John and Jill Use the Super Wonder Bar

Stairwell Update Part 3

2010-03-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

Pictures of the new doors are still to come, but here is the hallway.

Stairwell Updates Part 2

2010-03-14T06:21:00.000-07:00

The old wallpaper came off. A network of frightening crack was exposed, and our first floor briefly looked like the final scene of E.T. when everything is wrapped in plastic.

We considered four colors and went with the one on the bottom right, wind's breath, (what?).

Stairway Updates

2010-03-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

April of 2008

This part of the house is obviously one of the first things we see when we walk in the door, but somehow, I had gotten very good at simply ignoring it. John pushed to make this the next project we tackle, and with the help of a Christmas present from my parents, we did the unthinkable. We hired a painter. We found a guy on Angie's List, Kris Siskoski, who happens to live in our neighborhood. He gave us a good estimate, we stared at the Benjamin Moore fan deck for a few days, and he got started.
Most of the first floor is a bright white. We wanted something warm enough to work with the red we have a few place in our living room. We knew we needed flat paint because even with the amazing job Kris did to resurface the walls, they still look at bit like they've had a case of the pox.

New Residents at 1224 McKean St.

2009-12-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

We adopted two kittens on Friday! They are four-month old siblings (born on August 3) who we found at P.A.W.S., a no-kill shelter in Philly. Names are still forthcoming. They are well-trained for the litter box, recovering from respiratory infections, at-times affectionate, and very fond of playing with one another.
As I am writing this, Boy Cat tried to climb the table cloth. In case you are wondering, I don't think it turned out at well as he had hoped. Here is a sampling of their first two days in the house.

While John is on the phone with his mom, the kittens enjoy their new toy.

Typical behavior from Girl Cat

Climbing, attacking plants, and fighting are favorite hobbies

New Old Chairs

2009-06-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

We found a set of six of these chairs in the basement when we moved in. Here they are after a coat of the flat latex paint from the walls and a coat of semi-gloss varnish.

Springtime

2009-04-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

We've all made it through the winter.

Painting Party

2009-02-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

Before: The alcove in our kitchen in April of '08
After: The alcove after a little attention in February '09.

Time for the Before and After Shots

2009-01-02T05:10:00.000-08:00

After: The back patio
Before: Miss Havisham's South Philly enclave

After: Our bedroom-minus many layers of wall paper, one drop ceiling, a few layers of linoleum and carpet, and prison-like bars of the windows.

Before:

After: the blue bathroom
Before: that bunny on the back of the blue toilet was a cotton ball dispenser. To use: simply yank off the bunnies charming cotton-ball tail and another will appear in its place.

The mysterious shallow, locked closet in the guest room that Jill decided should be used for arty displays. Any guesses on its intended purpose? Guns? Trophies?

The vestibule-you'll notice that we kept the cherubic switch plate cover after a fixing the cracks and adding a coat of paint.

At Work w/ Freedman - 7/18-7/20

2008-07-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

Our budding-architect friend Michael was up from NC for a visit this weekend.

Here he is ripping the paneling off of our den. Look, John's clothes! This particular closet does, in fact, open in the next room over as well.

Tetanus is for kids!

The week before, we had all-new windows installed in the back of the house. They're "low-E" windows, which sounds awesome even if you don't know what it means.

We're painting most of the house in modest, restrained colors, so it seemed like the lawn furniture could use a little punching up.

The Cedar Chest - 7/13/08

2008-07-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

Jill's dad built this great cedar chest for us to store blankets, etc. It's also a pretty great bench and/or TV table.

I don't have to tell you: this smells pretty rad.

Meal 1 in the New Place

2008-07-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

Keeping things pretty simple at this point.

Our makeshift living/dining/TV alcove. Note the sweet coffee table.

The Move-In - 6/27/08

2008-07-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

Things aren't as finished as we'd like them to be, but we're all boxed up and moved out of the old place.

Kitchen stuff is piled particularly high. How did we acquire this ridiculous amount of stuff?

Jill's art-school shot of our packing equipment.

The Big Dig + New Floors

2008-06-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

drywallin'

2008-06-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

More Demo - 6/1/08

2008-06-02T05:23:00.000-07:00

The Walls Come Down - 5/29/08

2008-06-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

Wallpaper Stripping - 5/25/08

2008-06-02T05:14:00.000-07:00

Tha Dump - 5/23/08

2008-06-02T05:05:00.001-07:00

Ah, Richard F. Burns Waste Transfer Center, land of my dreams.

After pricing out a couple of options (dumpster, hired waste removal), we went with the ol' "sling a bunch of stuff in a U-Haul and take it to the dump" option. They weigh your van before and after you unload it, and you pay 80 bucks a ton. Much cheaper, believe me.

On the minus side, it's sort of an ecological nightmare.

They also do some wood recycling, for what it's worth.

You just back your truck up to the wall and unload, after which a GIANT Volvo truck comes and smashes your trash in its claw.

The guys unloading next to us may have had the least inspection-worthy pickup I've ever seen.

Fare thee well, sweet carpet.

Tuesday, May 6

2008-05-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

There we go: a good establishing shot.

Our deluxe doorway awning. I will say that we're happy about this monstrosity when it's raining and we can't find our keys.

Finally removed every last scrap of drop ceiling from this room.

Random discovery: our kitchen light fixture is attached to a bungee cord, so that it moves freely from here....

...to here. Weird.

We took a calculated risk that this fan was indeed self-supporting and wouldn't tear the ceiling out when the drop ceiling was removed.

And, thank God, it worked.

Drop ceilings make an incredible mess.

Our kitchen has a strange keyhole arch leading to the living room; we're probably not going to mess with it now, but it's not our favorite part of the house.

Someone actually went to the trouble of putting stickers that say "Nautilus" on the stove light & vent. Who knows why.

The oven is pretty classic. Definitely works, and despite its vintage it was apparently used to store cereal for most of its career; the previous owner did all of her cooking in the basement.

Our back yard. Once we clear the vines and barbed wire away, I think it'll be pretty nice.

There appears to be some sort of primitive wind power apparatus attached to our patio. Maybe we'll try and get it working again...
This is the picture accompanying the encyclopedia entry for "gone to seed."

I'll tell you one thing. Ain't no looters getting in here.

Basement stairway: 22 in. wide! We've learned to walk sideways.

Yup, that's a wall made of doors.

This is a crawlspace in the back of the house. I presume this is where our skeletons are buried.

Can't knock the labeling.

It's the traditional satin-covered horseshoe hanging up in the basement. Wait, what?

The pastoral bliss of our vestibule wallpaper. You can almost smell the hay, can't you?

Saturday, May 3

2008-05-05T04:05:00.000-07:00

Jill uses the Super Wonder Bar to pry up the hallway carpet.

Lighting fixture we found in the downstairs parlor. This had been sitting underneath the drop ceilings for who knows how long.
Good picture of our excellent carpet and our fake fireplace. This is made of concrete and we'll have to break it up to get it in the trash.

Upstairs ceiling. Yecch.

Here you can see a) the ceiling tiles, made of some kind of fibrous substance that embeds itself in your skin, and b) the fleur-de-lis linoleum that we took out of the bedroom. Strange.
Jill displays today's trophy.
Picture of the many wallpaper stylings of 1224 McKean Street.

Here is the window which leads to...another part of the house.
Door, no more.
This here is a linoleum fake-carpet. All the rage in the 1950s, apparently.
This is the house's original AC system - a shaft in the center of the house that pushes hot air out through the roof. The window faces into the master bedroom suite - you can see a picture of it from the other side above.

The air shaft (and the only exposed paneling in the house.)

Hook-up for a gas lamp. Hope that's shut off...

Our secret compartment. Jill found a small revolver and some bullets in here; they ended up being taken away by some South Philly police detectives.

This is the ceiling that makes me nervous. The water damage is confined to this space, but obviously the roof hasn't always been so well-sealed.
Anyone have ANY idea what to do with this mini-closet? I wish I'd won more trophies.
This light switch will not be removed from the house under any circumstances.

The bedroom ceiling's more intact, but still has a few dings.

Prepping for our super-classy housewarming party.