Black Walnuts, with hulls, from the back yard

We have at least one black walnut tree in the back yard. It seems early this year, but already we are finding the walnuts in hulls on the ground. I’ve been collecting them as they fall, since it seems they are are much-loved by squirrels and there is no real way to compete with squirrels.

More research is needed, but at first read it seems the nuts contained within these hulls are edible. Evidently the hulls are not easy to remove (I saw one reference suggesting running over them with your car). And finally, the hulls will stain whatever you are using to work with — your hands, surface, etc. In fact I did read the hulls are very good for a natural dye base (brown) if you are interested in, say, dying yarn.

At any rate gloves are needed and it will be an outdoor job for sure. Guess I will read more about the process, keep collecting, and try harvesting some this year to satisfy my curiosity.

Edwin Knowles, Yorkshire, Penthouse Pattern

In general during my thrift shop travels I do not look for dishes. I look for vases and other pottery and glass pieces usable in the business. Occasionally I’ll stumble upon a plate or two that is damaged by chips or cracks but may be of value to people I know who use them for other artistic endeavors. I do not religiously shop the thrift stores, nor do I attend auctions any more or even stop by yard sales — but I will stop by the thrift store when it is “crafts month” and at other times if I am out for a walk and the mood strikes.

So imagine my surprise when I encountered a fairly extensive set of Edwin Knowles Yorktown and in the Penthouse pattern. The Yorktown pattern was introduced in the 1930’s — you can read more about the company history if you are interested. I found it all in a box in the thrift shop.

I picked up the box and looked at the condition of the decals, mostly very good to what appears to be almost unused. I stared at the pieces, remembering how much I love the shape of the dishes. Do I need more dishes? Not really. I put the box back on the shelf, paid for my other items and was about to walk out the door when I impulsively picked up the box of dishes, returned to the register and paid for that also.  I guess sometimes you have to go with gut instinct.  Besides I do not buy to speculate, but because I really like the objects.

In the middle of this second purchase transaction, an upset woman rushed up to the cash register counter and told me she was about to buy the dishes, and had gone upstairs to look around thinking she would pick them up later. And now I had them. Would I give them to her?

To be honest, I did consider it for a moment.  But, I told her no. At that point I was invested in ownership. Plus everyone knows you can have such things held at the register while you finish shopping. How strange, all of it.  The find, the timing and the price. By the way the set lacks only two teacups. Uncertain if the creamer had a lid originally. Also comes with a gravy boat (not shown in the photo) and salt and pepper shakers, how awesome is that? A pretty complete set and it makes me very happy to have it. My one question is how it managed to get the name of “Penthouse” to describe the flowery pattern.

Salvaged Hinges -- work needed but excellent price!

We are so close to opening, despite a number of details to attend to. Some details may be left to post-opening, but there are a few crucial goals that must be dealt with prior to opening.

The theme this week is doors. We have three door-related carpentry tasks at hand. The first is in the Macintosh room, one of our guest rooms. In this room the closet was built in a corner, at an angle. It is a small closet, which is fine for our purposes, however the closet door will hit the foot of the bed when fully open and we wish to avoid damage to both the door and the bed. So we are taking a cue from the master bedroom closet, also in a confined space and that is adapting the door by sawing it in half vertically and making it two small doors with a center opening. We have the solid wood door, so hopefully the carpenter will be able to do this without too much trouble.

Our private living space is a room we call the “library” and is located directly off the front hall. No idea what kind of door was in place in years past, but we know we need to have some kind of locking door there now.

One of the great things about this house purchase is our discovery prior owners left a lot of doors here, mostly in the attic. This has helped us immensely in terms of building the second entry into one of our bathrooms. We would like to install a door to our office area also, located off the kitchen, and Llewellyn has found a door he believes will fit this area.

The real problem is the library door. Nothing found in the house to work with this door, and measuring in at 95 x 33 inches, we were off to Rochester to look through the inventory of a couple of architectural salvage retailers. The first place we stopped was great, but out of an inventory of over 800 doors nothing even came close to the size we needed.

The second place had an inventory of 1300 doors, and here we finally found one, and only one possibility. And it was off by half an inch. We drove home doorless, but spoke to someone we hoped would be our carpenter — he specializes in dealing with old houses. He agreed to not only doing the job but suggested we buy the slightly undersized door as he would work with it. So off to Rochester once more (about an hour drive for us in each direction) where as luck would have it a sale was in progress and we acquired the door for $84.

French door for the Library

As you can see from the photo, it is a French door that will have 18 panes of glass when we replace the one missing pane. It isn’t really what I envisioned for the space. I had hoped for solid panels for both privacy as well as a sound barrier, but lets just say I have adapted to the idea well enough.

As one might expect, layers of paint are on this door and there is a lot of ongoing paint flaking and chipping, so the door is currently in my driveway on sawhorses and already I have some hours in on paint removal. I think one application of chemical on the stubborn areas and the door will be ready for painting. I am feeling optimistic about it working.

In the meantime, we took advantage of our visit to the salvage place and were also able to find four acceptable decorative hinges (pictured at the top of this post) priced for less than one repro version would cost. Plus they gave us a bag full of screws that may or may not work. I love these salvage places.

But instead I am inside because there are tasks at hand here. Plus, I have plans to go to the knitting group at the library. So perhaps I will get some yard maintenance in later on.

Our backyard has a long driveway (about 349 feet from point A to point B on the plot map, below) that is ultimately circular, the land in the center of this circular driveway we call the “island” and that area has a couple of small trees and is mostly empty at this point, but has been planted in the past. We would like to do something interesting with this space, but that is another post.  The plot map looks huge, doesn’t it?  It actually represents .635 of an acre in a long, fairly narrow profile.

Plot Map House-Yard (click for larger view)

To one side of the driveway is an area that has been beautifully landscaped in the past, and this area we call the “peninsula” — marked on the map above.

We knew the peninsula was a bit overgrown, and in fact we are pretty certain it is now a home to some rabbits. However we had no idea just HOW overgrown it is.

When the R family came to visit us, they brought along some wonderful photos of our house in earlier years, including a few images of the peninsula landscaping. It was rather shocking to see the difference. The stones visible in the border of the peninsula, in the image below are no longer in sight. This is one wonderful part of the R family visit — getting to see various elements of the house and yard in another time, in this case as the landscaping was designed and intended to look.

We have a lot of what I now know to be weeds and overgrown greenery and foliage plants. I guess the difference is best shown by the images below. In Brooklyn, our back yard was about 10 x 33 feet. Part of an afternoon could easily weed and maintain the Brooklyn garden, and that includes time for weed whacking the grass — I never used a lawn mower. I always wanted a larger garden and, well, now we have it.

Peninsula Landscaping Comparison

The “then and now” of the landscaping is impacted significantly by the growth height of the mature plants. The maple tree (dark foliage) in the image above is huge now.  The image on the left is 2010, on the right as it looked in 1983. Click for a closer view.

Peninsula Landscaping Comparison

Another comparative view of the 2010 state of the peninsula (left) with how it looked in 1983 (right). Larger size if you click.

27 years of Growth

The image above is pretty much the same view with a 27-year time difference.  On the right is 1983, the left 2010.  In the image on the right you can just see a hint of the holly bush at the base of the driveway, far left.  27 years later, the bush has grown, a lot.  The height of the peninsula growth is significantly lower.  And the two trees growing on the island in the center of the driveway are mere saplings in the photo on the right, while today they pretty much block the view of the carriage house.  Clearly, we need to strive for some serious pruning  — I like seeing the carriage house and in winter the view obviously allows this.  We need a little more 1983 in our 2010 landscape view.

So this year, I am hoping, will be known as the Year We Established Control Over the Peninsula. I will, of course, use my “a little bit of work each day” theory, an approach that has always worked for me in other projects. Mostly I want to remove the weedy out-of-control plants, do a bit of trimming, feed the plants, and make an attempt to have the nice border stones show again.  I’d like a bit more color evident in the peninsula, probably in the form of colorful annuals, and I actually do like the idea of a bird bath, so we may find a new one.

I hope the rabbits will not feel threatened and view it all as an eviction notice. I enjoy watching them. The 1983 photographs are courtesy of the “R” family.

G. H. Lapham signature on beam discovered during renovation

We have been drawn to old historic homes for a long time now.  In Manhattan, we lived in an 1870’s brownstone.  In Brooklyn, it was a 1920 eclectic brick house in a designated historic district.  Even in Massachusetts, our house, contemporary in appearance, had originally served as a workshop, connected to an old Victorian house in town and moved to the current location.  This fact is unknown to many people, we only knew of it because the person from whom we purchased the house gave us the details, including photographs.

In researching a house there is the paper trail, which can sometimes lead to some good information about a property.  Then there is the anecdotal evidence one might learn from local histories, neighbors, long-time locals, and even evidence in the house itself.

For example, during one our our recent bathroom renovations a beam in the walls revealed the signature of George Lapham, one of the early owners of the house some sources credited for a major renovation in 1879.  Other sources credit someone else for this renovation, but with the signature on that beam, and the fact it is located in the “new” section of the house,  it seems that Lapham was indeed the driving force. The image above shows, in part, this signature — I will find a better picture later on Llewellyn’s computer, but if you view it at the larger size you can see the  H and L in G. H. Lapham.

In our Brooklyn house, inside one closet on the second floor, a ladder was permanently affixed to the wall to provide roof access.  Somewhere near the top of the ladder, near the roof hatch, if you had a flashlight in hand you could find the names of the former owners and their children scratched into the plaster.

Here, in Penn Yan, we often wonder about the history of our house and the people who lived in it. We have met, briefly, the people from whom we bought the house. These people graciously gave us a number of artifacts including photos of the carriage house reno, a 1910 document of what we believe to be the plan for heating installation, a stereoscopic card, and a few other items. The house, however, is 145 years old and that equals a lot of history. Our house abstract is huge.

I present all of this because in late spring of this year I received a phone call from a woman who found this blog. The “R” family (in respect of privacy, I never know if I should actually mention names in this type of forum) lived in this house for 21 years beginning in 1975. They were responsible for what I consider to be all the important renovations and changes in this house — kitchen updates, Bradbury wallpaper, room configuration — the reason we fell in love with this place.  Mrs. R., who called, is delightful and we spoke on the phone for a long time talking about the house. You may have see me mention Amy’s room here as the aka for the Woodland Room. Well, Amy is the daughter of Mrs. R.

We decided to meet on Memorial Day.  The entire R. family would be in town and they were all interested in seeing the house again.  We were excited to have an opportunity to meet them too.  Plus, who would turn down an opportunity to learn more about the house you live in?

And so, in the interest of time and space rather than trying to promote a sense of drama, I’ll be continuing this particular adventure and the resulting additional knowledge we now have about our home in subsequent posts.