This Old House #2: History Lessons.

Okey dokey. Hows about a history lesson?

Like I said, the house was finished in 1903. Since then, it has (supposedly) been a home, apartments, a school, a museum, CONDEMNED, and then a home again. I'm hoping to dig up some more info on the history of the house from when it was built to about 1975, but from 1975 to present I have pretty darn good info. We are purchasing it from a daughter that inherited it from her mother I think somewhere between 1995/2000. The mom had bought it in 1976, supposedly saving it from being knocked down to make way for newer houses. So for the last 40 years it's belonged to the same family, but everyone around here STILL refers to it by the name of the original builders. Kinda funny.

Pic of the house supposedly from around the time it was finished in the early 1900's.



Couple more from between then to maybe the 60's?







And a pic when it was a musuem.



Here's where it gets fun. When mom bought it in 1976, she started this.



Which has these.









She has hand drawn maps for the yard, where she planted all the trees, drawings of each floor and then individual rooms detailing what she changed and how she went about doing it.







And she even has a bunch of pics from who knows when. Apparently, the house had been painted white at some point, and then sand blasted back to original brick. Don't know if she was the one who did the sandblasting or not. Notice the lack of the porch and the cupola? on the roof.



Porch is back, still no cupola.



This is the back of the house. Now there is a carport attached to the bump there, and lots and lots of trees.



There were also a couple of interior pics but nothing that really shows much of what was going on.






Now its our turn to start / continue the story!

This Old House: dorkpunch Edition.

Y'all thought I was dead, didn't ya?

So, not to jinx anything (knock on wood and all that) but it looks like we are set to close next week. We have been working towards purchasing this house for over a year.

A bit of back story: We've been looking to "upgrade" for a couple of years now. We knew our price range, we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted, but there was just nothing that fit the bill. We *love* our teensy little community. I got to thinking about an acquaintance who mentioned they were going to be retiring eventually. They have this gorgeous old house, that oddly enough I would see ever time I pulled out of our driveway- it was 2 blocks away at the end of the "T". I called him and one other acquaintance who also had a home a couple of blocks away the same day, explained our situation, and asked them to let me know if they were ever interested in selling. Well, we got a call back saying yes, they were planning on retiring in the next year or two anyways so why not come over and take a look at the house to see if its anything we might be interested in.

Lets just say its about as close to love at first sight as you can get. Both my wife and I (and the boys) *loved* it. The boys took a while to warm up to it but warm up they did! We worked out a deal giving them time to get retired and figure out what they wanted to do with life and also giving us time to sell our home and get our ducks in a row.

The best laid plans...

Didn't have any luck getting our house sold. Through a series of small miracles, we have been able to liquidate some assets (er... sawdust some timber?) and find renters for our house. So in the last 3 weeks, We've moved out, moved in, spent a week at Scout camp, unpacked, hauled more stuff, cleaned the old house, still working on a few other items over there that need attention, got the renters moved in, hauled more stuff, etc etc etc...

I'm pooped. School starts in a week and a half.

Anyways, without further ado- here's This Old House.













Some random specs:

Started being built 1897/98, and finished in 1903. Has had a very interesting and storied life, of which I hope to chronicle here. Sits on 1.3 acres, has a wicked awesome 30x60 shop and lots of space and one of the best parts- LOTS AND LOTS of BIG trees!

Wish us luck in getting all the i's dotted and t's crossed next week!

Craters of the Moon.

Got to help the youth do a practice hike out at Craters of the Moon yesterday.  Chose a perfect day- there was hardly any wind, nice cloud cover, and the temperatures were PERFECT.  Hike about 4.5 miles in on the Wilderness Trail to Echo Crater and then back out.

Can't remember the name of this hill, but I vividly remember hiking up it when I was maybe 12 and thinking I was going to die from the heat...  This is right near the entrance and as I recall has a great view of the entire area.




Walking, and walking, and walking...





Figured out how to take a panorama shot.


The end of the trail.  Had a break, a snack, and built a cairn.  Neat vesicles? in them there rocks!




Stopped at Buffalo Cave on the way back to play around for a bit.  Wish we had more time to explore!





And one last panorama.



Fun hike.  Very easy going, trail was super smooth and hardly any elevation change.  Glad it wasn't hot!!!  Will definitely have to get back out there to explore more some day.  Only 75 miles away and its taken me 6 years to get out there.

Metal Earth laser-cut model review- Avro Lancaster.

Stumbled across this laser cut miniature model a few weeks ago while on the Cali trip with my eighth graders.  These are made by Metal Earth, and are VERY detailed and fun to put together, although they are NOT what I would call easy to assemble.

I paid quite a bit more than amazon is asking for the same kit here ($6.64):  http://www.amazon.com/Fascinations-Metal-Earth-Laser-Model/dp/B00FFCI2XU/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436406536&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=metalearth+lancaster

Very small package.  They claim to have 360 degree views to help assemble the models here: http://www.fascinations.com/metalearth/gallery360 but I was unable to find the Lancaster there.



Laser cut, very detailed, and dang challenging to put together. Fairly simple when you look at the directions and parts...



But looks can be deceiving.





These little engine pods were a pain to build. If you can find a rod about the diameter of what you need its pretty easy to curl the metal around it.





Starting to come together!





Done.





Part of what makes it so hard to do is the size- pretty dad gum small.








So overall this was a WAY fun project.  Took me maybe an hour and a half start to finish.  It was challenging enough to make it exciting but not so hard I got frustrated with it.  Definitely NOT for begginers or very easy.  I do think they have a few simpler models that might be great to try and see if you like it. 

I *definitely* recommend this to any model builders or people who like to work with their hands.  I think they are a bargain at the prices you see them on amazon, and there is a HUGE variety- planes, tanks BUILDINGS, Transformers, and even STAR WARS ships!!!

Here are a few of the others:

 

 

And my PERSONAL favourite- The John Deere model B!

There are *hundreds* more to choose from.  Enjoy!

Winnings!

So I entered my custom Hot Wheels tool box in an instructables competition, and it won some prizes!



Got sweet new shirt, a patch, a sticker, a multi-tool pen that'll go in the tool box and some kind of sensor? from Clime.  Seem to be sensors that can measure temp, humidity, and the like and connect wireless to ipads or other devices.  Apparently on back order...

Here's the instructables I wrote:  http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Utlimate-Mini-Mobile-Metalshop/

And that nifty little 12 in one tool pen can be found here:   http://www.amazon.com/12-Multi-Function-Tool-Pen/dp/B005Z7OEI2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436313386&sr=8-1&keywords=12+in+one+tool+pen

It'll make a great addition to my tool box!

Family Rebellion- the videos.

So I have several short video clips from the reunion but they were taking forever to upload. They're finally done, so here they are!

On the walk over to the new house, I road with the Hayses. Ridge went jogging past us, growling a quote from his favourite cartoon- Inspector Gadget. He's quoting Dr. Claw here, "Next time, Gadget!!! NEXT TIME!"



Running the old E for the youngins. Don' think they appreciated it very much...



Playing scoop hockey mini golf, and sending the ball right into the water trap.



I *know* he grew up as a scout, so I'm not quite sure what he was thinking. You should be able to put 2 and 2 together and figure it out.



"Swimming" in the Lower Palisades Lake.



Fireworks Finale.



Thats all, folks!