The Red Light

(I am making a vain attempt to not have TLC running through my head as I compose this post.)

Recently I overheard Duece mention something about the red light at church; I think they must have had a tour or something, in any event I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about. It had never really occurred to me that there was a red light near the tabernacle. I guess in my mind it was just vestiges of the 70s when cranberry or amber glass was popular for votives. But our new priest had made a big deal about having an Irish American family move the marble tabernacle from just off the altar to front and center.

Me. W took the boys on a Cub Scout camping trip over the weekend and my mom happened to call to see if someone could spend the night and I only had Little Miss to offer her. So what did I do with my kid free weekend? I went to Mass st my childhood parish of course! 🤓 While I was there I noticed that they had also moved the tabernacle back to the center of the altar and that their free standing red light had moved with it.

I decided that it was high time that I investigate the meaning of the special red light. I went deep; I went to Wikipedia. They are called Sanctuary lamps or chancel lamps and they are placed near the tabernacle to indicate the presence of Christ. The lamps are often colored red, although this is not the law, to distinguish them from the other votives in the sanctuary. It can be suspended from the ceiling by a chain, afixed to the wall, on a ledge, or on a stand. Basically I have seen these special red lights everywhere in every configuration and never paid any attention. I’m shocked, frankly, based on my habit of noticing small details like this. But now I know thanks to my son. You learn a new thing every day. 

Boom Truck

Slowly, but surely we are completing the conversion from oil to natural gas. We had a lot of excitement this week with both the oil tank decommissioning and today the HVAC crew was back with a boom truck to install the gas insert for the fireplace. I know I was originally thinking of waiting until the tile was set to have them back out to install, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it would be better to have them put the motor in place first rather than having to slide it in over newly installed hearth tiles. On a related not I finally placed an order for the tiles from both Pratt & Larson and Derby! Yay! Only 4-6 weeks to wait so we should have a completely installed fireplace just in time for warmer weather.

I had the tile setters out to review since they were last here in October before I had the demo done and we didn't have the unit on site. They verified my tile quantities. Our final selection is 4x4 Victoria tiles in Amber from Derby for the fireplace surround. (The sample here is in Butternut.) I ordered a few pencil liner tiles in the same finish to fill in an anticipated gap along the top of the fireplace unit. We're just about a 1/2 inch short so I'm hoping using the same finish will make it less noticeable.  The hearth will have the Aidan circles border in Amber with charcoal pencil liners. The hearth field will be P&L 2x6 tiles in the #WV35 mottled Victorian colorway and they will be brick set. The tile setters will set the tiles as closely together as possible to minimize the grout lines so it has a more Victorian look rather than a modern looking wide grout line. I'm very excited!! I've spent endless hours looking at photos of original fireplace tile installations online so I'm feeling confident that I'm making the right choices here within our budget.

 But on the the major excitement for little boys:the Boom truck! Since the chimney is so tall, and our roof pitch is kinda steep, the project manager felt more confident hiring a boom truck to be allow the crew to lower the ducting from the top down. We had a little melodrama first thing, the boom truck arrived right away and the guys determined that I hadn't been sold the correct attachment for a top venting installation. Certainly I should have been sold the correct attachment since she also sold me 40' of ducting so it obviously isn't a direct side vent installation. Basically it was a SNAFU, just like when I was working. The fireplace shop wasn't open yet so I was calling to the manufacturer to confirm the right part we needed. Part of the problem is the online specs which were all I was given pretty much had the correct part listed so it is unclear why I received the wrong thing. To complicate things, Our Little Helper has the day off from school AND I had made cookies for a funeral at church that needed to be dropped of by 9 AM. SO there was a lot of running around between our house and Irvington. I was so tired by mid afternoon, I wondered how I had managed to survive a day like this when I was pregnant the first time and still working. Then it occurred to me I didn't also have two little boys to drag around with me or shush while making dozens of phone calls. In the end the saleswoman realized her mistake and had the correct part in stock.

Here the boom truck is set up and is lowering the box for a passenger. The ducting is also all laid out on the pathway.
 
The view from below. OLH asked me if the guy was excited or scared to go up on the roof like that. I suggested he ask him afterward. He said he was a little of both.

 Getting lowered onto the roof. There is a flat section in the middle of the roof, so he was able to work up there and have a flat area to lower the box.

 Once out of the box he was able to lower the ducting down the chimney. Everything was so rushed when the boom truck arrived, they wanted to hurry up and finish since they are charged for the time they use. But in hind sight I really should have had them tarp over the firebox opening. The ducting being shoved down the chimney sent cloud of soot into the family room apparently since everything ended up being covered by a thin layer of sootiness.

 Ducting installed and the firebox and hearth area cleaned up. The gas line was added during the work completed in November.

 The Valor President gas insert installed without the decorative cover. We opted for the coal burning look since the house originally had a coal burning furnace and I imagine they may have burned coal in the one fireplace too. We can use it now, but without the outside cover the glass gets very hot so we'll probably only use it once the children are in bed for now.

 After a day of so much excitement an pretzel snack was in order.

Fireplace developments

A lot has changed in the word of our fireplace since yesterday's post. A lot has changed just since this morning!
Yesterday I perused all the pretty tiles from those two tile links and began dreaming of tile layouts for the hearth as a future project. Then I decided to search for marbleized slate mantles online so I could get ideas of what the fireplace surround and summer covers would have typically looked like.
A few were at salvage yards. This one is missing it's summer cover. It is at a salvage yard in Columbus.

 
 Here are a couple with original tile and the metal coal grates or surrounds. Both at a salvage yard in Chicago.


Another one missing it's summer cover. It is nearly as simple as ours. This one is from Pennsylvania.

This one is a home that is on the market in Maryland. Very good looking, although the newer granite hearth is a little disappointing.

My favorite was this one from the Tippecanoe Co. Courthouse.  I was especially excited to see the tiled hearth. It is just like the tile options I saw from OHI. At least I knew I'd be headed in the right direction for a future tile layout.

But all that changed after this morning's walk through with the brick mason. Mr. W happened to be home so he got to listen in. The mason discouraged us from doing a gas log set up because we would have to have the damper constantly open to allow for ventilation for the pilot light. Long story short we pulled up the specs to the Victorian style gas insert we liked from the very beginning to look at the specifications. The mason instead recommended that we demo and remove the firebox and within the chimney cavity we would then have adequate space to accommodate the insert's engine and ducting.
The only unknown was would there be some unforeseen something inside the chimney that would prevent us from using the insert and would instead force us to rebuild the firebox and keep with a traditional wood burning fireplace. The prospect is very disappointing now that we have our hearts set on the easy of gas!  We all decided that I would try to locate a local distributor and find out if there was any way to do a return should the worst case unforeseen happen.
The insert I think that would work best for us is the President, it is the simplest which I think is best to prevent taking away attention from the mantlepiece. And I was able to find a couple of local dealers and the one in Irvington even had a model on the showroom floor! I got pricing over the phone from both. It turns out that the President and Senator do not have the same metal panel around them like the arched  one. I guess I thought i would have a little more wiggle room to cover the gaps. Nope. The unit is a lot smaller than I thought and it turns out we will end up with a 4" gap on the top and both sides. You know what that means, right?  A tiled surround!!!
I really shouldn't get so excited, poor Mr. W this fireplace project is getting out of control. He and OLH left for a mini vacation today so I broke the news to him via email. Not only my suggestion of replacing the hearth now, but also the necessity of creating and tiling a surround. Since the mason today suggested the gas insert , it just didn't seem prudent to me to delay replacing the hearth  becasue we would then have to uninstall the insert then to demo the existing hearth and lay a new one. Which would also risk damaging a new tiled surround.
Now my dreams of tile layouts need to be much more serious.
Dear God, please let this cycle be successful so we can stop paying for infertility treatments.

A drive out to Milwaukie

When I drove out to Casa de Tamale for Candlemas, I brought along my camera to take a few photos of the awesome olf neon at Pietro's Pizza. I think this must have been the original location since it has such an awesome sign. In the 1980s there were many locations including the Pietro's Engine House Pizza Parlor where my family walked to dinner every Friday night in Irvington. I've never eaten at this location, but have long admired its neon.
Admittedly the photos would be better at dusk. The neon shifts so that he looks like his feet are moving very quickly. On the north side of the sign the neon was actually on, perhaps because this side faces the highway more?Next door there is a Mid Century bowling alley which has a neon sign of its own.That building has a pierced concrete block exterior screen. And a rather dull paint job.

House hunting (again!)

Since we have receive no response from the sellers of the Mt. Tabor house, we decided we ought to keep our search open. We saw a listing for a Colonial Revival in Irvington with stained woodwork and a remodeled kitchen so we decided to take a break out of our already overcrowded schedule and fit in a viewing. I had done a drive by during a car ride nap and noticed that they had lots of bunting stung across the street and a four square court painted on the street in front of the house. Clearly this is a neighborly block, which would be a refreshing change.
I really wanted to like this house. Really, I did. On paper it is great, only a few blocks from my parish, but quite close to the shopping and dining district on Broadway. A cute inglenook near the fireplace in the living room. But, it just has some weird layout issues and the wood work is actually in really bad shapes. It appears like it was a DIY stripping job; the fronts have been refinished, but the sides of the trim are still painted over and match the wall color which results in the trim losing its depth visually.Some of the wood on the built in colonnade is in such poor condition it looks like it has been scratched by dogs.In the dining room I noticed that it looked like they had just applied stain to the wall because they were missing the apron. But when I got closer, I realized that the apron was still there, it just was now flush with the wall. They must have overlaid the plaster with drywall to cover up damage rather than having it properly restored. Not only that, but the stained trim was covered in micro paint splatter, like they couldn't be bothered to tape off the trim when they rolled the walls. It seems such a shame considering how nice the box beam ceiling is in there.The kitchen has been remodeled and it is nice. The maple cabinets, stone counter tops, hardware, and apron front sink are all lovely. I'm not sure how it functions, but my concern is the island in the middle won't seat our whole family. When I looked at the online photos, I was hoping the mud room in the back would be large enough to accommodate our kitchen table, but it seems probably too small. Also Mr. W worries the breakfast/coffee bar will be wasted space. I love the idea of them, but have never lived with it in application.Upstairs there is what looks like maybe a sleeping porch which has been converted into a bedroom. I say this based upon the casement window hardware and ghosts of awning screens. Irvington may be very tony, but the view is littered with everyone elses rear dormers. That is among the things I feel spoiled about with the Mt. Tabor house. The lot is so large, and there is a large, high hedge, that it feels so private; there is no other house right on top of you.A nice period bathroom. Vinyl flooring isn't my fav, but nothing terrible.The bedrooms in this house are all very small. One has a built in dressing table, which I loved. Now, old drawers tend to rack, especially long ones, so I pulled open the center drawer to see how it functioned. I normally do not open up people's drawers. Well, I found a bong. And not hidden or anything either. Right there on the top front of the drawer. Seemed an odd accessory for a house like this. They bought the house in 1987. I shouldn't make assumptions, but I wouldn't expect pot heads to own this home. Mayhaps it is medicinal marijuana? Anyway, an odd thing to store in a room staged in a nursery. One of our requirements for moving is a separate family room and living room. This house had a family room listed on the 2nd floor. I think it was originally a bedroom though and they removed a wall dividing it from the hallway. This would explain the heat vent in the middle of the floor. The converted attic is listed as the master suite and there is a small bathroom up there. But this is a little too rugged for me. I'd make this the boys' bedroom and let them hoof it all the way to the top floor. It would be SO hard to negotiate an adult size mattress and furniture up there.Don't get me wrong, I love beaded board, but not in my bedroom!
Instead I would want to make the family room space our bedroom, but it lost all its privacy when it lost that wall dividing it from the hallway. I envision children tramping through our room on their route upstairs.You can see a better view of where the wall would have been here. I'd have to pull up all the carpet to see if there are clues in the subflooring for where the door opening would have been. For a master bedroom the closet is somewhat spacious and has a built in too. Another bummer is the original windows have all been stripped fromt he house (there weren't picture windows during the Colonial Revival) and this room doesn't even have sashes! The glass is just wedged into the trim. It wasn't quite this bad in the window openings downstairs, but most of the windows would need to be replaced with appropriate ones which is another expense.
So if I take back the family room for our bedroom, that leaves converting this basement room to living space. Imagine the tv set here. Making it over would be an additional expense; Mr. W is underwhelmed to say the least. Like I said, I tried really hard to like this house, but it needs too much work and it just can't compare to the Mt. Tabor house.

A weekend of house hunting

Friday night we met our realtor at the Victorian townhouse in Buckman. I knew going in that I probably wouldn't want it based upon the white painted woodwork and the location on a busy street. But it did have a beautiful, unpainted fireplace mantel and a sizeable corner lot with a garage. I've been admiring the restoration the owners have been doing over the last few years since we pass this house all the time. The interior woodwork is mostly intact and the floor plan hasn't been muddled much. It had an eat in kitchen which we like and need. However because it is a town house the rooms are small, compared to the Mt. Tabor house, the front parlor wouldn't accommodate our sofa and chair well. And like the Mt. Tabor house the only fireplace is in the dining room, which the current owners use as a living room. The upper bedrooms were well sized but only 3 with the 4th being on the dormered 3rd story which is a guest suite and not appropriate or safe for small children. The clincher for Mr. W was a replacement, metal casement window which opened right at floor level at the top of the stairs. He had horrible visions of Eric Clapton's son. :( It did have an awesome wine cellar in the basement though to inspire him.And a view of downtown from the balcony.
The next day we met at a Tudor Revival on Alameda Ridge. I knew the woodwork was still stained and the kitchen looked like it might be original. It also had an awesome jazz age bathroom. I was initially surprised at the asking price since it is on Alameda, but it isn't on the view side of the street, so that is probably why. We came in through the back door and the first thing I noticed was the original patterned linoleum, which I followed down the hall into the kitchen. I looked up and saw the great metal drawer pulls when it hit me: these were metal kitchen cabinets! So awesome! And the plastic laminate counter top was likely original too! The jazz age yellow back splash certainly was. The kitchen is modest, but to find such an intact kitchen is a rare find. Most of the ones I have seen in the photos online seem to be very nice, brand new dated kitchens. That is to say, they look great and impressive now, but in 15 years they won't. It has the sweetest little adjoining breakfast room too. The dining room and living rooms are well sized. It reminded Mr. W and me a lot of the house Mrs. H grew up in, and since I spent half my childhood there, it was very nostalgic for me. I was really beginning to fall for this house, much more than I thought I would. There were some photographs of the owners in the house as far back as the 50s. A wonderful wrought iron banister lead me upstairs to the awesome peach jazz age bathroom. I forgot it had a built in dressing table! It also has a tiled shower stall in addition to the bathtub. Oh how I love this bathroom. I could easily find a period appropriate pedestal sink to replace the existing 50s one. The bedrooms were huge, compared to our bungalow. The master is nice, the largest room I'd have the boys share and the third could be the playroom/guest room for now until we have baby #3.
Down in the basement is a finished family room with a raised hardwood floor and a brick fireplace! This would make a great Lloyd Yoder Memorial Theatre! So the Mt. Tabor house is still my first choice, but this one would make a wonderful consolation prize if we can't get it.

The next house in Irvington I knew was too small, but wanted to see simply for the lavender Jazz Age bathroom. OMG! I was so in love and had to remind myself how dumb it would be to move to a same size house just for a bathroom. But damn! It is awesome!
The next house was a Foursquare in Sullivan's Gultch, but I didn't read the map carefully and didn't realize it was on a busy street with an ugly, infill apartment building behind it so we didn't even go in.
The final house we looked at had a dining room ceiling that literally made me gasp when I was looking at photos in the listing. The exterior though made we worried that there had been a fire or something in its past because the overhangs are missing from the upper stories. Situated right on Vista Ave on an extreme slope, the house seems to be settling and shifting downhill. It is a total money pit and I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I know I'm not a West Side girl, I just didn't realize how busy Vista is.
The lesson I learned this weekend is how to comprehend the listing so that I can eliminate houses from our search to save our time and energy. I also think we should focus on packing rather than house hunting to avoid getting our hearts set on something that we aren't ready to make an offer on and then we get disappointed.