About the House
I haven't really described the house or mentioned some of the things that were special, or wrong about it. I did mention in an earlier post that it was about 1760 Sq. Ft. It was 28 Ft. wide on one end and 32 Ft. wide on the other and 60 Ft. in total length.
I guess the first thing you'd notice, if you walked in, would be the double, or open through two rooms, fireplace. Red brick on the family room side, it also was open on the other side to the living room where the brick was in shades of gray. The bricklayer had never made one like it, but did a great job of setting the seam right where the wall would hide it. There was a low hearth on the family room side, covered in tile, and a real stone mantle. The living room was more formal. W had his heart set on a sunken living room, and that also raised the hearth on that side. To keep it level with the other hearth. I didn't put a mantle on the formal side. The fireplace was built around a Heatilater insert that was capable of heating most of the house if the power went off. That was also new to the bricklayer and he had to figure out how to vent the heat into the rooms in a way that looked good. He used the same tile that was on each hearth to set a pattern for each heat vent which was just below mantle level. An open fireplace means you have to have glass doors to close, so it will draw correctly. Our fireplace worked great, unless you left the door to the basement open. That effected the way it drew air and the house would fill with smoke. The Heatilater could definatley heat the house. As we discovered during the blizzard of '78. (As long as there was enough wood to keep it burning.) Even without electricity, the warm air was enough to keep the fans circulating warmth.
The kitchen and family room were only separated by a bar with lots of storage below and a shallow hanging cabinet above. A small desk was built on the end of the bar, where I sat the phone and worked on bills, etc. Between the bar and counter, where the sink sat under a window, was a door that led outside, where there would eventually be a deck. (The same door where I hung Nony's bell. Posted on Feb. 6) A large sliding glass patio door led out from the family room. I've already mentioned the built-in double oven and counter top range that we used in the basement before the upstairs was done. With the bar, I had a "U" shaped work area. The basement steps were straight across from the outside door, and the fridge set beside that door. A big room with lots of room for the family size table in the middle.
The house had a nice big bathroom and half bath. In the main bathroom, a built in counter ended on the right side with a big door from counter to ceiling, that opened to shelves. This same storage space opened into a full closet door in the master bath. So you could reach everything whichever bathroom you were in. This was a design I came up with and I'm very proud of it. I could brush my teeth or my hair from either bathroom. Towells were on a higher shelf and also available to either bathroom. Some personal things could be stored below the shelves on the master side where they couldn't be accessed (or seen) from the big bathroom. This closet was also at one end of the main rooms tub, and made the tubs plumbing accessable. The master bath had a shower, stool, and sink, but was very small because of one of those mistakes that happen. My Father-In-Law should have taken wall stud measurmeants from the hall, but forgot and that space ended up missing in the half bath. Which wasn't discoved till too late to correct it. Another 10-12 inches in there would have made a big difference. A few years later we discovered there was another advantage to that space being accessable from both baths. It became apparent when our youngest son, T.K. as a toddler, locked himself in the bathroom. I emptied the shelves and pulled one out and sent brother J.T. through to unlock the door. It was a genius design, if I do say so myself. Then to make up for his mistake, F thought to put a clothes shoot in the half bath. It took up some of the corner of the lower kitchen cabinet on the other side of that wall and dropped right down in a trap over my dryer. Even little boys pick up clothes when they can send them down a clothes shoot. Of course I also found toys and cookies in the trap. Not to mention the family cat that some little boy shoved down.
With the house abutting the woods in back and another woods across the road in front, there was a cool breeze down the hill all summer. W felt all we would need was an attic fan near the center of the house, which put it in the hall between kitchen and dining room. By closing windows on the sun side, and opening windows in the shade, we could stay cool without air conditioning. This worked too, except for a small, minor detail, that only presented itself on rare occasions. The ceiling fan had louvers that only opened when the fan was running. At least they were suppose to. We discovered that on certain stormy nights, (usually nights, maybe a rare day) when the wind was blowing just right, it could blow throught the soffit, into the attic and lift the louvers in a wail like a banshee. The first stormy night I heard that sound, it raised every hair on my body and sent a shiver down my spine that paralized me. J.T. let out a scream that was equally as frightening as the banshee wail. It took W a while to find the source, because the sound wasn't constant. It didn't happen very often, and we did get use to it. To the point that one evening, when we were entertaining our card club group, our banshee wailed and scared our guests out of their wits. J T calmly told everyone not to worry, our banshee didn't mean anyone would die. That took some explaining. If you haven't heard the Irish legend, (which I had explained to J T) a fairy Banshee wail is suppose to warn of a death in the family. Our Banshee only meant the wind was blowing up the valley instead of down the valley. Just one more part of my weird life.
I guess the first thing you'd notice, if you walked in, would be the double, or open through two rooms, fireplace. Red brick on the family room side, it also was open on the other side to the living room where the brick was in shades of gray. The bricklayer had never made one like it, but did a great job of setting the seam right where the wall would hide it. There was a low hearth on the family room side, covered in tile, and a real stone mantle. The living room was more formal. W had his heart set on a sunken living room, and that also raised the hearth on that side. To keep it level with the other hearth. I didn't put a mantle on the formal side. The fireplace was built around a Heatilater insert that was capable of heating most of the house if the power went off. That was also new to the bricklayer and he had to figure out how to vent the heat into the rooms in a way that looked good. He used the same tile that was on each hearth to set a pattern for each heat vent which was just below mantle level. An open fireplace means you have to have glass doors to close, so it will draw correctly. Our fireplace worked great, unless you left the door to the basement open. That effected the way it drew air and the house would fill with smoke. The Heatilater could definatley heat the house. As we discovered during the blizzard of '78. (As long as there was enough wood to keep it burning.) Even without electricity, the warm air was enough to keep the fans circulating warmth.
The kitchen and family room were only separated by a bar with lots of storage below and a shallow hanging cabinet above. A small desk was built on the end of the bar, where I sat the phone and worked on bills, etc. Between the bar and counter, where the sink sat under a window, was a door that led outside, where there would eventually be a deck. (The same door where I hung Nony's bell. Posted on Feb. 6) A large sliding glass patio door led out from the family room. I've already mentioned the built-in double oven and counter top range that we used in the basement before the upstairs was done. With the bar, I had a "U" shaped work area. The basement steps were straight across from the outside door, and the fridge set beside that door. A big room with lots of room for the family size table in the middle.
The house had a nice big bathroom and half bath. In the main bathroom, a built in counter ended on the right side with a big door from counter to ceiling, that opened to shelves. This same storage space opened into a full closet door in the master bath. So you could reach everything whichever bathroom you were in. This was a design I came up with and I'm very proud of it. I could brush my teeth or my hair from either bathroom. Towells were on a higher shelf and also available to either bathroom. Some personal things could be stored below the shelves on the master side where they couldn't be accessed (or seen) from the big bathroom. This closet was also at one end of the main rooms tub, and made the tubs plumbing accessable. The master bath had a shower, stool, and sink, but was very small because of one of those mistakes that happen. My Father-In-Law should have taken wall stud measurmeants from the hall, but forgot and that space ended up missing in the half bath. Which wasn't discoved till too late to correct it. Another 10-12 inches in there would have made a big difference. A few years later we discovered there was another advantage to that space being accessable from both baths. It became apparent when our youngest son, T.K. as a toddler, locked himself in the bathroom. I emptied the shelves and pulled one out and sent brother J.T. through to unlock the door. It was a genius design, if I do say so myself. Then to make up for his mistake, F thought to put a clothes shoot in the half bath. It took up some of the corner of the lower kitchen cabinet on the other side of that wall and dropped right down in a trap over my dryer. Even little boys pick up clothes when they can send them down a clothes shoot. Of course I also found toys and cookies in the trap. Not to mention the family cat that some little boy shoved down.
With the house abutting the woods in back and another woods across the road in front, there was a cool breeze down the hill all summer. W felt all we would need was an attic fan near the center of the house, which put it in the hall between kitchen and dining room. By closing windows on the sun side, and opening windows in the shade, we could stay cool without air conditioning. This worked too, except for a small, minor detail, that only presented itself on rare occasions. The ceiling fan had louvers that only opened when the fan was running. At least they were suppose to. We discovered that on certain stormy nights, (usually nights, maybe a rare day) when the wind was blowing just right, it could blow throught the soffit, into the attic and lift the louvers in a wail like a banshee. The first stormy night I heard that sound, it raised every hair on my body and sent a shiver down my spine that paralized me. J.T. let out a scream that was equally as frightening as the banshee wail. It took W a while to find the source, because the sound wasn't constant. It didn't happen very often, and we did get use to it. To the point that one evening, when we were entertaining our card club group, our banshee wailed and scared our guests out of their wits. J T calmly told everyone not to worry, our banshee didn't mean anyone would die. That took some explaining. If you haven't heard the Irish legend, (which I had explained to J T) a fairy Banshee wail is suppose to warn of a death in the family. Our Banshee only meant the wind was blowing up the valley instead of down the valley. Just one more part of my weird life.
posted by LeeAnn | 11:36 AM
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