moldings of mystery

We generally have a mile long to do list of things we think we're going to get done during any given period of time. Naturally, any belief that these things will be finished is completely delusional, but I guess you have to be somewhat delusional to undertake a project like this. On this list for the summer is finishing the woodwork in the kitchen - baseboard, four windows, built-in, two doors, a transom and the chair rail. I've nearly finished the heat-gunning part of the project (the easy part), what's left is scraping, liquid stripper and sanding, then touching up any remaining paint, staining and shellacking. I need a nice glass of (long island) iced tea just thinking about it...

What we've checked off this list now includes two windows, and the frame and moldings of the original pantry built-in. The pantry has left us scratching our heads on more than one occasion, but we think we've solved the mystery. Stripping the inside edge of the moldings revealed ghost marks where another piece of trim had butted up to them.



















It was only when we removed the hinges and finished stripping the woodwork that we figured out the outlines were from the chair rail that used to run around the perimeter of the room. Now of course that begs the question why were there marks from chair rail on the high inside edge of the trim overlaying the hinges???

enormous three part chair rail

After much head-scratching and unintelligible muttering we figured out that these pieces of trim originally belonged to the built-in that had been next to the chimney on the other side of the kitchen. When we bought the house all but the uppermost shelf and soffit had already been chopped out, but when we started stripping the 14 layers of paint and vinyl shelf liner from the walls and chimney we found more ghost marks showing the dimensions and shelf placement. Since there wasn't much to save we removed what was left to make better use of our salvaged cabinets (not without much guilt though).

the remains of the cabinet above the fridge

some of the ghost marks

that corner today

As best we can tell, when the house was split up they removed nearly every piece of trim as they rearranged rooms, even on doors and windows that weren't changed. When they put the trim back up they did it without rhyme or reason, cutting down and butting up lengths, mixing up wood species, or just replacing it with nice, but inappropriate, flat pine craftsman trim. In the case of the kitchen, the addition of modern cabinetry and a horrendous drop ceiling meant that much of the trim never made it back into the room.

removed drop ceiling to reveal
missing moldings

drop ceilings above sink

missing chair rail (don't mind butterfly)

With one more house mystery solved, we continued the tedious work, and now the pantry is nearly ready for finishing (doors notwithstanding).

before pic, complete with odd
"inspiration" photo taped to the door

as of now... stripped and
sanded built-in

peepshow

The heat gun has been the tool of choice for the past few days, but I haven't yet reached a point that's worth writing about, so we'll talk about the paint scraper instead.  This winter has been terrible in many respects, and the incredible and prolonged dryness has done a number on things like our woodwork and paint.

Most of the first floor got a quick paint job with gloss white (walls/ceiling/woodwork) some point before it was listed for sale.  None of the walls were prepped (they were covered with grime and wallpaper paste), and no primer was used, which, paired with the stresses of construction and habitation has resulted in paint cracking and flaking.  I won't complain, it all needs to be stripped anyway, and doing so has revealed some pleasant surprises.

This section of paint was helped by a massive leak from when we started reconnecting radiators.  It reveals that there was some decorative painting on the ceiling, bordered by some sort of trim (we can see the patched nail holes) and likely wallpaper over the cove which would have extended to the picture rail (also long gone).  The brown of the ceiling is somewhat of a conundrum as the original section of the dining room ceiling above the now-bathroom's dropped ceiling appeared to be navy blue with a painted mosaic pattern around the edges (pictures were on the stolen camera, and the drop ceiling has since been patched).  The brown that was revealed may just be the background of the mosaic, I'll need to open up another section to know for sure.  

Of course this just piqued my curiosity about our other first floor ceilings (all those on the second and third were originally wallpapered).  The current entry room/library has 1/4 inch drywall up, so that will remain a mystery.  I can tell that the cove of the molding in there was wallpapered since the adhesive was still there after I scraped the paint away.  The old entry was mostly gutted when the house was converted into apartments, so I doubt anything would have survived if even the plaster moldings were removed.  The section of molding that was clinging to life above the added closet was painted a bronzy green.

That leaves the (used to be) front parlor/living room.  

Mind you, this room faces west, and gets the most spectacular sunsets - those Victorians really knew their stuff.  Can you imagine how the room would light up with the ceilings and moldings painted out like that?  Gorgeous, and they will be again.  The problem I'm running into in here is that it appears that there was decorative painting done in that darker pink color across the ceiling, but it's being pulled off by the white paint.  We have another non-original closet in this room that has a dropped ceiling, so I knocked a hole in the wall above where the ceiling was dropped.  I had hoped the ceiling was in it's original state, sadly, all I got was some teens or twenty's wallpaper and beige paint...

lovely leafy paper, but no orange paint to be seen

So this means that this room had already been redecorated by the time the house was split up.  It's likely that this was done by the second owners (Escher), who were also responsible for some other lovely arts and craft papers in the house.    What this 4 foot section of wall does reveal is that it is original, and has intact molding which is important to know for when we take out the closet.  The opening you seen to the right is above the ceiling of the first floor bath (carved from equal parts of the dining room and living room).

Luckily the paint on that section is peeling too, so maybe it won't take off quite as much of the original paint when I go to strip it.  Stripping it will have to wait however, because those last two pictures?  Taken by sticking the camera into the little black hole above the door frame below...

catching up is hard to do . . .

As much fun as it is to revisit the past, I'll be starting finish work on the laundry tomorrow, so I'll give you a brief run down on how we got to where we're at. Although we're trying to do an accurate restoration, we'd also like to make sure the house is "livable" as far as future owners are concerned - not so much for resale as for keeping the house from decaying again once we're dead and gone. That said, this bedroom is paying the price. When we bought the house, this room (which was likely the "master") had been chopped up into a kitchen that had never been finished, had one wall completely rotted from where a window had been removed and never patched, a drop ceiling rat super-highway, and cat urine soaked asbestos tile floors.

this 50's steel sink had never
been installed - it's awesome
and is now installed in our
office kitchenette

this door now opens into the
laundry, the dark spot is urine
revealed as we took up the tile,
the plaster ceiling was all that
was left after we removed the
dropped ceiling below it

Although this was the biggest/nicest bedroom, it was the only one that lent itself to the chop - and it will become a laundry room, walk in closet and someday, a master bathroom. Luckily, we have eight other bedrooms to toy with.

red = fireplace, blue = windows

In the laundry room we will have a teal electrolux washer and dryer (got them 80% off retail), a stained glass window that will let light in from the bathroom window behind it, a hex tile floor (the proper unglazed rectified type), and a salvaged built-in linen cabinet. We may put up beadboard on the lower walls - I had nice inch thick beadboard I meant to put up before plastering, but I forgot about it and plastered the full wall. I don't have the clearance to install it on top of the plaster as the washer and dryer wouldn't fit, so if I put up anything it would be the thin modern stuff. We'll see I guess. There's also some salvaged baseboard to clean up, and a gas light to rewire. We have some antique tin we intend to put up as well, but that'll wait till we circle back around. Cement board will go in tomorrow hopefully, and I'll take some pictures for you then.