The girls and I stopped in at the bookstore Friday to get a few last minute summer reads for them.  School starts soon but they were still  trying to get some pleasure reading in before the homework starts and keeps them from reading for enjoyment.

They were walking in front of me when I saw a table with a display of a book titled “Lost Toledo” by David Yonke.      http://www.davidyonke.com/

The girls kept going and I picked it up and thought, I wonder if our house is in here?  Really I was not expecting it to be there.  But it is!  I laughed and the girls turned around.  I opened to the photo of our house and said “Our house is in this book!”  There is a picture and a brief history.  We got a lot of strange looks from other shoppers and added it to our pile.

I am still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that we didn’t just move to a new house.  We live in a house that is a part of Toledo history, that shares a history with Jeep through former resident John North Willys and that many people feel a connection to.  We don’t often mention to people what house we live in.  We just say a house in the Old West End.  Living in a home that  people keep referring to as a cornerstone home adds weight to the process of restoring/renovating/rescuing this house.  We know that financially we will never get back what we put into this house.  But along the way we are making it a home.  It will be the place we have birthday parties and Christmas mornings. Prom pictures and wedding photos will be taken in the stairwell with a backdrop of stained glass windows. Grandchildren will visit someday.  It will be a piece of Toledo’s history as well as our family history.  Hopefully the love we put into this house will allow it to be one of the cornerstone homes of the neighborhood for another hundred years and be a place where other families will make memories  add to the history.

It is finally feeling like August around here.  The days are hot and humid which is bad for us.  Construction on our house began in 1901.  We have a boiler system for heating the house.  That means no air conditioning.  Most days it is not a problem.  We open the house at night, turn on the whole house attic fan and things cools off nicely.  We all have a box fan in our bedrooms to help keep those rooms comfortable for sleeping.  During the day I close up the house.  The walls are 18-28 inches thick.  They do a good job of insulating the house.

The problem arises when the nighttime temperature stays high or we have a few hot and humid days with no break from the humidity at night.  Then it is a little more challenging. We also have a mystery involved.

The window in youngest daughter’s bathroom is super cute.  Her room faces the south side of the house and most of the heat from the day creeps in that side, except from the bathroom window.  I can not figure out why but there is ALWAYS a pleasant breeze coming in this window.  The bedrooms have warm air coming though and this window, which is right next to those, still has a nice breeze coming through.

I am sure an engineer could explain why this is so but we like the idea that we have a magic window in our house and I do not want to spoil that.

There was a lot going on here this past week. When we returned from our vacation we got ready to have our first over night guests. Of course our home is still a mess.  There are few places that are not undergoing some sort of work and still boxes in odd places waiting for me to decide where the contents belong.

We enjoyed spending time with our friends from the windy city.  I was relieved that they were so excited for us and our mad adventure and didn’t walk in and say “What were you thinking?”  I am pretty sure most people think we are insane and we probably are a little bit.

They brought us a wonderful housewarming gift.

• Salt:  That life may always have flavor.
• Bread:  That this house may never know hunger.
• Wine:  That joy and prosperity may reign forever.

They included a crucifix that I love.  Notice the ends of the cross?  Trefoils!  Thank you dear friend.

Or not.  Today is crazy here!  Oldest daughter had six friends sleep over to celebrate her birthday.  The dog had a grooming appointment, plumber is scheduled and the gutters are being replaced.

At 8:30 this morning all of this happened:  (At the exact same time!)

• Phone rings, groomer is here to do the dog.  I know his appointment was scheduled for the salon because the mobile groomer wasn’t available for another week.
• Front Doorbell rings.  Gutter guys are finally here to put up the new gutters.  They need to know where they can plug in an extension cord.  As far as I know there isn’t an outside outlet. Surprised to see them actually.  This is about the fourth time we have been told they will be here “tomorrow.”
• Back door opens and the other dog is barking.  The plumber is here.
• One of the teenagers is trying to leave out the side door because she has to work.

Needless to say it was chaos.  Trying to get the dog to stop barking, sort out the mix up with the groomer, say good bye to sleepover guest and talk to the gutter guy all at the same time.

I am now down to just the gutter guys, two plumbers, contractor to undo the shower wall and three remaining sleepover guests.  Hopefully two plumbers will mean more progress on the shower, the gutters can get installed and the dog will actually get groomed today.

Will post before and after pics of the new gutters later today.  We are being very brave and put up copper COLORED gutters.  They contain no actual copper so don’t try to take them down and haul them to the recycling center for some quick cash!

The exterior of the house appears to have changed very little in the past 100 years.  The black and white photo was taken before the carriageway was enclosed.  The landscaping looks better in the “then” photo.  Our landscaping is in need of an overhaul for sure.  At some point a “weed garden” was planted.  Actually put in… intentionally!  It has thrived and very little remains that will stay.  Our road is currently under construction so I hate working out in the yard.  The stacks of boxes still waiting to be emptied also are a deterrent to getting the outside cleaned up.  You would think with 8,300 square feet of house it would be easy to put everything away!

There is a lovely park across the street maintained by the Women of the Old West End.  Since this is my view out the front of my house, my weeds and overgrown landscape feels less pressing.  Of course everyone using the park gets to enjoy the view over here.  I have been told that having the grass cut and some maintenance being done is a vast improvement from years past. I did bring a fair number of hosta from my extensive collection from the old house. They are all still waiting to find a home here.  All in good time…

With the house!

In September I read this article: http://www.toledoblade.com/Real-Estate/2014/09/28/For-sale-Mansion-with-a-past.html and handed the paper to my husband and said “Look I found our new house!”  He said “We are NOT moving!”  I told him I was kidding but the house was really cool and he should just read the article.  Several days went by and he asked me if I wanted to go see the house.  I said no.  A few days later he asked again and my reply was the same.  The next week he emailed me and said he had an appointment the following day at 3:00 to see the house.  We went to see the house and so began our midlife crisis…

There are days when I think I should have just let him buy a Corvette.