OK, now I'm too scared to do my kitchen . . . can't really start until spring anyway. You know you're an old house freak though when despite all those creepy things you found, all I can think about is the piece of cool old wallpaper in one of the buckets to be dumped out. I hope you were able to keep a sample or something. I did pry off a bunch of ugly aluminum tiles that were serving as a back splash for the stove to find neat old paper with a turquoise brick and flower pattern--where the adhesive pulled off the layers of paint. Overall, I don't think I improved the look of the kitchen. My husband says now it just looks like vintage run-down bordello.

Best of luck on your redo & thanks for the pictures!

From a black hole....to this. Mind you, it's been six years....LOL

We tore out all the lathe and plaster (cracking and hanging and NOT original) and found beadboard everywhere--walls, ceilings, wainscoting. After painting, it looks pretty good. I love my kitchen, but the house is for sale come spring. Oh well, start again...LOL

Hee hee! We found a really cool mummified rat in our crawl space. And a bunch of bones--just like you! One of them was a jaw bone with teeth in it. We haven't been able to identify them yet, but my dad (a former doctor) thinks they might be human! (But he's old and a little "nutters," so I'm not convinced!)

Francy

bayareafrancy: "Hee hee! We found a really cool mummified rat in our crawl space. And a bunch of bones--just like you! One of them was a jaw bone with teeth in it. We haven't been able to identify them yet, but my dad (a former doctor) thinks they might be human! (But he's old and a little "nutters," so I'm not convinced!)Francy"

I have a master's in physical anthropology--is it a complete jawbone or fragmentary? Did your dad actually see the bones yet? It's been a little while since I've worked with any human bone collections, but now I'm curious to see them. When I was in school we would have lab practicals where 'mystery' bones of different types, including human and animal bones and non-bone objects, were placed in a sealed box and we had to identify the fragments by touch alone through a hole in the box.

Francy -- maybe your house is haunted! and your ghost has something against ... farm sinks! :-)

My husband and I hope to get to work on the kitchen next winter. He works seasonal, and that is the only time to get the really big projects done. We moved the kitchen from one end to a middle room for better access. To keep things simple, we just cut up the old cabinets and stuck them in place. Our plans were to finish everything else in the house and then get back to the kitchen. Didn't want to trash new stuff while working in other areas.

Since those pictures were taken, we got the back wall extended and made a recess for the fridge and a wall of cabinets.

We aren't sure exactly what we're going to do yet. The basic layout will be the same but the specifics may change. We'll be making our own cabinets with the goal of having them look more like furniture than contemporary cabinets usually do. I'm looking for lots of ideas. I'll use updated appliances, but I don't want the kitchen to seem too modern.

We also dealt with the scat, bones and other unpleasantness. The scary things included no headers above any of the doors or windows (no wonder nothing worked right) and lots of rot. But the worst was the electrical.

Uncovered junction boxes with exposed wires in the attic

Mouse chewed wires with the insulation gone (these were in the ceiling for the light fixture.

And this one - someone had drilled a hole for the antenna and hit the wires for the heaters (220). When they converted to electric heat - the electrician ran the wires on the exterior of the building - under the siding. The cut wire was still hot.

Cathy

Ahhhh, these 'before' pictures bring back such fond memories!

heres ours-
when we bought it

after a minor facelift

after the re-do

did your floors smell even worse when you lifted the new pergo? yup that was our house with the hidden dog spot in the corner. i think it's been eradicated..i'll let you know come summer. not to hijack, but decodilly i really like your pendant light over the sink, would you mind telling me where it came from? also, i like the earlier poster's freestanding lazy susan, it reminds me of the way we used the dishwasher in the box as an island for a few months (just put a tablecloth over it). kren

Kren, It was from Rejuvenation Lighting in satin nickel.

Here is a link that might be useful: light

Man that's a lot of poop! I'm SO glad we have no signs of visitors.

I have to see if I can still find my before/after pictures...

Here we go

Before:

I'm in LOVE with decodilly's range....!

The Rejuvenation is terrific, ain't it? LOL

Thanks Vivian! We like it too. It is a late 30's Wedgewood and it has double ovens and broilers so it's a real workhorse. But it is a weird size-42'' so it had better not ever break down!

Total hijack of thread - ThatGirl, I see greyhounds! (*swoon*) Whaty beautiful dogs!

Decodilly, I'm quite sure its a behemoth! LOL Vintage ranges are highly undervalued in my book. I would really like my next range to be of that particular era--or a Lacanche. Did you have yours restored, or did it always look that great?

We dog-sit a greyhound that looks like the brindle in the picture. Retired racer. She is the absolute sweetest dog on the planet. I LOVE her...

Vivian, We did have it restored, at least mostly. We did not have the body re- porcelained, and it does have a few flaws on the legs. It had been left outside for a couple of years so it did need a bit of work. I am hoping to get the correct salt and pepper shakers for it. The ones we have are for a different model stove.

Try Craig's List when you are ready to find one.

We re done our kitchen.Outside the house there use to be a huge black walnut tree.It hung over the house years ago.We found thousands of walnuts in ceiling.
I did find a huge bone in yard.Looks like from knee to foot bone.We were told they found something on our property that pertainecd to the civil war.deserters they thought.dont know what..

We are redoing mine now.My cabnets are from 1950 and are medel.We painted them white.My floor has red lanolinum(sp)With different collered flowers,it is being replaced.Thank God.LOL The walls right now are nasty yellow collered.They will soon be very light blue and a darker shade of blue.

Got any before pix for us?

Our kitchen is oh so close to being done, the electricians were working away at the last finishing touches and there was a fire in some real important box that runs the feeders for the salmon pens--those fish would be mighty hungry with out the guys making a dash from our kitchen job to get the feeders going again! They hope to be back "in a day or two"..... we have several rooms just one or two items away from being DONE!

Leasa

Here is a link that might be useful: a done room....