Wendler, My Love, My Friend

We finally finished all of the work that needed to be done at Wendler this week. Actually, Lydia painted while I laid the new floor in the hall and bathroom and then repaired the toilet back to its former throne-status. The above picture is the only one that I really had time to take. I brought my laptop so that I could listen to the Marriage and Family Living Series by Dr. Joel Beeke. Man, that is convicting stuff- if you think that you love your wife enough, listen to it. If you think that you submit enough, listen to it. I have heard that this may be a book at some point. I hope so.

Anyhow, when I packed my laptop, Anna and Owen both had to pack theirs as well. I am not sure what lectures they were listening to though! So, while laying a new floor, I got to be fed by the good doctor. Well worth the time and energy.

We actually ran out of time for painting and we hired Durell Flood to finish it for us. Wow! If you are looking for a painter, call him. Perfection! His Reformed theology comes through in every brush-stroke!

This weekend our new tenant moves in. We are excited to have someone after the few month stint of emptiness at the apartment. It was good though; you really learn how to balance your budget in times like this.

I took a 3 minute video tour of the place so that everyone could see it. It looks really nice and we are so thankful to everyone that helped.

In the comments section please write a few of your favorite memories from Wendler. That apartment has really meant a lot to many people's spiritual growth. Man, we sure had some fun times there!

A Good Reason For A Pretzel "Cigar"

There are many reasons in life to enjoy a fine Utz' Pretzel "Cigar" with those that you love. This week it is the near completion of the Wendler Avenue Apartment One redo. We have actually had a lot of fun this month amidst the busy schedule of work, school, family, church, remodel.
When I lived at Wendler we called this room the study. Our children refer to it as Brian's room. It is hard for them to understand why Brian does not live there anymore and why they have to keep going there despite the fact that he is not there any longer. We just smile.

We tore out the old carpet and painted it with a nice fresh color. We redid the floor as well as hung blinds and curtains. I said to Miss Moes that this would make a perfect nursery/reading room for the next tenants.

Here is the breakfast nook. This room was white (but I do not think that we painted it when I bought the house in 1998...so we can just say that it was time for a fresh coat of paint).
We like the color a lot. It looks more minty in the picture, but it is actually a Fire-King Green. Nothing says 1930 like Fire-King Green. We also hung new curtains and blinds in this room.
Here is the kitchen. We did the lower areas in the green that Ray Lanning will covet and we did the top in a fresh white. I am pleased with how well it goes in the kitchen.

Here is the new floor that I have been working on. It is in the hallway as well as in the bathroom. I cut my finger while laying it and Anna obsessed over that for awhile.
Here is what I call Brian's room.

It is the infamous room that burned out in 2001, leaving us as sojourners in Grand Rapids. (I am sure that everyone has a story to go with that experience... like the maid walking into Shawn and my room at the Residence Inn and we not knowing Spanish could not explain ourselves!)

We also did cadmeon leather walls in this room to help maintain flow. We added new curtains and blinds in here as well.

We will show more as we finish. We have about 20% still to finish. We we very glad to have all of the help from Miss Moes as well as Mrs. Lanning coming and kidknapping our children today so that we could paint. (And yes, they came back in fine shape.)

Wendler Paint-A-Thon

We have many people to thank for coming out for the beginning of the Wendler restoration. We are hoping to have new tenants by the beginning of November. Brian did such a great job getting the living room cleaned out that Maggie and Anna celebrated with a few naps and some dance moves on the floor.
Brian was quite overwhelmed. According to legend he stayed awake for two days in preparation for the event. Notice that he has gone a little crazy. (I cannot tell you more due to health-care privacy acts- I could get sued.)
Here Maggie and Lydia work on the hallway. We repainted, patched some holes and tore out the carpet. Fun, fun.
Oma had one of the most important jobs of the day- keeping the monster that we love and know as Owen out of the way of the painters. She loved it!
Anna tackled covering Paige's stage of life called Army Green. Picasso had a Blue Period and Paige had an Army Green Period...Wendler is the result of this creative time in the life of Paige Jaquith.
Here is The Director and Nathan's HelpMeet working on the living room. Notice the color- Army Green. We have replaced it with a nice cadmium Leather. Very Nice!
Here are the two from the design team going over all of the swatches and choices to make this place look great. Marion is chief of Design and Lydia is chief of Financing.
Here my dad patched a ceiling that was the tragic result of an unclosed shower curtain. My dad wears these stilt things to plaster- he has done so for over 25 years. He actually fell to the ground for the first time. Anna said "opa fell down?" Yep! This is the reason that we tore out the carpet- too muddy after the fall. (I know you can only see his hands and his head- that is because he is wearing camo.)
Janna had the best jobs of all. She cleaned a bathroom that changed from gray to white. She also taped away. She could not stay as late as the rest of us, and she missed out on some greasy-licious Sluggo's Pizza because of it.
Here is the result of the living room. I think that it is 100% improvement. I am hoping to finish the rest soon. Anyone up for another party?

Public Service Announcement

Remember the Wendler Paint-a-thon will be this Friday from 12 until around 6-7-8pm.

We will provide paint, a brush, and some pizza. Hope to see you there!

You provide the (wo)man power.

The unveiling of Owen's room.....

Today was a perfect day as far as work around the house, run errands, and being busy is concerned. Days like this are much more satisfying upon completion of assignments and not having another major paper due until the end of next month. Today is good.

This afternoon I went to Sam's Club to pick up a deep freeze. After researching the best deals (some) we found Sam's to have the cheapest per cubic feet (and it is General Electric as well).

When I got home we put that thing in its proper place and then I went upstairs to finish Owen's room. This was my main goal for the day. I put the last coat of Terratoza Tan color on the wall and then I scrubbed the floor to a shine that it has not seen in years.

I hoped that my artwork came so that I could hang that as well. It came. Perfect timing.
Here are the last pictures that you may see. I still have some odds and ends things, but the major stuff is done.
The artwork is all from a little company called Wonderful Items . You can find a lot of vintage posters there and some other fine art reprints. I would much rather have vintage posters because they represent history, art, as well as some personal taste.

All of the posters are of children's art classes that were offered in the 1940s. I think that they are really cool, Lydia thinks that they may be a bit metro for a boy of 7 months. Oh well, its not like he will sleep in it for a few years.
Here are a few details of the posters. As I said, there are some things that I still would like to get. I need a wooden rocker, two older pine shelves, a beige rug (or something else that will match), and some more vintage toys .

Everyone is invited over to see it. Call ahead!
Vintage toys would make a great room warming gift...but they are not required. (Just appreciated.)

Owen's future bedroom

After the recovery from the basement project we have finally begun the former study's conversion into the future habitation of the dear, Owen Justice. For some reason I always choose this type of time to begin a project: 3 book reviews due, a 15 page ministry proposal, and a 30 page paper on the Puritan, Timothy Rogers (1658-1728), and his views on the causes and cures of melancholy (old school term for depression). Oh well, pressure does make diamonds, right?

Well, our dear friend Paige was kind enough to do the first coat of paint for us as well as complete the wall paper removal. (Remember it was MY study and the wall paper was roses and hydrangeas?)

We chose the bedding for the two beds that are going to be in the room. We chose taupe Woolrich down and suede comforter-throws with beige sheets and pillow sham. I think that it will look great.

We have begun the search for vintage posters for his room and I have found a company that had some really neat ones from the 1930s that were from children's art exhibits and art classes. (When they come in the mail I will post a picture.) Lydia does not think that they will work as well as I do...We will see. If we do not like them I can humble myself to say that they are not what we are looking for.

We also have been looking for some vintage toys to display in the room. My mother has promised me a pull toy from the late 40s/ early 50s. That will do! We also have located a tin airplane that is really nice. We will find some other things as well. (Mrs. Pickering, I do believe that your relative owns an antique toy store or company of some sort.....We will have to talk.) These are just the beginning. We still have a lot of work to do, but it will be done in the next couple of weeks or so. (On a side note: these beds are bunk beds that are twin size. I got them both for $60 from the Pine Rest Source.... They are Pine as well....hm?)

Let us know what you think!

Finis (That's Latin for finished!)

The basement is finally finished. This is the last basement post that deals with the renovation. (See the second post on this blog for a comparison!) There are some people that need to be thanked for getting this job done:

-Lawrence Malysa: the birthday gift.
-Sikma Construction: doing the majority of the work.
-Irmgard Malysa: the lovely couch (the capstone of the project.)
-James Eshelman: the 30+ hours of plaster & drywall work.
-Lydia Eshelman: putting up with the mess and my irritability through this whole project.
-Brian Anderson: many hours of labor and theological discussion.
-Paige Jaquith: many hours of labor and design ideas.
-Marion Pickering: design ideas.
-Starbucks: getting us through!

Enjoy the pictures. This adds a whole new dimension to Life on Union Avenue!

Here is one of the closets and some shelving...Lydia and I cataloged and alphabetized the thousands of books in my theological library to add to the project.
All of our artwork is vintage (teens-40s) posters that deal with books. This one is from a story hour club at a library.
This is my work area. Doug Sikma calls it the catacombs. (Google it.)
Here are more of the fantastic shelves. Notice the "butter cream" color in the background.
Here is the bathroom door. The bathroom is not finished at this time due to funds running out. We will finish this with-in the year.
A fantastic column that Doug Sikma built. The crown moulding is from the Lanning's 1860's Stick Style Victorian (thanks Ray!).
Here is the window seat which opens into a toybox as well as the built in bookshelf that holds some of our children's books. (This poster is from a children's story collection from 1915.)
Here is the couch as well as the stairs towards the kitchen. We love the carpet.
This is Lydia's work area. (It looks a little messier than mine but it is really well organized.) The poster here is a World War I poster requesting books to be mailed to the boys fighting in Europe.

Stop in and see it! (Basement warming party TBA!)

Basement Project, #643,467

The disorganization of these pics is a visual representation of our lives at the moment. The basement is near completion and our total house is in bedlam due to this.

We have decided that we could never buy a turn of the century home that needed total restoration...for we would go insane at the sight of the disarray.

To the left you see the area which will house my desk. The light that I found is very great for our home. It is a reproduction of a vintage model complete with amber globes. Lovely.



Notice the stairs and how rotty they are. Brian Anderson of "Poor Man's blog" helped in the deconstruction of the stairs. They had tile, linoleum, more tile, hardwood and burbur carpet over all of that. It is great anger management to remove 80 years of flooring from stairs.

Above is the terra cotta color as well. Lydia is very happy with this. We found a World War I library poster that goes with the colors very nicely.

Here is a good look at what the finished product will look like. At this point it is: carpet, hardware, upholster the window seat, paint and bring down all 10 of the bookshelves and we are on to business.

For now we sit in our own clutter. For some reason the last week of this project has effected the study, Anna's room, Owen's room, the living room, the dining room, and even the "Green Room". Next week folks. All done. Cannot wait another day!

Colours (that is English for colors)

I am sure that all are becoming weary of the basement updates. I am getting wearing from the work that goes into these posts (I mean the manual labor, not the blogging). Here are the colors that we chose for the basement. We wanted something that would be light due to the subterranian qualities, yet something that was striking as well. We chose terra cotta for the back wall and a buttercream for the other three walls including the study area.

Brian Anderson helped to paint on his free time. He is always a great help around here. If I am ever a BILLIONAIRE then I will hire him to be my groundskeeper & chef.

I took an hour break and went with the family over to the Vedra's house for some iced coffee and a slice of cake that Emily made. We discussed theology and parenting (surprised?) and of course had a great time watching Anna and Noah pester one-another!

The great quote of the day was from Oma Malysa, she said, concerning the colors, "Oh..you're getting creative".

I sure am Irm, I sure am.

Second coat is tomorrow, but I will spare you the details.

Next we have trim, finishing of the electrical, and carpet..then all are invited to the basement open house!

Cruddy Study

In between being scheduled full time at work, being a full time Master's candidate, and my many familial duties there are "fun" things that must occur in order to get our basement finished and the guest room (someday Owen's) finished. We are looking forward to having the order back in our home that we normally have....But for now we live in bedlam!

Here are some of today's pics of our study being de-shelved and packed up. (Of course it is in alphabetical order and all are being cataloged before they go into their respective boxes.

Here is where we are. We have de-shelved A thru L with the exception of the one's that slip through our compulsive eyes. It is amazing how many books have been done...At least 1000 thus far, I would imagine, and probably 20-25 boxes.
Here is a look at the mess at Lydia's desk. We will each have our own study areas and we are looking forward to that. Sharing space is awful when two OCD people live in the same house and have differing methods of organization! (So, we are little crazy?)
Here is Anna playing amongst the books. She thought that climbing them was a fun expedition. We had to put an end to it when she climbed to the six feet mark. (A little safety is a wise thing.)
Lydia worked while I cataloged and boxed...It seems that she has given up on a clean desk for now. (The book by her right hand is on "no cry" sleep solutions for toddlers. She borrowed it from the La Leche League library.)
The pile of boxes grows as shelves begin to be cleared. I am amazed at how many books are on the shelves that have not been referenced for years. Even with the amount of papers and research that goes on in the study many are not touched once they are read.
Anna thought that since we were both busy she would be at liberty to use a blue-green Sharpie on the folding chair as well as paint her nails with it. I thought that it was so funny but maintained a straight face when telling her that she has to let mama or papa paint her nails. (She has great fine motor skills for her age, if you ask me.)
Here is a cry for help! I think that she would like to do something more Anna focused right now. I guess that a bath and getting ready for bed is a good thing. She has to go play with Noah tomorrow at La Leche League! (She loves Noah!)

More to come as our remodel continues.