7 Years in Kingston! Revisiting the Entryway and First Floor Bath!

Restoration is a funny business: you work so hard for so long, but the success of the final product basically hinges on making it look like you’ve done nothing at all. I’ve fantasized for plenty of years about the day when I can just welcome friends and family into a nicely restored house—one that doesn’t bear years of neglect, deferred maintenance, and general mistreatment on its sleeve. A happy, healthy house that can be enjoyed and kicked back in!

And now that we’re kind of getting there? All I want to do is scream “NO, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” when someone pays me a compliment (just take it, for god’s sake Daniel!) about the house, and then I have to launch into a whole monologue about all the things I’ve had to undo and redo to get it to this point. It’s incredibly irritating to me and, presumably, everyone else around me. But somehow I can’t resist? Even though all I do is talk about it online?

There’s something wrong in my brain.

ANY. WAY. I bought this house OVER 7 YEARS ago—madness! I was still back-and-forth to Brooklyn during the first year, and have renovated several other houses/spaces during that time, but still. That is so many years! Back in 2013, I remember thinking that the bulk of the rehab work would be done in a couple of years and then I’d move more into smaller projects and maintenance and general admiration at my beautiful home and all the fabulous work I put into it.

Ha. HAHAHAHAHAHA. I was so spectacularly wrong. There is still SO MUCH to do. Regardless, I think it’s high time for an updated tour! I wish we (the collective “we”) would get more comfortable sharing works in progress, and I guess that starts with the man in the mirror. This is where I’m at, and it’s not done and probably never will be, but this shit is hard so here we go. This blog is more about the journey than the destination anyhow!

I guess let’s start by reviewing the floor plan! This is a slightly modified version of what I posted back in 2013—I have no idea what crappy software I used to make it so I tweaked it in Photoshop to include things like THE FRONT PORCH that I seem to have overlooked when I drew this up the first time. Don’t mind me.

Man, there was so much going on back then. The house had been divided in the 1970s into a duplex, so there was quite a lot to undo to restore the single-family layout. On top of that, a few additions that had been built sometime fairly early in the house’s history were suffering some major damage, and because they weren’t original I eventually felt OK about tearing them off and reclaiming some of the light and original layout that had been lost as a result of their construction.

Here’s where we sit today—significantly simplified and paired back to more-or-less the original layout! The back of the house (rooms 5, 7, and 9) is definitely my own invention, but the layout feels natural for the house and is better suited to me and the demands of modern living. The parlor (#3)  is really the one space that’s remained largely untouched—that wall bisecting the space isn’t supposed to be there, nor is the small closet. That’s going to be a hell of a room someday! Just not TOday. The house functions like any other side-hall layout without it, so even though it’ll be incredibly gratifying it’s pretty low on the priority list.

So let’s start where we did 7 years ago when I introduced you to this house for the first time. Right at the front door!

Yikes! All the walls on the first floor and the hallway were some variation of this scheme—it looks like wallpaper, but was really done with a patterned roller! Underneath the paint job was the wallpaper, which of course all had to be stripped off the original plaster. Doors to the living room and parlor had been boarded over, and a 1970s wall/doorway addition created a super weird vestibule and blocked nearly all natural light coming through the front doors. The only other light source was that little sconce you can see dangling there, so the whole space was just SO DARK.

Much! Better! The weird wall is gone, the original doorways are back in action, and I swapped in the dining room radiator (a little narrower than the one that had been in the hall originally) and moved it closer to the front door, thereby keeping the passage next to the stairwell as wide as possible.

I know we just went through this space a few months ago after I wrapped up the renovation in here (for now), but a few things have already changed—including…hello, big mirror! I love that mirror. It’s large, reflects a lot of light, has nice impact, and shouldn’t get damaged with heat from the radiator like I was worried art might. I think it was $20 at Habitat ReStore.

Still to do: I still haven’t hung anything on that long expanse of wall between the two doorways—I think I know what I want, but framing is $ and I want to do it up right! Holla at me, Framebridge. I know you do that good good sponsored content. (this is how pitching works, right?)

That newel post was really love at first sight. But again—the space was just so dark and dreary that it was hard to appreciate how great it could all be!

Hiiiiiiiiii! Being able to walk into this space (or invite guests into this space, as few and far between as those have been in recent months!), has completely changed everything. I feel like such a real fancy grown-up, living in a house an adult human might occupy. It’s bananas.

Still to do: FLOORS. I want to refinish my floors so badly, but I’m holding off until I install the kitchen floor, and possibly until after the Cottage is done so the dogs and I can move out briefly while the poly dries and stuff. I also want to add a couple more coats of poly to the stair treads—as predicted, dog nails are not kind to soft pine!

I hated that wall so much. SO MUCH. I remember saving its demo as a special treat for when the Phase 1 kitchen renovation was done, and it was exactly as exciting as I imagined it would be. Even though my friend stepped on a nail in the process—don’t demo in flip-flops, folks!

Ahhhhhhhh. I hope we can agree this is an improvement.

The ceiling is new drywall, and I’ve added these foam ceiling medallions around the house. There was a light fixture in this general location originally (I found the original gas line after the electric was roughed in already—the original light was a bit closer to the door, but whatcha gonna do). I don’t know what the original medallions looked like, so I made it up! In retrospect this one is overscaled for the space, but it represents what I thought was best at the time and that’s OK too. I’ve added my own layer of history to this house, and a real stickler can redo stuff like that someday when I’m gone.

Still to do: I ordered the wrong size flanges for the radiator (that piece that goes around the pipe where it meets the floor), so I still have to remedy that. The front door needs a doorstop so it doesn’t hit the wall. OH YEAH, and I have GOLD TRANSOM HOUSE NUMBERS still sitting in a box because I’m trash and can’t get anything done even when I spend all my time at home. EVIDENTLY. I’ll get to it.

Opposite the new big mirror, I hung this sweet little piece of art I picked up at an antique store (I think? honestly don’t remember). I think it was painted in Victorian times and it’s really pretty, even if it’s not the type of thing I normally gravitate toward! It feels kinda goth Victorian which is a mood I’m ABOUT.

Still to do: I think some kind of hook situation would work better in this spot, since there’s nowhere presently to hang a jacket or whatever. I’ll just continue to hem and haw about the best way to accomplish that for the next several years. Check back in 2025!

I recently swapped out the front door glass with this pebbled textured variety for privacy. PSYCH! It’s just this window film from Lowe’s which I happened to have squirreled away in the basement from years ago. Turns out I actually really like it, and because I had the materials on hand it was a very quarantine-friendly project.

Still to do: I have a gorgeous antique doorbell I’d like to install (even if it’s purely ornamental), just because. Bling! Also, while the window film looks great inside, it looks significantly less great outside, so I think I’ll just add it to the exterior of the glass too. I guess we’ll save that for the updated exterior tour! Eventually I’ll likely just spring for new glass and replace what’s here entirely—it’s not original, so it wouldn’t be any big loss to swap it for something better suited to my needs. I’ve also considered trying to etch a pattern into the clear glass, like you sometimes see on houses of this era where the original door lites have survived.

That 70s doorway is what used to create the entrance to the first floor apartment, but now it’s gone gone gone!

Told ya—this is where I’m at, no excuses! My Marie Kondo-style-whole-house-purge left me with a load of boxes of stuff to sell/donate, which are currently stacked in the back corner of the hallway. It is what it is. I’ll get them all out eventually!

Still to do: I never painted the other side of the basement door, so I should do that at some point! Additionally, I guess enough time and distance has passed for me to admit: I lost steam and ran out of time (sponsored posts have deadlines, it turns out!) to completely finish painting this space, so a lot of the trim on the first floor in the hall only has one coat of paint! It totally looks fine in person, but it would look better if I really applied myself and got that all wrapped up for real this time. Finding the time and motivation to do it is the hard part.

At the back of the hall, you may recall that there was a bathroom! When I bought the house, that tub had most recently served as a grave for the previous owner. So that’s special. This bathroom was put in around the mid-1930s by enclosing a little sitting porch, so again—it doesn’t feel too precious that I can’t make some modifications to better suit the here-and-now!

I owe you a blog post on the demo process, but here’s the space now! If it looks a little smaller, that’s because it is—I stole the space from the bathtub to enlarge what’s now the pantry/back door area, so this is now slated to just be a powder room. Toilet, sink, done! I chose to do this in part because I could, in part because I really wanted that pantry space, in part because TBH I don’t want to put the death tub back in since I couldn’t get the body stains out (I wish I was kidding. I’m not.), and in part because I feel like eliminating a full bathroom on the first floor makes it highly unlikely anyone will get the wild idea to divide this house into apartments again. Some houses are suited to that kind of alteration, but this just isn’t one of them.

Even though this space is just studs right now, it’s pretty much ready for finish work! New plumbing and electric has been roughed in, so it’s really just waiting on me to dive in. It’ll help when all my IKEA cabinets are outta there and assembled in my very own kitchen! Dare! To! Dream!

Part of the work in this space entailed swapping out the window for one that’s a bit larger and centered on the new wall. I also swapped the toilet location with the sink location, so the toilet tank will hang a bit below this window, light from the window will reflect off the mirror, and with the door ajar you’ll be able to glimpse the sink instead of the toilet from the front door. It’s going to be CUTE!

Tragically, my dumb ass dropped a hammer on the medicine cabinet and shattered the glass. It was a few years ago and is still so upsetting. I’ve bought a few medicine cabinets since then (what is wrong with me!!!!! nobody needs like 5 vintage/antique medicine cabinets on hand), but none are as pretty as this one that was already here! Sigh. Casualties of war.

I’m planning to reinstall the base of the toilet, but the tank is cracked so I’ll need to find another one. The nice thing about old toilets is that the tank typically hangs on the wall and is only attached to the base with an L-shaped pipe, so I should be able to find a new tank/lid that’ll work with a little hunting around at the salvage shops.

Now this wall is framed and ready for the sink, along with a couple of sconces on either side of a medicine cabinet that is TBD. Worst case, I just stick a mirror there and call it a day/cut out the wall when the right medicine cabinet comes along. You know how I like to redo things.

So that’s where things stand in this part of the house! Stay tuned for the other rooms!

About Daniel Kanter

Hi, I'm Daniel, and I love houses! I'm a serial renovator, DIY-er, and dog-cuddler based in Kingston, New York. Follow along as I bring my 1865 Greek Revival back to life and tackle my 30s to varying degrees of success. Welcome!

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65 Comments

  1. 8.19.20
    lisa said:

    I just went to Framebridge’s link and chatted ‘sponsor daniel kanter’s blog’ … fingers crossed

    • 8.19.20
      april said:

      brilliant idea-let’s all do it until they say yes so we’ll leave them alone!

    • 8.19.20

      Oh god, what have I done. hahahahaha. I got this, folks! <3

    • 8.19.20
      barbara said:

      Fantastic Idea! I’m on my way!

    • 8.19.20
      Lori said:

      Heehee, just joined the Framebrigate!

  2. 8.19.20
    Ann said:

    That radiator by your front door, that you put a beautiful mirror above? It would be So Cool if you made a radiator cover that doubled as a little console under the mirror — a good place for mail and keys, or just a couple of artistic objects. You could knock that together in half a day, using what you have in your stash. And it would be fabulous. Just like the rest of your house is becoming.

    • 8.20.20
      M said:

      Good idea to make a drop zone, but there’s no need to hide the beautiful radiator – a small floating shelf above it would accomplish the same thing for less effort.

    • 8.20.20

      I’ve thought about that, yes! I’ve been vaguely keeping my eye out for something cool, like a nice piece of marble or something. I do like seeing the radiators, though—this one actually had a cover back when it was in the dining room, but I think it tossed it!

  3. 8.19.20
    Sara L. said:

    I love an in-progress post! Also nice to see the original vs. altered floor plan again. You have really worked magic there! Who knew that removing rooms would add to the spacious feel of your house? Can’t wait to see what happens with that little powder room! Also, I hope the next update is the kitchen, because ever since you unearthed that fireplace I have been wondering how its going. I guess since the cabinets are still in the boxes that it isn’t that far along, but an in-progress there would still be fun to see! Also, I cannot believe you have been in that house for 7 years. Tempus Fugit!

    • 8.20.20

      We’ll definitely get there! Definitely a ton to do but it functions reasonably well, all things considered!

  4. 8.19.20

    Funny how time flies, innit? :-)

    I recall those early posts of this place and how Anna stepped on that nail tackling that front wall/door at the former vestibule. I also recall how crazily it was all built, or rather, overbuilt, even if not quite correctly.

    That said, the things you’ve done to that house are fantastic, and a lot of it WAS done over the past 7 years.

    Sadly, I’ve not done nearly as much to my place in the just over 4 years in mine, but mine came with much less issues than yours came with to start with so that helps, a great deal.

    Plus, you have a way bigger house than mine is as it’s ONLY 836SqFt of 3 bedroom goodness. Never-mind it’s got only one bathroom and it’s off the kitchen, entering right next to the kitchen sink, LOL, but hey, it all works just fine, thankyouverymuch. :-)

    Can’t wait for the rest of this tour with updates!

    • 8.19.20
      Paisley25 said:

      Your hallway is beautiful, but you’ve got to get going on the powder room. It’s not fair to make your poor wife run up the stairs every time she needs a bathroom. Do it for Juliet!

    • 8.20.20

      Haha! She knew what she was getting into!!!

  5. 8.19.20
    Isabella said:

    Whew! So much work and sweat! Well done, you. You are so correct about not viewing the toilet in the half bath. You would hate that forever if you did it. A pretty sink is a much nicer view down that hallway.

  6. 8.19.20
    AnnMarie said:

    This is such an accomplishment! The fact that so few traces of the horrid mistreatment this space suffered are left is a testament to your hard work and love for your home.

    I can’t believe it’s already been seven years! I remember when you announced you’d bought it and how jaw-droppingly bad the befores were. Major props!

  7. 8.19.20
    SheLikesToTravel said:

    I was thinking you accomplished so much in that time. These projects are not small projects. I’m impressed and can’t wait to see more as time and energy allow.

  8. 8.19.20
    Amy said:

    Love the update! I’ve wondered what’s been going on back at your house. I love that you’re breaking it down into smaller areas and I look forward to reading about more updates

  9. 8.19.20
    greta said:

    The foyer mirror is so great and such a bargain. I am glad the tub and medicine cabinet are gone! Now you can have a fresh start in that room.

  10. 8.19.20
    Judith said:

    Daniel, this is just so very beautiful, and the transformation is just incredible! You know I can’t wait for your kitchen remodel! :)

  11. 8.19.20
    Cate said:

    It’s all so fabulous. Thank you for the update and the two floor plans. I had been wondering about the status of the parlor (the one with the wall dividing it). Kind of excited for that one — and for the marvelous powder room. I wonder if the house could have been three rooms only downstairs originally. I feel you on the seven years. We’ve been in our house 10 years and we’re still not done renovating. We’re getting close though.

    • 8.20.20

      I wonder about that all the time, because the kitchen part of the house is a separate foundation/different style than the “main house.” It may just remain a mystery!

  12. 8.19.20
    Beth W said:

    Love seeing all the changes, as usual. I have an old piece of etched mirror like the one over the bathroom sink, but I don’t think it’s as wide. It’s got holes in it, meant for attaching it to a medicine cabinet… but I only have the mirror. It’s got a chunk (0.5″ x 1.5″ vertically) out of one corner though. But it’s free for the taking if you can get it across the border? Keep at it, you’re doing awesome!

    • 8.20.20

      Aw, thank you Beth! I have SO MANY mirrors so I’ll figure out something that works!! The decision feels very distant and faraway, hahaha.

  13. 8.19.20
    Betsy said:

    My mom and I refer to your parlor as “the future home of Daniel Kanter enterprises” – yes, we talk about your house regularly!

    Mom if you’re reading this: I’m happy you finally got some closure on the corpse tub.

    • 8.20.20

      haha! That’s the name of my dog-petting service, right?

  14. 8.19.20
    Southern Gal said:

    so amazing to look back…happy anniversary!!! you have so much to celebrate – and all your hard work and vision! you continue to be an inspiration (now if i can only win the lottery so i can buy an old house to fix up … sigh)

  15. 8.19.20
    Meredith said:

    I loved this!! This beautiful grand dame is slowly emerging from
    under 80 years of misused spackling.

    I’ve been spending my quarantine patching old plaster (thanks to your how-tos – THANK YOU!) in six separate and VERY crumbling rooms, and I feel that smooth-wall panic-pride so hard. Like, PSA: if you have a friend who is restoring an old house, compliment them on their flat walls. You will have to hear a very boring and detailed account of the process, but if you ever end up needing a kidney donor, they will now absolutely volunteer for their One and Only Friend Who Noticed The Walls.

    • 8.20.20

      Hahahahaha, THAT IS SO RIGHT! Thank you for introducing this initiative; I will be spreading the good word. I’m so glad my posts have been helpful—that’s not a fun job but so exciting when you’re done!

  16. 8.19.20
    Diane said:

    You work so hard,and this is amazing progress! Love it all!

  17. 8.19.20
    Diane said:

    You work so hard, and this is amazing progress! Love it all!

  18. 8.19.20
    Kim said:

    Wanna know my favorite thing about reading your blog posts, now that you also do the videos on Instagram? I can hear this in your actual voice in my head. Like the way you inflect the words and so on. FAVE THING.
    I just can’t get over how beautiful everything is now, compared to the horror show it was when you first moved in (complete with dead body bathtub for authenticity). It’s so pretty and polished and welcoming now, without being pretentious or overdone. It’s truly the welcoming space your house deserves.

    • 8.20.20

      Hahaha, sounds more like a curse than a blessing, but I’m glad it’s fun for you!! ;) Thank you for the kind words, Kim! <3

  19. 8.19.20
    Sarah said:

    I think about that dead body often, and wish I didn’t.

    I know you’re a purist, but wouldn’t it be easier and more water-efficient to just get a brand new toilet that wasn’t ever sat upon by said dead person? His “spirit” of residue past will still haunt!

    • 8.20.20
      M said:

      Although it probably would be easier to just get a whole new set rather than piecing it together, I think the water efficiency is all in the tank (which Daniel’s replacing), not the bowl.

    • 8.20.20

      Haha, of course it would be easier! Why in the world would I ever take the easy way out, though?! If it’s not as difficult as possible, is it even worth doing?!

      I do have a real thing for old toilets, though! To my knowledge, there really isn’t anything on the market that looks remotely like the old designs (plenty that are supposed to look traditional in some way, but what they’re basing that on I have no idea…). As for water efficiency—true, it’s all in the tank, and you can offset the use by displacing the water with something like a water-filled gallon jug…ask any NYC landlord, haha!

  20. 8.20.20
    Maureen Blair said:

    So magnificent! Such backbreaking work. As a serial renovator I know that you have to take breaks or you just burn out. You have come so far since your little apartment! Have always followed your progress. Thought the budget Reno in the kitchen was amazing. Can’t wait for the new version. Also loved the cottage kitchen. Well done.

  21. 8.20.20

    So gorgeous! You’ve done this house justice!

  22. 8.20.20
    Jen said:

    This house needed you, Daniel! You’re bringing it back to life!

  23. 8.20.20
    VT said:

    You could consider putting coat hooks on the basement door to keep visual clutter in your fab hallway to a minimum.
    Really enjoying the transformation. Can’t wait to see what’s next.

    • 8.20.20

      True! Although that’s kind of far from the door in a low-traffic location, so I don’t know that it would get used much.

  24. 8.20.20
    Anna, from Balmy Wisconsin said:

    Love this post, particularly the unapologetic real-life-in-progress type stuff. Yep, that part of the house is studs, it’s on the list. Yep, dead body tub. Yep, living with parlor as is for now. BUT LOOK AT WHERE I AM NOW vs. SEVEN YEARS AGO!

    At the end of the day, there’s no one more vested in getting your house right and “done” (haha done) than you. There’s so much brain-scratching, “scour the earth” sourcing, and general blood/sweat/tears/lack of sleep, NOT TO MENTION agonizing over design choices. We see it in your posts!!

    Some folks may not understand how enormous of an undertaking something like this is. And sometimes there’s a perception that when a project is tackled (one of many that make up the never-ending enormous undertaking btw), the rest of the house is always perfect and styled and clean and fully functional. LOL.

    But I also think a lot of people DO get it. For the ones that don’t, keep doing those monologues. Hahahaha, maybe you can even add a picture album to the mix (cause I’m sure you need one more thing to do). Visual aids!

    • 8.20.20
      Anna, from Balmy Wisconsin said:

      Forgot to say: I dig the larger window and new layout for the powder room. Nothing worse than opening the door and seeing the toilet front and center! Or even better, the door comes unlatched (perhaps with the help of a dog), and you get to wave at everyone while you do your business. (“HAI EVERYBODY!!”) Goodbye stage toilet, hello cute elegant powder room.

    • 8.20.20

      hahaha! totally. I’ve thought about a little photo album and then I remember that’s basically what my blog is, haha!

  25. 8.20.20
    Sean said:

    Looking so good! I love these updates, especially love that you drew up a then/now floorplan because spatial reasoning is sooo not my strong suit and I would be totally confused about how you could see a toilet from the front door without this floorplan. Haha.

    Have you ever shared a floor plan of the second floor? I think you lost a tiny bit of space up there when you got rid of the additions but I don’t know what room it came out of. I guess I will just have to wait for the rest of your house tour to find out. Cliffhanger!

  26. 8.20.20
    ewilso said:

    I came for the foyer reno and stayed because of your loyal following. Who even comments on blogs anymore but you have readers that clearly love you and your work and now I’m one of them. I pored over your blog in the beginning of quarantine and felt so inspired! Keep the updates coming!!

    • 8.20.20

      Awww, that’s very kind and welcome to the blog! I know everyone says things like this, but I actually *do* have the best readers around, hands down, no competition, end of story!

  27. 8.20.20
    Hanna said:

    I always say my home is a Trotskyite – it’s in a state of permanent revolution.

    • 8.20.20

      HaHA! That’s the best. May have to steal. ;)

    • 8.21.20
      Hanna said:

      Please do – I stole it from some one years ago!

  28. 8.20.20
    Jeannette said:

    Wonderful to see
    That house is magic as you know
    As is Bluestone
    So happy you decided to stay
    So inspired by how much youve learned and accomplished in seven years
    Still makes me cry to think of your replaning the old clapboards for siding your house & redoing the bay window that was an effin Everest
    Love to J and the hounds

  29. 8.21.20
    Ryan said:

    love the updated floor plan. sometimes i just need a floor plan to imagine the whole house. of course the photos of the actual house are even better.
    I’ve been thinking of so many of my own projects that could be worked on piece by piece just to move them forward even though i don’t have a plan for being “done” anytime soon. I removed the paint from my linen cupboard and basement door hardware last weekend. Still have to patch the wall/ceiling, patch the hole i the door, paint but now my hallway is a little bit closer to done.
    So I have a giant print of an old birdseye map of my city that I bought over a decade ago and since it’s 53″ wide have never bought a frame for it because – EXPENSIVE. But i recently got some salvaged redwood and have been thinking of attempting to make my own frame with a router?we’ll see. I was curious as to whether there was a similar map of Kingston and there is in the Library of Congress. On mine I can pick out my street even though my house wasn’t built yet. The Kingston map is from ~1875 and you can scroll to zoom in to see all of the tiny hand drawn houses – maybe you’ll find your house on the map.

    • 8.22.20
      Julie said:

      Such a thoughtful gift for Daniel in this comment–you’re a good person, Ryan!

  30. 8.22.20
    Cara (S. FL) said:

    WOW,
    Good job. I hope you saved those very cool tub faucets!

  31. 8.23.20
    Laura said:

    You have put in so much WORK! It’s wild that it’s been 7 years. I so appreciate that you show alllllllllll the pieces (thank goodness for Instagram stories) to these projects. A clean before & after is satisfying, but all the stuff that happens in the middle is where I start to lose my mind and it’s so refreshing to see that others have things that take a while or boxes that don’t move for months or whatever. That’s real life shi** and I’m so here for it.

    As a note – our kitchen is almost completely repainted, but three cabinet doors are still the nasty funky old yellow and it’s been two years. Life happens & we’ll get there someday. :)

  32. 8.25.20
    Carmen said:

    I love these kinds of posts, especially the inclusion of a floor plan. It’s so satisfying to see the progress.

  33. 8.27.20
    Halle said:

    I did not anticipate where you went when describing the bathroom. I was reading along and then, “Well this took a turn.” =D But the real reason I am commenting is to tell you that the we used to have the EXACT wallpaper that was up in your bathroom. Our 125-year old foursquare was badly wallpapered sometime last century, and the orange/green/yellow circus stripes were in our living room. My brother jokingly said we should keep it during our rehab, so I broke off a piece of plaster with the wallpaper still attached and mailed it to him. (It’s amazing the things the USPS will send without packaging!)

  34. 8.27.20
    AmnBanan said:

    The thing I admire most, after the sheer physical effort you’re willing to expend, is the Vision. I look at old shitty messed up houses on Trulia and in person, and just experience feelings of defeat! I wish I knew how you can see what you see. Maybe it’s a superpower unique to select individuals like you. If so, lucky you! You do wonderful stuff.

  35. 8.28.20
    Molly said:

    It amazes me how much you’ve done in these years, especially compared to how little I’ve done.

    I’m thinking: Could you get a glazier or a stained-glass maker to cut a new mirror for your medicine cabinet? It looks like you could attach it if it had holes in the right places. You could easily stencil and etch a little detail on it, too.

    Also, I think the piece you need for your radiator is an escutcheon. A flange is a threaded attachment piece that connects piping components. A pipe escutcheon is a cover for gaps at piping penetrations of walls and floors.

  36. 9.4.20
    Alison said:

    Thanks for talking about the pain of slow progress. I am doing only renovation not restoration but it can still feel so still sometimes. Especially now our day jobs are picking up pace upon reopening. Nevertheless I learn so much from you on painting and tiling – thanks! (And please keep painting in your Instagram stories.) Now we decided to DIY our first bathroom renovation, I am looking forward to your plumbing and bathroom posts in the Bluestone Cottage! Hopefully we can get more instructions from you before we have to do it!

  37. 9.5.20
    Rain Tan said:

    I love how you write!

  38. 9.16.20
    Marie said:

    And the “sunroom” for your shoes/coats? it’s just next to the entry and you could go to the parlor easily enough.
    Also, thank you. So, so much… I’m currently working on a 1909 flat in Paris, and when I’m not feeling motivated to remove the ugly 90′ tiles, or the crumbling plaster; I usually look at what you’ve managed in your home. Works every time !

  39. 10.18.20
    Jeannette said:

    I enjoyed this post so much I started to think about being the oldest living intern and helping with the checklist door stop numerals etc
    But coat hooks!!!!
    Dutch colonial/ Greek revival/ Ones that match the penis ones in your closet/ Eastlake like lockset/ Willia Morris/ Frank Lloyd Wright/ MCM or Eames?
    Theres some gorgeous cast iron Eastlake ones on Etsy for like $7 a pop and you could put a selection of three or five different ones up for a time while you think?
    https://www.etsy.com/market/eastlake_hooks?ref=cq_tag_raised_image-2z
    They also have penis ones just in case you want to stick with uh hardware original to the house
    Dutch colonial was intriguing tending toward blacksmith work
    https://www.etsy.com/market/colonial_coat_hook
    But in that vein I think a house like yours might have inherited some fine wood/brass ones?
    I love these too
    https://www.amazon.com/Mid-Century-Modern-Wall-Hooks-Solid/dp/B07SB2NDZ8