Northland Stories

Whistle while you work

2011-07-01T13:17:00.003-05:00

My kitchen sink faucet whistles when I use it. I figure it's just telling me how happy it is to be directing water for me. But I find it a little annoying. The sound closely resembles a shrieking teapot when the water is boiling. So I rush to the stove again and again only to discover that I don't own a teapot. OK, I don't really do that but I've spent a lot of time scratching my head on this one. ehow has yet another nice article on how to fix the whistling sound. I've had plumbing problems before (the kind that result from the water not staying inside the pipes) but I've never had the case of the whistling faucet. I thought it was my whole plumbing system but the sound only comes from the kitchen faucet and the upstairs shower head. When people take showers you'd think they were screaming due to hot water, but alas, it's just the whistling shower head. Online research has narrowed it down to two possible remedies. Either there is a bad washer or other component in the fixture, or the water pressure is too high to the house. Since the kitchen sink and shower head are the only noise makers in this house (excluding my kids 'cause you know kids never make any noise lol).. I have narrowed it down further to the fixtures themselves. I will be replacing them soon, 'cause I'm not digging the whistling.

"Yah Sven, why did de sink whistle at me dere?" "De sink whistled at you so you'd take de hint and get de dishes done dere Ole."

Painted Windows

2011-06-30T16:09:00.007-05:00

eHow has a nice article on their website titled Projects and Ideas for Painting Old Windows that is full of fun ideas for using old windows in creative ways. I like the painted flower box idea they have. I happen to have quite a few old windows laying around that I've been trying to come up with a use for. I have a nice one that's small with two panes of glass that I'm saving for a key holder. The wavy glass in old window panes coupled with weathered wood covered in a hundred years of paint just makes for great craft projects. I've been spending so much time unpacking from our move that I haven't had much time for house projects, but they are coming. In the meantime, I get inspiration from articles like this.

"Yah Sven, vat did de robin say to de vindow after she flew into it" "Dunno dere Ole, vat did it say?" "De robin said 'you're a real pane in de neck' dere." "Oh dat's funny dere Ole, thanks." "You betcha, Sven."

Moving Day(s)

2011-06-28T09:17:00.004-05:00

After two totally taxing days we are officially moved in! The sun was shining on a nice 64 degree morning as we awoke and wandered through a maze of boxes. I'd post some pics of our new house but my camera is safely stashed in a box just waiting to be discovered. Lots to do, lots of ideas, lots of fast food too! Can't wait for a home-cooked meal. A good friend stopped by to offer some ideas on an addition to the house. But I just want to find my razor and a clean pair of socks at this point. Let the adventure begin. :)

Photo of a rose bush taken at Duluth's Bayfront Festival Park

Cottage Style

2011-06-23T13:13:00.006-05:00

We recently purchased this book titled New Cottage Style: Decorating Ideas for Casual, Comfortable Living, by Better Homes and Gardens at Barnes & Noble to give us some decorating ideas. Since the house we are purchasing is already decorated in this style, we felt like running with the style as opposed to going in a completely different direction. What I love about this particular style of decorating is the use of old furnishings and mis-matched furniture to get a 'shabby chic' look. Much of the furniture in this style seems to be distressed or antique with light paint colors. Same for the walls, many different textures with beadboard, tongue & groove, etc. all painted either white or light colors. The book has a ton of reference photos and is especially useful for storage ideas. This house is 1,000 square feet so we need to be efficient with storage. In the cottage style there are many decorative shelves and built-ins that can provide storage. I even have an idea for a window seat in the kitchen that will provide storage and function. More on that later as I'm still packing boxes. sigh. In the meantime, I can get some inspiration from other houses in this book. :) Here's a link to the book on Amazon.com if you want more information.

Another front view

2011-06-18T22:51:00.008-05:00

Here's another angle of the house (with snow!)

(And no, this picture is a few months old and snow isn't covering the ground here in Duluth in June in case you're thinking this part of the world is winter year round with a bunch of lutefisk-eating, flannel-wearing people walking around saying 'yah you betcha' to everyone they meet).

Uff-da. Anyway, this view gives a nice angle of the side and the attached tuckunder garage in the back of the house. (See June 9th's entry for a better view of the back of the house with the garage here). One idea we have is to put a bedroom and bath addition above the tuckunder garage. We won't use the garage for parking cars as it was designed to hold a small 1920's car, not a minivan. Or 'man-van' if I'm driving lol. Anyway, We'd like to remove the overhead garage door and frame in a door and window. Then we have a nice 11'x18' basement room to use for additional living space. The space above the garage could then be added on to to give us some additional main floor space. One challenge would be of course how do you blend the addition to the original house so it doesn't look like an addition. One thing that would help with this is the fact the tuckunder garage looks like part of the original house, so if the addition was done right, people wouldn't guess that it's not original to the house. Another thing we can do is install Maple hardwood floors and finish them to match the rest of the 1920's flooring in the house. Same goes for the woodwork as it's all white throughout the house, so matching the window, door, and baseboard millwork would be easy to do. We could order matching windows and use beadboard and other elements to make the addition look original on the inside. What's getting me is the outside, how do you make that look original. I love the siding as it is and I know I don't have siding to use for an addition. It's possible to remove and reuse the existing siding on the back of the house, but we would not have enough. So we would need to be creative and find a way to do something different that looks original for the siding. So that's where we're at ... planning an addition when we should be packing boxes and picking paint colors. lol. Gotta love old houses. :)

The Next Adventure

2011-06-09T13:57:00.005-05:00

Here she is, the next house. She's a 1924 1.7 story traditional with original painted clapboard siding, windows and doors. We don't move for another month or so, please stop back soon. :)