jenny on argyle

If these walls could talk!

2012-01-17T16:53:00.015-05:00

The Carleton Place Canadian began publishing in 1876. That's just 9 years after Confederation. When I moved here it was a weekly - the only way to find out what was happening in town.

The Canadian has been bought up by a newspaper conglomerate and the office is closing down. I don't know exactly when the newspaper first moved to this location on Bridge Street, but I believe it was in the early 1920's. A long time ago.

The museum I work at was allowed to explore the basement and take anything relevant for our collection. My kind of work day! We got some great items but the greatest artifact was the building itself.

Down to the basement we went.

The plaster walls on either side of the stairway are covered with names of former employees, along with the dates they started work.

Some people preferred to carve their names for posterity!

The Findlay Foundry operated in Carleton Place from 1860 to 1974, producing cast iron stoves, furnaces and cookware. Have a look at this beautiful furnace - a Findlay's 205!

Naturally, people have signed the furnace!

There were lots of other neat finds like these original windows that would have been at sidewalk level outside. They've been covered up outside by siding and inside by a window seat.

Looking up in the basement you can see that the floor boards were laid on a diagonal.....

Here's some old issues of The Canadian (1934) used to stuff the cracks....

It's sad that the paper's days at this office are over, but it seems the building will retain it's memory as best it can!

More History

2011-12-29T11:17:00.009-05:00

This unique frame house is on Townline Road. It was built in 1853 by James Dunlop, a carpenter and millwright. He used the current dining room as his workshop for building coffins until he built the workshop still standing behind the house. James lived here with his wife and seven children until his death in 1887. The present owners just rebuilt the front porch and it looks great.

His son, James Fitz Charles, continued to live in the house until 1941. He and his brother Adam were also millwrights and boat builders. James worked in the Gillies Boat Works, producing boat engines and marine craft.

Adam was the leading builder of skiffs and other small boats in Carleton Place. He built this

frame house and workshop next door in 1892 and continued his work there until 1942.

Below is what it looks like today. I bet all the original trim is under that evil siding!

Lunchtime wanderings

2011-11-25T21:06:00.004-05:00

I love working alone in a big old stone building all day. But do I start to talk to myself, and ask myself questions (out loud) and so I try to get out for a walk at lunch everyday! I'm working on the "north side" of town, but live on the "south" side of town, so I'm discovering new things...

A renovation that shows a bit of the building's history...

A beautiful, unique home having it's crazy roof held in place while the porch is rebuilt..

A neat old fence post finishing off a wall of stone...

A great old two story back porch...

...and this interesting row of bricks, set on an angle, where the wall meets the foundation. I like it!

Franktown Road

2011-11-13T16:39:00.004-05:00

The big old red brick home up on a hill always caught my eye as I drove along Franktown Road. I don't know it's history - it's been a rental for many years. Last month this big sign was installed in the front yard: MOVE IT! SALVAGE IT! DEMOLISH IT!...as if they are all exciting options.

I know who owns the house. I know the plan - a huge number of townhouses squashed onto the lot - I know I can't move it or salvage it and I know I don't want it demolished.
It looks very solid. Has two staircases. Original trim, including a gorgeous newel post and a fancy spandrel in the parlour...

It has the curved window tops and the carved limestone lintels that Carleton Place is famous for.

The brickwork seems in good shape, and it has it's old hand pump in the backyard.

Who's going to save it?

The Parsonage House

2011-10-03T18:57:00.006-04:00

Another of Carleton Place's beautiful old homes is slowly dying. This pretty yellow frame house is on the north end of Bridge Street. It's been empty for many years, caught up in a war over Heritage Designation. It was originally the parsonage house for the Methodist Church across the street.

Peeking down the side of the house, you can see what were probably the original shutters...

The trim is so pretty, but every time I drive by, another chunk is gone...

The railing on the upper porch is almost entirely gone now.

Quite a bit of the original fence is still there though...

And the old coach house...

And above the front door the beautiful stained glass transom, proudly declaring it's title!

Something Missing

2011-05-16T09:53:00.003-04:00

This is a little park area between our Town Hall (on the left) and our Youth Centre (on the right). It has a fountain, benches, and a few historical plaques along the river. To get the whole space in the photo I had to set myself up in a parking lot, so excuse the dumpster!

While filing at the museum I came across these photos of the same space from the early 1980's. It blew me away. I had no idea two houses (one gigantic...) used to be there. No idea. Were they there before the Town Hall was built? Who would allow two building to be built so close to each other in the first place? And why aren't they there anymore????

2011-05-13T13:08:00.003-04:00

I know I've shown photos of the Bates and Innes Mill before, but here it is again. So pretty. And still for rent, most of it...

I found this old advertisement on ebay:

Isn't it great? I'm not sure what he's doing with that rope while dressed only in his long-johns, but I do love the image!!

Oh! And here's a finished view of the house in "Progress" from 20 October, 2009 (I can't figure out this "link" thing). Not beautiful or inspired, but finished. More than I can say!

St. James Cemetery

2011-05-11T12:14:00.005-04:00

St. James Cemetery is on the 8th Line of Ramsay Township, just north of town. It dates back to about 1834, the date of the founding of the Parish.

I've always liked the steps leading you over the fence. It's fun to climb over. Not sure if you are supposed to have fun in a cemetery, but oh well!

This cemetery was founded on what is known as "Clergy Lands." This was land granted to Protestant Churches under the 1791 Constitution. Eventually, the granting of these lands became a political issue and the lands reverted to the Crown. In 1856 the parish of St. James purchased the land for 100 pounds. For many years, the land supplied the wood for heating the Church and Rectory.

The vault above was constructed in 1903, and for many years it was used by all the denominations in town, being a place to store your dearly departed until the spring thaw....

Forgotten on Franktown Road

2011-04-13T13:41:00.002-04:00

Driving north along Franktown Road, just coming into town, I pass this empty, abandoned house. I admit, empty, abandoned houses always catch my eye....but this one did for another reason.....

It has a second, empty, abandoned house attached to it at the back! This house in the rear appears older, more typical to the area. Very much like our house.

Driving around the corner gives another view...

It certainly is empty. Can anyone fill me on this house's history??

Tin Roof

2011-04-09T21:32:00.000-04:00

A lovely little bit of tin roof and siding on Beckwith Street.

C.P.R.

2011-04-08T08:35:00.003-04:00

I walked the old CPR tracks for quite a while the other day, taking photos in case the tracks disappear one day while I'm not looking! I didn't find any treasures, but I did notice these white ceramic insulators up on the hydro pole. They caught my eye because insulators usually are made of glass.

And then, lo and behold, while browsing at the Gore Street Flea Market in Perth, what should I find? Two CPR white ceramic insulators! Only $1 each!

CPR

2011-04-04T13:13:00.004-04:00

In 1882 the new Canadian Pacific Railway Company moved its eastern Ontario machine shop operations from Brockville and Prescott to Carleton Place. Railway car shops were built here and employed up to 200 men.

14 Argyle Street's own Thomas Burgess worked for the CPR.

When we moved here 13 years ago, trains still went by our window several times a day and we would pause our conversations until the whistle had stopped blowing! No point in trying to be heard!

A year ago (or is it two??) the trains stopped, the rails started getting rusty, and now there is talk of pulling up the tracks. Sad.

2011-03-29T13:04:00.004-04:00

It has been so cold here lately. I really don't know if I can stand it much longer! But look at how beautiful this is:

Water levels dropped overnight and suddenly the Mississippi is full of dripping diamonds! Wow.
The iron bolt in the rock may or may not be old, but it reminds me to imagine the days when the river had so many docks on both sides - busy with industry and tourism....

These photos were taken along the trail behind the arena. Quiet and peaceful and COLD.

Forgotten Carleton Place

2011-03-28T13:16:00.008-04:00

Every day at the museum, I come across photographs that make me realize all the things that have disapeared in Carleton Place. So many lost buildings. So much lost history.

I'll try to keep some of the remaining history alive by taking photos. Remind people of what is still there....

One of my favourite blogs is "Forgotten New York" http://www.forgotten-ny.com ...well, this will be kind of like "Forgotten Carleton Place"!

The beautiful double door above is on the north side of the old mill building by the back bridges. Originally McArthur Mill (c.1871), later Bates and Innes.

The internet is amazing!

2011-03-08T11:13:00.005-05:00

Well! I have been volunteering at the museum in Carleton Place on Monday mornings. It has renewed my interest in researching houses in town, and in taking more "before and after" photos. This morning I googled Carleton Place images, and while scrolling down found this photograph of a woman named Charlotte Burgess (nee Weekes).

Recognize the name? She and her husband Thomas owned our house from 1886 until 1902. I wrote a post about them a while back. I didn't have the complete story though. The 1901 Census did not list all of their children.

This is Charlotte and her husband Thomas Taylor Burgess.

From the Perth Courier: "Married at the residence of the bride's father, on the 23rd Jan. 1877, by Rev. A.L. Peterson, Mr. Thomas Burgess of Carleton Place, to Miss Charlotte (Weekes), third daughter of Mr. E.F. Weekes of Lombardy."

They had seven children: Mary Jane, Lawrence, Maud, Bella (1887), Florence (1885), Loretta (1881) and Melvin (1890).

Here is Thomas again. He was a section foreman for the CPR. His brother Nathaniel lived with his family just around the corner on Brick Street.

So cool.

Back at it.

2010-09-22T11:40:00.004-04:00

September seems to get people back at it. Whatever it is.

I am back at scraping paint. You would think I enjoy this, considering how much scraping I do, but no....I don't! I just like the results!

This is the top half of the mantle piece from the Brooklyn house. We spent last winter admiring it in its half-scraped glory, but this winter I want to admire the fact that it is finished! So this is where I am hanging out these days:

It's going along well, except for the fancy bits. Stripper here, not so much scraping!

This fancy bit on the bottom half is done. Hard to tell in this photo, but it really did clean up nicely.

So yeah, almost done! (The top half!)

Excuses...

2010-08-02T00:20:00.003-04:00

Well.... I've been busy!

My excuse #1 for not blogging:

Traveling.

This is the house I grew up in (the white one in the middle) in London, Ontario. It looks just as it did when I lived there (well, actually the maple tree is missing and the hedge used to go all around both yards.) Our house and the twin next door were built c. 1900 for two sisters as wedding gifts from their parents. Imagine!

Tires on Bridge Street

2009-11-04T08:23:00.005-05:00

Here's a photo from the 1920's of Bennett Chevrolet at its original location at the corner of High and Bridge streets. Evidently they sold Goodyear tires and tubes. Bennett Chevrolet is still in Carleton Place, a big dealership out near the "strip". The Bennetts bought the dealership from the McGregors. I'm pretty sure the painted sign on the stone wall says "Mcgregors Garage".

This is the building at the corner of High and Bridge now.

It is joined to this building, although the two were originally two separate hotels.

It was originally built in the 1830's as a two story centre gable design. It was opened in 1846 as the Carleton House Hotel. I believe the third story and metal cornice were added c. 1904 when it became the Leland Hotel. Municipal and council meetings were held here in the 1840's and 1850's, and since the mid 1950's it has contained various businesses. It's empty now, of course, like much of our main street. Just imagine all the stories in the walls: so many years of tourists, boarders, politicians!....

Progress

2009-10-20T10:17:00.009-04:00

Work is progressing nicely on our upstairs hall now. Walls are painted. Ceiling is washed. Baseboards are being constructed, and door trim is being beefed up with (shh...) MDF trim. Work is also progressing on the little stucco house that used to look like ours:

Remember this building?

Notice anything different...new looking...? Town council decided to paint over the old advertising sign on the wall, as some sort of tourist attractor. I don't like it. I suppose it will fade...

Here is a photo of the main street (Bridge Street) looking south, probably from c. 1920.

Here is the same view, taken yesterday. Pretty intact, I'd say. Note the nice faded painted wall on the side of the building. Council plans to repaint that too!

This is the largest commercial building in C.P. It was built as "Taylor's Department Store and Garage" in 1888.

Get A Handle on It!

2009-10-19T10:23:00.007-04:00

This is our upstairs bathroom. Too bad I can't find those "before" photos, because it was icky. Brown walls, brown " brick" linoleum, brown cupboards... anyway...this is it now.

Not exciting, but clean, bright and happy. Basically, we gave everything a fresh coat of paint. There is a new window, new pine floors, and a new toilet, sink and tub (with tile surround instead of flexible plastic!).

The little chair above came from the Sunday School room in the United Church in town:

We built a new plank door for the closet, which I really like:

We found the hinges we wanted, but the handle is here:

This house in our neighbourhood has sat empty since we moved here (so at least eleven years now). It is such a cute little house on a double lot, and with a neat little barn in the back. It makes me both sad and frustrated that the owners are just letting it deteriorate when it could be such a great little home. Around the corner to the left in the photo is a side entrance with the perfect handle for my closet door...

I want it, I want it, I want it.

2009-10-05T13:17:00.005-04:00

As I deal with the fact that our back porch is facing another winter in it's unfinished state, i take heart in other people's tardiness/indecision/laziness...(With apologies to the owners, who I don't know!) If you are insulted, please come see all my unfinished stuff!!

Check out this house. It was white with blue trim. Then it was blue with white trim. One weekend it turned grey, and the trim started to change to dark blue. then, about a year ago, things just stopped. the great little window's walk has never been touched.

I guess they are still deciding....

And, about a kilometer down the same street:

These people made their decision at least 8 years ago. They transformed the front of their house with dark paint and lots of detail on their veranda. It's gorgeous. but that's all they ever did. The front.

Changes...

2009-09-29T09:39:00.007-04:00

This is one of the train bridges in town, crossing the Mississippi River. Until this summer we had freight trains going by a few times a day. Sometimes it was fun, counting cars when the kids were little, or when the army base in Petawawa would receive a shipment of new tanks and jeeps and gun carriers, and we could watch car after car of green army vehicles go by...

Now the track is no longer used, and while it is so lovely and quiet, it is a sad thing to witness another tradition die....

Here is the same bridge, from a different angle, with a passenger train zooming by on it's way to Almonte....

This used to be The Queen's Hotel. It closed about two years ago, and in this photo was in the process of getting some "fresh" new siding on the first story. Great. It has since reopened as The Ale House...

Here it is in it's glory days as The Queen's Hotel. Sorry about the different angle of the photo. Things like that make me crazy!!

Continuing with my "before and after" obsession, I have been trying to take photos of friends' and neighbours' houses where the owners are lucky enough to have old photos of their house. This house is just around the corner from us and has had four owners in the ten years we have lived here. The latest owner is doing a fabulous job of renovating the inside. The grandson of the builder brought him these pictures from the 1920's...

A close-up...

How sad is this? Our neighbour would love to replicate the original porch, but might need to win the lottery to do so!

And a close-up of the detail on the porch...

Change is not always for the better.

Kitchen

2009-09-23T10:10:00.008-04:00

Here are a few photos of our kitchen shortly after moving in: (The "before" shots of our bathroom have vanished into the bowels of the computer, never to be found again - oh how I miss the days of film!)

The lady homeowner before us loved her pinks and florals. I didn't. Borders with wheelbarrows and watering cans everywhere...floral linoleum to match the floral wallpaper.... ugly fishbowl light fixtures, and phone jacks in inappropriate places....

Here are a few photos of our kitchen now:

No, we haven't done ANY major work. Yes, the floral lino is still there, and in fact, is held down with white duct tape near the sink. Yes, we really need a new countertop! Yes, I still need a closet door... It is a perfect workspace for one person cooking dinner, but an impossible space for five people and a dog to be in at one time... No, I can't fit in a dishwasher (believe me, I have measured and measured and measured!)...

But I like my kitchen now. I like the colours. I like the light fixtures (from an old train station), I like my leather drawer pulls, and I like all my stuff. Check out the spice cupboard my brother helped me build:

It is hiding a heating pipe that goes up to our bedroom from the basement. We stared at this ugly silver pipe for years, and then designed a cupboard that fits around it.

Here is the spice bit:

Neat eh? I love it. The bottom cupboard was made to hold two twelve-packs of beer too. I think of everything!!

Houses

2009-09-17T09:33:00.004-04:00

I am busy searching for my misplaced "before" photos of the bathroom. While I search, here are some photos of my favourite houses in town:

The house above backs onto a Christmas tree farm, and has always caught my eye with its neat second story porch.

I used to walk by this pretty red brick house on my way to work each day. The gardens are spectacular, with a groovy sculpture garden in the back. This is a very common style in town - I could do a whole post one day showing all the houses built in the style in my neighbourhood...

This is a neat frame house on the north side of town. I like the enclosed sun porch on the top!

Isn't this pretty? A classic Lanark County stone house. It used to face the river, until newer homes were built across the street...

A great old shed around the corner. I love sheds and wish I had one...well, I do, but it dates from approx. 1980 and is of the classic "barn roof" variety. I hate it.

Big Bay Memories

2009-09-09T11:05:00.005-04:00

My parents have a cottage on the Bruce Penninsula, near Wiarton. It is in a tiny village (not even a village anymore, more like one street!) and our family has roots there that stretch back 8 generations. Great-great grandparents ran the general store, great-great grandad drove the stage to Owen Sound, great-great Uncle Charlie was a sailor on the Great Lakes, and Great-great-great, maybe one more great-Grandad Garrett built the inn. Granny Pat (1858-1948), however, was famous for her flower gardens.

While spending a week at the cottage this August, we watched a crew of workers build a new cement bridge over the creek next to (what used to be) Granny Pat's house. In the process, the original cedar fence surrounding her property was coming down. Of course, I save three planks! One for me, one for my brother (who will cry) and one to hang on the wall of Bunkie Two:

The label says: "Fragment of Granny Pat's fence.
North Keppel, Ontario. c. 1900"

Here is Granny Pat, sitting on the dock with my grandmother and grandmother's twin sister c. 1912:

And here is Granny Pat's house (c. 1920), at the curve as you come into the village of North Keppel:

Here is Uncle Charlie, the sailor.

And Uncle Charlie's house, originally built as the village inn by Charlie's grandfather Garrett around 1880.

This house looks the same today. Although not in the family anymore, we are friendly with the present owner, and in fact, spent Christmas of 2007 here. Sharing a turkey dinner with family, and with the ghosts of our ancestors floating about us was a very magical time!

What a great idea!

2009-09-08T11:32:00.006-04:00

I have never posted twice in one day, but this excited me!!

Someone sent me a link to a group of photos that take the "before and after" idea one step further...it is on Flicker as "Looking Into The Past", but I can't seem to link it here!!?? Help?

I was so excited to try it that I grabbed the one old photo we have of our house and ran outside to try this out....

It's much harder than you think to get everything lined up correctly. You really can't see properly while peering at the screen on your camera, with the sun shining. But anyway, it is still cool!

This is our street, looking up towards Lake Ave. today . Can't really see much for the trees and bushes...

This photo was taken c. 1950. It is of a boy who lived two doors down from us, and given to me by his brother a few years ago. Our house is the middle one, with the big tree in front. I learned two things from this picture. One, the living room window was a bay window at this time. I wouldn't think that would have been original to the 1886 house. Two, the front porch (in 1950 anyway), was not at all what I had pictured. My guess is that this porch was not original to 1886 either. Poor house.

"After" photos.

2009-09-08T10:16:00.009-04:00

Almost one year later, I have some "after" photos of our t.v. room. If you scroll down to previous posts, you can compare with the "before" shots. I'm too lazy to re-insert them!

Here is the new window on the driveway side of the house. I can now watch the kids playing basketball, quickly see which car my husband took to work, and let the early morning sun into my house! Do ignore the orange Ikea bookshelf please - it is just there temporarily!

Here is the front window, and the door (!!!) into the front hallway. The door needs one more layer of stain yet before it will match the trim around it. The door trim and the baseboards in this room were not original; we salvaged them from a house in Brooklyn, brought them home and I spent the winter scraping paint.

Here is the door leading to the little back hall and kitchen. As you can see, I have a bit of white paint left on the bottom corner still to remove. I didn't realize that end of the board would be used, and now I'm learning how hard it is to scrape paint on a vertical surface down at ankle level! I'm finished staining and finishing this door, and I think it matches pretty well. In fact, I'm totally happy with these doors! I can't believe how wonderful it is to close the door on a loud stupid kid's t.v. show, or how convenient it is to keep the dog away when you are playing a game on the floor....

The mantle, is, of course, from Brooklyn too. I want to paint it white again, but am being threatened with torture by the person who began stripping it! Once we resolve this issue, we will pull the mantle forward, install the oak surround it came with, and fake an opening and inside surround. I am leaning towards putting one of those electric "yet looks like a real wood stove" in the opening. I can picture a beige or red one sitting there looking not too bad, and keeping me warm and cozy while I watch "Desperate Housewives" this winter!

This window is on the back wall of the house, facing the still-unfinished porch. We put this vertical window in to replace a really cheap horizontal 1970's window. Now all the windows in the room match, and everything just feels right. (Except the curtain rod looks wonky, and I really don't like that armchair in front of the window.......!)

A close-up of the base boards and floor. You can't imagine how happy these make me!

And for "Sadie Says" - Mum's cleaned up window hardware now installed on my original windows....grimy as they are!

March? Really?

2009-09-05T21:24:00.006-04:00

No way I haven't written since March! No possible way!! It makes sense though - that's when I went back to work.... if only we didn't have to work we would have a lot more fun!

Quite a bit has gotten done around the house here. Tuesday the kids go back to school and I am at home alone. I will tidy up and take a whole slew of "after" photos and do a big "Before and After" post, o.k?

Meanwhile, I spotted this while driving to the beer store yesterday! This house is on our main street and used to have vinyl siding on it. (Like ours...) They have stripped off the vinyl, and the original clading as well....

It is almost identical to our house. They have altered the windows, removed the front porch and even (gasp!) closed in the transom and side lights around the front door. I am pretty sure our front door had these as well, and they are of course gone. Depressing, but fascinating.

They are already starting to cover it up with insulation, so I ran home to get my camera. I'm not allowed to rip the vinyl siding off of my house (Why?), but this gives me hints about our original features.

I hate to think what the final result will be. I'll be sure to get a photo so we can all be depressed together. I suppose I shouldn't assume it will be bad, but I seriously doubt they are planning to replace the windows, build a porch and cover it all with nice wood siding....

Off to tidy....

Doors

2009-03-06T11:27:00.006-05:00

I dragged my flu riddled body off the couch today and made the trip to Home Depot to buy two of these: I saw them in the flyer yesterday at half the price I'd seen them any where else...

I'm pretty excited. We've never had doors on the main floor. If someone is watching, for example, WWE very loudly; then we are ALL listening to WWE very loudly. To be able to shut a door on unwanted noise will be a wonderful thing.

One door will go here:

This is looking into the front hall at the closet (which also needs a door, but I'm hoping to find some unique bit of salvage in my shed that will work!...)

And one will go here:

This is looking into the kitchen and the little hall leading to the basement. In the above photos you can admire our newly sanded, filled, sanded, filled, sanded, verathaned, sanded, verathaned....original pine floors. Aren't they lovely? You can also admire bits of newly scraped, sanded and finished baseboard leaning here and there. These baseboards came from a house in Brooklyn, New York. When they are installed with their top bits, I'll post some photos. The mantlepiece also came from the Brooklyn house, and will be installed on this wall. There won't be a working fireplace but hopefully it will look like there once was...

Actually, we DO have one door on the main floor! The bathroom door! This powder room was added in the 1970's. To make room for it, they tore out the back staircase that led up to the master bedroom. Oh well, I have to admit this powder room has served us well! We bought the door at Habitat For Humanity in Ottawa, stripped it, and oiled it, and there it is.

Marching Along

2009-03-02T10:05:00.004-05:00

March is finally here, and with it a bit of hope. Hope that it will indeed get warm, ice will melt, and things will begin to grow! Hope that major home renovations will indeed get done, and indoor life will return to normal!

It's been a while since we walked around town.... today we're walking through our neighbourhood to visit friend's houses...

Above is C's house. Gorgeous inside.Tasteful. Immaculate. Lots of blue. She is my interior design consultant!!

This is just around the corner. Our very good friends the R's live here, and we spend many an hour on that veranda in the summertime, drinking cold beer and watching the world go by. Their attached back shed still has stables in it. I believe a coal delivery service was run out of this house once...

This beautiful house is across the river. It was built in 1888, one year after ours. My friend A. lives here and is single-hand-idly working away at the renovations. It's a big job, and I totally admire her work and perseverance. It's going to be amazing some day!! See the funky upper porch above the garage? So cool.

This is my brother's house, just two blocks away. He's done amazing work too. When they bought the house it had dropped ceilings, and wall paneling and every other ugly thing ever invented. He's stripped it back to almost original condition and it looks great. He rebuilt the front veranda from photos a previous owner sent them in the mail.

Below is the old Carleton Place train station. The tracks going to Ottawa were torn up in the early 1990's (I think?) by a short sighted town council. The station was converted years ago into a town daycare centre, but now it is up for sale.

Below is our town movie theatre! The Carleton Place Cinema is run by our friends Ernie and Brenda's family. It has two theatres and great popcorn and shows first-run movies for cheap! The cinema is in the basement of this old church. The fitness centre on the main floor is up for sale too. Times are tough in town.

To finish off - my lawyer's shed!! I've always admired this nice little brick shed. The way it is set into the ground...the bow in the roof...the plank doors...and the neat rusty hardware...
What can I say? I like outbuildings. And I bet this shed won't be around too too much longer...

What I've been busy with.

2009-01-28T17:33:00.003-05:00

Ok, so it's been awhile. Work and Christmas kind of got in the way! Things are very slowly moving along. This is what I am trying to hard to finish up...scraping and cleaning baseboards and door moulding for our family room.

Above is door moulding that we salvaged from a house in Brooklyn. It has about three layers of paint on it. Below is the same piece, half scraped. It comes off pretty easily, but it is so messy.

And here it is all cleaned up. (Well, except for that white line of paint near the bottom. Isn't it pretty? There are some cracks and holes and stuff, but I don't mind. All part of the history.

I have finished the main portion of the baseboards, and they look great, but they came with a decorative bit that sits on the top of them, and I haven't even tackled those yet. They are so picky. I figure I can install the baseboards without the top bit for now....(which translates to "I will get around to it in about 5 years!").

Let The Sun Shine In!

2008-10-27T19:25:00.005-04:00

This is a defining moment in the saga of our house! Jake from Lambdon Windows cuts an opening for a new window in our south wall, and the sun pours in!! (Well, the light anyway!) I was so excited!

We'd always suspected that there were originally two windows on this wall; because our house is very symmetrical. When he cut the opening, he did indeed find the framing for the original window. One inch off our new hole!! What idiot would cover up two south facing windows to create a long, dark hallway of a room?

This is the west wall. We took out the horizontal, 1970's window and replaced it with a vertical window to match the originals. Now the room has three identical windows. You could feel the house breathe a sigh of relief, I swear!

Looking to the backyard from inside....

And looking into the room from the back porch...

Here's the finished window.

I took this while the workers went to lunch. Tomorrow (if we don't get the 15 cm. of snow predicted!), I'll take another of the finished product!

Red Pine Plank Floor

2008-10-17T10:17:00.006-04:00

Well, this is pretty much the state of our t.v. room right now. (Anyone want to buy a hockey table?) In this view we are looking from the middle of the room towards the front of the house. The 1970's baseboards have been removed, and the plywood floors ripped off. This end of the room's floor has paint only around the perimeter.

In this fuzzy picture, we are looking towards the back of the house. This part of the room has a brown paint on it. Only one layer though. See the little jog in the paint cover in the top photo? It's the same on each side of the room, so I wonder if there was an archway wall dividing the room up. That's what we have on the other side of the house...

Here's a close up. It's like this on both sides of the room. Any ideas?

Here is the trap door we uncovered in the front hallway. In the middle of the photo you can just see the stairs going up. Directly across from them is the front door. In the background the living room. The wall built over the trap door is new; the door into this room used to be just like the one going into the living room - right at the bottom of the stairs. Following all this?!

You know, looking at this from this angle, it reminds me of a house I lived in in Ottawa that had a GIANT heating vent right in the middle of the room. The oil furnace was right under it, and we used to stand over it to get warm. Maybe that's what this was. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a trap door, even though we call it that...

This bit in the floor is where the original wall was that held the original doorway into the t.v. room. Which wasn't a t.v. room of course. Probably a kitchen originally. Confused? So is the house! That naked lady with her legs wide open is a boot jack by the way. Just so you know!!

A close up of the floor.

I sanded a patch just to see what it will look like. This weekend we are renting a sander and doing the whole room.

I LOVE hardware!!

2008-10-16T13:34:00.004-04:00

Big excitement! My parents decided to get new windows put into their beautiful old house. After having a hissy fit, and telling my poor Mum that new windows would wreck the look of their house, I calmed down, and meekly asked her to at least save me the hardware.

Look! She brought me a bag full last weekend, and I was so excited to see these two piece window closures...

And look! Thumb latch things!

So, in my excitement, I'm ignoring things I really should be doing (floors, mainly...) and stripping hardware!! Look - here's a clean one sitting on a window beside a painted one. Yes, my Mum brought me some whole windows too!

Here's a close up of it, all cleaned up! Isn't it beautiful? This is the open position.

...and in the locked position....

Thanks Mum!! I'll be installing these babies (and the thumb latches) on the four original windows downstairs. Three in the living room, and one in the t.v. room. I think they will look wonderful!

Late Night Destruction

2008-09-16T08:20:00.005-04:00

Late last night, when we should have been getting ready for bed, we decided to pull up that plywood floor in the front hall. It's a tiny space, so we didn't think it would take too long.... Here's a view looking down the stairs as Pete starts to cut into it...

Look! The pine plank floors underneath were in really good shape! Thank God. We thought this spot by the front door would have water damage, but it doesn't. We very seldom use the front door - it's just too tight of a space. I guess all the previous owners felt the same way!

Note we had to remove all the door mouldings in order to pull the plywood up. The mouldings were new (1970's) and ugly and not right anyway... The only wonky spot on the floor is right at the bottom step, but even that isn't too bad...

There was this little piece of linoleum left by the front door! I cleaned it off to take a photo, 'cause I'm not sure I can remove it without ripping it... Looks like a funky starburst/floral pattern to me!

When we took off the cheap '70's door mouldings, we revealed the original door casement, and look! The original beautiful, ornate door hinges were still there! Broken, of course. I figure they just bashed off the door, breaking the hinges in the process. It's kind of comforting to know the house had nice features at one time. As I've mentioned, there's virtually nothing left. I bet the original doors were nice too. And the knobs...

I removed the hinges. I'll clean them up today and do something with them. Who knows, we might still find intact ones hidden underneath a different doorway! Wouldn't that be nice!

So, it was a fairly productive evening, even if we did keep the kids awake with all the horrible sounds of plywoodbeing ripped off! Pete was pleasantly surprised at the good condition of the floors, and is now excited about ripping up the t.v. room floor!!!

Here is the view into the hallway from the living room just before we went to bed. We are going to try and figure out a way to leave the original door casing exposed when we reinstall the moulding. I just can't bring myself to cover it up again.

Back to the House

2008-09-05T13:31:00.004-04:00

Just in case you think I've been neglecting my house, a few photos for you...

No, they're not of the finished bedroom. (Still have to finish baseboards.)
No, they're not of the finished porch. (Still have to install ceiling and knee walls.)
No, they're not of anything that's finished!

My front hall:

Note the nice old wide pine plank floor in the living room at the top of the photo? Well, that's what is under the plywood floor in the front hall. I've torn off the linoleum, but that's as far as I've gotten. Now that the lino is gone, this floor seems to have a bad odour when it's damp out!!

This is the same plywood floor, but painted. This is our t.v. room. When we first moved here, we thought it would be smart to leave the plywood in this room because it was where the kids played, and it was pretty indestructible. Now, though, it's in bad shape, chipping, and giving people splinters... Plus, it is really ugly. So yes, I've started a new project!! I can't spend another winter in this room looking at the ugly floor.

Today I tore off the baseboards (cheap, ugly, new ones, don't worry!) and then pried off this little piece of plywood covering a vent that wasn't being used. It took me far longer than it should have to get this little piece off. Way too long. I swore a lot and sweated a lot. (It's really hot here today!) Maybe there is an easier method, or maybe I just don't have the upper body strength. I will ask around though, because there is an awful lot of plywood left to rip up!!

A Good Summer!

2008-08-31T11:14:00.005-04:00

I had a good summer. I did a lot of this....

Watching Henry play soccer three times a week....

They ended up winning the bronze medal, so that was all worth it!

I did a lot of this as well...

Sky gazing. It was the best summer ever for watching the clouds and sunsets. Very dramatic!

I did a lot of hiking and scenery gazing as well....

Did a lot of beach time....

Did a lot of dock sitting!...

I probably didn't do enough jumping off the dock...

Or enough visiting with relatives...

Or enough of this: sauna's at the cottage!...

End of Summer

2008-08-30T09:53:00.003-04:00

The End of Sleeping In....

This morning I rolled out of bed at 9:20. I literally was not conscious until 9:15.

School, of course, starts on Tuesday and I need to be up by 6:30 at the latest. The girls start at 8 am this year and need to be ready and out the door by 7:30. I'm dreading it!

Garbage Pick

2008-07-04T08:19:00.006-04:00

One day last week my neighbour put this old sewing machine out at the curb with a "free"sign on it. I ignored it for two days, then finally gave in to my curiosity, and opened the case. Inside was this beautiful blue machine! I like anything blue!

I went home, got my trusty "Henry Express", and loaded the machine on. (It was bloody heavy!)

I spent about an hour taking it apart, and these are the bits I kept.....

Here are some of my favourites:

I used the foot pedal as a topper and then hung various bits and bobs (and bobbins, get it?) from that to make my own version of a wind chime. Except I hate the noise wind chimes make. Mine's not too bad; it just produces a nice dull clank when the wind blows!!

It's quite hard to take a photo of, but believe me, it looks cool in person!

Stuff that make me happy.

2008-06-11T11:00:00.004-04:00

Lately I'm feeling overwhelmed with stuff. Too much stuff to do! Too much stuff in drawers. Too much stuff in the closets. Filing cabinet. My head! Don't even look in the basement! I get mad at my house too, for being so needy! Anyway, here's a few photos of little collections I have that make me feel better...

Some little watercolours that my Dad did. On top is Shelby, and the three kids are underneath.

An old type drawer filled with meaningful rocks and stones, twigs, etc. We also put china bits in here. Whenever we dig in the garden we seem to find bits of old dishes and glass. Horseshoes too...

My Johnson & Johnson collection in the bathroom upstairs....

More medicine bottles in the downstairs bathroom...

A collection of samplers in the bedroom. I made two. My friend made another as a wedding gift, and the rest are by my great-grandmother... Oh, and the baby clothes hangers!! I love these. Each one has a different face. I bought the four together for $1.00 at the Great Glebe Garage Sale years ago. They still make me smile!

This is my battered up Steiff teddy I've had since I was a baby. My Mum took the eyes out so I wouldn't swallow them! He holds on to my jewellery for me!

Patterson and Sons

2008-06-06T09:17:00.005-04:00

Last time, I showed a photo of the dormer window in this building - the old Patterson and Sons building. It was a furniture and undertaker business way back when. It is on our main street, right on the Mississippi River.

This is the view of the side of the building from across the river...

The old painted sign. See where the wood supports for the balcony were? There used to be a second story balcony wrapping around this side of the building. Note the French door up there too...

There used to be an identical door down here at water level, and it was said to be access for Indians trading with the shopkeepers. It's been badly changed to a window.... and of course, water levels have dropped here like everywhere else. (Honey Harbour ...... sigh....) I thought the reflection in the water was rather artistic, but it actually makes looking at the photo confusing! Sorry!

Across the street from Patterson's is our Town Hall. It was built in 1895. Nice eh?

Although I think they need to paint the trim a contrasting colour! The building always looks a tiny bit blah to me! Especially on a grey, drizzly day!

This is the view up the river from the same vantage point...

You are right in the middle of town, but as you can see, people have boat houses here, right in their backyards! Just down around the bend on the left is our swimming beach, right beside the high school.

Washing Windows

2008-06-03T09:29:00.003-04:00

I've been washing windows this morning. The three new (ugly) vinyl windows are a breeze to wash - they slide and flip and do all sorts of contortions. They are nice and squeaky clean now. The old, original windows are impossible to clean properly. None are painted shut anymore, but some only open a few inches. The aluminum storms/screens are screwed right to the frames on the outside, and I've never taken them off. So, in order to clean between the windows, it's me who slides and flips and does all sorts of contortions. Not pretty, and the windows are pretty streaky too! Oh well, they'll do, and it's brighter in here now!

Some other Carleton Place windows:

The second story of a main street store. These have aluminum on the outside too. See how they couldn't be bothered to build the top curve into the new windows? Sad. Bet these are streaky too...

This is a neat old building on the main street that's right on the river. It has a door at water level, that was used for deliveries by boat long ago. I'll get a photo next time I'm over there....

Our town hall clock tower...

Our town hall again. This stained glass window is in the Council Chamber Room.

This is my dentist's office. The building used to be the Bank of Nova Scotia, and this would have been a door originally. Dr Ellis just replaced all the original windows and doors in the building. I tried to talk him out of it!!! He saved me one though....

The Staircase

2008-05-23T10:40:00.006-04:00

I've been busy going through the entire house finding things we no longer need for our yard sale tomorrow. It's been a bit of a trip down memory lane... remember Polly Pockets?

But, to keep everyone interested - a few shots of the one original feature left in our poor house. The staircase. Our house is the old traditional centre hall plan. You come in the front door and look right up the stairs. I believe it's very bad feng shui! There is a room on either side of the stairs, and then at the back of the house, the kitchen. It's a very simple, small house. The stairs when we moved in:
Paint over paint over varnish over varnish, I believe. My brother spent a few days sanding the treads for us. I spent the next year trying to scrape and sand the risers, and eventually decided it would be easier to paint them.
The blue is a lot darker in real life. I don't like it in this photo. One of the best things about our stairs is the width. They measure 3 1/2 feet wide. Two adults can walk up side by side, holding hands! (I think my husband and I did this only once. Just to see if we could.)

This is the upstairs hall. That's the crazy quilt my great-great aunties made. This hall is next on my to paint list, and again, there's no baseboards yet. Stay tuned!

Projects

2008-05-16T09:59:00.005-04:00

We are famous here for starting projects. I, myself start a new one pretty much every week. Some have to do with the house, some don't! So, at any given time, there are at least four or five unfinished projects going on around here. Thus, no "after" photos of the master bedroom yet. Soon though. It is painted, and some of the baseboard is on. I thought it would be easy - cut to fit, and nail them on! Of course, it's not easy. The walls are wonky. The baseboard is not. Big gaps.

So I'll show you another unfinished project we are working on!! Our side porch. This is what was here when we moved in:
Not much to look at, and too small. Previous owners have told us that the original back door was not here - it was where the window to the left is. This door opens directly into the kitchen, which at one time had a back staircase going up to the master bedroom. (You already know this...) The staircase would have run up this wall; so it makes sense that the door wasn't there at that time.

So last fall we tore down the old porch! I was excited to see the original wooden clapboard. If I could, I would tear off all the aluminum siding. The wall to the right though, was in terrible condition - live ants, dead squirrels, some rot...and then there was the large upright hole in the corner. See where it was patched with raw wood? We haven't quite figured that out.

This is our new, bigger porch. It fits the space, and it just looks right, especially from way back at the end of the yard. This is pretty much where we are at right now. We are replacing the window on the right with a double hung window of the same size as the original windows in the house. We are putting new WOOD siding over the rotten siding. And we are using bit and pieces of our neighbours old sun room (see piles on porch...) to build a knee wall around the porch. We will screen it in above that, and possibly use the windows from the sun room as well. We'd like to have them installed so that they hook up to the ceiling, out of the way, in the summer. With the windows down, we could use this porch in the spring and fall too. It can't be finished soon enough. This week in Lanark County, the mosquitoes and black flies came to life with a vengeance!

2008-05-13T10:23:00.004-04:00

After ripping up the shag carpet the night we moved in, we had a pretty rough floor to deal with. Wherever there had been a stove pipe, the hole had just been covered with pieces of tin. We patched these with old tongue and groove wood we found in the shed. If you look closely, you can see the difference in the wood, but we can live with it.

This was the biggest hole in the baby's room. This room was actually carved out of the upper hall landing way back, but that's another story! Do, however, note the wall which was built directly on top of the orange shag carpet (lower right)...!

When we pulled up the tin, we found part of the original pipe...

with it's decorative grill still attached!! I was thrilled. This hole would have opened into the dining room below. At some time in the past the ceilings in our dining room and living room were lowered to accommodate plumbing. When they put up the new lower ceiling (curses!...) they just covered up this lovely thing! Anyway, we found it, cleaned it up and painted it, and installed it in another pipe hole....

This is in our oldest daughter's bedroom. She seems to be using it as a sort of time capsule, which is a very good idea. Anytime we've sealed off an area in the house, like behind the new tub, or when fixing a hole in the wall, we always put in some sort of souvenir for the next renovators to find!

I just cut a piece of Masonite to fit the hole, and I see I never did get around to staining it to match the floor! Maybe I'll get to that right now!

Living With The Past

2008-05-08T13:03:00.005-04:00

I've done a bit of research on the history of our house. I'd like to do more. I've been to the Land Registry Office, and have a list of all the previous owners of our house, and what they paid for it. Most of the land south of the Mississippi River in town was originally owned by William Franklin Morphy. In fact, the original name of Carleton Place was "Morphy's Falls". He sold our lot to a Thomas Burgess in 1886 for $152.50. I wonder what the fifty cents covered!

I found Thomas Burgess and his wife Charlotte in the 1901 census. He was of English descent, she of Irish. They were Methodists. There's a big ink smudge in the "Profession" box, but I think it says "section foreman". Would this be a mill? The railroad? His annual salary was $600. The neatest thing for me though, was that they had three children. (Like us.) Two girls and a boy. (Like us.) Loretta was born in 1881, Florence in 1885 and Melville in 1890. I would imagine that Melville was born here in the house, probably in the master bedroom. Our son was born in 1997 here in the house. In the master bedroom. (Again, like us.) Knowing a bit about who lived and breathed and ate and slept and walked up and down those 16 steep stairs a thousand times a day
like you do is quite the feeling. As my Dad would say; "It boggles the mind."
These are before and after photos of the floor in the master bedroom.

In the upper photo you can see some of the original orange shag carpet that covered the entire second floor when we bought the house. And the state of the floorboards. And the stove pipe hole we found under a square of tin that was nailed to the floor. The cement block around it must weigh a ton, and is in the ceiling of the kitchen below - pretty much right over my head when I'm sitting at the kitchen table!!

Below shows the patch job we did. It looks pretty good. We've had to cover a few of these hole, and I've made measurements and notes showing just where the holes are. When I find nice stove pipe grate covers, I'll be able to add them in.

Painting Walls / Painted Walls

2008-05-06T09:32:00.005-04:00

I'm hoping to finish all the painting in the bedroom today, and then I can start putting up new baseboards! Oh, to have baseboards! I have to make them nice and thick and high and old looking, for authenticity, but also to hide the famous "big hole". Easier than trying to fix that thing with drywall!

It's a gorgeous day here, so I'll go upstairs and get at it, so that I can enjoy the afternoon. Below, a few "painted walls" in town...
This was Taylors , on the main street. They owned a department store and garage for a few generations. The front of the building has stone sills and lintels and a nice pressed metal cornice on top. This is on a side street, leading to the
Taylors garage, then a bicycle repair shop. Empty now.

Another limestone building on our main street. Someone rudely hung a wooden board over the original painted sign. Actually, I think there are several layers of painted advertising on this wall!
This building always seems to be empty and up for rent.

A Bit of Background

2008-05-05T13:34:00.009-04:00

I guess a bit of background is in order. The old town's name is Carleton Place, Ontario. I grew up in Southern Ontario, but moved to Ottawa to go to college. Then, as you know, life happens; you get married, have kids (in whatever order...), start careers, decide to buy a house, and discover a quaint little town half an hour west of the city that you'd never heard of. And here we are.

The town may be quaint, but our house isn't really. Yeah, all our relatives gush on about how much character it has, but I can't get past the aluminum siding. So I try to enjoy the inside! Today I am enjoying painting the master bedroom. It has had a coat of primer on the walls and ceiling for ten years now, so it seemed high time to choose a colour and get at it! Naturally, I forgot to take a "before" photo, but this is what it looks like today.
I left the ceiling white and I'm painting the walls "contemporary white". I wanted a calm room - every other room in the house is pretty colourful!This big hole is a bit exciting. The room has no baseboards because when we bought the house the whole upstairs had orange shag carpet and orange shag baseboards. I kid you not. We tore them out the very first night, and covered this large hole with tape (!). Ten years later (!) I took the tape off to paint and decided to see what was in the big hole. I stuck my camera in and pressed the shutter....
Look! (We are now in the hole, lying on the floor looking straight up...) On the left - that's the original plaster wall with wallpaper on it. See at the bottom where they tore off the original baseboards? Then a new upright for the new wall - drywall on right. Instead of fixing the plaster wall, they built a room inside a room. In our room. So I figure the original bedroom was a foot bigger in all directions. This is pretty much the story of our poor house. It was built in 1887 and then slowly destroyed by owner after owner... One more photo:I don't know if the photo will show this, but you see the lovely original pine plank floor to the left. Then to the right is a big hole in the floor covered with plywood...This originally was the opening for the back staircase from the kitchen to our bedroom. Someone tore out the staircase, covered the hole with plywood, and then built his n' hers closets over the hole. I hate these people so much!!!

Anyhoo - I must go do a second coat of paint! As promised, a few more photos of town...
This was built as a tannery, and is now a restaurant. It's on the banks of the Mississippi, right across from town hall.
This is one of my favourite antique shops. The building was originally a blacksmith shop, built in 1875.

I have two life coaches!!

2008-05-02T13:24:00.003-04:00

My friend Wendy has encouraged me to write a blog since I spend all day on the internet anyway! But now I'll spend even more time wasting time at the computer! I woke up today full of plans, as always. After four coffees I still felt dopey, so I thought I'd take Shelby out for a walk before it rained. Then I thought, "I'll take the camera and get some shots of the river". Almost 50 photos later, I was home, Shelby was sleeping, and I was at the computer putting an album of our walk onto Facebook. Then I chatted with Wendy on Facebook. Now it's almost three hours later - Shelby is still sleeping, and I've accomplished nothing around the house, and
it still hasn't rained! Below, some photos from our walk.

The Mississippi River (the Canadian version) that runs through Carleton Place, and at one time powered all these mills!

This building was the Horace Brown flour mill, and is now condominiums. It's where I'd like to live when I retire!

This is the oldest remaining building from the Brown Mill complex. It's now a fancy Italian restaurant where my 16 year-old works.

The Bates and Innes woolen mill, built in 1871. Originally a woolen mill manufacturing fine worsteds and tweeds. Now it houses an electronic firm.
There are at least 3 other old stone mills in town, and I'll post photos of them next time!