Crossing Eyes and Dotting Tees

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If you are a fellow old house owner dear reader, then you well know to expect the unexpected, or have learned to not be surprised. This past year was, not surprisingly, full of such lessons…so we rolled up our paint stripping tattered sleeves and got to work. What follows in a brief accounting of all of the repair detours we made or identified for next year.

Remember the beautiful job Mike Dube Plastering and Stucco did restoring our kitchen ceiling in Plaster On, Plaster Off? Well our shower and tub had different plans. Continue reading →

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Seasonal Style without the Seasonal Snow

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As I write its 65 degrees outside. Spring bulbs and forsythia have begun to emerge for a premature bloom. Rochester has received a whopping 1.2 inches of snow so far this year…and that happened on one night over a month ago. Last year at Christmas there was over a foot of snow on the ground and temperatures were in the single digits…so needless to say “When you’re still waiting for the snow to fall, It doesn’t really feel like Christmas at all.”

Last year I had mainly focused on just getting used to living on my own as Kit was still living outside of Rochester. We had got a bunch of electric candle lights for the windows, but I had to go to my parent’s house to enjoy any decorations beyond that. Continue reading →

The Big…and Colorful…Transformation

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I was on a ladder stripping paint until 9am the morning the painters arrived. I was also on a ladder stripping paint and installing reconstructed woodwork the following day before the painters had finished their prep work and priming. To say that we ran up and until the last-minute is a bit of an understatement. You may remember that the front of the house used to look like this on the day we bought it:

Front Before

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What We Did Over Summer Staycation

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The past six months have been a whirlwind that only recently subsided, allowing me a chance to sit down and write about everything that happened this summer and fall at My Perfect Little Money Pit. My sincerest apologies to all the readers out there who have been waiting for an update. The vinyl came down in May with the goal of completing all work by October 1st so that all documentation could be submitted for the rehabilitation tax credit program here in New York State. The necessity of submitting this documentation for the anticipated 20% tax credit is predicated on the fact that MPLMP was officially listed in the New York State Register of Historic Places in September! It is currently under review by the National Park Service for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and a decision should be made within a few weeks. The validation that MPLMP is significant enough to be individually listed on the National Register is a true honor and testament to its unique history.

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Vanquishing the Vile Vinyl Veneer

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Winter, as many know here in upstate New York know, quickly accelerates into Summer, and so, our plans for uncovering the original siding from beneath its plastic exterior briskly came to reality. As I may or may not have mentioned Kit and I are members of the Young Urban Preservationists who are a group of 20 to early 40 somethings who celebrate our region’s rich history through a diverse offering of events which we plan and execute ourselves. One of our fellow YUP’s and cofounder of the group itself, Caitlin Meives who works at the Landmark Society, finally got her way and convinced me to make an event out of tearing off the vinyl siding.

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