Nothin' Doin'

I haven't blogged for a while because there's just not that much going on. Wait, let me rephrase that. There's not much home improvement going on. There's plenty of other stuff. Like visiting the local watering hole, (pool, not pub) enjoying (for the most part) our new puppy, kids' soccer games, traveling and just loving summer. Being in Wisconsin, it's way, way too short so we have to squeeze all we can in what little time we have. 

But, a girl can dream right? Dreams of a new kitchen, refinished bathrooms, wallpaper that magically comes down by itself (darn, where is that Harry Potter when you need him?) a lovely yard without any clover...I could go on and on. So, there aren't any new projects on the horizon, but trust me, come fall when the kids are back in school I'll be steaming off wallpaper like a madwoman...

Vacations and honey-do lists

I'm about to embark on a 5-day trip to Ohio with my children. Just my children. They're 7 and 4 and for the most part get along, but I can't help waking up at night at the thought of being confined in the car with them for 13 hours. Thank God for Harry Potter and audio books.

My husband has decided to sit out this trip, so I've left him a long list of honey-do chores. The top most priority being to house-train the puppy. The second, replace the kitchen ceiling fan. The thing is a death trap. The third, get the flower beds in order.

The previous owner was at one time a fabulous gardener, but a lot of things were left to go to seed and now the once-beautiful gardens resemble not much more than a weed patch. Something one of our neighbors has commented on over and over again. 

Tune in next week to see how it all turned out!

Carpet dilemma

Mark and I have been having a battle of wills over the carpet on the steps and upstairs hall. I want to rip it out, well, yesterday. Mark firmly believes in carpet on the stairs for safety reasons. The carpet is dark green with a leaf pattern in slightly lighter green. Now, green is my absolute favorite color. But green carpet? With a yellow Lab? Oh, and there's something about this carpet that makes the dog hair stick like glue. I've tried everything, rubbing it down with a dryer sheet, (the carpet, not the Lab) vacuuming in concentric patterns, Arm and Hammer pet hair remover. Everything. 

 So I'm picturing a runner on the steps. Possibly with an Arts and Crafts paisley or floral pattern. Harvest colors, of course.

  Our summer project however will be battling the weeds that have taken over the flower beds. We kind of wanted to wait until we knew exactly what was in the flower beds, but the neighbors have remarked a couple of times about all the weeding we need to do. Ugh.

Prairie, Not Prairie

The previous owners of our house, nice as they were, weren't really concerned with sticking to the Prairie design on the interior. Now, once I 

discovered the Prairie style, I absolutely fell in love with it. I love the simple lines, the warm colors. I love the "earthiness" of it. Here's a photo of our dining room prior to our renovation:

Definitely not Prairie.

Here's our renovated dining room:

Prairie, through and through. We were so excited to find that light fixture at Menard's of all places. So many people have asked if it was original to the house!

The color is Hubbard Squash, from the Arts and Crafts collection by Sherwin Williams. We liked it so much, were continuing with the color in the main hallway and the living room. 

Love it. Love it, Love it, love it.

A little more history

So, the house was custom built in 1913 for a local physician and his wife. It was designed by two architects, Charles Chromaster and Zeno Speer. Chromaster went on to a successful career in Fort Worth, Texas; Speer moved down to Milwaukee in the twenties and went into banking. The physician lived in the house until the mid-thirties, and willed it to his son, a dentist. That family lived in the house until 1972, when they sold it to a couple who owned it until last year when we purchased it. So, we're the fourth owners. Not bad for a 95-year-old home.

As I stated in my last post, we have the original plans, and they are a lot of fun to peruse. What we call the "small bedroom" was labeled as the "Maid's Room," the basement bedroom was originally Dr. Wahl's office and the basement bathroom was labeled "Laboratory". Mark and I had so much fun with that the first few days. "Take this down to the laboratory." she said in a haunting voice...

The house has undergone a few very minor changes. A wall dividing the "Reception Room" from the "Living Room" was removed, so it is now one large room. A second entrance into the living room was also removed. A window in the dining room was covered on the inside, but left intact on the exterior. The previous owners took great care that nothing was done to spoil the integrity of the exterior. What was a covered porch off of the living room was turned into an enclosed sunporch sometime during the 1970's. But when this was done, it was kept completely in character with the home.  

A little history...

As I sit here typing this I wonder "Who the heck is going to care about this?" Everyone does home improvement. Everyone moves into a new, exciting house. But I want to stand up and scream "But I'm different! My house is different! I have the original plans!" So this little blog is my way of doing it.

By sparing most of the gory details, I'll hit a few of the highlights on how we came to own this most gorgeous of houses...

About a year ago, my husband came home from his a.m. walk with the dog and said "Hey, one of those big brick houses you like is up for sale." I smiled, because of course I knew what he was talking about. We both had been ogling two brick prairie-style houses since we moved into our neighborhood in 1999, and we both swore that if one ever went up for sale, we would go look.

About a week later, we made an appointment with the Realtor and walked through. Now, my husband and I are polar opposites about a lot of things. He's the ying, I'm the yang, that kind of thing. This is what I saw at our first showing: Pristine woodwork! Built in bookshelves! French doors! Hardwood floors! This is what he saw: Cracked panes of glass, lots and lots of wallpaper, a showerless upstairs bath, a seriously outdated kitchen. We left the property in completely different mindsets...

For the entire summer, I talked about this house. I told my family. I told my friends. I told people at the pool. Finally, after three months, we made a third appointment to go look at the house, and at that time made our offer. Hee hee, I did it. I convinced my husband that this was our dream house. And it was, it really was.

So we moved in the week before Christmas. Yes, I'm crazy. Yes, we have two children. Yes, I managed to have my husband's family here for dinner on Christmas eve. 

I love it. We belong here. This house was meant for us.