An Update....

Update to the Summer Kitchen...

Hey! So I finally made it back down in the room below the summer kitchen with my camera. I snapped a few pictures so you could get an idea of what the room looked like. Its hard to tell real size but I am about 5'5" and I could stand up down there. Obviously the teenagers have tagged their names down there....so Paige, Erin and Dylan class of 2000....you are so cool :/

You can also see some water pipes running from one corner to the other, I don't know when those were done...I'm guessing 1988 when the house was connected to Carmel water? I wish they were better pictures but I think you can get an idea.

You can see the ladder...

I am almost standing behind the ladder in this one

I am standing right next to the ladder....

The Fence Is Complete!!!

One Project done....10,000 other projects to go....

Well, we finished the fence and it looks so much better. A little bit of paint and its going to look gorgeous! We are definitely going to keep with the white theme of the fence. We are under a covenant to keep the outside looking historical, and I don't have a problem with that at all. I couldn't imagine painting the fence anything but white. I sure hope my kids like to paint! I will post the after its been painted pictures....so stay tuned. 

Front of house

Westfield Blvd road frontage Looking North

Looking South

The corner of 101st and Westfield Blvd

Taken from across the street

The Fence! 

So one of the biggest differences that people will notice is the fence. My hubby and his dad worked all day on the fence that surrounds the property. It is the signature of the house! Im not sure when it was put in...but people recognize the property by the fence

Fence repair so far on 101st street side

Working hard...

It looks so much better already!

You can see in this picture how the fence is falling down.

My daughter and father-in-law working on the fence

101st street side of the fence

The Kitchen!

So we removed the old siding and framing for the windows, and look....it is going to be a much larger kitchen! I still haven't figured out what the layout of the kitchen will be (if you have any ideas let me know)! You can see from the pictures that it opens up the kitchen quite a bit.

Standing in the the existing kitchen looking into the dining room

Standing in the dining room looking into the kitchen

Again, standing in the dining room looking into the kitchen

looking into kitchen from dining room

On a side note, when we removed the plaster wall in the dining room we also had to take of the old wainscoting that encircled the room. This stuff is the real deal! It is all like 1" thick and has a lot of coats of paint. Needless to say we will be re- purposing it somewhere else in the house. I LOVE it!!!

Original wainscoting 

 On another side note, as we took the old clapboard siding off we thought it was interesting how they put the house together. Under the clapboard were these diagonally cut 1"thick (like really 1" thick boards....not like todays lumber) Of course I tole my husband to save these in case I want to make some funiture out of them! They are Awesome!

The Summer Kitchen Ceiling

While My husband worked....

I decided while my husband was tearing out the wall in the kitchen, I thought I would see what was above the drop ceiling in the summer kitchen. 

The Ceiling Before

There was about another foot of ceiling, but I did find some big hooks?

There were 3 hooks in all in the larger of the 2 rooms. I wonder what they were used for?

The ceiling after....

 I decided to start on the walls after I tore the ceiling off. The orange and maroon faux wood paneling HAD to go. I was hoping for brick walls.....and they were there. They had been skim coated but I can deal with those a lot easier than the paneling.

One wall

I did find that whoever chiseled out a bigger doorway.....I think these were 2 seperate rooms at one time

A Little Demo Day

The Kitchen

We started the demo in the kitchen this weekend. The cabinets that were in there were.....smelly!!!! Oh My! 

We knew this was an addition to the house, but we are still trying to decide when the addition was added. When we removed the cabinets we got a huge clue. The family name was written on the back of the cabinets. I remember seeing this name when we did some research on the previous owners. I think the cabinets were custom made for them. I believe the cabinets we removed were not the original. I did find one layer of wallpaper under the existing wallpaper that looked about 1950's??? I have included a few pictures so you guys can keep up...

Kitchen (looking into the house)

Kitchen (looking out)

 Demo

We stared demo-ing the wall that the kitchen shares with the dining room. We figured this was an exterior wall at one time....and as we started pulling plaster off we discovered.... The old clapboard siding!

Wall between kitchen and dining room

Old clapboard siding under the plaster

As we kept taking off plaster we discovered there was a set of windows behind the wall. The actual windows were removed along with the frames but the holes were still there!

Old windows in previous exterior wall

The old clapboard actually still had some paint

Same wall looking out.




We are planning on removing this wall to make the kitchen a bit bigger.....stay tuned!

The Summer Kitchen

I have to tell ya, ever since we bought this place people have been saying that it was part of the Underground Railroad. I am not from around here so I am not familiar with all of the stories. Well, one newspaper article and a few stories later I was starting to believe. Then, Suzy, my step mother-in-law and I carefully removed one of the super heavy round "lids" that are in the floor of the summer kitchen. And guess what??? There was a huge room down there! As I leaned in to get a better look.....my camera lens cover fell in! Next thing I know....

Summer Kitchen (Door on the Right)

"Front" of Summer Kitchen

Wooden ladder that goes down into room

Me....going in!

I am going in. 
It is hard to believe that they wouldn't have at least tried to hide a few people down there. I am 5'4" and i could stand up down there. 
It does lend to the mystery for sure....I will let you decide?