2 Projects for the Fall

2 big life changes since the beer tour. First, I’ve been eating those vegetables for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. And second, the joy of NOT working on the house isn’t strong enough to get me to shrug off certain glaringly unfinished pieces anymore. An aside, the Philly shrug is an important part of this city’s identity. I’m not sure if I can explain why it’s endearing at the same time when it also gives us trash strewn streets, a grand city hall with window unit air conditioners, and a robust transit system that still uses tokens. (Okay, that last one might also have something to do with rabidly anti-urban state legislators.)

So as for what I don’t want to shrug off anymore? Did you notice the marble I was ignoring just to the right of the steps? Yikes.

I let this go because the whole façade needs to be stripped and there’s only 7 ½ feet of sidewalk separating it from parked cars and I need to save up for somebody with liability insurance to do the deed. But now that the steps look so good and the rest of the marble base looks so bad… I went out for the masonry paint stripper the GSA recommends for historic masonry. So yeah, maybe my house (left) won’t look so gross anymore. (But remember, the brick to the right was not restored correctly.)

Yep, that goes against all of my old sensible plans. I decided that this is happening Saturday, and I’ll just have to find a way to protect the stranger’s car that will be parked right out front of my house. The idea of splashing harsh chemicals terrifies me. I’ll probably put a tarp over the cars.

I called the Irishman asking what to do about this. He told me, “Don’t worry about it. I put the most caustic things there are in the street just yesterday. If anyone gives you shit about it, come to me and I’ll take care of ’em.”

So wish me luck.

Then there are 2 pigtail lights in my house even though I’ve owned real light fixtures all along. Neither is usable right now but I’m eager to get them working. I’m having some work done to this pan light, so the next time you see it, it’ll be actually be safe to use and I’ll tell you more about it then.

Then, do you remember this chrome chandelier?

I bought it early on and it’s been at my parents’ house until this week. I knew from the beginning that it needs a new chain and ceiling canopy and that the center wire is too short. At the lighting place I went to, the lady also straightened out the bent arms and sold me nice chain and the paper insulators it needs. This was great but I balked at the cost of having it rewired and took it home to do it myself. I felt a little bad not to give them the job after she was very nice and helpful, but decided that it’s good enough that I’m already spending good money on the other one.

And plus, I have a lingering fear that this chandelier will never be my style and will stick out like a sore thumb in my house. We’ll see though – I’ve played it safe with most of my decorating choices and maybe something jarringly blingy and modern will be fun.

Speaking of blingy, this piece used to have 30 crystals hanging from the arms that don’t have lights. What do you think about these?

So How’d That Beer Tour Go?

I bet you want to know how the tour/party went, but first one of the last things I did to clean for it. In contrast to what I talked about hearing from my steps last week, the steps themselves wasn’t white enough. It used to be a thing that everyone would scrub their marble steps every week. (This photo is Baltimore, whose rowhouses are an awful lot like Philly’s.)

The plan was always to start this tradition back up after I was done lugging building materials in but… that never happened. Anyways, my mom had bought me Comet cleanser ages ago, but I wanted Bon Ami. Not because it’s any better or anything but remember that big photo of my great-great grandmother?

Well, she lived about 500 feet away and she used Bon Ami. But I went to 2 stores and neither had it, so Comet it is. So here’s what I started with:

And here it was after the Comet. Much better but some persistent black stains still ground in.

Then out comes the Irishman and he says, “I’ll get that off for you in 10 seconds.” And he sprayed them with muriatic acid. This is NOT one of the recommended techniques for restoring historic masonry. So it was scary, especially when the marble started fizzing. But here’s the result!

Then the Irishman did his own marble – not the original slabs like I have. This time I got a photo of the fizzing.

And, never a dull moment, he hosed off his car just in case. THANK GOD it was his parked right here in case anything had happened! Also note his signature lack of personal protective equipment when working with dangerous chemicals.

Then the inside prep. We took away most of the furniture. I said early on that I didn’t want my grandmother’s table because it has a leg in every spot you’d want a chair. I guess I forgot how great a gate leg table is for something like this. And the menu. My mom said that the things other people planned didn’t include enough vegetables so I made massive amounts of hummus, baba ganoush, red lentil balls, and crudités. And remember, it makes all the difference in the world to blanch your crudités. Quench them in an ice water bath so they stay crunchy. The colors are way brighter this way and I’d say the flavor is too.

The Indonesian place around the corner (One of the places that were indispensable when I was kitchenless) provided a platter of vegetable fritters. And of course the fried food is what went. Now I’m planning every way possible to use up half a shopping cart’s worth of vegetables. And then there was how the guests fit. Definitely pushing the limits of what the Crooked House can hold. Just don’t tell the fire marshal I did this.

Obligatory bottleneck in the kitchen. The keg was out back. Some people said my kitchen design was too closed in, but I don’t think it’ll ever matter this much again (Unless I’m a beer tour host next year).

But all this make ahead, room temperature food (and the help of my parents and aunt) let me go to every house. Even though our visits to the houses before (seen below) and after mine were cut short.

I should keep this entertaining thing now.

 

 

 

On Deplorable Screeds and Window Dressing

I write about problems like my terror of having the back exterior stuccoed in a texture that doesn’t look old. Sure, there are real problems that I care about, but there’s always someone who knows more about them than I do. And aside from what I know well enough to write about it, avoiding controversy is an important way to stay happy day to day.

Then on Saturday there was a canvasser coming around to register voters. My dad and I were chatting with him a bit when a neighbor let out an unhinged screed of misogynistic insults and unhooded racism, as well as bad words including the one that’s been all over the news this past week. You can ask me to e-mail you if I’m being too subtle. My standards are lower in a closed message. But it gets worse. He had the Irishman’s 3 and 5 year olds with him. Hopefully they didn’t pick up on all of it.

My roommate was downstairs, too, at this point. The three of us just stood there. I said something snippy at the end but didn’t stick around to find out if he heard me. Standing there might have been the way to put this situation to bed but I’ve been stewing over it ever since. But what would be worth doing? Saying nothing was bad but saying something could be oh so much worse. In the end all I could come up with was, well, window dressing.

 

I’d say the signs lend a little class to my grotty façade. Now I can’t take credit for the orange Halloween lights; that’s my roommate’s doing. But I am proud of the DIY typesetting job I did for the sign on the right (which shouldn’t be controversial by the way). Microsoft Word really isn’t made for this. And after being on a war path for a couple days I think I’m ready to have an argument if I must. After all, this screed wasn’t just disgusting. I’ve sung my praises of this tidy little block and seeing someone chased off of it with the most disgusting insults possible is downright embarrassing. Plus, those kids next door may have to hear more than their share of ugliness, but it can’t hurt to throw a little wholesome discourse into the mix.

Well. I’ve drifted really, really far from the intended point of this blog. Next week I’ll be back to normal things like the missing parts to my vintage light fixtures. I promise.

Opening the Crooked House to the Public!

I’m gonna be on a house tour! Or actually better than that, a beer tour. This one will be especially interesting because the whole group moves from house to house on a schedule. That means I can expect about 70 people. And remember, this room is basically the whole house.

So this should be interesting. But I’m excited. Also I’m relieved to be early enough that if it spills onto the sidewalk people won’t hate me.

And because I’m sure you’re either dying to come (or devastated to be too far away), here’s the event information!

The East Point Breeze Neighbors Association (Formerly Newbold Neighbors) will be hosting their 10^th annual ‘Beer Tour’ fundraiser on October 15^th. The wildly successful and fun event attracts about 100 attendees each year.  The Beer Tour is a wonderful opportunity to meet new neighbors, eat great food, drink delicious beer, and tour some of the wonderful homes in the Newbold area.

Starting at 5:00 on Saturday, October 15^th, we will journey through 5 different houses in the neighborhood.  Each house will feature food paired with 2 different beers. At the first house, each ticket holder will receive a pint glass designed by a local neighborhood artist, a map outlining the remaining homes and the beginnings of a good time. This event is 21+, so please bring your ID and make sure to buy your tickets in advance as the Beer Tour always sells out early.

East Point Breeze Neighbors is a non-profit civic organization established in 2007 serving residents, owners, and businesses in the Point Breeze area of South Philadelphia west of Broad St. to 18th St. and south of Washington Ave. to Passyunk Ave. EPBN strives to engage residents, support sustainable development, promote local businesses, and strengthen our community through clean streets, greening efforts, public safety, planning, zoning, and outreach. The money raised on the beer tour goes toward community efforts like Big-Belly trash cans, block clean up days, and supplies for the community garden.

Event Details

Who: East Point Breeze Neighbors Association

What: 2016 East Point Breeze Beer Tour

When: Saturday, October 15, 2016 5-10pm

Where:  Newbold section of Point Breeze

Why: Meet your neighbors and help raise funds for community improvement projects.

How: Buy your tickets through this link: https://www.universe.com/events/10th-annual-east-point-breeze-neighbors-beer-tour-tickets-YGN1L4

There will be a 50/50 so please bring some cash.

Of Mice and Bloodlust

I went home Monday after 4 nights with my parents. It was kind of late when I got home and I was tired so I put off unloading non-perishable groceries until right before my bedtime. And then I noticed green dust coating most of the bottom of the cabinet. It was always a little dirty – some onion skins dropped in the back behind the carousel and I ignored them, figuring they were harmless. This was obviously different, being everywhere and an unsettling color. Then I noticed what looked an awful lot like a tail sticking out underneath a bag of split peas.

As you can imagine, my bedtime got pushed back. All of my bagged and boxed food wound up in the trash or in pots and pans with the lid on. I needed the roommate’s help to lift the carousel up and clean under it. Yes, somehow the chewed up split peas made it all the way underneath.

I got to bed crabby but had a wonderful dream. In it, I got all the adult mice with snap traps, but their babies were too small. But I lifted up that carousel and found them there, huddled together. The adults were chewing up the split peas and tossing them down there to them. I smashed the whole lot of them with a dictionary. I seem to also remember chasing after them with my chef knife.

Back in the real world, I’ve had superfun outings to buy food storage canisters, mousetraps, and those electric mouse repellent things. The Irishman told me that they worked brilliantly at his house, which might have something to do with why they’re at mine now. We’ve noticed much less activity lately than Monday when it seemed to have peaked. But… the peanut butter I’ve been putting on the traps is now attracting ants! Oh joy.

All this is adding up to me becoming a lot more cold blooded than I used to be. Not that I’ll actually start running around the house driving knives after them – that would be crazy and make a wreck of the house. In the beginning my stomach would drop when I found a sprung trap. Now I find them less gross than dog poop, and I pick them up the same way. If I had another one sitting still in front of me there’s a good chance I’d pin it down and smashing its skull with a can of soup. I’d bleach the can but have no problem eating it either. And when I was in bed last night and heard a snap, I just smiled. My kill count is at 5 and is slowing down.

Anyways, I have over a dozen mouse traps out. There are ant baits next to most of them. And there’s fly tape up because apparently pests come in 3’s. This was by far my most expensive week since I stopped working on the house. But now my pantry holds more than ever, and it almost even looks good! Plus, this could be an early step toward my goal of buying more bulk food and less packaging.

For the record, I’m not actually a sadist. I’m still unwilling to use glue traps. Hopefully there will be more to say about my house soon. At this point, it’s basically unchanged since June. Except my plants are dead. Womp womp.

The Great Yard Sale of 2016

Yes, it happened! My parents along with 5 other neighbors. Here are a few little stories.

The next town over had a borough wide garage sale event this weekend, starting at 9 both days. I wanted to start at 7. The other neighbors refused. I got in a huff and said it’s not their decision if I’m making the Craigslist ads, and I’m more concerned with selling things than being well liked by former neighbors. I lost and we advertised starting at 8, but started setting up at 5:30. The first customer was there at 6:40. I wasn’t playing around. We wanted to get rid of all this!

We sold about half of it and made $430. Let’s try to ignore how much time we spent prepping for it over the last 2 months. At least we were thorough saying goodbye to our stuff and finding it a good home!

We had so much stuff we had to  get things out and fill the basement to sort, appraise, clean, and advertise things. Then we boxed them up and they disappeared to where we’d never find them again. Then we had to do it all a second time in the 2 days before the sale.

I joined about 12 yard sale groups on Facebook to advertise the sale. I thought it was an achievement to get my newsfeed to show me mostly news and a minimum of dinner plate and workout information. Now it is overrun with junk furniture spiffed up with Annie Sloan chalk paint.

15 years ago after my grandfather died we had an estate sale inside his house after taking away the things we wanted. One dealer was walking around the house peering through windows after we made her leave and locked the doors. Dealers fought with each other, made piles, dragged the items they claimed away from other dealers. My grandmother grew up in a Polish coal mining family and so you can guess how many times her dining room table even saw the light of day in the 45 years they owned it. That day it got scratched for the first time. One woman came in wearing what my mom said was a $500 coat and found a half empty box of sanitary napkins in the bathroom and asked my mom how much we wanted for them. Mind you, there weren’t women young enough to need them staying in his house very often. We were hoping for all of that stuff this time around.

This time, everyone was disappointingly sensible. The craziest person was the man next door. His wife said that my grandmother’s dining room chairs were pretty and close to what she wants but not quite, and too big for the room. My mom said, “Watch him come force them on her.” He came by and offered $50. My mom refused. If she really wanted them, they’d have been free.

We thought it made sense to group things by style. People would be into one type of thing, right? But no one did it that way. The first customer to buy lots of things had one old fancy thing, one old rustic thing, some basic frying pan from the “dorm” department, and 5 fishing rods. Yes, this was basically the department store of yard sales. Next one my dad plans to clean out the garage so it will be more like Sears.

Remember what my parents’ basement looked like when it was a storage unit for me? Remember, this is not and never will be a blog of pretty staged pictures.

No sooner did I get my stuff out than my grandmother moved AGAIN and the clutter came back. After everything was out to sell, my mom came down here and said, “Let’s pretend this is real.”

In the end, we sold about half. We made $433. Which sounds great as long as you never, ever, ever think about how much time we spent on this. And the basement looks like this again, but you’re looking at all the stuff!

So. We’ll try to consign what’s left of this fancy stuff, then give it to a church sale in the next town over. Not that we have any connection to this church but they’re having a sale soon. That means it’s not to late! Most of what you can see below can still be yours today! (Of course we both know that it’s hard to even give this stuff away.) Our remaining listings are here.

But my mom resents giving away the things she paid top dollar for. The good pewter and the Baldwin brass and the one old ironstone piece that doesn’t have pink cabbage roses painted on it are all up in the attic now. Because my mom can’t stand to just give this all away. I was kinda glad thoe 2 coffee pots in the back didn’t sell. One of them is from my great great great grandmother. But it’s not going to my house anytime soon.

So. A lot less stuff. But also a lot of remaining stuff. And their storing a big box for my roommate now. But overall I think we undid what I did to them for the past 6 years.

 

Atlantic City – How do you restore a historic kitchen?

You’ve seen a lot that needs to stay in this house. What needs to change? The kitchen.

Now, in the 20 or so years since I’ve first seen this I’ve come around to steel cabinets and chrome dinette sets. Retro Renovation often features people who send them out to auto body shops or powder coaters. But there’s gotta be a point of no return somewhere. And the fridge in front of windows is absolutely unacceptable. Also, a 6000 square foot, 10 bedroom house needs a kitchen that’s comfortable for several people cooking for at least 24 people.

Right off the kitchen is a fantastically intact butler’s pantry!

 

 

When I was younger I thought let’s keep that sink and those cabinets and otherwise overhaul the space. Right behind the wall in the picture above is a small alcove leading to the den and butler’s pantry. Take all that out and you’d have this view right from the kitchen.

And taking the wall out would give you room for a big island. But now I take all this back. I might be up for altering the butler’s pantry cabinets. It looks like they were altered before. Look at the unfinished side of the cabinets above. Right now it’s set up for a separate freestanding fridge and freezer, though there must once have been an ice box. I’d want a single fridge and more dish storage here. The drain can stay though!

And the not-so-huge kitchen? It’s actually a fine space. Obviously this contraption stays, as do the buzzers in the bedrooms!

I’d get rid of the table and move the stove and fridge to interior walls where they’re not blocking windows (or breaking building codes). Then to get better flow I’d add a second door opening from the kitchen to the butler’s pantry, right across from the breakfast room door below.

Try to picture the breakfast room looking like a glassed-in porch. I know it’s hard – it’s the worst room in the house right now.

There’s even a door to the outside behind the paneling to the left of this door:

Another idea my friend’s mom had was reworking the back stairs to connect the kitchen directly to the roof of the garage.

Right now this house has no back yard so this would give you a place to grill where you’re not right up against the street. It’s an interesting idea. But it would cost a lot. You’d probably have to cut a larger stairway opening and shrink one of the bedrooms. And there’s already a gap in that parapet where you could access the garage roof from near the back door. It’s not direct but it would do. And plus, the narrow nooks and crannies in the servants’ parts of this house aren’t what we’d build today, but they’re part of what makes this house interesting. And with 6000 square feet to play with, there’s definitely room to say these quirks matter. Plus, this kitchen has so many windows I wouldn’t want to give up this wall space.

As for the style of the room, I’d say anything goes. The butler’s pantry ought to be fully restored including authentic reproduction tile wherever the existing material comes out and custom cabinetry if any is added. The main kitchen on the other hand will never be authentically 1919.

Now one more thing. I’m pushing for preserving as much of the old as possible in this house, but the truth is that I wouldn’t hold it against anyone to modernize this part of it if that’s what they want. After all, it’s not 1919 anymore and even millionaires are unlikely to have live-in servants. But no matter what happens, I want the world to see the back rooms as they were. What would you do if this kitchen were yours?

Atlantic City again – Preserving the Interiors

Now that I’ve scrutinized every detail  of the exterior let’s have a closer look inside. You’ve seen the magnificent hallway.

Critically, I can’t see any water damage in here since I imagine that helical curved plaster would be especially hard to replace. The only big job to do with this plaster is make sure the electrician doesn’t rattle it off the lathe with a Sawzall. (Ask me how I know.)

Then let’s proceed to the living room. It’s massive. It has fantastic original light fixtures. But you see the 2 holes in the ceiling? There are bathrooms up there. (You may want to enlarge these panoramic shots)

I wanted to get a better look at the polychrome paint on the chandeliers, so I wiped one off with a damp cloth. The paint came off with the dirt, I recoiled in horror, and that was the end of that. If this were my house, I’d immediately take them all down for restoration.

Then there are these built-ins. My friend’s grandparents bought the place and did some light remodeling around 1960. I want to like the weirdness of mismatched styles, but I just can’t come around liking these. Plus, to make way for this bookcase they got rid of the cross set on the left side of the door trim (which is replaceable).

And a sconce, which may or may not be. Paging Ross. Though they put a lot of original bits in the basement when they took them out. The original could still be around.

Then in the dining room, once again part or all of the ceiling has to go. And once again the really bad spot is underneath a bathroom.

You need a better look at that chandelier.

Then there’s the den. In here we have another fantastic light fixture. Some of the oak paneling is warped from water damage, but I believe just a few panels of good oak plywood and a careful staining job would undo the damage. (This photo was from the listing and can be found here on Old House Dreams.)

And mandatory ceiling light closeup.

Also this fantastic desk.

Then off the den is the conservatory or breakfast room. This room is a blank slate. The French doors were boarded up and covered with paneling to make room for record storage, the floor covered with the type of asbestos tile that reminds me of school, and then it got lots and lots of water damage. I’d try to clean up and reinstall the casing around the doors because it wouldn’t be cheap to replace.

Then because this post is already long let’s look at the bedrooms. There are 10 of them. Of those, 4 have very little wall space thanks to fantastic French doors everywhere.

Some of these also have circa 1960 lights that I’m totally on board with keeping.

Then there’s what my friend’s little sister called the spook floor. She had a point.

All I can see is fantastic irregular shapes from that Mansard roof. But she does have a point.

My sister’s boyfriend did this epic house staging.

I also love that the original 1919 furniture just got shoved up here in the 1960 remodel. And yes you read that right. They have the original owners’ stuff from 1919! Given this light fixture, it’s clear that this was a servant’s bedroom.

Then there’s this gem. A closet of light fixture globes!

But where are the fixtures? I bet they’re around. Here’s one!

We’re still not done, so see you next time.

Restoring the Exterior Back in Atlantic City/Imagination Land

Back in imagination land, there are a lot of details on this house that (to me) absolutely cannot change – or have to be changed back – and some of that will be hard. But I like hard. So let’s start at the top.

The roof is terra cotta tile glazed green. There are fancy finials on all the gables – but with one or two missing. And there are box gutters integral to a fancy stamped copper cornice.

You probably missed the ugliness. Here, have a closer look.

The roof has been leaking for decades, and the salt spray has blasted holes in the outside of the cornice halfway around the house. You’re looking at a lot of money right here, probably about $300,000.00. It’s a good thing this house sold for a million dollars cheaper than similar houses in the neighborhood. An inaccurate roof and cornices would be really, really sad. Better than demolition of course, but sad nonetheless. And so if this were my house, it’s a no brainer. I’d save my money on things that don’t matter, like the kitchen.

Is there a way to save money on this that’s wouldn’t make you want to gouge your eyes out? Could we re-line the gutters with new copper, make spot repairs on the cornices, and leave the fancy corbels with holes in them? That would certainly be better than an inferior replacement.

Moving downward, you saw the big porch with the big balcony on top of it.

But doesn’t it look a little off?

Clearly it was redone. Badly. It looks like the cracks were patched up but re-cracked, and original detail was stripped off. And I have a treat for you!

So what can we see from this photo?

1. D’aww!
2. Yes, that tiny woman had all those kids.
3. A parapet! Here’s a closer look.

So, I have a feeling it’s time for a new porch, and not a cheap one. We can’t know for sure what the parapet looked like, but the garage gives us a pretty good guess. There is a little more fanciness in the unaltered corner of the porch against the wall if you look back at that. (And also the garage clearly has issues, too.)

Then, I said there are 11 Juliet balconies. And there’s a big hazard with these. The railings are too low to meet code.

And I have a story. Once I got locked out on one of these Juliet balconies. I squeezed through the aluminum storm door and never noticed that it was locked. I asked my friend’s little brother, who must have been like 3, to let me back in, and instead he locked me out on the next one over. And then I got upset and so he CLIMED OVER THE RAILING to be in the same one as me.

So pretty scary, right? Nope, that’s not it. After all, this scariness would never have happened if the tacky storm doors weren’t there. So I don’t blame the railings for any danger. No, I’d be scared that I’d be required to bring them up to code. Especially since some of them definitely have to come down for restoration.

So what to do here? Exemptions? Leaving them as is and repairing them without permits after the project is done? Temporary railings that come down the day after the inspection? Everything is on the table except permanently altering them to meet code. As Boar’s Head says, compromise elsewhere.

And… one more essential is missing from the front entryway. Can you tell what it is?

It’s those piers with not-so-big flower pots on them. They are for the original lights. But we’re saved! They were in the garage!

And then there’s one restoration I probably wouldn’t do. Originally the terrace had pretty tile. (Also my friend’s dad on a trike.)

Rediscovering More Shoddy Work

It feels like it’s 2013 all over again! You’d think I was done with the astoundingly bad repairs that I found all over the Crooked House, but here’s one more. Along with a whole lot of boob lights, the house came with a builder’s special grade chandelier.

Stairs

It stuck around into the demolition, so needless to say it was a little dirty.

And then it stuck around in my parents’ attic. A family friend was selling her house and they wanted to offer her something to leave if she took her chandelier with her. That didn’t happen so it was one more piece of clutter in the attic.

But… what’s going on with the chain? It can’t stretch out; it actually was this bunched up. (And sorry for how blurry this picture is.)

The chain is doubled up and the wires are kinked and twisted together. I sorta knew about this but ignored it because I wasn’t keeping the chandelier anyway. Well, I figured out what it is. Bending chandelier chain is kind of a pain, so they just did it to one link. And then they doubled the chain up and braided the wire through both layers of it. And then left the one link open. It made no sense at all. But I fixed it and cleaned the light.

So I kinda get that someone was working on my house and they were really high and decided that they could bend out fewer chain links this way. But why was the wire so kinked up? I must be underestimating just how high they were. And I shouldn’t after all the coins stuck in the floor finish, drywall screwed on over woodwork, and mismatched studs inside walls that were barely fastened together. The old plan was to charge $20 and get rid of this fixture fast, but after all this work I raised the price.

Also, my grandmother’s old mattress went super fast, which means we’ve now sold all the biggest white elephants and my parents’ basement is starting to look like a room again! Well, maybe not till after the yard sale in a month. But I’m still happy to hang out down here because it’s cold.

In other news, I got in trouble today. A friend of my mom’s said she wanted 2 5-inch serving dishes. My mom said she’d give her a pair. I said, “Yes, take them now.”

I brought them up, and she pulled out a $20, and asked what we were trying to get for them. I made a face and said $2 each. My mom yelled at me for telling her. She tried to force my mom to take 5. A battle ensued and I don’t remember who lost and was forced to go away with the 5 dollars.

And while we’re at it trying to figure out what to do with heaps of old things, I think this picture of my great-great grandparents should go right here. (Incidentally they were also my neighbors in South Philly, only a couple hundred feet away!) My mom thinks it looks weird because the wall isn’t on center with the stairs. Tell her I’m right, Internet people!

Anyways, this yard sale is a month away. This prepping job is getting to be almost another remodel. And also, buy our stuff.