tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119914092009-02-21T01:41:09.225-05:00A journal of our life, our house, our neighborhood, and Niely's re-adopted home town, Richmond VA.Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-71240467628714336472008-12-02T13:11:00.006-05:002008-12-02T13:42:30.276-05:00

This next one is on the other end of the spectrum from the fixer-upper I showed you. There is NOTHING wrong with this house. When you are talking about Victorians that is saying a lot. We always have SOMETHING that needs to be fixed. But repair-free home aside, this thing is gorgeous. In Manchester you would pay 300,000, in the Fan 650,00o. (Little regarded fact: crime incidents in my

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-50770894690291681472008-12-02T12:47:00.004-05:002008-12-02T13:09:59.190-05:00

The economy is temporarily in the toilet. The housing market has descended into the fires of Mordor. There is however, a tiny glimmer of hope for those of us who love old houses. Now is the time to buy. Four years ago, when I came back to Richmond, the price of houses was offensive. Now sellers are coming back to their senses. Let me tell you about the bargains tucked away in my neighborhood....

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-88819178815796505782006-12-10T17:18:00.000-05:002008-11-13T16:36:37.859-05:00

Winter is here. Time to retreat indoors and tackle all those projects I've been avoiding all Summer. 1st on the list is my daughter's room. She has been living in squalor since we moved, a hodgepodge of old furniture and badly organized toys. We took EVERYTHING out, painted the walls a color-wash of periwinkle blue. ripped up the rug and found (drum roll please...) linoleum tile. Just weird. It

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1161092889549818532006-10-17T09:44:00.000-04:002006-10-17T09:48:09.563-04:00

Since our last post, other than dealing with a leakage problem in the basement (A drain in the middle of the floor doesn't help save stuff on the floor against the wall, where the leak is) we have been working on our favorite event of the year -- Halloween! As a matter of fact, we have a site dedicated to the preparations thereof and you can see our progress by going to www.cathousehalloween.com

Vivian V. Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17025727980951947827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1156552888019449612006-08-25T20:36:00.000-04:002006-08-25T20:41:28.020-04:00

We are back from vacation! It's a rather labor intensive vacation, requiring a lot of prep work and recovery time, so it's pretty much added up to me avoiding any home improvement (and thus not blogging about it) for the past two months. I'll tell ya'll about in another post. Meanwhile, no sooner has the dust cleared from our arrival home than something breaks and we all have to stop to fix it.

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1151177668629137102006-06-24T14:37:00.000-04:002006-06-24T16:22:21.873-04:00

Summer is not a good time for me to keep up the blog. We are just too busy to sit down and update. Most of my housework (what there is of it) has been gardening and clutter elimination.I thought I would let you all see the one project that I am NOT prepared to tackle yet, my Victorian garage. As out-buildings go it's pretty cool. Not as cool as the carriage house up on the next block. ( Maybe

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1145887747370745412006-05-17T09:47:00.000-04:002006-05-17T09:58:34.996-04:00

I've been off my computer for a couple of weeks with this and that but this blog has not been far from my thoughts. A couple of things showed up in the Richmond Times Dispatch that have me thinking about Richmond's future....And it's past. The 1st: a study done by the Fair Housing Alliance. Seems segregation is alive and well in the nations real estate market. http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1145761875138462732006-04-22T22:44:00.000-04:002006-04-22T23:11:16.960-04:00

Our apologies for the lack of posts these past couple of weeks. It's mostly been more painting and minor repair work. I thought I'd show you guys a picture of a house we considered buying a year ago. At the time we couldn't get the realtor to call us back. It was all very strange. It was purchased for 85,000. In all likelihood it probably had bigger issues than we were prepared to deal with. Any

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1144288322612110042006-04-05T21:12:00.000-04:002006-04-06T13:30:43.986-04:00

I like color-washing because I'm a sloppy painter and it's a very forgiving process. You are deliberately making a big swirly mess. If you like perfection in a paint job color-washing will drive you crazy. We had it in a couple of rooms at the old house. It always put me in a good mood. I'm really happy to have it back. We originally used Behr interior flat paint in a couple of colors with food

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1143812378970277472006-03-31T08:39:00.000-05:002006-03-31T08:39:39.016-05:00

new paint dining room Originally uploaded by niely.We painted the dining room last weekend. The color wash goes really well with one of my favorite paintings, "Flaming June". Color washes are beautiful, but all that wiping makes my arm ache for days.

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1143566227746892162006-03-29T11:47:00.000-05:002006-03-31T08:05:52.536-05:00

Just a few minutes ago I was in the backyard cleaning up brambles. I was pondering (once again) that any plant with thorns ought to have flowers, otherwise they are just evil. Then my thoughts wandered to the thistle. Thistles are truly diabolical plants with thorns on virtually every square inch of their surface. They are also incredibly strong, with very thick stems and deep roots. They will

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1143566972260896332006-03-28T12:17:00.000-05:002006-03-28T18:59:47.740-05:00

We got creative over the weekend and decided to build a fort/play house structure for the kids. We had a bunch of yard debris getting in the way and a corner of the yard still partially untamed. Add some zip ties and some twine and a willingness to let it be a bit funny looking and we won the coolest parent award for at least the next month. It took us about 5 hours, but one and a half hours of

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1142870784817421092006-03-20T10:49:00.000-05:002006-03-28T14:40:01.573-05:00

Installing a porch swing is a fairly straightforward task.1. Acquire swing2. Locate joist3. Attach chain4. Hang swing5. Relax and enjoy!Right.Now here's what REALLY happened. Getting the swing was easy, we found one at Diversity Thrift. It was a bit world-weary, but some wood putty, spray paint, and Niely's hard work turned it into a thing of joy.Next, locate joist. You know how you usually

Vivian V. Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17025727980951947827noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1142884284702422592006-03-19T23:41:00.000-05:002006-03-24T09:40:27.683-05:00

Shawni asked for hints in the comments section and my reply got so long I thought I would just make it another post. Stripping metalwork is not hard. I actually find it relaxing. I like to detach it and get in on a flat surface if I can. It's just easier to sit in a comfortable place. For anything intricate I use heavy-duty stripper. Methyline Chloride and toluene are usually in the ingredients.

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1142815787451515112006-03-19T19:20:00.000-05:002006-03-19T20:31:08.993-05:00

This house is rather light on the decorative metalwork. It's a shame, really. I can't tell if it's been removed or if it was never something the builder cared to invest in. The last house was fairly dripping with it, every hinge, doorknob, lock window latch and sash pull. Even the radiators were art nouveau gaudy. I miss it. So to make myself feel better I pulled out the mail slot and our one

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1142613405804382452006-03-17T10:59:00.000-05:002006-03-24T09:09:14.283-05:00

We have been spending the last couple of weeks trying to heal the front yard from a decade of neglect. We have a huge case of what I like to call "ghetto dirt". That is city soil that has been so devoid of growing things for so long, so trampled on, so peed on, that it is utterly incapable of sustaining life. It's really just compressed dust with broken glass mixed in. The new fence is to keep

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1141754020380964812006-03-07T12:22:00.000-05:002006-03-10T22:32:41.800-05:00

Well the day after we repaired those windows we got hit again. This time at 7:30 am. We finally saw the bastards....running away, laughing. They are maybe 13 or 14 years old. A few other kids witnessed it but wouldn't rat on the culprits. Lisa ran after them, yelling in her Northern MA voice, and scared the crap out of them. Vivian went out and bought a Flood light and a closed circuit camera. I

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1141696953491531092006-03-06T20:22:00.000-05:002006-03-07T14:11:04.326-05:00

It's taken me years to develop enough bravery to just rip open and/or demolish bits in the houses I've owned. When I was younger I could really get knotted up in the details of every renovation. Sometimes you just have to get out the hammer and the pry bar and go exploring. Owning an old house is owning your own archeological dig. With that in mind we were having our morning tea few days ago and

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1141150822803976512006-02-28T12:59:00.000-05:002006-02-28T21:13:17.413-05:00

Last night someone threw a rock through the dining room window. A couple of weeks ago it was shot with a bb gun. A few months before that, the first rock attack. I'm really at a loss to explain why we keep getting hit like this. This house used to be a blight on an otherwise very peaceful street. Maybe our occupancy is annoying someone who used to smoke crack in the basement. Maybe it's just

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1140234494792512852006-02-17T22:37:00.000-05:002006-03-24T09:14:38.526-05:00

...one room at a time. The previous owners installed soul-sucking beige carpeting on the entire upstairs floor. We've ripped up the hallway carpeting and found fairly neglected pine floor beneath. It looks like the painters didn't bother to use a drop cloth and counted on the rug to cover up the mess. Our choices right now are pretty limited. I am NOT currently motivated to empty the upstairs,

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1140233126477768172006-02-17T21:21:00.000-05:002006-03-24T09:16:50.376-05:00

The encounter with the "kitten fruit" inspired us to clear out that last scary corner of the yard. We removed 2 tires, 2 buckets of roofing tar, 3 trees, and 4 or 5 bags of trash circa 1982. Our backyard is now very bald.I've started digging flower beds in the frontyard. I've bought roses, dalias, and various shade-friendly plants. We started some plants from seed last week. We still have some

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1139934724376864912006-02-14T10:28:00.000-05:002006-02-14T11:32:04.410-05:00

Sometime around Christmas week I noticed there was a teenage cat camping out under my car. I started feeding it. I had read about Catnip, a group dedicated to neutering feral cats, on "To Restore a House in Church Hill" (one of my favorite Richmond blogs). My plan was to wait until spring, call them up, and fix every feral cat I could trap. A couple of weeks later I realized that my time schedule

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1119915118209818602005-06-27T19:22:00.000-04:002005-06-27T20:13:21.080-04:00

To expand on this little endeavor, I'd like to add the following: Putting up a fence is a fairly simple process. You mark out your fence line, measure, buy the materials. Then you mark your post holes, dig said holes, put up your posts and attach your spiffy, pre-made fence panels. Simple, yes?Of course there are those tiny little details to contend with during this process. For instance, what if

Vivian V. Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17025727980951947827noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1119827490324989222005-06-26T18:47:00.000-04:002005-06-26T19:16:42.433-04:00

This amazing house is on 4th ave. It was for sale for 85,000. I can't find the listing anymore so I'm hoping someone has snatched it up and has plans to restore it...or at least keep it from falling down. There are some pretty fabulous houses in a 5 block radius of this one but this is the fanciest.Even the side porch is interesting. notice neato round room to the left. 

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11991409.post-1119554063481887482005-06-23T15:14:00.000-04:002005-06-23T15:52:32.466-04:00

One of the things I adore about Highland Park is that people paint their houses the most amazing colors. Not delicate, historic preservation approved colors, but bright, intense HAPPY colors. Bright blue w/ yellow trim, salmon(actually more like lox) deep marigold yellow, purple; we have it all. I hope it stays this way. In my previous neighborhood you had to submit your paint choices to an

Niely Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843706211555572326noreply@blogger.com2