Imagine if you will...

The problem with being on the road while your house is being worked on is that you are completely at the mercy of your husband to update you on what work is getting done.

Yesterday - Steve informed me that they took the plaster out of the master bathroom. In doing so, they discovered that there was an opening for a door on the wall were the sink was. I'd insert a picture here - but for now you just have to imagine.

This door would have connected what we are calling the master closet to the master bath. We know that the master closet used to be the back hallway and there was a stair case into the kitchen. We also know that this back part of the house was not original. Now it follows that this room was added but may not have always been a bathroom. I have often stared at the bathroom and closet doors and wondered why they are different heights. It makes sense if one is not original.

Today Steve came home and was excited to see more garbage in the dumpster - some Kohler boxes. He thought this meant that they had installed some of the bathroom fixtures. Since we did not purchase anything made by Kohler - he quickly came to the realization that this must have been from another job site.

When he went upstairs - he didn't even notice (at first) that the hallway had been extended. The existing blue dining room (soon to be reading/craft room) had a book case in it. The book case was added to frame in a doorway that connected this room to the hallway/stair case. It is so odd to think about what it will look like to "see through" that wall into the room.

Finally, in the existing kitchen (soon to be kids bathroom) - they took out the kitchen sink and have started to prep the kitchen cupboard to be removed.

As excited as I am about all this change - its scary as well. I have only known these rooms as they looked for the last 30+ years. The cleaning out and wallpaper removal that I have worked on are merely cosmetic. Crazy it is going to sound - I am going to miss this space as it once was.

We are doing alot to preserve the footprint of the upstairs. It was like a time capsule up there. You could see (and at one time smell) what life was like up there. The kitchen will never again be a place where cookies are made. The dining room will not be a place for hosting friends for dinner. My grandpa's bedroom will no longer be a place of boyhood dreams.

It seems odd to have these connections to these rooms since I never baked in the kitchen, dined in the dining room, or even saw a bed in grandpa's bedroom. I do take comfort in knowing that the kitchen will now be a host to the smell of clean laundry and bubble bath, the dining room will be a place to relax with family, and grandpa's bedroom will hold toys to be played with in the same rooms my mother and grandfather played in. I also know that prior to my family living in the house - these rooms had other purposes - before the house was a 2-flat. So I guess my "memories" are all relative (no pun intended) and that the house will continue to change as the needs of its caretakers change.

1864!

I have not only been negligent in my blogging, but we have also lost momentum on doing house research.

Today, however, I got a call from Value Net a company that is contracted through our bank to appraise our house (without actually seeing it) for a possible home equity loan which will be necessary to fund the home rennovations. This is all still very tentative, but since the appraisal is free - we figured it had to be done at somepoint, right?

The bank let me know that this person would be calling to confirm some details on the house - such as have we added a big pool or any other big improvements. So I was kind of expecting something along those lines. The interesting thing is what they do is compare your home to others that have sold in the area and my understanding is that they only do an in-home appraisal if the amount of the loan is above $250k (which thankfully, ours is not).

She confirmed the address and if we are in a subdivision. Then she asked me to confirm the year the house was built, "Does 1864 sound about right?". I confirmed :)

We had always known that the house was most likely from the 60s (1860s that is) - but had never pulled up the public files to get any further details. For some reason it was strange hearing it said out loud and thinking wow - this has been around for 143 years.

This also means the house was no spring chicken (in its 50s) when my family moved in 1916....so it had so much history even at that point.

In any case, we should know the outcome of the appraisal early next week. The only other notable suprise was when she asked me what I thought the house was worth. So I very quickly did the math, what we paid + how much we need for a loan = my answer. Really I'd love to know what they do with that information. What sane person would ever give a number different from how I calculated mine?

So that's the big news of the day. I hope to fill in some other details from the last month or so - but no promises. In a few months, there should be pictures of Casa de Champaign from my little sis - hopefully she will let me share. Especially since she is the one who calls me to remind me I haven't posted and also claims she has started her own blog and just doesn't know how to do it yet :)