What Was, Is and Will Be

You may remember this is the way our hallway looked the first time I saw it. This view was walking through the back door. Lots of green! That is the was  floor of the hall. We were told the original heart pine floors were under the carpet. So DH made a deal with me that if we removed one sheet of the plywood and the floors were in good shape we would keep going if not the deal was we would buy new flooring and put it down. If you look to the left of the photo you see the swinging door to the dining room and the pantry door. Always seemed as though it was just a funny little odd space, at least to me. I always wondered, did the hall ever have a continuation of the wall all the way to the kitchen?

 

 

So we gathered our courage, grabbed the hammers, pry bars, you get the picture. So after the carpet and padding we have some very old linoleum. I did research this and it was a very popular color and pattern between 1920 and 1940.

 

 

We are good so far, so now for this layer and the plywood.

 

 

We have gone trough four layers, and now there is another one. We haven't fell through the floor yet, so keep going. At least someone had the good sense to put heavy duty felt paper over the original floor before covering it with the ply wood. Peel it back honey lets see what we have!

 

 

Oh my, they are really there, heart pine they have paint on them, but perfect condition other than the paint. From our estimation they have not saw the light of day for at least fifty years maybe even longer. I wish they could talk! Now see that white out of place board to the right? Yelp that was the continuation of the center hall wall!

 

 

Remember this little strange area? The little area where the cabinet is sitting?

 

 

Here it is now. No your eyes do no deceive you there was another room there! But such a tiny little space, only 6ft by 8ft! The original food pantry is still intact, so Google here I come! According to all the information I have been able to get my hands on, houses during this time frame that had an attached kitchen always had a room such as a pantry dividing the kitchen and the formal dining room.

 This was to help with the kitchen smells and heat but some homes had two pantry's and this house was one of them. They tore out the original dish or butler's pantry to make the kitchen bigger.

 

 

You can see where the rest of the center hall wall was removed. We have found evidence of the original door to the kitchen to the dish pantry and now that the floor is drying we can see the wear patterns in the paint. We will be replacing the lighter wood that was put here whenever the floor was covered. When the house was built the floors were laid first then the walls on top of the floors, so the heart pine that was under the walls that were taken down is lost forever.

 

 

So you have the IS part of our demolition.

But all is not lost, replacement pieces for the floor, I hope will be here next week and the lumber for the dish/butlers pantry rebuild. That's right, it's going back and I didn't even have to make the suggestion. DH suggested it first. I am so excited. So I hope you will follow along as I try to recreate this little room! It will be the exact same size as the original down to the size of the door opening. I am collecting pictures have tones of ideals to play with. There was not a sink or running water in this room, we know from exploring under the house. So I'm thinking it was more of a dish pantry where the cook maybe placed the food on serving dishes before it was taken into the dining room. If anyone has any history on one of these rooms, I would love to hear from you. So maybe in a few weeks, my dish pantry won't look like this......

 

 

Food and dishes on this side, and laundry on the other. It will be nice just to store food here and be better organized.

Stay tuned for the WILL BE!

Sandy

Linking to: A Stroll Thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Changes In The Entry

Ready for some change in the entry, foyer, center hall, receiving room, ha ha. You would really have to know me to understand how funny I think this is, I am one of the most down to earth people you will ever meet, one of the what you see is what you get people. So onto the changes. Dark I know, SORRY! Just two urns I already had that were a beach scène, The Master of the house, that's another ha ha, loves the water so we have lots of this. I wanted a little more fall feeling in the room so I simply tied burlap around the base and it worked well with the grasses.

  

Completely changed the library table, adding more fall colors and of course the brass lamp. I'm one of those people who never got rid of the brass. It just always worked well with my antiques.

  

A little estate sale pitcher filled with feathers that I collected and then attached them to floral picks.



A couple of different pillows for the chairs. I'm really happy with my changes 99% of my changes were things I already had in other rooms of the house. It was fun shopping the house.

 

Now for one little new change. A new old fashioned door bell. The door had the original key turn doorbell when we moved in but part of it was gone and the parts that were left we painted over. We ordered this brass one from Signature Hardware and I love it. Had the Master of the house take the

electric one off, not that anyone that visits me knows what the little key is for.

 

Here is the key to ring the bell, sounds like an old very loud bicycle bell. I love it!!!

 



 

Thanks for visiting.

See Ya,

Sandy

Linking to: Between Naps On The Porch for Metamorphosis Monday

 

 

 

 



Doors, Doors and More Doors

 

Most of you know old houses have lots of doors. This one is no exception. The house still has part of the original center hall and on the right side there are four doors, three going into bedrooms and the mystery door I will show you today. This is the first door when you come in the back door.

 

  

Opens to this guest room, which I have posted several times. The bathroom I posted, last week is accessed through this room.

 

Moving down the hall....

 



Another small bedroom



And now for the mystery door..  Don't try to open that pretty glass door knob because it doesn't work anymore. But why?

Because of this little hidden room. A tiny little dressing room tucked between the master bedroom and bath.

 

 

  A huge floor to ceiling mirror has been placed over the door. It could be easily removed and the door reopened if needed. I added the chandelier to the room and I have to say it is the brightest room in this old house. I also hung antique hats, scarves and purses on the sides, not allot of room for artwork as you can see. You can see the entrance to the walk in closet and yes even in this small space there are four doors. The walk in closet was originally the door to the middle bedroom.

 

A little bench, if you need to sit for a minute or two.

 



Antique hat boxes.

This my friends is the original bath, small but functional, and I guess 100 years ago this tiny little space would have been very much a luxury. You can see it has been updated, but the original bead board was left as well as all the molding around the window.

 

This was found after the 1950's blue ceramic tile was removed. Amazing it survived.



 

OK, I hoped you enjoyed the tour of the mystery room. What the room was before is still a mystery. Maybe a small hallway to the bath or even a child's nursery. Thanks for stopping by.

Sandy
Linking to Wow Us Wednesday
and
Amaze Me Monday