A Little Off the Top, Please

Yesterday I was on the roof tearing off shingles and Lisa was getting her hair cut. Guess which one of us ended up in the doctor's office getting stitches?

We did a lot yesterday. Here is a shot at 9:30 AM with our bracing up at the spot where we would cut into the roof for the gable:

John went home last night and worked out all the framing details for the gable and rough opening for the window:

We marked our corners on the inside of the roof and drilled holes through to the outside so we would have points to snap a chalk line on to mark our tear off area. Then we sent Pete up with a saw to cut through the shingles only:

John suggested cutting a portal so we wouldn't have to go up and down the ladder:

There were a full three layers of shingles on the roof:

That really boogered up the saw blades so we decided to go for lunch, get more blades, and call Taryl's son Eric to hire him for the afternoon tearing off shingles. We he came we went back to work:

Lisa came by and expressed her approval, she dropped Laurel with me and went to get a haircut. After getting the whole area stripped Taryl said he didn't like getting his picture taken:

Eric, Pete and I finished loading the truck, and Pete, Laurel and I went to the dump:

We came back in time to see the last rafter being cut after all the sheathing had been removed:

It was time to go and dance in the new sitting room, which happened to coincide with our afternoon doughnut break (see Pete's hand):

While we had been working in the morning John had been framing the outer wall, as well as helping tear off. Now we were ready to put the frame in place:

We covered it with a tarp and called it a day:

Today we will do the side framing and begin rafters.

Yes, Lisa's stylist was razor cutting around her ear and slipped, sending her to the doc for two stitches. The haircut was free.

Up and Away

Yesterday was a big day of lifting things into place.

We got the in floor beams ready on Tuesday. Here is one, first cut, then put into place:

 We got the 15' LVL that spans the top of the stairway opening in place yesterday. Shelly (the architect) had originally put a support post on her plans that would have fallen about 2/3 of the way along the run, because in the standard tables to calculate roof load the largest house is 36' deep. Foxcroft is 46' deep and 34' wide. The folks at the lumber yard said there were pretty certain it would carry the whole load from two points. The building inspector said that if an engineer signed off on the load capacity we could go without the middle post. Fortunately the best engineer in town is a former junior high student of Pete's so we took her the info on the LVL and the roof. According to her calculations, our beam could carry a max of 700 lbs/sq. ft. The roof load is 500 lbs/sq ft. so we got our stamp.

This LVL is a doubled 11 3/4 beam (imagine a taller version of the ones above doubled and nailed together). John wasn't able to come in yesterday morning, so we were quite concerned how 3 middle aged guys would be able to lift it into place. Fortunately my good friends next door have a son who will be playing football for the University of Iowa in the fall. We got Alex and a buddy who was over there to come up and popped that puppy into place in no time. Unfortunately I wasn't able to shoot pics while we were doing it. But here is the beam in place:

Then in the afternoon the lumber truck came with our sticks to frame the walls. They didn't send a boom truck like we asked but with their lift they could get 10 feet up. So Taryl stood on top of the lumber and handed it through the 2nd floot window to John and I. Pete strategically left to get the engineer's stamp 5 minutes before the lumber came. I was too afraid to get a pic of Taryl on the lift for fear that by capturing it, something bad would happen. Imagine a tall man on top of the lumber!

Today we will likely cut into the roof and begin to frame the gable...

Meet My Crew

Who are F&L Builders you ask? Well they are three colleagues of mine who all teach in the Iowa City Community Schools, and do construction on the side. Here's a little bit about each of them:

I've known Pete the longest, he and I go back to 1985. He teaches 7th grade language arts, and is an incredible teacher and writer. I helped Pete put a screened porch on the back of his house in 1989 or so, it was a brutally hot summer, and we learned a lot in doing it. Pete is the communications director of F&L, handles contacts with the trades, and is very much the organized one. He spends a lot of time thinking about improvements to the plans, and is fond of saying "If low e windows were available to the craftsman era builders, I'm sure they would have used them."

Nice uniforms!

Taryl is Pete's teaching partner, at the junior high language arts and social studies classes are blocked together back to back. He is a midwestern farm kid who started working construction as a teenager. Besides building he was also a firefighter before deciding to get into a little less physically strenuous line of work (boy was he wrong in his choices). Taryl is the voice of experience, goes at everything with a gusto, and has great tools.

John is also a latecomer to teaching, he is a Chicago Art Institute grad, who worked as a finish carpenter before getting teaching certification. He has gone between assignments in art and industrial technology (read SHOP). John is my fellow old house lover having completely re-habbed one great old place before buying the one next to it and starting over. He is a great generalist, competent in wiring, building, and finish work. John has spent a fair amount of time at Foxcroft commenting that "There certainly are a lot of different ways you can wire a double switch." We were looking at a ceiling box that had five other wires running out of it at the time.

So why the name F&L? Pete's idea of course, as a committed Hunter Thompson fan, it stand for "Fear and Loathing."

We Passed!

The building inspector came yesterday morning and approved the holes for the footings in the basement, and the posts in the walls on first floor. I was teaching so I didn't get to be present. My crew said the only thing he really wanted to know was did they build the new basement stairs? They answered no, that was the new owner and there was a father-in-law involved also, which apparently satisfied the inspector that he was dealing with capable builders. (The stairs replaced an even worse set, and were done in one afternoon, and yes they seem a little crooked and have a big step at the bottom!)

We made the channels for the in-floor LAMS yesterday and today will be putting up the ones that will go at the ceiling along the top of the stairway. I tooks some photos but forgot to bring the camera home.

I also took the last load of brush to the dump and managed to have the gate of the trailer fall off as I was leaving. A carriage bolt had worked loose and fell somewhere, I couldn't find it, but managed to heave the gate onto the bed of the trailer at an angle that was stable enough to get it back to the house. I took a good deal of abuse back at Foxcroft for doing that. The trailer is an ancient one of Taryl's that we have all used for various projects. I hauled a total of 10 tons of limestone in it when building the patio in our current home.

I really should do an entry about my crew. Perhaps I'll post this and work on it now.

Septuagenarians with Saws

My in-laws came from the Quad Cities yesterday, and George brought his chain saw. Lisa had asked if he'd help clear the yard some time. At 72 George is still pretty fit and healthy. He arrived and started to work clearing the scrub along the driveway. Then all hell broke loose.


Helen's mother passed away in 1970, we think all major yard maintenance stopped then, everywhere is completely overgrown, and out of control. I have already cut and hauled quite a lot of brush, but as a musician I am partial to my digits, so I tend to work with a limb saw or a lopper.

George took out hackberries and other scrub along the driveway for a while, then pointed to the plum tree on the front hill. It was planted in the 1940's and was growing sideways out of the hillside, and completely obscured the right side of the house from the front. I said go for it, and we took that out. We then moved to the maple that was forked too low on the left side of the front, and trimmed to keep just the main trunk. He then took out two major limbs off the walnut that were hangining over the driveway and porch roof respectively. All in all, noticeable improvements in a little over an hour and a half. I knew I could load the cut brush up on a trailer on Monday and take it to be chipped at the city landfill.


I left to show our current home to a couple interested in buying, and imagine my surprise when I return after an hour to find that the amount we cut in front was doubled by what he chopped out in back. The entire yard in back was a huge pile of cut trees and limbs. I looked at Lisa and she shrugged her shoulders, We knew it should happen but thought it could have waited, but oh well. We now can really see al l the neighbors sheds, garages, and other outbuildings, that were concealed, but know that the lilacs should come back in a couple of years. Since the workers will be inside for a while, this now gives Lisa a lot more yard to work with while she can't do much indoors!

Making Our Points (We're on the LVL)

Friday's job was to locate the four load points that will carry the weight of the gable down to the foundation. Since the gable will not extend all the way to the exterior wall in back there will be in floor LVL beams that span from the exterior wall to the load bearing wall on the interior.

On the exterior wall those points fell
•Above the back door




•Just to the north of the windows in the back bedroom



On the interior wall those points fell:
•In the wall between the kitchen and dining room



•Right at the corner of the hallway leading upstairs


So the crew started chalking lines, cutting plaster, getting engineered lumber (LVL) for the header to carry the point from above the back door to around both sides. Figuring where the open the the shingles from outside the house so as to not have to open plaster in the one room I've already completed. Of course everywehere we needed to go had light switches, or outlets, corner bead, or other interesting challenges.

What did I do during all this? I dropped two more loads of trash from the attic into the truck and hauled away, along with all the big plaster from the closet. I showed our current home to another prospective buyer, and did toenail in the last 2x4 beam next to the back door (I bent it over at the end, dammit)

Monday we will finish the posts.

They're Here!

Today is the first official day of summer for me. Yesterday was the final teacher work day of the 2004-05 school year. What this means at Foxcroft is that the construction crew (F&L Construction) made up of three teacher colleages are at the house beginning demolition for the second floor finishing.

In order to determine how much support is needed for the gable in back they are going to take out the bump out into the kitchen that is made by the back bedroom closet. We had planned to remove this anyway since we will use the closet door to go from the kitchen to the family room, which will be in the back bedroom. I went over at lunch in between the workshops I'm teaching and shot a few fast pics.

 ABOVE AND BELOW: kitchen with the broom closet removed

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ABOVE AND BELOW: Bedroom closet bump out, the next to go

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ABOVE AND BELOW: Cut out in attic floor for HVAC

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ABOVE: A look at the back where the gable will be added.

To quote Navin Johnson, "Things are going to start happening to me now!"

Wild Parsnip OUCH! Painful! (and not pretty)

WARNING! THERE ARE REALLY GROSS PICTURES IN THIS POST!

Quick! Try to say this three times fast:

"PHYTO-PHOTO-DERMATITIS"

What does that word mean? how about a good definition from the June 1999 issue of
Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine

"There are chemicals in wild parsnip called psoralens (precisely, furocoumarins) that cause what dermatologists call "phyto-photo-dermatitis." That means an inflammation (itis) of the skin (derm) induced by a plant (phyto) with the help of sunlight (photo). When absorbed by skin, furocoumarins are energized by ultraviolet light (present during sunny and cloudy days) causing them to bind with nuclear DNA and cell membranes. This process destroys cells and skin tissue, though the reaction takes time to produce visible damage."

Guess who has been occasionally working in the back yard clearing the areas that haven't been touched in 35 years? I started noticing a bit of a itching on Monday May 30th, saw a bit of what looked like maybe poison ivy on Tuesday. Had enormous blisters on both of my arms on Wednesday. I was sure it couldn't get any worse, but by Thursday I ended up wrapping both arms in gauze bandanges so the blisters wouldn't weep through my shirts at work. Finally went to the doc on Friday. When I said I knew we had already cleared all the poison ivy, she took out a picture of wild parsnip and asked if we had any. We have quite a bit in the yard I said, and she gave me the info cited above. Just in case it was poison ivy I get to take all the steroids and antihistimines too, but they really won't do much for wild parsnip.

Here's how I look one week after the blisters started to appear:

I'm feeling better thanks, but my family really does not like me on steroids. The up side could be that I might be able to move the 8.5 foot long radiator without any help.

Old Guy vs. THE RADIATOR

The plumber came on Wednesday and drained the boiler, which led to Lisa asking, "Does this mean we're committed to geothermal heating?" My answer was, "Yes, but we're can still back out right up until we start dropping the pipes." I was itching to get to the next step of finishing the music room: getting the floor stripped.

I'm an old guy, and I tend to work alone on this house restoration stuff, which can be difficult when it's time to tackle (cue sinister music) THE RADIATOR. The radiator in the music room has 29 fins and is just over six feet long. It's two feet tall and over 10 inches wide. When asked to estimate it's weight the plumber said, "Gee, I dunno, 500 lbs?" I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Fortunately, I used to teach 5th grade, so I have more than a passing familiarity with simple machines. Borrowing a low clearance jack from my brother, I went to the rental store and got two heavy duty roller trucks. I set out by trying to lift the radiator as close to the middle as I could to maximize the lift on the upper end.

I soon realized that I would soon be hitting the underside of the window sill, so I very delicately tried to move the raised end out away from the wall. As soon as I did that I heard creaking noises from the down end and knew that I was probably tearing up the floor on the other end. So I lowered the radiator and went to get some scrap wood. I raised the other side (previously the down side, and put wood under it and went back to the original end which was away from the wall and raised it enough to slide the truck under.

I then lowered the radiator onto the truck and proceeded to raise the other end and wiggle it away from the wall, getting the truck under the other end too.

Knowing I needed to make sure the radiator stayed secure on the trucks I wrapped a rope among the fins. I could then turn the radiator so I could move it out of the music room.

I put it in the living room and let it hang out with its biggest brother

That puppy is eight and a half feet long with 41 fins!

I was feeling pretty good, I had done this in well under an hour and could work on stripping the floor. Then Sunday came and I started thinking about how can I get the trucks back to the rental store by Tuesday? I was certain, I couldn't get that thing out of the house myself, so I talked to my brother and he and his sons came Monday to help. Once again using simple machine knowledge I put 2 fourteen foot 2x12's down on the back porch.

and we got it down pretty easily. We rolled it onto boards in the yard, and removed the trucks.

Now all I have to do is find someone who wants it! Seriously if you want a set, let me know, every one has the original metal cover that came with them, see the pic of the big one, it has some pretty bad contact paper over it but the covers are cool. One idea I had was to make them benches in the back yard, but Lisa isn't buying that one, yet.

-Mike

And There Were Roses... (And Indian Girl Tents)

It seems that one benefit to getting rid of the overgrown arbor vitae is that the two rose bushes in front of the house are blooming. I don't know a lot about roses, we have a great rambler at the old place that is a white Dorothy Perkins, which is unbelievably vigorous. We never bury the canes for the winter or do anything that I've read about for ramblers, and this thing will have canes that grow nearly 20 feet a year. Anyway, there are two very old roses on either side of the walk coming up to the porch. Here is a picture of them spliced into one shot:

Anyone out there have any idea what these are? Lisa thinks they may be in the primrose family as they seem to close at night and open up again. The white ones bloomed first and now the red ones are just starting to open up. These things look like small trees the main trunks at the base are nearly 2" in diameter. I'm wary of chopping away at the old stuff without knowing what they are, and the best way to maintain them.

Another byproduct of vigorous whacking away at our overgrown yard is a good collection of tree limbs, I'd been saving the bigger ones, and have been making various tepees and tents with the girls. Here is our latest model:

I have to think that Helen is smiling on these activities. One leftover from the estate sale was a burlap sack Indian dress that given other things we found was probably an old campfire girl uniform, probably circa 1922. A bead weaving loom and some campfire girl patches that were found with it were sold. I just found some Girl Scout books from the 1930's in the attic a few weeks ago, it seems she was an adult leader too.

Back to Square One

Well, our prospective buyer on our old place pulled out, citing the contingency that it was cost prohibitive to meet current code for a medical office. (Our neighborhood is zoned residential office, due to its proximity to Mercy Hospital) So we are back to square one on that front. If anyone wants a great place in a town that's consistently in Top 10 lists for places to be (last week's news was that the Iowa City Community Schools are ranked as the #5 public school district in the U.S. by some national economic development consortium) drop me a line!

At Foxcroft Lisa and finished stripping the old varnish off baseboard and around the French doors. I then rented a floor buffer and stripped the floor too. Next step will be wood bleaching some water stains, then staining and varnishing the baseboard.

Frank Lloyd Wright for SALE!

I am here in Mason City, IA this week being an artist in residence. MC is one of my favorite places in Iowa to visit,with so much great architecture both public and private buildings.One of the most prominent is the Park House Hotel,the only standing FLW hotel in the world, and it's for sale here is a link to a web page about the hotel:

http://www.wrightiniowa.com/intended.php

The city council was having a private group restore it, but got impatient and now are thinking of selling it on ebay. Get your checkbooks out folks!

It has been very rainy but I hope to get out today and shoot some of my favorite buildings, especially Rock Falls Rock Glen.

Pass the Hash

Lots of little things to report on:

• We had our first party at the new place. Lisa's staff came over after school on Friday, and some of my fellow tech people did too. The house is a great place to host a party, the key in the future will be to not move in any more furniture! I had the camera and neglected to take any pictures.
  
• Also on Friday I got my bill from the foundation contractor which stated all work had been completed, but they had never come back to finish sealing the inside cracks. I called and the receptionist said that Terry was in Iowa City and would call me. Imagine my surprise when I pull up to the house after picking up the girls at school to find a huge truck and backhoe in the driveway. Of course Lisa's teachers had already begun to arrive as well. I came in and two guys were in the basement patching. I told them to be sure and grab some food on their way out.
  
• Saturday morning was my parents garage sale, they have moved out of their big foursquare and are selling what was left over from their 3 day big time tag sale. My station was the garage itself, as opposed to the first floor of the house or the basement. Imagine my surprise when my father hands me an apron emblazoned with "Gordon Van Tine" advertising on the front. (Art and Crafts enthusiasists know that these folks were a major seller of pre cut "kit homes" in the early 20th century, and were headquartered in Davenport, Iowa.) All the millwork in our old house is from one of their catalogs that I happen to have found at Foxcroft. I'm certain all of Foxcroft's millwork is from there also.
  
• Saturday was the first playgroup at the new place as well. Rowan has two other friends who also live in neighborhoods without many kids so we rotate getting them together on Saturday mornings. Two other new neighborhood kids came over also. There are lots of children our kids age here, and since it is basically a dead end street, they just run wild around the neighborhood. That will be a huge change for us.
  
• I will be in Mason City, IA all next week, I will take my camera and post photos from there, it is the home of the only extant Frank Lloyd Wright hotel in the world, and Rock Falls Rock Glenn is the only Prairie style subdivision in the U.S. both are really fascinating.
  

War Council

Last night I got my architect, builders, and geothermal contractor together to talk about our plan for finishing the upstairs and renovating the heating system. I think it was time well spent. We now have the beginnings of a timeline and are able to think out what needs to happen when. The first step will be to bring in new electrical service, the geothermal needs 200 amp, even though it won't pull nearly that much. We'll put in a 200 amp 40 circuit box. The builders will start on June 9th and open up the back roof for the 2nd floor gable. That will need to be framed and covered by June 20 when the roofers will arrive. I will start pulling radiators on first floor as I am finishing floors downstairs, and once the framing is in place upstairs ductwork can be run throughout the house. Drilling for the geothermal pipes can happen any time this summer. Now the plan is in place we can begin to watch it fall apart!

CORAL GABLES SUB-DIVISION OF IOWA CITY

I was moving the barrister bookcases last week so I could start on painting the library ceiling. The bookcases were moved into the house in 1928 and probably hadn't moved since, judging by the dust. As I was lifting off a section I came across an advertising piece touting "University Heights: The Coral Gables Sub-Division of Iowa City." The piece is big, 21" x 27" and folds up to be mailed. The lots are advertised as being $500 and up. I know I have an earlier one somewhere that says $300 and up. I think this was produced in 1925 or maybe as late as 1926. The maps have Foxcroft shaded in pencil, likely done by Bess herself. Koser Brothers were the developers and Mr. Lee Koser, the real estate half, built his home next to Foxcroft, and Mr. George Koser, the lawyer half, moved his home from Manville Heights to just down the street. The writing pushes all the modern advances and notes that "A future home here, overlooking the Golf Links and some of the largest buildings in the world. Drive out and inspect this location." Well, the Golf Links are why our street is named "Golfview," but in 1929 the golf course was moved farther west and north so that a new Iowa football stadium (currently known as Kinnick Stadium) could be built. The largest buildings in the world would be the new University Hospital, which was at it's competion in 1925 the largest structure in terms of area covered in the U.S.

Here is the text from my favorite portion, which is on the side not pictured above. It's a mixture of facts, hype and a dash of greed thrown in for good measure:

BIG MONEY IN
WEST SIDE REAL ESTATE
West Side real estate now offers the best opportunity for good investment since the beginning of Iowa City. The immediate building program of the University on the West Side is almost equal to the amount of buildings done by the University on the East Side during the past fifty years. The resale value of Real Estate on the West Side has been as high as 300 to 400 per cent. (this does not however include buildings, because their value is governed by cost of labor and material.) On March 1, 1918 we purchased an acre of ground from the Cannon estate for about $2,000. 1921 we sold this acre for $4,000, and last year this acre was divided into lots and sold for a total amoun of around $14,000. About 12 years ago Byington's Addition was laid out, covering the ground now occupied by the Quadrangle and new Field House. Lots were offered for $300 to $500. Only a few lots were sold until the University purchased the land for $5,000. Today a lot would be worth $5,000 or more. Around 1920 we were offered the land now covering Melrose Circle for $5,000. Today, this land, now divided nto lots could not be purchased for less than $23,000. About ten years ago we sold a lot on Melrose Avenue and South Grand Avenue for $800. Two years ago the University paid around $5,500 for this lot. In the year 1921 we were selling lots on Melrose Avenue for $700 to $800 that are now priced around $4,000 and $5,000. On March 1, 1916 we sold thirty acres of the land now a part of University Heights, for $350 per acre, and in 1923 ---only seven years afterwards--- we purchased it back at $1,000 per acre. Many other illustrations could be given of the wonderful increase in value of property along Melrose Avenue, and yet the building program of the Univerity on the West Side has just started. It is now too late to buy lots close in on Melrose Avenue for $700 or $800---the time was 1920. Now is the time to buy lots on Melrose Avenue in University Heights to sell in 1930. Unless you buy you cannot sell. Unless you take some chance you cannot reap the profits. The building program of the University on the West Side is assured and for that reason an investment in Rest Estate on the West Side near University Campus must increase in value.

The football stadium is currently undergoing an $89 million dollar renovation, and an undeveloped chunk of ravine between Iowa City and University Heights sold last year and is going to be developed into sports condos starting at $200K.

Change of Scenery!

This picture above shows the house now that the overgrown arbor vitae that obscured half of the porch has been removed! See photo below for a similar view a week ago.

While I have focused on inside our house on these pages, the yard has a number of issues as well. As Helen's deterioration grew over the years her willingness to have anything done to maintain the outside of the property decreased as well. She took great joy in watching birds from her numerous feeders, and put out cracked corn for the deer (we are in the middle of relatively urban area, but are surrounded by ravine, railroad right of way, and near the University's golf course, so we have a large wildlife population. She also started feeding raccoons by putting out large pans of dog food at night. Coupling these actions with her unwillingness to trim any of the overgrown bushes or trees and you get the idea of what we face outside. There was an extremely large, extremely dead maple tree between the house and driveway that we had removed late last summer. Helen's yard man (mowing and shoveling) quoted me a price of $1100 to remove the tree. He then tried to get me to pay $1600 when the job was complete, saying he had broken two chain saws due to hitting nails in the tree (I had warned him about nails from bird houses)

I knew we needed to get started on cleaning up the outside, Lisa and I had already removed dead and overgrown bushes in the backyard, and dragged out miles of Virginia creeper. I'd also taken out half a dozen volunteer hackberry trees. But the big arbor vitae in front needed to come out before we roof in June. I wasn't optimistic about getting it done quickly or economically. Enter Mick from General Tree Service, he was recommended by a friend that had used him quite a bit. He came last Saturday afternoon, I showed him the front, asked about the huge half-dead mulberry in back, and the broken limbs in the walnut hanging over the garage. (These were my highest priority issues) He agreed these were the worst, and wrote on a pad for about 2 minutes and gave me a quote of $450 total. I almost fell over. He said they would be doing some work on Thursday a street over, and he'd come by then to do these as well. We then talked about the best place to watch the next day's criterium bike races downtown.

Imagine my greater surprise last night to come over after work to find the jobs already finished! Reasonable rates, a pleasant person, and works ahead of schedule! I am unbelievably happy!

House Anniversary/ANZAC Day

Today is the 19th anniversary of my moving into our current house. I moved in on the hottest April 25th ever in Iowa City, 92 degrees. I closed at 8:30 AM and moved 7 pickup loads from my apartment in downtown Iowa City to the house. Every load went down a complete flight of stairs out of the apartment and then up a complete flight in the front of the house shown above. (The house did not look that good then) I had two friends helping me, Dave Marsh and Steve Nicknish. Nick died 6 months later in a fall while camping.

After moving the first thing I did that night was take the storm windows off the porch and sit out and play my banjo and guitar. The first song I played was Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Mathilda." The song is the most powerful anti-war piece I've ever heard. It tells the story of an Aussie WWI soldier, in the Australia-New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who was part of the assault on Gallipoli, Turkey. The battle began April 25, 1915, and resulted in the needless slaughter of nearly a generation's worth those countries men. ANZAC Day is celebrated today and is Australia's equivalent of our Veteran's Day.

Today's house anniversary is nearly as bittersweet. We accepted an offer to sell on Saturday, and while we are excited to move to Foxcroft, I will be leaving the house in which I've spent nearly half my life. This is where I brought home my bride. This is where she and I brought home our children. This is where we have gathered with friends and family to celebrate holidays and successes. This is where we met to go to Nick's funeral.

I didn't intend to write all this when I sat down, but sometimes that's what happens. I will miss this place...

The lay of the land...

Here is a map of our neighborhood. Our lot, is the irregularly shaped gold part in the middle. Our street basically is a dead end, the curve to the left onto Glencrest is really a path to the driveways of the two houses on the street, 7 and 11. The black area is not a road. but is a steep heavily wooded ravine.

As I said our lot is irregular. Here is what the lot was like in 1928 when Bess built. The yellow shaded area is now a part of 26 Prospect. Our house was the first completed on the street, 305 next door was finished shortly after. None of the homes on Prospect were built until approx. 1948. Originally this was wide open land. The yellow leg faces south and was Bess' garden. It was sold in about 1960.

Here's our latest dilemma: The house at 30 Prospect has just gone on the market and it's yard is a giant "T." I was contacted by their realtor about possibly buying the top of the "T" to add to our yard. The total area is roughly 50' by 120'. Their asking price is $100K. Since we would most likely use it as garden space, it would be very expensive vegetables. The owners of 11 Glencrest are interested too, as they would get an even more gigantic yard, plan to knock down the small rental that is on the site and build their huge retirement ranch home.

So as if we didn't have enough to think about with finishing upstairs, a new roof, extensive restoration, we now can obsess about spending a pile we don't have on getting a bigger yard. Hopefully we could buy a small portion of the "T" and take out the scrub trees on it that would allow for sun to come into the area.

The kicker in all of this is that due to our proximity to the University of Iowa football stadium, the current owners of the "T" were able to park about 25 cars back there for home games at, I believe, $20 a car for 7 home games, hence the high price of the lot. The realtor also mentioned that if someone bought 30 Prospect and the entire lot they could run a driveway along the east edge of 30 to allow someone else to build back in there.

Completion!

I finished varnishing on Friday and now we have one room (the back room with attached sewing room) completed! I moved a carpet we saved from the attic in, and will move bunk beds for the girls in this week. The carpet is big enough that you can't see any of the work I did on the floor, but I'd rather have the rug down for now. Also pictured is the light we moved from our current house. (It was a 5th anniversary present from Lisa in 1996, I put the original light back up)

5 Deadmen in the basement...

...is not the title of a new horror movie, it's what's happening this week. Our back wall had a slight bow in it, so there are now 5 vertical steel beams (deadmen) with adjustment plates set to hold the wall where it is. The foundation contractors are also building up the window wells and adding dirt to build slope away from the foundation. The big issue to face now is what to do about the groundhog. I have finally seen him after filling 4 burrow holes around the house and the yard. His entrance is under the back porch. The county extension agent suggests the following in order of least to most work:

• Buy coyote scent at the hunting and fishing place and put it around the hole to scare him away
• Buy sulphur bomb and put down the hole then cover. (This will kill if he's in the burrow, if he's not there he will abandon it due to smell)
• Live trap him and take him away (Agent recommended not letting him stay in the trap very long as they will chew through the wires pretty quickly)

Or I could just go rent "Caddyshack" and try to forget about the whole thing...

"There's a FIRE next door!"

I thought it unusual that my phone would be rining at 10:15 at night. I had already talked to Lisa and told the the girls good night before they went to bed. I had only two more days in Kansas and then I would be back home. So when my cell rang Wednesday night, I knew something was up. The house next door to our current home was on fire, 5 trucks were there, our oldest was sleeping soundly and the youngest (whose room is nearest) was watching. We live two blocks from the central fire station so hearing sirens is not unusual. With a hospital half a block away there are a fair number of false alarms, but Lisa said she suddenly realized that they were right in front of the house, and right after that she started to hear the windows explode. She immediately went out and told the chief that she lived next door, and there were two children. He said that they'd let her know if they needed to evacuate.

The fire started in the attic, which is where the landlord lives. No one was injured thankfully, and the firefighters got it under control quickly. There is about $50,000 in damage. When I got home yesterday, all the dormer windows in the attic were blown out, and you could see the scorch marks outside each dormer. The home is the oldest structure in our quarter section of the block, and was identified as a key property when our neighborhood received National Historic District status. There is a dumpster outside the back now, and burnt objects are scattered around. I haven't seen Ralph (the landlord) to find out how he's doing, but he does have family in the area, so I'm sure he's OK. The tenants are getting their things out too. It's really sad to see all this.

Besides being extremely relieved that there were no injuries, from a completely selfish standpoint it's a lot easier to be selling your own house when the one next to it isn't a smoking pile of ruins...

VERY Little House on the Prairie

I just returned from visiting the Ingalls cabin (of "Little House on the Prairie" fame) replica museum located between Coffeyville and Independence, KS. The place is refreshingly non-commercial. There is a grand total of 1 sign marking where to turn to see it. The cabin is on the site of the original and has an old post office and school house moved onto the site as well. The cabin has one room and in stepping it off must be about 18 x 15 feet. To think that two adults, two children, and a third that was born there all lived in that space. It makes you wonder about how much room we really need. It also makes me wonder when figuring out how often the Ingalls moved and how far they went (Wisconsin to Minnesota to Kansas to South Dakota and back to Wisconsin and Iowa) that Ma didn't kill Pa or leave him when he proposed about the third move!

On the road...

There are those times when rather than spend every available moment working on your home, you go out and do those things that earn extra income so that you can afford to work on your home. For me, this week is one of those times.

I am in Coffeyville, Kansas, spending a week as an artist in residence sponsored by the local community college. This week consists of me performing once at the community college, spending a day at a local high school, and averaging about three performances a day at local nursing homes. I've been here once before, and thoroughly enjoyed my time. The people are friendly and appreciative, and I rather enjoy being referred to as the "Humanities fella"

One of the serendipitous joys of doing these residencies is that you get to walk around completely unfamiliar neighborhoods. Coffeyville is full of great old victorians and A&C bungalows and craftsman houses. Some are quite grand, and if you could live anywhere, prices are dirt cheap.

My only regret is that two of the most famous homes in the area, the Brown Mansion, a 1905 Georgian with original furnishings, currently a museum, is not open during week days in April; Also closed now is the Laura Ingalls Wilder cabin museum, a replica of the "Little House on the Prairie" in its original location near Independence.

Next month I'll spend a week in Mason City, IA home of the world's only planned Prairie style subdivision, and also the site of the only extant Frank Lloyd Wright hotel, which is currently for sale. I will remember to bring the digital camera then!

Little Things

Since we can't possibly do all the big things we need to as quickly as we'd like we console ourselves by doing little things. Three that have happened recently: Lisa added a bright vintage table cloth on the nook table in the kitchen, I put our light from the old house's dining room in the back bedroom, and I hung up a swing on the front porch. None of these were critical to do now, but they sure make us feel better.