Lita is here...

Hello. This is Lita. I am blogging here for the first time and I hope my husband Peter doesn't erase this post. I have my own blog but no I am not sharing that with anyone. Sorry. It's just too personal I think. But maybe I will create another one that is more public-friendly. I mean, not that my current blog is XXX rated or anything like that, it's just that I am not comfortable other people reading it. So just read this blog. It's more fun here anyway.

The last several weeks have been really hactic for both of us. Busy volunteering here and there and other personal activites. So in short, we haven't had that much chance getting anything done in the house. I am basically not the type of person who likes to get dirty but since we own this old house, I don't have much choice.

Today, I plan to do some cleaning in the house. It is so hard to do that since 90% of the house is filled with our stuff or should I say junk? I need to sort out the stuff we don't need and donate them to Salvation Army. Then rent a storage somewhere to store our furnitures, etc. We plan to rent the storage this weekend. I hope I can finish my living room in a month. That would be fab! Then I can start doing the dining room. Master bedroom is next. Peter can work on the outside of the house while I do the inside.

I just want a nice-clean-finished-looking house.
Ours is far from all of that.
Damn.

Did I win the lottery last week?

Donations anyone???

I saw this donate button on someone elses blog before and decided to put one on mine, (heck any money is good money). We all know the costs it takes to restore an old house, and I for one am finding out how much. The rule of thumb is estimate what you think it would cost and the time it would take and times it by 2 or 3 or 4 (depends on the person). Well it's not the easiest thing to do, but I love old homes, just like the rest of us and I am damn sure going to see this one come together, HELOC or no HELOC. So you can take that ELoans.com!!!!


Anyone looking for a part-time employee???

Frustrations in getting that darn HELOC FROM HELL!!!

Well most of you don't know, but I have been trying hard to get a HELOC for my house. You know how the story goes, buy old house use credit cards for restoration, now can't pay for everything without eating 1 every 3 days. You know how it is. Anyways I decided to try and get a HELOC, from several lenders, but when I told them my situation (especially the part where I tore out the whole kitchen and bathroom downstairs) they said that getting one may be tough. I have only lived there for almost a year, but the mounting expenses have cut down on what I can do for the house. I'm sure not having a kitchen and bathroom downstairs will only lower the cost of my house. I wonder if there is another way to at least be able to consolidate our house debt. Damn credit cards, they are the devil!!!! Well wish me luck in finding someone that will help me out.

New Banner

Since I saw a lot of people with new graphical banners, I thought I should change mine as well. So here it is, tada! Hope it is cool, tell me what you think.

Springfield Annual Home and Garden Tour!

Woohoo! It's finally time for the Springfield Home and Garden Tour. I love when home tours come around, because all of the houses give me so many ideas. The good thing about this year is that the Riverside/Avondale home tour is next week! Boy so many houses in so little time. If anyone is coming through Jacksonville, FL, you need to hit up the home tours this weekend and next. It will be a blast. I will post pics of all the houses that I attend.

Exterior colors, version 2

Well I tried another set of colors, this time with different shades of the green and cream color. The green turned out a lot better and I am way happier with the results, but the cream turned into more of a yellowy color. I didn't really want yellow, since there are a few houses around that are yellow. I guess I will have to make another trip to the paint store and try another cream color. You know, I thought that doing the prep work for the exterior was hard, but picking colors will kill your brain. Anyways here are some pics of the new colors:

Exterior colors.... decisions, decisions

Well I started priming the front of the house a few weeks ago and have done most of it. I still have some areas that I have to smooth out, but I just don't want to deal with it yet. Lita has really wanted me to finish the front, so that at least when people walk by they won't say, "Damn, look at that crack house!" Now they will say, "Damn that's a nice looking crack house." Anyways we decided on colors for our house and have gone with a cream base with a grey green trim and accentting the windows with a dark red. So far we have this:



I think the cream is a little to brown, maybe a little lighter. What do you think?

As you can see I haven't finished stripping the beadboard ceiling. That will wait for a long time as that is the hardest area to strip. Very hard trying the use a grinder facing up. I may just end up replacing it all.

Old postcards and photos of Springfield

Here are some photos and postcards I found of my neighborhood. Boy, was it beautiful then, I wish we still had the trolley going through Main St. Anyways enjoy!

Kramer's Antique Improver??

Went to the antique store yesterday and saw a booth they had, advertising Kramer's Best Antique Improver. I was wondering if anyone has ever tried this stuff on their floors? I have a room that I have sanded but have not put anything on it as of yet (yes I am that lazy). I saw this stuff and read the back and saw where it says that it's good for floors as well. I've tried searching and haven't found anyone that has actually used this stuff yet. I've seen the examples they had at the booth and they look real good. The one reason why I am thinking about doing this, is because I have many animals in the house and using poly on the floors might not be a good thing, especially without anyone there to supervise. Also boarding them for a few days would cost me a bundle, so I am looking into this natural way of doing it. I have thought about shellac too, so that may be an option as well. If anyone knows anything about this please give me a feedback. Thanks a lot

Painting at a halt

Well since last weekend when I first put on the primer I haven't been able to prime anything else. Of course the weather has to do something with that. Why is it that every time you plan on doing something that Mother Nature has to rear her ugly head? Oh well, I think I might have a few nice days this week, so I will let the siding dry some before I put on the primer. In the mean time I did perfect scraping out the corners and getting all the old caulk out of the siding from my second floor. It's amazing how an old house will turn your fear of heights into nothing. I risk my life on the porch roof just to scrape out some caulk. I can't wait til I have to paint up there. One dilemna I am going to face is how I am going to paint the right side of my house. I have a chain link fence that is about 3-4 feet from the house. I'm not sure if a rented scaffolding will fit inbetween that space. I hope it does, because I wouldn't want to try scraping and painting off of a ladder.

Painting has begun

Well not that much painting. As I have stated in a previous post a long time ago. I had a painter come strip my house and paint it for a fee of $5,000.00. Well as all of you may know, he got paid $2,000.00 and then basically did diddly squat. He stripped some of my house but did it half-assed. Basically I ended up finding out that he was actually working on someone elses house when he was suppose to be working on mine. So long story short, if your asian and the guy that's working for you is asian. Don't fall for the "since we're both asian, I'll give you a deal" crap. I'm sure it works with other races as well. Anyways I decided to start on the stripping and painting myself, especially since the weather has been kind to me. I sanded and caulked and cleaned the front of my house (well the wall that is under the front porch at least) and put on the primer. All I can say is that it looks so good white. We were so used to the faded green brown color that was stained on the wood that the white just looked gorgeous. Another thing I found out, painting with a paint brush is brutal hell! I never thought that painting would hurt so much. Now I am dreading having to go on a ladder and scaffolding to paint. I know that spraying paint is easier, but heard that the paint doesn't hold up well. I wonder if rolling the paint on the siding is better?
Oh well, I will post pictures when I have one whole wall with trim all painted.

The war on Milk Paint

Well it has been awhile since I last posted, the reason behind this is I have been at war on milk paint. Every trim in my house is painted with milk paint and 12 more coats of paint on top of that. I've had good success removing those top layers with Soygel, Peel Away, and regular methyl chloride stripper from Home Depot, but none of these have been able to scratch anything on the first coat of paint, which is milk paint. Actually until yesterday, I didn't know it was milk paint, but today I found out it was, because I was able to remove it with milk paint remover.

I ordered some of this after reading some posts from other home bloggers and hoping, just hoping that this would finally take the paint off. So I mixed the powder in some water and let it sit awhile. Then I pasted the solution on the trim and waited, actually I waited for 24 hours. Here are the results:









Milk paint before








This is milk paint remover applied onto the trim








Here is my first scrape test after 24 hours









Voila!!!! IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!
























Here is the progression from beginning to end.


The bad part about doing this, is that I found that my trim was not varnished or shellaced prior to the milk paint being painted on. So it seems that I won't have my dream of shellacing the trim. Seems to be too much trouble trying to get the paint out of the wood grain. I guess I will just paint over it or milk paint it again. Well at least I know what works against milk paint and now you do too.

Dire situation in Springfield!!!

As some (hopefully all) of you know, I live in Jacksonville, Florida in an area called Springfield. Springfield is Jacksonville's oldest subdivision, right on the edges of downtown. Here we have a beautiful view of the city and only a couple minutes away from the St. John's River. Over the long history of Springfield, there have been good and bad times, but over the last few years new residents have moved in and started the revitalization process of Springfield.

In Springfield we have a Historic Jewish Center that has been abandoned for quite some time. The issue with the Springfield residents is that it is being awarded to River Regions Human Services, to be used as a facility to treat people with drug addictions, debilitating mental disorders, and those who are involved in anti-social and criminal activities. Now I'm not saying that River Regions is a bad organization, because the do a great service in helping poeple with needs. The problem I do see is that they are trying to establish this organization in a residential area that has been hard at work to revitalize and reverse the bad rep that it has aquired throughout the years. Now there has been a public outcry on this situation and it has been in the news, but it looks that the government is going to award them with the building. The only fire we have to this situation is that the Mayor and the city is backing the people of Springfield in not giving River Regions the permit it needs to do work on the building. We still have hope and wish that everyone will be able to help our sub-division in fighting this and help River Regions find a more suitable building.

Thank you for your time and help.

Gary from This Old Crack House is a Godsend!

Well this is actually old news, but I had been looking a some clawfeet for my newest clawfoot tub. I got it free, but with no feet but who am I to complain. Anyways I went to the salvage yard and they had a plethora of feet to choose from, the only exception was that I had to buy a tub to get the feet. Oh well, I have 2 already I don't need 3. So I put a post on my bolg and low and behold a savior came. His name is Gary and he sent me 4 wonderful feet for my tub, I am pretty sure they will fit, but I haven't had the chance to put them on because I have loads of junk in my tub and my 4 cats love using it as their sleeping quarters. Here are the pictures of the feet (I didn't actually take these, Gary sent them to me so I could see what they look like)



Thanks a lot to Gary!!!!!!!

Oh sweet heaven, there is a salvage yard!

Today I started looking online for a salvage yard in my area. I had read on other house bloggers sites that they got some goodies at their local salvage yard, but I was unaware of one in my area. I posted a message on my local historics website to see if anyone knew of a salvage in town, but no one knew of any. So I started searching and found a site for a wrecking company. On one of their pages they wrote that while wrecking homes and buildings they would come across a piece of architecture that seemed worth saving. So they put all this "junk" into a yard and let people come rummage and buy what they find. So after work Lita and I drove to the salvage yard. We were amazed at all the things we found. They had clawfoot tubs, sinks, toilets, doors, windows and even urinals, also they had this elephant too (kind of weird), but it was great like a kid in a candy store, better yet a kid at Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory. It was great, the only downfall that they closed at 5 PM, which is about the time we got there. Good thing they were nice and let us look around for a little. But this place must be a hidden treasure that no one knows about, well know one in my historic area at least (I bet all the antique stores know about it though). Anyways the bad part is that they only open from Monday through Friday 8 - 5, which is working hours for me. So it looks like I will have to take a short day or a day off. I never understand why some business' open and close while we are at work. Just like a bank, they close at 5, right when I get off of work. When they hell do you think I can cash my check! Anyways I'm happy that I found this place and I know I will be visiting them a lot more. Looks like I can get my sinks for the bathrooms and kitchen there. Sweeeeeeeeet!

Lita's treasures

Well, every now and then on a weekend, we will both go out to all the antique stores around the city to see if we can find anything useful in the house. Afew weeks ago we went into one store and Lita was enamored by this pinkish wingback chair. The owner said it was made in the 1930's or 40's, I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was sold right after she saw it.
Also yesterday we went back to the store and saw 2 more, one that had the same color but was much older and a white patterned one. Those two she bought as well, she said she wanted to put a chair in each room we have. Well at least the cats love it.



Also when we were there we bought an old round table with a leaf insert, made in the 1930's, for pretty cheap. It still needs to be refinished, but that should be nice for a dining table.





And then last but not least a console table with a tv, radio and phonograph in it. This table is pretty neat and everything works on it. The store owner said it was made in the 70's by RCA. I doubt the tv will be used much, but it looks like a great conversation piece and should fit in the dining room nicely.









These are very nice interesting things, but every antique store I go to never have the little things I'm looking for like, pocket door locks and handles, or clawfoot feet, or just glass door knobs. I'm guessing ebay will be the best way to go.

Rust stains galore!

Apart from the millions of projects I have started, one that I am seriously trying to finish is the exterior of the house. The bad part is that I have rust stains from the nails in the clapboard. I'll give you the backstory of my problem. Back long ago when when this house wasn't owned by asians a man and a woman owned this house. They tried to buy, fix and sell the house quickly to make a profit. Oh what a grand plan that was, except for the fact that they wanted to fix the house the cheapest way possible. So what do they do to the exterior you ask? Well they decided to rip off the original siding and replace it with a new one. They only did part of the house, but they part they did do they nailed the boards with ungalvanized nails. Now fast forward to now and I have rust stains on my siding. Instead of taking the route of applying to my historic council and waiting and waiting to replace all the nails. I was wondering if there was something I could do, like maybe countersink the nails and apply something to the nail heads then prime over it? Is there such a product out there that can eliminate the rust stains? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Another thing the the PO did to PO me!

Another clawfoot tub

Well yesterday was a great day for us, we got another clawfoot tub (well with out the claw feet, basically just the tub I guess). Anyways this is how it went: we met a neighbor that lived a few streets down from us. He was a nice guy and basically just introduced himself and wanted to take a look around. So we showed him all the work we haven't down and all the work I have tried to start. It was kind of embarrassing with all the mess everywhere, especially the one cat poop on the ground, RIGHT NEXT TO THE CAT LITTER! Anyways I told him how I needed to go to H Depot to get some wood, so he asked if it was alright to tag along and get some wood for him self as well. I had no problem with this so we went and bought it and took it to his house. Now this guy a huge house and it was actually one of the houses I saw before we bought our itty bitty house, but the problem with that house was that it was too much work for us. I'm glad that someone had the giblets to tackle this house. On to the story... after we got the wood to his house he showed us all the work he had done to it. I'll tell you, he has done a lot more than us. But after that he offered us the clawfoot tub that he had. I guess he didn't need it anymore after some hoodlums broke into his house and stole the feet. That is also a funny story, he told us that one day someone broke in and only took the feet to the tub, nothing else, just the feet. Is there some kind of premium to these feet? They must have been made of gold or something. Anyways we hauled that monster of a tub and brought it back home. Now we have 2 tubs that aren't in use and now I need to find feet for the second one. But oh well, I don't have to worry about looking for a second bathtub anymore. I was wondering how much it costs to refinish a clawfoot tub? Or if it's possible to do it oneself? Anyways I'm happy. I'm glad I have a big black dog in the house, keeps people from stealing my feet.

Hodge podge of house work

Today I did some random work on the house. In my earlier posts I pulled up the living room carpet and the old linoleum underneath as well. But I was still left with the tar like substance still in the floor.


After much scraping and sweating I finally cleaned off a good 3 foot square area.


I swear I will never ever ever use linoleum in any house I ever buy again.

Another project I started was using Peel Away on my staircase. Peel Away seemed to work real well here. Of course it was only 2 layers of paint.




This was the Peel Away on my window case. The before is the white paint above and the after is the yellow paint below. For some reason every single paint stripper I have used can not penetrate through this layer of paint. I'm not sure if this is milk paint or something else, but it doesn't react to any paint stripper I know. All I know is that the only way I have gotten it off is by scraping it by hand and it just flakes off little by little. If anyone thinks they know what this is, please leave me a message. Even better, if you know how to take this off message me NOW!



Tomorrow it looks like I will be doing more of the same. I can never concentrate on doing one thing.

Oh just in case anyone is a big college football fan, this is where I am going tomorrow.
Go Noles!!!!!

Laundry updates

Well this week we decided to do something about the future laundry room we don't have. After the kitchen demolition, we were left with a big empty space and a water heater on the left side of the wall just sitting there. For some reason the PO thought it would be great to put the water heater next to the cabinets in the kitchen, WRONG!!! it was in the way and a total waste of space. So after the destruction of the kitchen we needed a new home for the water heater. After much contemplating, we thought it would fit in nicely right under the stairs where the PO , with their bright thinking, had put a toilet. Since the pipes were already there we got Lee ,next door neighbor, to install the water heater. But with the space under the stairs being a relatively decent sized space, we had a great idea to put a washer and dryer hookup in there as well. The space is about 3 - 4 feet wide and maybe 6 feet deep, since the stairs are about the ceiling is angled from the floor up. So with the water heater taking up a little part of the space, we can actually stick a stackable washer and dryer in there as well, killing 2 birds with one stone. So as we speak today the hookups are in, but I still need to finish the walls since there are huge gaping holes in the walls, but other than that we can now buy a washer and dryer and not have to pay $10 every week to wash clothes. Now I just need to find a washer and dryer.