Great New Old House Pics

I just got back from a visit with a granddaughter of the woman in this pic who grew up in my house, which was built by her aunt and uncle. She inherited some wonderful photos and I had her copy them for me in high res. This is a pic of the house that was on the corner of Sibley and Gold, which is now my yard and garden. When we blew it up to look at the details I was looking at my front porch! I had thought that this house was torn down before my house was built so there would be room to work, but this proves me wrong. What is great about this is this is the first time I have seen exactly what my porch railing looked like--also the brick and sandstone piers on either side of the front steps. Now I actually have something to show a carpenter to reproduce for me. Note the new cement sidewalks with the wooden boards leading to the streets. There are no curbs, so the streets are unpaved as yet. They were first done in brick and asphaulted over now.

Here is the original picture. Notice the street signs on the corner of the house reading "Gold" and "Sibley".

Here is a blowup of my front porch (the brick one) and the house next door's front porch which doesn't look like that anymore--it was redone in brick and cement and later vinylized.

So check out that corner post. When blown up you can see four round ornaments in a row on all four sides--they are catching the sun. I had an AHA moment when I saw those. Back when we excavated the Egyptian tomb that was the cement steps leading up to the entrance to the second floor apartment, which went up the front stairwell, I found this wooden ornament.

So, what do you think? That's a CD case its sitting on to show the size. Too big? Perfect? There can be no other place in the house this thing would go as there is no ornamentation at all anywhere but on the two mantels--and this is not oak.

Here is a pic of the back of the house on the corner taken in front of the carriage-house-that-is-no-more, built for my house. I can't tell if my house has been built yet or not, so am not sure of the date of this pic. You can see the church across the street and the other houses in the neighborhood that are all still standing, although vinylized, as is the church. They even covered over the bell! You can also see a pole and wires here. I do not know if these are telephone or electric wires, but my house was built for gas only and converted in the 'teens to electricity.

Just before my house was built there were 6 people living in this house--possibly 7. Augusta Schmitt, son Crescencz and his two children (and possibly his 2nd wife), and daughter Rosa and her husband Charles Hauser.

Sibley Update

I thought you might like to see photos of Sibley the Feral Cat's progress towards becoming a Tame Cat.


Here he is getting petted while I am sitting in my computer chair. This is now a nightly routine for him.

He really is enjoying this! If I stop he stands up and taps me on the arm for more. I still don't dare pick him up, however.

He will lay on the floor and watch me at the computer.

He also wants to be petted when I am eating at the table in the kitchen. It seems whenever I am in a chair he is not afraid. The only place he doesn't want my attention is in the bathroom--which is the place all the other cats seem to think is where I am doing nothing and should be petting them.

This is Bertie, Sibley, and Purrcey on the kitchen floor.

This is Bertie and Sibley enjoying some catnip sleeping pads on the bathtub in the dining room. (Don't we all have bathtubs in the dining room beside antique stoves and half-refinished Victorian sideboards?)

He is progressing daily and knows his name and will perk up when he knows I am talking to him, but still will not come when called. He hangs around when the other kitties are getting treats, but is still somewhat afraid of having treats tossed to him and a little slow on the whole treat thing, so doesn't get too many when greedy Tommy is around.

Right now he is sleeping in a chair in the room with me, but still aware of every noise I make so I don't sneak up on him and kill him.

Cristallo Lighting

My taste in lighting fixtures tends towards the Edwardian/Victorian end of the spectrum, but I just love this collection! Look at the beading on the shades. I think these would look great in any restored home.

You can see the rest of the collection here.

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with this company.

Kissed By A Feral Cat

This is Sibley.

He is a feral cat. I trapped him on the back porch last Spring, got him neutered, and then, not wanting to release him back outside to fend for himself, released him into my house. These pictures were taken several months after. He hides most of the time I am around--most lately under my bed, and when I enter a room I see a fluffy yellow tail leaving it. Sometimes he will lay on the floor in the kitchen with the other cats when I am at the kitchen table quietly reading late at night. I turn and speak to him and use his name so he will feel included. As soon as I get up he is gone. He has learned to play with cat toys, batting them down the stairs and in the bathtub, and he and the other cats play chase up and down the stairs and down the hall. He has always been a gentleman and uses the cat box and has no problem finding the food and water, as you can see by his picture.

I have not touched him since soon after he came here, when he used to cower in a cat house and I would touch his nose. When cornered he has said terrible things to me and rushed past to escape the horrible things I am going to do to him. All my other cats love him and get along just fine. I pet them in his presence to show him that I am not going to kill him. He has entered my bedroom, sitting just inside the door, to watch me as I am sleeping. I wake up and say Hi to him. He snuggles on top of my clothes on the vanity stool, and lately he has been sleeping on my bed when I am actually IN IT! Last week I woke to see him on the other pillow--just 12 inches away, and he didn't run.

This morning I woke up and, as is their custom, the other cats came and stood on me and started purring and getting their morning pets. I had one in each armpit and two on my chest, several on my feet, and one on the other pillow, and Sibley was on the far side of the bed. (A double, so I can reach both sides.) I pet Spot and got him all purry and happy and he went over and started washing Sibley's head and ears. Spot is my best ear washer. I reached over and pet Spot and started petting Sibley. He didn't object, and soon he was actually PURRING. This is the first sound he has made other than a hiss. Soon he was rolling over on his back, stretching out his feet, and giving my hand little kitty kisses. He didn't want me to stop. He found out that hands are good. I withdrew my hand to pet the other cats and then resumed petting Sibley several times. Each time, he kissed my hand and rolled over so I could scratch his chest. He was making little purry whimpery noises and then he rolled off the bed!

I dozed off and he was back when I woke up. I pet him again and got up. I haven't seen him the rest of the day.

W00t!! Progress!

Misty

Misty

24 October 1994

5 January 2009

RIP

Ebay - The End of an Era (Non House Related)

Back in 1997 when the internet was all new and fun I discovered eBay. What fun I had buying things and meeting new people--some bad, but most good. I slowly built up my feedback purchase by purchase--all positive, until that time I tried to be a seller. It only took one newbie jerk to ruin my 100% feedback rating. Of course, I negged them, too, and it wasn't long before they were gone for negative feedback.

Selling didn't work out for me. Out of 100 listings I only sold about 6 items--for about what I had paid for them initially--and the fees ate up all the profit. I didn't try it again, though I was "always going to". Now I never will.

Why, you ask? Well, I guess you haven't been buying recently. Or maybe you have and wondered why you can't find any auctions you can pay for with a check or a money order. Have you also noticed that you cannot contact any of the sellers directly anymore? There is no more personal contact. The great world marketplace is going paperless.* Sellers can no longer list any payment methods other than PayPal or ProPay, methods conveniently owned by eBay. If they do, they are kicked off eBay! I understand that if you contact a seller early in the auction, preferably through a non-eBay email method, you can arrange for a surreptitious check or money order payment, but I'm not sure how you can circumvent the Checkout procedure which requires you to use one of these methods.

My last purchase was for a local item and I drove to pick it up and paid for it with cash. Sadly, that will be my last purchase. No longer will I browse page after page of goodies I want to bid on and own because I refuse to knuckle under and have a PayPal account. I have resisted ever since their inception--hearing horror story after horror story about screwed up accounts, exhorbitant fees, and missing money. I just don't want to trust my money to a third party. I suppose this makes me a dinosaur in the eyes of some younger people who do all their transactions by card or electronically. Some of them probably have no clue about how to write a check or balance a checkbook with a bank statement. (Even my bank refuses to send me a statement any more. I have been forced to sign up for E-statements. The bank says they are going paperless. Ha! I still have to print it out at home, so where's the tree-saving? They have also put me on an allowance of 10 checks per month before they start charging me to process them.) I like the process of writing down every purchase and deposit. It keeps me aware of where my money is going and how much I have at any given time. If I miss recording a check, it is immediately apparent. I didn't even have a credit card until 1994 when I got married and needed to purchase some big ticket items for the house.

But back to eBay. Paypal, and it's parent, eBay, now has a double dip into every transaction on its site. They have also taken something that was fun and turned it into a chore. A friend of mine in Germany, who has sold on eBay forever, and has a PayPal account out of necessity for International transactions, is also upset with the change. In fact, it was he who drew my attention to the change in the first place. The fees associated with selling have gone up appreciably, as the market for collectibles of all kinds has dropped, making it not the money-maker it used to be.

Hopefully all the people who will leave eBay will go back to selling locally and we will see an upsurge in the collectibles economy, and more antique malls. Us dinosaurs still have spending power

*You may have to have an eBay account to read this article. It's pretty scary--full of YOU MUST this, and YOU MUST NOT that.

Second Parlor Picture Update

The sender of the wonderful pictures sent me the uncropped version of the second parlor/music room pic. This one includes the window treatment, the papered ceiling, and a ceiling gas light not in the center of the room. How neat is this! You can see the border better and I can locate the exact hole in the casing used for the tieback. Interesting to me is the use of simple lace curtains instead of fancy velvet curtains. This is about 1900 if the girl is age 15. They may have given up fancy curtains, but the piano drapery is pure Victorian! Rose, the younger, gave piano lessons in this room. Rose and Charles Hauser were her aunt and uncle and she lived with them.