Save Our Springfield

After more than a year of no demolitions we lost two houses to so-called emergency demolitions through Code Enforcement within the last four weeks.

Something is foul in the State of Denmark ... would Hamlet say, and we are again in need to raise our voices and fight for the preservation of our nationally registered historic district. It's bizarre - you would think that this is a no-brainer - but time and time again we have run into the same scenario where houses are torn down for thousands of dollars in tax payer money rather than mothballed and preserved for a fraction of the cost and less devastating to the architectural and cultural heritage of the city.

 

This house is no longer. Just a few houses down from the last 'emergency' demolition, this former boarding house with the massive wrap-around porch was destroyed last Friday - nevermind the fact it had official NSP funding and was a restoration in progress with new trusses, studs, and duct work. The mind boggles.

You see, an emergency demolition means it poses an 'immediate threat to the physical safety of the public'. How a house can pose such a threat if it refuses to fold and collapse even after a bulldozer has been eviscerating it for four hours is beyond me.

Something is obviously foul in the State of Denmark.

We have started a petition to review and change the process of demolitions in our historic districts and requested a moratorium on all demolitions until the ordinance has been changed. If you feel strongly about preservation and our historic district, I urge you to join your voice with ours and sign this petition:

Petition to place a moratorium on demolitions in Jacksonville's historic districts and review ordinances and policies pertaining to the process of issuing demolition orders 

Councilman Robin Lumb has already voiced his support, standing up once again in support for our historic districts, but we need your support as well!

The Little Town That Could

Savannah, GA?
Stunning Historic District and vibrant downtown.
Charleston, SC?
Beautiful city center wrought with history and charm.
Portland, OR?
Historic districts worth a visit or two.

Jacksonville, FL?
News flash - Nobody wants to see empty weedy lots.

In a city where decisions are dragged out, postponed, procrastinated, tabled, it took Code Enforcement less than 24 hours from hearing about a house with an unstable gable to 'emergency' demolition.

Less than 24 hours.

It is frustrating, heartbreaking and maddening to be living in a city to values what could be its greatest asset  so little that it would rather spend close to $10,000 to demolish a historic structure in a nationally registered historic district than less than 10% of the same amount to stabilize and preserve it (placing a lien on the property to recoup the money).

Tonight, we are one empty lot 'richer' - 129 East Second Street in our historic district was demolished, and our lucky streak of 584 days without demolitions came to a sudden and sad end.

Tonight, give your ol' house a pat on the siding and tell her that you love her. She is special - there will be none like her ever - and she deserves your, our protection.

"We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."

 New York Times Editorial (on the destruction of Penn Station)

Mo' floor

While the husband and I are - shockingly - considering a new kind of linoleum plank flooring for our mudroom (looks great, easy to install, 25 year warranty, etc.), we're generally not too enamored with that plastic-y fake floor covering. Once you remove it you can either be really lucky and uncover great hardwood floors underneath it, kept safe from abuse for years underneath a layer of foamy plastic, or you can find a hot mess underneath it.

While we were really lucky and very happy with what we uncovered underneath the dirty linoleum in the kitchen, we knew we were probably more likely to find contestant no 2 underneath the layers of linoleum in our upstairs hallway.

Bingo! After removing Linoleum layer 1, a layer of Luan and Linoleum layer 2 and 3., we unearthed this sad sight

[Hole-y landing!]

[This is not a concrete floor - this is patched heart wood pine]

This clearly cannot be saved. So, Joe started tearing out the old floor to replace it with new pine flooring which will be stained in delicious "Walnut" to match the stairs and the downstairs flooring.

[First floor boards removed revealing subfloor in good shape]

Despite being severely damaged by generations of greedy termites, riddled with holes and tunnels worming their way down the boards the long way (termites like expensive wood and seem to eat away one board at a time, before moving on to the next delectable one which may or may not be the one right next to where they started), the floor did not come up too easily attesting to the high quality of the materials builders used back when these old houses were built.

Finally, groaning and creaking, the first boards came out revealing a subfloor in great shape. I have now learned that a) not all houses in Springfield have subfloors (upstairs and/or downstairs) and b) that sometimes the flooring was installed over the entirety of a floor so they don't end at walls but the walls are built on top. Crazy, but it obviously works since the houses are still around.

Another reason that these houses hold up so well to time and wear is the use of no-nonsense method and materials. I bet my house has bigger nails than yours!

[95 year old nails]

These are the nails keeping our hardwood floors in place upstairs. I kid you not!

I squirreled some away as a keepsake and might frame them in a shadow box together with a bit of left over wallpaper that we pulled out from the original ceiling. And maybe, maybe, of we're really lucky, we will one day find an old photograph of the Ugly Duckling. That'd be too cool!

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.

A pile of tile

Thanks to a combination of early release Wednesday, homework and too much construction dust for our munchkin to hang around safely, I'm home earlier and didn't get to spend as much time at the Ugly Duckling as yesterday but that means between loads of laundry and wrestling with the vacuum cleaner I get to update you today on our progress.

[Brace yourself for some really gross Before pictures, folks]

So, our masterplan of house domination includes converting the upstairs kitchen into a dressing area and master bathroom. With half the plumbing already in place and adjoining the largest of the three upstair's bedrooms it's just meant to be, right?

The only obstacle? A dirty ugly kitchen with blah cabinets, gunky tile and other unmentionables. It simply had to go, and go it did. Thanks to Sam's berseker-style demolition skills our upstairs kitchen went from this

Before

[Saving grace of the room: lots of light, lots of usable space, view of backyard]

to this

In Progress

Looking better already, if you ask me!

And here is the mood board for our master bathroom so you know what we're shooting for in this space

Design Plan

Day 1

Just so you know, I -do- plan on taking my camera along to snap Before, In-Progress and After pictures, it's simply that over the excitement of getting started I flat out forgot today. [And my grin right now is probably just as sheepish as that statement sounds].

So what did we do? Mrs G and Sam rocked the demo of the upstairs kitchen aka the future master bath room. Sam destroying the upstairs tile really spurred me on - nothing keeps you going like the sweet sound of demolition. I piddled around - I swept the library, took off an ugly 70s door in the hallway and another one on the pantry in the kitchen, took out shelves, cleaned up the lilies in the front yard [which, miraculously, seem to be alive underneath all that dead stuff on top] and then decided to get started on tearing out the gross linoleum floor in the downstairs kitchen.

[Look! It's a gross Before-picture! Taken from the breezeway looking into the kitchen with the open door toward the now bathroom, soon-to-be mudroom-laundry area. Yes, that is a dryer vent sticking out from the wall to the right - nevermind that code doesn't allow an appliance butting up against the electric panel behind the open door. That, too, shall change. And no, it wasn't the kitchen that made us fall in love with the Ugly Duckling ... heh]

I'm now convinced that for the simple thought of gluing linoleum to wood floors you either spend 100-200 years longer in purgatory or go straight to hell. As rewarding as it is to rip it out, it's a real pain in the behind and it's not as if you could buy a stripping agent or other chemical concoction that will help you get rid of it. Oh no. No such thing. It all boils down to elbow grease. Lots of it. Oh, it comes up nice and in big chunks along the outer perimeter but once you get near the areas with foot traffic, like in the middle of the room and in the little breezeway, it STICKS like nobody's business and chips off in quarter sized chips.

I'll be back tomorrow, better armed, and show it who's the boss. Muhahaha ... just wait and see!