Puttering Around the Yard

Anyone who knows Mark well knows that he's an avid gardener. Gardening is one of his passions, so you couldn't expect him to spend all of his time working on the inside of the house while the weather is so nice and totally ignore the outside! The big yard is one of the main things that attracted us to this house, and I'm pretty sure Mark had a complete plan drawn up for the yard before he even had the plans for the inside figured out!

So far he's made a valiant effort to restore the front lawn back to grass rather than a weed patch of morning glory, dandelions and some obnoxious stickery weeds that are so old that their roots are as thick as or thicker than a pencil.

He has also cleared out some of the jungle in front of the house, partly so he can get in there to paint, but mainly because it was filled with Oregon Grape, which is not something we were interested in keeping. Below is a before picture of the area:Unfortunately I haven't taken an after picture of the area yet, but I did get a picture of some of the nasty Oregon Grape roots. Mark said these things were a pain to get out!
Since we're not big fans of a lot of lawn, Mark has also started digging out some planting beds in the front yard. We had our ceremonial first planting on Sunday. Mark chose to plant this 'Husker Red' Beardtongue. It's a descendant of one in our Sugarhouse yard that Mark purchased many years ago on one of his Saturday morning nursery outings with his mom. He said it's the plant that first got him interested in gardening, so it has a lot of significance.
Teasing the roots. Max is standing ready with a handful of compost.
Filling in the dirt.
A lone plant in a big bed. No doubt this will be filled in soon with plants and flowers. Mark's been dividing many of our favorite plants from our Sugarhouse yard and has been transporting them up to be planted at the new house. We've also been given a bunch of plants by our new neighbor and others, so Mark plans to start a garden journal that he can use to document where each plant came from.
The cute little ditch that runs in front of our house. We love the soothing sound of the water running down it, but we wonder if it's going to be a source of constant aggravation considering we have one wild boy and one wild dog! We totally expect Max to either be in it all the time or be floating things down it that he probably shouldn't, and we know for a fact that Rosie is going to try to get in it whenever she can! Mark hopes to prevent some of this by digging out some big beds in front of the ditch and planting a bunch of plants and flowers. We'll see how successful it is at deterring the wild ones!
Our Costco sized bags of bulbs. The red and white tulips will be planted in the beds by the ditch and the orange tulips and white daffodils will be planted around the yard.
The back yard has mainly been ignored so far because it's a much bigger project, and will probably be a work in progress for a few years. We're not sure if we can save the lawn back there because it appears to be way more weed than grass. We'll see how it looks in the spring.
The advantage to not focusing on the backyard right now is that we can let the kids and dog go wild back there and not worry about them ruining something. Max has an area back there where he can dig in the dirt with his trucks, and the other day we let the kids turn it into a mud pit. It kept them entertained for a few minutes.
Back in the north 40 we have quite the fruit orchard. There's a pear tree...
and an apple tree that has grapes growing all through it. Unfortunately the apple tree will have to go for sure. It's really old and has been neglected for years. Big branches have fallen off, and it's pretty much a mess. We're not sure if we'll keep the pear tree or not.
We're excited to have a Sycamore tree in the back yard up near the kitchen door. They have such interesting bark, and they're great trees.

And finally I thought I'd end with the lucky 1945 penny Mark found while digging out the bed in the front yard. Crazy to think that the guy who owned the house in the 40's or 50's could have dropped this penny out there. Then again, it could have been dropped in the 70's, 80's or 90's! Let's just hope it brings us luck in finishing this massive project we've undertaken!

Anybody Wanna Stove? And Small Signs of Progress

So we have a wood burning stove down in the basement, and the guy who did our home inspection mentioned that it might be worth listing it for sale on KSL. He said that people are actually looking for these things to buy. I have no idea if it works or any of the specifics on it, so I guess I'd better figure that out before I list it! It's really the least of our worries right now since it's in the basement, which will be the absolute last thing we remodel, but if you hear of anyone that's in the market for a wood burning stove, let me know!


Progress in the Sun Room - this is the little room off of the living room, and it's a pretty tiny room so it's kind of hard to photograph. This is how it looked before the previous owner moved out. She was obviously using it as her computer room. Yes, we ditched the lacy curtains...sorry if any of you wanted them.
This is a view of the room from outside. It's a great little room, with big windows on three of the four walls.
Here is the room after the previous owner moved out. Yes, those walls are pink!
And yes, that's a blue, floral 80's wallpaper border.
This is the light exactly as it was when the owner moved out, no light cover and masking tape around the base from when the room was painted, likely 30 years ago. Notice all of Mark's spackling. He had to do a TON in this room!

Ahhh, a big improvement. Clean, freshly painted walls (Mark said the walls just drank in the paint), windows you can actually see through (Mark cleaned years of dirt off of them, inside and out), no tacky wallpaper border...
and our beautiful new light fixture from Rejuvenation Hardware! Mark said it was a real chore hooking this light up. There are about four layers of different types of insulation in the attic above, and he had a hard time getting to the wiring. He had planned to rewire it, but it was impossible at this time. It's something that he definitely plans to do though.
So this room is the farthest along of anything else in the house. Mark needed to start with a small project that would allow him to see quick progress and keep him motivated. The woodwork and the floor are about all that's left to do in this room.


And lastly....let the framing begin. Yes, it's a pretty wimpy load of boards, but it's enough to get Mark started on the framing in his study (the existing front bedroom) and/or the closet in Bella's room. Stay tuned to find out which!

Fun Finds Part 2 and Finally a Before and After

Mark discovered a few more things the other day that are worthy of the "fun finds" classification:

When Mark tore out the walls in the bathroom, he found several newspapers from the 70's stuffed in between the walls, I guess as filler. This is the front page from 6/10/74. The heading "Nixon Mideast Goal: Seal Era of Peace" is pretty ironic in these times. Doesn't look like that goal was met!
Look at this killer deal on leisure suits, and that plaid suit jacket is H-O-T hot!

Pardon the grossness of this photo, but Mark found this when he moved the fridge the other day. It must have been jammed up in there pretty good because he'd moved the fridge several times before this finally fell out. The cover of this reads "American Nickels of the 20th Century" and the inside cover reads "Rapidly Vanishing U.S. Nickel Classics". Not sure what these would be worth, but maybe we could cash them in to finance the kitchen remodel!
And finally, a before and after series:

This is the living room before the previous owner had moved out.
Looking much better after all the junk was moved out. Notice the dark wood trim around the ceiling. Mark tore this off because it's likely not original and kind of closes the room in. Once he tore it off, it was evident that the room hadn't been painted since it was put up, likely 30 years ago or more!
We decided that the brick and mantle on the fireplace was a little too 70's looking and was probably a product of the brick loving owners who owned the house up until the 90's....
so we decided to tear it all off and start from scratch. Luckily Mark said the bricks came off pretty easily. The two glass doors in this picture were salvaged several years ago from a house in Midvale that was being torn down. Mark wanted to see if the wood would match the woodwork in the rest of the house, so he could possibly use them to create a little built in bookcase next to the fireplace. The wood matches quite well, but unfortunately the doors are a little too tall. I'm pretty confident Mark will figure something out though, and I have no doubt it will be cool!
I have a feeling this fireplace will make the room once Mark's done with it and once we replace the tacky brass lights with more period lights. I think it will be one of the first things you notice when you walk in the front door, and we all can't wait to hang our stockings from the mantle at Christmas time...not this one, but hopefully the next!

Fun Finds

During the demo of the rooms on the main level, Mark has found quite a bit of interesting stuff. Unfortunately, most of his finds date back to the 70's or so and no earlier. After talking to one of the neighbors, he found that the people who owned the house from the 70's to the 90's are the ones who did most of the remodel and additions, so anything in the house before the 70's was discovered and removed by them. There were some pretty funny and interesting finds though.

Mark was tearing out the drop ceiling in the front bedroom, and a whole slew of cards dropped out on to the floor. Looks like someone wanted to hide some credit cards! The funniest one though is the card for the guy's band, The Mid-Night Raiders - perfect 70s/80s band name. Mark Googled the guy who's name is on all these cards and found that he's a financial adviser in Seattle now. Ironic!
In this same bedroom Mark found various stickers on the wall under the wood paneling. Apparently this kid had to live with the flowery wallpaper until the paneling was put up, so he decided to do some decorating himself.

This is my all time favorite find, and it's in the back bedroom that will be my craft room someday. Unfortunately the wall behind it is brick rather than drywall, so there's no way to save it. I'll just have to settle for a picture of it. Isn't this straight out of the 60's or 70's?
Mark found bricked in windows in both of the downstairs bedrooms. They even had the window shades on them still. What was odd was that if you looked on the outside wall, you couldn't even tell that there had been a window there. There was no variation in the bricks or anything. We found out from our neighbor that the Theobalds, the ones who owned the house in the 70's and the ones who had the credit card loving son, did brick masonry as a hobby and sometimes as a side job. Apparently they were very good masons because they were able to brick in those windows without leaving any indication that there was ever a window there!

Mark found these stuffed down in one of the heat registers in the living room. Guess someone didn't want these pictures to be seen. Can you blame her?

The ironing board in the kitchen. This isn't really a crazy find - it's quite typical of the era in which the house was built. It's just kind of a cute historic detail. We won't leave it in the kitchen because an archway is planned right where it is, but Mark hopes to remove it intact and relocate it.

This is the wallpaper in a little alcove in the kitchen that probably originally housed the stove. It's a repeating pattern.

My favorite find from the kitchen and a great piece of advice - pinch of ginger in all beans prevents gas. Feel free to use this little tidbit.

A close second favorite find in the kitchen is these pages from a book and the chapter on "How to Attain Sexual Maturity".
S&H Green Stamps found in the kitchen. These were given to shoppers between the 30's and the 80's based on the amount they spent at supermarkets, gas stations, etc. You could save them up and exchange them for a blender or other items in the Green Stamps catalog. I think I remember my mom saving these and letting me put them in the stamp book.
There's a new online program called "Green Points", and it looks like they'll take these old stamps. Hmm, guess I'd better enroll. Do you think I could save up enough stamps to earn a new kitchen?
We've found a ton of walnuts around the yard. Come to find out, someone down the street has a walnut tree, and the squirrels in the neighborhood pick them, then run along the power lines going through our backyards, sometimes dropping them along the way. The neighbor told us the power lines are the highways for the squirrels and an occasional rat...yuck!
Not sure what this noose is for in the backyard, and I don't think I really want to know!
One of the nicer finds in the yard - this pretty rose that has decided to bloom again now that it's cooler.
And finally I thought I'd end with a sign of progress - a full dumpster!

Stay tuned for some before and after pictures next time. Thanks for looking!

Welcome to our House Blog!

We decided to join the masses and chronicle our journey to remodel, renovate and make a home out of our new (old) Tudor on Atkin Avenue in a blog. We should have started this back in June when first purchased the house, but life just gets in the way sometimes.
Mark really should be the one writing this blog as he's the one doing most (all) of the work on the house, but he has absolutely no free time anymore. Any spare moment is spent up at the house, and will be for quite some time. I'm just the helper and kid tender. I go up to help him carry garbage out to the dumpster, move some of the billions of pavers previous owners put in around the yard, and any other grunt work Mark needs me to do. Hopefully I can be of more help as framing, drywalling, etc. begins.

It's going to be a loooong journey, but once we're all done we're going to have a fabulous house in a very nice neighborhood, and it will be just how we want it.


Before Photos

I thought I'd start off with some photos of how the house looked when we were first thinking of buying it. Some of them are quite horrifying, and I'm sure you'll wonder what in the world we ever saw in this place. Fortunately Mark has great vision and the ability to look at a house and see amazing potential. Good thing, because all I saw was a cluttered dive when I first saw the place!

The living room - this is what you first see when you walk in the door. The woman who lived here appeared to have some hoarding tendencies, and when we went to see the place for the first time, her realtor's warned our realtor that the house was as is. The condition it was in was the best the seller could manage at the time. This room looks clean compared to the rest of the house!

The upstairs. Quite horrifying. Remember, this is the condition it was in when we went to see it for the first time. This isn't moving/packing clutter. This is everyday clutter.















The good thing about the upstairs is we have a great view of Mt. Olympus from the deck up there. The bad thing is that the condition of the deck leaves something to be desired!















This garage is on the back part of the yard. It's HUGE, but like everything else associated with this house, it needs a lot of work. It seems to stay pretty dry though, thanks to some pretty crazy patch work our realtor, mortgage broker and Mark did at the request (demand) of the inspector, so we've been able to start storing stuff in it. How often do you hear of your realtor and mortgage broker rolling up their sleeves on a rainy Saturday to help you patch the roof of the garage on a house you're trying to buy? Now that's service!
The yard is really good sized, especially for Salt Lake. It's about 1/3 of an acre, but the back yard is kind of broken up by the garage, patio, flower beds, etc. so it's not this mass of lawn. Once we get done with it though, it will be totally different, of course!

Well, that's it for now. I have a bunch of before and after pictures to post as Mark has done a ton of demo. I also have a whole series of photos of crazy things Mark has found as he's been tearing the place apart. It's amazing what you find when you tear into an old house!

You'll have to bear with me though. This blogging stuff is new to me, so I have quite a bit to learn about formatting, etc. as you can probably see from this first post. I'll get it down eventually!