Things I love about my house

While I was cleaning my little girl's room today and sorting through her books (something I don't mind having a lot of!) I was thinking how much I would have loved that room when I was little. It got me thinking about what we have and what things I really love about this house - there are plenty of things I don't like about it but most of those are things that need to be painted or patched! Here are a few pictures of my favorite things....


Upstairs sink:

This room was a kitchen when we bought the house, we turned it into our closet (since we don't have any to speak of) but I don't have any idea what it was originally used for. All of the appliances were removed but my husband wouldn't take the sink out. It's cast iron and very heavy! I thought he was a little crazy for wanting to leave the sink in there but we weren't married yet so who was I tell him to take it out. We have bathed both of the babies in the sink and I don't think I would have made it through the kitchen remodel if we didn't have it. This room is next to our bathroom and laundry so it gets used almost everyday, plus I just love the look of it (I wish I had one in my kitchen too!!). Good call Honey!!


Sleeping porches:

We haven't used the upstairs porch in a couple of years. I didn't want the kids going out there when they were little and the paint was peeling badly. The downstairs porch has been used a lot and now that we have a new paint job and swing... I think we will use it even more! As soon as I can I'm going to get some furniture for the upstairs so we can start using that too.

Closet door:

We have a storage closet under the 3rd floor stairs, I used to have a hanger for wrapping paper on the door. I took it down and found this little signature. It says "Anna Lisa". Who is Anna Lisa and what was she doing in my closet?? Well, she was one of five daughters of the second owners of the house. She probably signed this in the early 1920's but why on the inside of the closet door (the ONLY one that has never been painted!!). Sometimes I just touch it to try to get a feel for who she was and how life was then.

Roof detail:

This detail runs all along the roof line. I don't know if anyone else notices it because it's 4 stories up but I think it goes to show the beauty of old houses. Is this element useful or strictly decorative? I'm not sure, but I'm glad it's there.


Transom openers:

I only have one complete opener and it's in my room. Three out of the four transoms upstairs do actually open (one is sitting in a frame that is hopelessly warped) and this year was the first time I got them operational. I am missing one piece of the opener in my son's room and unfortunately the other two have been removed. I would love to know what people are thinking when they carelessly destroy history. For what reason would these have been taken down?? I would love to talk to the previous owners and see what exactly they were thinking!



"The Library" :

OK, we don't have an actual Library but my daughter calls this small closet in her room "The Library"! We have two small closets in the bedrooms (not sure why there were only two when we have 5 bedrooms). They are just deep enough for this bookshelf but not to hang a coat hanger sideways. I have a closet in my bedroom and I added a rod so that I could hang our winter coats (cock-eyed but it works). I also have a bookshelf for storage. They are very wide but not very useful for clothing.

Sometimes my husband finds me on my hands and knees with a flashlight trying to find "something". So far we have found a few trinkets but the most exciting was a mailing tube from 1913 to Herman Aspegren. This was the clue that opened up the entire Aspegren family (Anna Lisa's family) history to me. I had all the names and dates but this round the world search turned up real people. Maybe one day I'll tell you the story....