be fine)

Back to the matter at hand: the upstairs floor plan! After you got a first peek at the downstairs, I proudly present to you: the upstairs:


Here it's not so much about the demoing and changing wall configurations but cleaning up, freshening up and converting the upstairs kitchen into the new Master Bathroom. Half the plumbing is already up there which is very convenient. The upstairs bathroom is actually in pretty nice shape except for a bad caulking job around the apartment-style (*sigh*) bath tub and quite serviceable. Hubby and I have been pondering ripping out the tub and turning it into a big honking walk-in shower at some point but that's in the far future. For now we have enough work cut out for us.

For comparison with Monday's Mega List, here's our upstairs plan, step by step:

• salvage hardwood flooring underneath linoleum on landing and upstairs hallway or lay new floors
• refinish stairs
• get proper door for closet to heat pump
• re-caulk tub in upstairs bathroom
• refinish wood floors upstairs
• turn upstairs kitchen into Master bath and walk-in closet by building a wall and creating two rooms out of the existing upstairs kitchen
• update plumbing for future Master bath
• lay tile in Master bath
• install bathroom fixtures
• turn secondary hallway into 2 hall closet (this will make sense once I show you the floor plans)
• paint downstairs, walls and ceilings and trim
• update light fixtures

Is it January yet?

The down and dirty: downstairs floorplan

We had a fantastic holiday weekend, complete with Christmas songs, presents and good company. How was your weekend? I hope you had a great time as well!

Sound the trumpets, hear the heralds cry! Just as promised I present you a first peek at the downstairs floorplan of our Ugly Duckling courtesy of the great software at floorplanner.com

If you look at our list our biggest changes to the downstairs floorplan will happen in the upper right hand corner, namely the mudroom/laundry/bathroom area. The bathtub will go bye-bye and its space be added to the mudroom/laundry area while the full bath is being decimated to a half bath aka powder room (we're not sure if we're going to keep both doors. We figure we'll start with two doors and get rid of one if we feel like it after living with it for a while).
The other big change is opening up the walls to both staircase and livingroom. There're a lot of arches going on: from hallway to livingroom and hallway to smaller hallway, from livingroom to diningroom and from diningroom to kitchen. (It's not like you can close doors if you have a cat. She'd surely take that as an affront.)

For an old house it has a decent amount of closet space downstairs (upstairs not so much). Some time in the future the large window in the kitchen will make the transformation to a French Door opening up to a deck in the backyard. First things first, though. First I need a -kitchen- :o)

Here're the things that need to be done before we get to move in furniture downstairs

• update/repair plumbing in entire house
• update/repair electricity in entire house
• update/replace hvac system
• repair damaged trim/molding where necessary in entire house
• make roof repairs as needed
• scrub entire house to within an inch of its life
• turn downstairs full bath into half bath
• take space from downstairs bath and add to mudroom for laundry space
• tile downstairs half bath
• tile mudroom/laundry room
• demo kitchen
• salvage hardwood floors underneath linoleum or lay tile
• install kitchen cabinets
• install appliances
• open wall to staircase (remember, the Ugly Duckling is currently chopped up into a downstairs and an upstairs apartment) to create a single-family home
• open wall between entry hall and living room
• refinish all downstairs wood floors
• paint downstairs: fireplace, walls and ceilings and trim
• update light fixtures

Trust me when I tell you I'm already wielding drywall saw and paint roller in my head at night ...