Week 1: Out with the wall, in with the steel beam

These pictures are for the men. Who else would care about a steel beam?  This wall was taken down, as evident in the pictures below.  It is being replaced by a steel beam (Which sadly now cuts through our massive, one-long-piece-of-wood joists. I am the only one who seems to be sad about this.)

Instead of the wall, someday there will be a peninsula.  The stove will be in about the same spot, but in the future there will be countertop on either side of it, so we can, say, put a spoon down while cooking.  Innovative!

Here the framing holds up our house, since the wall is gone. Yaa.

 Thank you, steel beam!

Week 1: Destruction goes fast

Forgive the flash; the elves work all day, we come home each night to find what they've accomplished.  I am both horrified and excited at the progress.  No going back now.  Ye gads.

before

after

really after

Jappaning

Like the woodwork, our hardware is also covered in paint.  We headed to Hippo Hardware for advice; one Goodwill pot and a set of chopsticks later, we were boiling some hardware.  Once the hot water and intermittent scraping removed the paint, we found a coppery shine with intermittent darker smudging. Varnished? Damaged? Nope - turns out the coloring was intentional.  In returning to Hippo, we were told the hardware had a Japan finish.

 

 

Per Bob Slone's helpful article in Northwest Renovation:  "Japanning is the builder’s hardware plated finish that looks like varying patterns of copper and black. Japanning hardware started in the late 19th century but peaked in popularity in the first few years of the 20th century. The “Japan-finish” was done with a process of electroplating and fuming, and the patterns and styles that different hardware companies came out with varied immensely.  The process was also improved upon as the technology itself improved.  The simplest patterns in this finish came from the 19th century. On a doorknob escutcheon for this era you may see black with just a bit of copper on the top and bottom; others had random highlights of black and copper on relief pattern pieces. Light fixtures can be all copper with just a couple black stripes here and there but as technology improved, more brazen patterns became in vogue. The early 20th century brought zigzag patterns, circles, dots and even animal pattern motifs. This was Japan finish at its best."  Ours turned out to be simple stripes or blobs of black mostly, by the time the paint was removed. But they are pretty nice "designs" nonetheless.

 

 

The bedroom door

All of our woodwork is covered in paint. Plenty of it. Amongst the peelings on our bedroom door were tan, peach, lilac, and turquoise, all coated in the obligatory white. So we decided to dip it. Then we sanded it. Then we carved out the many many tiny divots of white paint/chemical with some old wood carving tools I had from my printmaking days in college art class. Then sanded a little more.












The door beneath is lovely.  Rough around the edges, but solid.  The panels are one entire piece of wood, carved into a raised panel, rather than panels laminated together.  A little wood conditioner, stain, and polyurethane, and she sang.  Only 8 more painted doors to go now.

2237 NE 9th Ave: What we know

According to the Oregon Historical Society research library:  Our 1904 home was formerly addressed as 463 E. 9th, or 463 N. 9th, depending on the year.  It is placed on the giant hunk of land originally owned by Captain William Irving, a pioneer successful in the west coast shipping trade.  Captain Irving developed a major portion of the land for middle or upper-middle class families of the time, which became what is now the Irvington neighborhood.  The development of the west portion of this land was dictated by his wife, Elizabeth Irving, after the Captain's death in 1872.  West Irvington was platted in 1890, to be filled in with a more working class population. According to Elizabeth Irving's restrictions, no establishments here were allowed to serve alcohol or be owned by Chinese residents (who were only permitted as servants in the households). 

According to the City Guide archives, the longest owners we could find for our home were Myrtle and Harley Crandall, who lived in our home from 1923 to 1938.  Married in 1910, Myrtle and Harley were supported by Harley's occupation as a carman/conductor for the railroad.  Kern Crandall (a relative?) lived at 477 E 9th, just north of Thompson.

The house laid vacant in 1939, then was filled by a variety of names through the years as a rental (demonstrated by the many layers of paint over the woodwork).  From 1982 to 1985 it was listed as an Oregon Zen Priory, a fact confirmed by our neighbors, who declared "Yeah, monks lived there."

Eric and I moved into this sweet old home in November of 2009.  A year later, we embark on some modifications, starting with the kitchen.  This site is meant to document our changes, in order to start a scrapbook for this home, which has held many people but cannot tell us much about them or its past.  We only have clues - remnants of an old doorway along the side of the house, an incorporated back porch, the deep brown stain inside one tiny closet, mysteriously saved from layers of paint, that shows what the woodwork must have looked like once.

Here's to the next 100 years.