*insert spooky music here*

I haven't really told this story to anyone until now, but a recent incident has prompted me to share it. Many months ago, while the girls were still in their old room off the kitchen, I was up one night trying to get Hadley to go back to sleep.  Most of the memory is pretty fuzzy by now, but most nights involved Brandon and I arguing at 3am over whose turn it was to go rock one of the girls back to sleep (sometimes it was both of them, which meant nobody got any sleep).  One of us would go in and feed whichever baby was awake, then rock them back to sleep.  Sometimes, when we'd put them down, they'd fuss and cry a bit, so we'd pat and shush them as they lay in the crib.  One of those nights, I was standing over Hadley's crib, patting and shushing, when I felt Brandon--or so I thought--touch my hip as if to say, "I'm here, don't be startled."  I turned around, grateful for the help--and no one was there.  No one.  Granted, I was pretty tired.  And it's possible I could have started to fall asleep myself and bumped into the corner of the dresser that was between their beds.  But...it was pretty creepy, and I can still feel that very definite touch on my hip.  So for the next few weeks and months, I would sit awake in the middle of the night, rocking and shushing babies, and trying not to think about any other presence in the room.

In March, we moved the girls into their new room, and after a couple of months they started sleeping through the night.  I was relieved to get some sleep, and relieved not to have to alternately sit alone in the dark or feel guilty about leaving the girls alone in the dark with whatever I was trying not to think about.

Last weekend, we were painting the girls' room that they moved into in March.  The girls were napping in our room, and Dad and Brandon were out on the back porch working on the door.  Brandon's parents and I were in the girls' room painting with the door closed to minimize noise.  Mom was wandering around out front by herself.  After a while, she came to the door and said she'd been walking back and forth through the kitchen trying to see if she could see again what she had just seen--two little bare feet and legs rounding the corner from the kitchen into the girls' old room.  At first she thought it was one of the girls, then she remembered they were still asleep.  Then she thought it was one of us, even though she was sure it was toddler feet she'd seen.  So she waited, then walked into the room to see who was there.  No one.  She decided it was a play of light and shadow, and started trying to walk the way she'd come to catch it again.  Nothing. 

My mom's never reported seeing a ghost to me before, so it's kind of atypical behavior for her.  There are stories of things my grandfather experienced (at other people's homes) but that's about it.  Mom turns 78 this year, so it's possible it was a play of light or a visual trick, but when you put her story together with mine...well, it's something to think about, at any rate.

I don't like to use the word ghost, so help me think of another word to describe our possible tenant.  Something cute and fun...not spooky or evil, please ;)

evolution of a room

Back in March, we moved the girls from their old room off the kitchen (even though days of work into making it a nursery to begin with) to the den in the back of the house.  I posted something about painting "soon," which apparently meant October!  Yes, we finally got it done last weekend, thanks to a lot of help from my parents and Brandon's parents.  We spent the whole day painting, installing a storm door (since their room has an exterior door), and putting in a closet organizer (I won't discuss the level of difficulty this always entails, but will direct you to previous posts here and here).  Brandon also caulked where the walls meet the floor and around the windows, as well as removed the pipe and patched the wall where the old gas heater pipe vented to the outside (the gas line was a dead end and had been cut before we bought the house).

I searched the blog for old photos of the den/nursery and thought it was interesting how the room has evolved over the last few years. 

 

   

Next on the horizon is hanging stuff on the walls, painting the trim, and putting in some insulation in the floor and ceiling.

lena's table update

Brandon hasn't quite gotten it finished, but I thought you might like a preview of how it's going. 

freebie

Our next door neighbor let us scavenge through her old garage and said we could keep whatever we could salvage.  Brandon found this:

 

A few hours later, we had it looking like this:

We removed and replaced the back with a piece that we stained with Old English furniture oil!  We cleaned the mildew off, hammered a few nails back in, rubbed it down with a wood refinisher and we were done.  Now we just have to find somewhere to put it...

use it up

I want to say that the "use it up" part of this frugal experiment--I mean, lifestyle--is my least favorite so far, but I have a feeling that the "do without" part might be worse.  I cleaned out the bathroom cabinets last week in an attempt to organize and inventory and discovered we had maybe twenty bars of soap and a few bottles of liquid hand soap--scented, full of pthalates, and very un-organic--that we've collected over the years from hotels, our trip to Paris, and the ubiquitous holiday gifting of of bath items.  Most of them are kept for emergencies, although we've never had a soap emergency that I can recall.  What to do with them?  I could Freecycle them, but the most frugal thing to do is to use them up.  So...after we ran out of unscented Method hand soap last week in the bathroom, I put out the Crabtree & Evelyn rose-scented liquid soap leftover from our wedding.  It was nice at the wedding, but the heavy scent of roses is a little much for everyday, and it kind of reminds me of old people.  I am dreading a bit the weeks where we'll all smell like sandalwood, however.  Maybe I can just Freecycle that one bar?  Who bought that, anyway?  (Probably me...)

I've also finally come to a comfortable place about what choices to make for chemical-free vs. frugal.  I've decided that it just doesn't make sense to replace all our plastics with alternatives, especially when sometimes plastic just makes more sense (freezer storage, plates and cups for the girls, etc.).  I am ridding the house of all food-based plastic that might contain BPA, which includes things marked with a 7 recycling symbol and unmarked clear plastic containers.  We've slowly started replacing our non-stick frying pans with stainless steel ones from the thrift store (and from Brandon's mom, who got most of our old stainless steel stuff when we "upgraded" a few years ago to non-stick!).  We have a couple of cast iron, but unless someone has a secret for using those on a glass cooktop, we'll have to limit their use to the oven or the grill outside. 

So far our changes have been small but easy.  The weather has finally cooled a bit so we can turn off the a/c and open the doors and windows, which is wonderful.  Brandon started a trend of line-drying most of our clothes and the girls' diapers outside, and now I've started doing it as well.  It saves money and ensures that we all get outside for a little while every day.  Speaking of cooler weather, we did have an insulation guy out a couple of weeks ago.  He wanted to spray foam insulation over the entire attic roof, as well as above and under the girls' room.  All for the low price of $3800!  We've decided that we'll try to insulate as best we can ourselves over and below the girls' room.  We'll let the walls go for now, and see how it is once we do the roof and floor, which will be easier and cheaper than the walls anyway.  We also need to install a storm door (purchased months ago but still in the workshop) and seal up the windows a bit.  Hopefully those changes will make it more comfortable, and if not...I guess we'll have to swap rooms with them or dress them really warm ;) 

lena's table

Although we love our mid-century modern dining table and chairs, we've decided that we might be better off selling the set.  We're not sure its delicate lines will survive a toddler seated on either side of it, although there is a theory that mac and cheese work as a preservative when rubbed into the cracks of old wood. 

A search for a new table and chairs began, long before our new experiment in frugality began.  We couldn't find anything we liked in a Mission or Craftsman style that we liked, or that we could afford.  Everything on Craigslist was "New!" and that just wasn't what we wanted.  So I queried my cousins and sisters..."Anyone remember Grandmother's old oak table?  The round one?  Do you know what happened to it after she died?"  Everyone remembered it, but no one seemed to remember its fate.  Someone thought someone else had gotten it, but no one knew for sure.  Until I mentioned it to my sister Kathy, who said that Grandmother gave the table to her, but she didn't have room for it, so she left it at Grandmother's house, where my brother and his family now live.

I immediately sent a lengthy email to my brother asking about the table's whereabouts and if we could possibly borrow it if they weren't using it.  Days passed, and the response finally came.  The email contained just two letters:  "o k"  Hooray!  A few months passed as he tried to actually locate the table in the storage shed and forge a path to carry it out.  Word came..."it's in pretty bad shape"..."it's missing all the veneer"..."are you sure you want this thing?"  We worried but continued to assure everyone that we did indeed want the old table.

Finally, nephew Henry went for a visit and managed a few photos of the table (see below).  Mom and Dad drove up last week and delivered it!  Brandon's been working on it steadily since it arrived, and it's just awaiting a coat of tung oil before it's ready to move into the house.  You'll have to wait to see what it looks like now that Brandon's done some work on it!

use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without (in which we bare our financial soul)

We are facing a little dilemma here at 1928 Bungalow.  Brandon works full-time as a public school teacher, and I am a public librarian.  I worked full-time until the girls were born and went part-time after maternity leave ended.  Until now we've been able to avoid the cost and trauma (for me, mostly) of putting the girls into daycare.  We debated over nannies and child care centers, checked a few prices, decided we couldn't afford either option, and ended up convincing my sister Kathy and my mother-in-law Patrice to take turns and come each week to watch the girls.  I have an odd schedule at work and basically work a week straight every other week (told you it was odd), so it works out that each of them only has to come twice a month.  But both of them drive two hours to get to our house and stay 1-3 nights each visit.  For FREE.  They agreed to do this for "a few months" meaning, maybe three months.  That was, well, a year ago.  And they still come.  Yeah.

So now that we've abused their goodwill for way too long, it's time to find another solution.  If I return to work full-time (which may or may not be an option) and we pay for full-time care, then I'll bring home (factoring in things like car expenses, etc.) roughly $125 a month after all expenses.  This would be in addition to us getting rid of some luxuries, like cable and maybe...yes...internet.  If I stay part-time and pay for daycare, we'll be losing money each month...somewhere along the lines of $300+ since I can't find part-time daycare for kids under 2 years old.  If I quit and stay home full-time, we'll be anywhere from $60-200 short each month.

the warm fuzzies

We have lots of projects in mind (but no money!) for the near future, but one of the more pressing ones is the fact that the girls' room is poorly insulated.  We got through last winter with an oil-filled space heater, but I'm guessing that before the end of this winter, the girls will be out of cribs and into toddler beds (pray for our sanity), so a space heater won't be a viable option any more.  We think their room used to be an old porch, and it doesn't have a brick exterior or a basement under it; the rest of the house has both.  So...what are our options?

Being a die-hard DIYer, Brandon suggested pulling down all of the drywall, installing insulation, and replacing the drywall.  My brother suggested we get someone who can cut holes in the wall and spray in foam insulation, which sounds expensive, but we haven't checked yet (not even sure where to start).  Brandon's mom suggests insulating from underneath and just dressing them warmly ("They survived last winter," she says, "when you didn't put enough clothes on them and they were tiny."  One of those times when "I told you so" is totally warranted...as per the books we kept the girls' room at 69 degrees and dressed them in light layers to reduce the risk of SIDS.  Later we realized they probably woke up so often because they were cold!)

We're open to suggestions and advice, so throw us some ideas!

*update:  Here's a description and photo of what we're considering.  This Old House says that foam is the most expensive, but best for air quality. 

thoughts for the future

I've been thinking about my blogs lately and wondering if merging them together would be a good idea...sort of a mish-mash of frugal living, green living, old house DIY, and my (hopefully) humorous observations on life with toddlers.  But I wonder if my current houseblog (right here where you're reading) and my baby blog (currently a bit more private) are too topic-specific to crossover well.  Honestly, the DIY portion of 1928 Bungalow has been on pause, or at least in pretty slow motion, lately, so I'm not sure there's much damage I could do by talking about life with toddlers more often ;)  And I have a feeling that these things mingle together in other people's lives as well.  If you have any thoughts on this, let me know...

a bit of time travel

Love this.  From a collection of Farm Security Administration (FSA) photos from the 1940s.  These photos are in their original color (yes, color!) and some of them are quite breathtaking.  Thanks to ThirteenEleven for alerting me to their existence! 

House in Houston, TX

More info on the photos can be found here.

monkey see, monkey do

(cross-posted to Welcome to the Twindig, our baby blog)

Last night I was sweeping up the floor food (food that is dropped, flung, or otherwise ends up on the floor during mealtimes at our house), which is always a challenge because the girls want to "help."  Usually this means they try to catch the end of the broom and try to eat food off the floor while I say no over and over.  So I was pleasantly surprised when Hadley picked up the dustpan, brought it to me, and tried to hold it where I was sweeping.  Adorable!  And like I said, while I often try to explain to them what I'm doing, the only thing I usually say when I'm sweeping near them is "No!  Put that down!  Please don't eat that!  No!" so it was kind of amazing to see how much they learn even when we aren't actively trying to teach them.

And because I'm thinking of it, I will share Nolan's List of Top Ten Sweepable (and Not-So-Sweepable) Foods:

1.  Banana.  Not sweepable.  In fact, if it is not immediately removed from the floor by hand, it will melt and then harden into a sort of goopy, permanent lacquer.

2.  Rice.  Not sweepable, although the sweepability of this particular food (unlike banana, see above) does improve with time, but the amount of time it takes to stop sticking to your floor is kind of lengthy, and in the meantime, you might be embarrassed if you have unexpected company.

3.  Broccoli.  Not terribly sweepable, unless left on your floor for an unimaginably long time (like days).  Even then, it just gets kind of rubbery.

4.  Pasta.  Some varieties of short pasta are more sweepable than others.  Long pastas, such as spaghettis, should be illegal to serve without a fork, even to young children.  It does become sweepable after a short length of time, however.

5.  Bread, biscuits, etc.  Very sweepable.  Unless...it has been chewed and then spit back out.  See banana above.

6.  Cheerios.  The world's most sweepable food!  Unless...well...see bread above.

7.  English peas.  Even when freshly dropped, these little beauties are easily retrieved with a broom.  Their sweepability improves with time; however, caution must be used to ensure stray peas do not roll into remote  corners.

8.  Mango and other fibrous, juicy fruits such as pineapple.  These guys are not terribly sweepable, and in fact, are difficult to remove from most surfaces, including shirts, dresses, and diapers.  Time actually makes these fruits more difficult to remove.

9.  Milk and juice.  Not sweepable, and make other foodstuffs unsweepable as well.  Time is not your friend when it comes to milk and juice spills.  Not.  Your.  Friend.

10.  Blueberries.  They're round and they roll, right?  Totally sweepable...unless...they have been smashed in half or an attempt has been made to eat them by sticking one's finger into the center or the insides have been sucked out and just the skin is tossed aside.  Otherwise, not only are they sweepable, but could theoretically be rinsed and served again.  Not that I would do that, of course...ahem.

child labor

I recently started getting emails again from Freecycle.  There are so many emails each day that I've since cancelled email notification again, but during my brief return, I lucked up on the Holy Grail of Bungalow DIY--a free pile of old bricks.  A family in Va-Hi was giving them away in hopes of keeping them out of the landfill (or possibly to avoid the cost of having them hauled off).  They had had their foundation replaced since they wanted to add a second story to their house and the pile you see behind the girls is only part of what was available.  We made two trips (one with two cars) and on the first trip, we took the girls along.  I somehow thought we could leave them in the car with the a/c on, while we quickly threw some brick into the car.  Turns out they lived really close to the shops of Va-Hi, so parking was non-existent.  We had to park in their driveway, which was pretty steep and the bricks were behind the house, so no chance of leaving the girls in the car.  They told us we could bring the girls around to the back where there was some shade, so we did.  As you can see, they weren't dressed for hauling brick, but then again, I'm not sure work gloves come in size 18 mos.  At any rate, the girls decided they weren't the kind of babies to just sit around while Mommy and Daddy load bricks in a wheelbarrow, so it turned into the girls' first DIY workday.  I did try to encourage them to stay out of the way, but 1) there's not a lot of reasoning you can do with a 13 month old, much less two of them, and 2) I didn't think to bring any outside toys for them to play with and it was hard to keep them off of the family's toys...since we were already hanging out in their yard, I figured we were better off letting them play with the brick.  Although the homeowners were probably having a heart attack inside and waiting for us to have an accident and a lawsuit.  Not to mention wondering what kind of parents haul 13 month old twins along to get brick.  But whatever. 

We think we have enough to enlarge our little patio in the back.  When will we have time to do this, you ask?  We have no idea.

old roof, new roof

The photos should be in order, showing various parts of the old roof, flashing around the chimney, etc. as well as the empty (and later, full) dumpster in our driveway, the roofing materials, the guys working on the roof.  The last photo is somehow the only one I have of the NEW roof!  I'll have to remember to take some more soon.  I had planned to post old photo of chimney flashing vs. new chimney flashing, etc. but...I have twins and so you are lucky to get this ;)

Bell Roofing was awesome and Donna who works for them is amazing.  They replaced over 300' of bad wood (a new record, apparently) and ended up giving us a discount on the wood since it was so much.  We also had a ridgeline vent installed and hope it makes a difference this summer...especially since we just found out a few weeks ago that our AC unit isn't freezing up because something is wrong with it so much as it's probably just too small for our house.  Ouch!

now we know where all the bricks came from...

Brandon asked our next door neighbor if he had any old photos of our house.  Tonight we got a text message from him saying that there was an old photo on the property tax database for the county.  I swear I've looked at the database before but have never seen a photo.  We checked, and sure enough:

So, it looks like the PO did some good things, like maybe losing the chain link fence (although that could come in handy now!) but--is that a carport?!  I can live without the screened in porch (although that would also come in handy now), but I would really love the carport back.  But now we know where all the bricks (cemented into the ground under the back porch) came from.  It also looks like there was a tree in the front yard, which would explain the small sinkhole we now have.  Sigh.

Random side note for the day:  Brandon found a snake ON THE PORCH.  In a planter.  Ew!

stains be gone!

Mealtimes are pretty messy in our house these days.  Two babies x high chairs x finger foods x white grout = ick.  But I discovered that a toothbrush will scrub banana out of the grout whether you use cleaner or grout stain!  So I skipped the scrubbing with cleaner and went straight for the staining.  I was surprised by the results--it pretty much looks like it should have been this way all along.

It was pretty easy and took about two hours to do the whole room.  I just brushed it on with a toothbrush, doing the whole room, and then started back at the beginning with a scrub sponge and a bowl of water.  I scrubbed the extra stain off the tile and it came up pretty easily.  Then I went back over it with a wet rag to clean up any extra bits of stain (sort of like scraped up, rolled bits of paint).  Making sure I had gotten all the bits of stain up took a while. 

The first photo shows the whole floor covered in stain, prior to clean up.  The last photo shows the finished floor.  We do still need to cover the grout with a sealant, since the stain we used didn't have one added in.

project updates

It's spring and we've got lots of things going on, including awaiting the installation of a new roof!  Yippee!  All our neighbors were getting them, so we had to keep up ;)  Actually, one of our neighbor's roofers came by and claimed we had hail damage and needed (of course) a new roof.  State Farm begged to differ, but said we did have wind damage and they would pay to have our shingles replaced.  We ended up not going with the neighbor's roofer, but instead found Bell Roofing.  They brought us sample shingles, gave us addresses of homes to see actual roof colors, and have mainly just been awesome.  We haven't gotten the roof yet, so I can only hope that their roofing ability lives up to their customer service.  We've picked out a color that is kind of similar to what we already have, but I think it will look great.  We opted for the architectural style shingles rather than the basic three-tab, and hope it will make a huge difference in the appearance.  Here's the color we've chosen:

Barkwood by GAF-ELK

We're also having a ridgeline vent installed, and possibly having our gutters repaired or replaced.  The quote we got was for replacement with 6" gutters, stating this is standard in Atlanta, and that our 4" gutters just won't cut it.  We may get a second opinion, although new, bigger gutters would be nice to look at (if not to pay for).

We're still working on that front door...or rather, we're still thinking about it from time to time.  I did score a large piece of textured glass from a neighbor, but we've still got to get it cut.  Brandon needs to stain the door, and just hasn't returned to it since last time (when the rats in the shop ate the wood putty out of the knots).  Speaking of the shop, the power to it has been disconnected by our dear friend Paul the Electrician, who decided he couldn't live with himself if it burned to the ground.  Apparently it was that bad.  We are hopeful he will have time soon to come back and help us get it redone safely.

Other projects on the horizon include a home-made swing set given to us by a neighbor, whose kids had outgrown it.  It has a fort, slide, and a rock-climbing wall!  This weekend we hope to get it pressure washed, painted, braced, and our baby swings installed.  Brandon's mom is working on a pink pirate flag for the girls, so that they can fly it from the fort portion.  We also hope to soon move the fence from the backyard to the front, along with some to-be-purchased new portions and a gate. 

good fences make good neighbors

I was driving through Kirkwood the other day when I saw this fence being constructed and installed.  With my mouth hanging open, it was all I could do to keep driving.  The guys who were working on the fence were sort of off to one side, resting and gazing at it in --confusion?  --pride?  --fear?  I have no idea, but I wish I'd had the camera with me that day.  As it was, I drove on home but remembered to grab a shot of it a few days later.

It would only be better if it had one of those fence company signs advertising their work in front of it.  But it's still awesome without it.

Enjoy...

Note the panel on the right is...yes....upside down.

Perfection is so over-rated.

the great outdoors

Spring has sprung at 1928 Bungalow, and while Brandon's dad set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in early March, so far we're managing to confine the girls to the yard. 

Emerson seems to have already developed a taste in outdoor lighting...


And yard art...

While Hadley seems more content to just contemplate life...

Practice for the Appalachian Trail?

something you haven't seen in a while

Me, with a screwdriver, working.  I'm back!  I'm dressed a little too nice for hard labor in this photo, but since we were just hanging curtains, I guess it's okay. 

We decided to undertake the project of moving the girls to the back room, which has been our den/library/office/spare room/catch-all since they were born.  It's a much bigger room than their old room and it's farther from the rest of the house, so it will be quieter for them when sleeping.  No more tip-toeing around to do the dishes or vacuum!  Yay!  Wait, that means I don't have any excuse for not doing the dishes or vacuuming.  Argh!

Here are some more photos of the chaos created by this move.  We've since gotten the girls moved in completely, and we do plan to repaint later.  But we haven't unpacked the office/library yet, so all those boxes you see in our bedroom are still FULL of books.  500+ books, actually (nerd librarian that I am, I scanned them all into LibraryThing as I packed them...here's our catalog if you care to take a look).

Our bedroom:

The dining room!

More dining room:

The new nursery.  We've removed the Batman print and the

scary mask on the left.  We hope to repaint soon!