Fall at Howard House

The Sad Demise of the Shag Carpet

One of the joys of living with an elderly person is that every once in a while something wacky tends to happen.  This week dear grandmother was left to her own devices for an afternoon and poor puppy apparently had a tummy ache.  Well poor puppy had a tummy ache all over the 1980's gold shag carpet that graced the second floor hallway.  Grandmother decided the best thing to do was to not wait for her doting grandchildren and to remove this mess immediately. What better way to do that but with a bottle of cleaner that contains bleach!

Of course this spot of carpet was already up for removal, so we had a good laugh over it. What we did discover is that the walls were clearly moved on the second floor during the apartment conversion.  Luckily there is a great salvage place in Minneapolis with bins full of period maple flooring.  When we reach the second floor next year, we will be feathering in to patch this hole.

Removal of the shag carpeting showing where the bathroom wall had been moved.

Bleach not approved for Gold Shag Carpeting!

As if the shag weren't bad enough, that green stuff is far worse.

Ah maple flooring, it may be stained, it may have weird carpet gunk on it, but it can be restored!

Replacing the Front Steps

This is from late 2011 in preparation for grandma's 95th. The steps had not been replaced since the 50s, and it was long past due, and I do realize we should have grabbed pretreated lumber.

Gorgeous! My husband does excellent work.

God save the Queen!

On the Queen's birthday her loyal Minnesotans wish her the happiest of days!

Oscar sends you warm greetings from Howard House.

Colors that didn't Pass the Grandmother Test.

The blues and reds that were chosen have ended up looking smurftastic and grandmother's disaproving glare was enough to put a kibosh on the blue's and red color scheme. Our next attempt is inspired by a grey house with black storms that I found in Minneapolis. I've chosen to test another three National Trust colors: Woodlawn Sterling Blue, Woodlawn Silver Brook and Lincoln Cottage Black. The Woodlawn colors are from the Woodlawn Estate which was originally part of George Washington's Mount Vernon.

We shall see as grandmother "Likes a nice white house."


The next test-case colors are from the National Trust selection.





The test smurf colors on the "little house" Grandmother strongly disaproves.



Testing Paint colors

Tested my colors on the "Little House" today. I love the red but I think it will be relegated to the doors. One shade darker blue on the sashes instead. Will pick that up tomorrow. I can already visualize the red white and blue bunting out for the 4th of July and the white lights at Christmas.

Rusty Spigots

This spring we noticed this nasty brown spot at the rear spigot that had been shut off for years. After finding the shut off valve the spigot became Niagra Falls, from behind the fixture. Bottom line, the shutoff valve rotted, the faucet rotted and consequently the wood is now rotted. Joy!