Ruff Notes - Comments

Rose comments on I was wrong about my bungalow

Rose — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:01:38 +0000

Now that's impressive detective work! So nice to see another blog on kit homes, and best of all, a blog that is *focused* on getting the facts right!

And the discovery that you have a Lewis San Fernando is best of all!

Rose Thornton
author, The Houses That Sears Built

Brendan comments on The Episcopal Church Welcomes You...if you can find your way in. (Part 2 of 2)

Brendan — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:05:37 +0000

This calls to mind for me how old this issue must be. My church in Indianapolis (All Saints) is just over 100 years old. The original renderings actually illustrate people entering the church primarily through one of the side chapels, despite the presence of two sets of double doors at the west end of the nave, on the main drag. It's hard to know if the side chapel was ever really used that way, since the property is arranged such a way today that attempting to enter those doors would never make sense.

In any event I'm impressed by the thoroughness of your analysis here -- down to the traffic patterns. One of the things I'd be interested in at this place is how long it takes a newcomer to figure out the insider's way in. Is the parish aware of this issue?

TEM comments on I was wrong about my bungalow

TEM — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:57:49 +0000

Very nice!

I wish I could force myself to get more adventurous with wall color! And I can't even imagine how much work replacing sash cords would be (only about half of them are still full operational in my apartment)...but then again, those are probably the least of the issues with my building's windows (which I'm pretty sure haven't been touched since the 1910s when the rowhouse was built!--which is wonderful in that they haven't been destroyed, but awful in that I'm really glad I don't have to pay for the heat in the building!) :-P

(And the pictures are awesome!)

Carin comments on I was wrong about my bungalow

Carin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:50:20 +0000

Not crazy, but I'm afraid there's nothing too glamorous to report. My home inspector said the water heater was so dangerously misplumbed that he wouldn't even turn on the hot water tap, plus it was at the end of its useful life, so item number one the day after settlement was having the HVAC guys in to replace that. Then a visit from George the Plumber to take care of numerous little oddities. A great splurge: Paying a nice man to replace every single sash cord in the whole house before any painting happened. I've replaced one or two sash cords myself in the past and know how time-consuming and fiddly it is. I'm lucky to have 22 original sash windows in this house, and now I'm doubly lucky to have every one of them operable!

The fun part of the summer was having every single interior surface painted or, if it was a countertop, replaced with something more colorful. When I bought the house, every surface was on the mud-mucus-mustard spectrum. Now I have a house full of reds, lavenders, sky blues, grass greens, and yellows. Huge thanks are due to Annie at Bossy Color for galvanizing the color choices. (You can see lots of before and after pics in this Flickr set.) In a few years, I'll get around to painting the exterior something more bungalow-appropriate than band-aid beige, and a few years after that, I hope to replace the rickety back addition with a slightly bigger one and relocate the teensy kitchen to the back of the house overlooking the yard. I've promised myself a decade of obsessive idea-collection and renovation-dreaming before I can afford to do that.

TEM comments on I was wrong about my bungalow

TEM — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:28:24 +0000

Oh man--this kind of old house geekery makes me so very, very happy! Sounds so interesting!
(Also, is it crazy that I totally want all the gory details on the house work? :-D)

Carin comments on Show us your Ardmore model bungalow

Carin — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:49:40 +0000

meg, that sounds like an *excellent* excuse for a visit to warmer climes.

meg comments on Show us your Ardmore model bungalow

meg — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:01:38 +0000

We live in a neighborhood of kit bungalows, but I haven't found anyone who knows anything more about them, not even the folks who did all the work to get us Historic District status. Maybe you should come visit and teach us a thing or two...