Sunday, November 15, 2009

Of windows and old news

It was another wild day here at the money pit. I didn't get to the bottom of the pantry, other things got in the way. I was outside swinging a mattock to dig trenches for my raised bed blocks (through about 60/40- clay/rock mix!) for a while. Let me tell you- it's a full body workout! After a bit, J15 came to get me, she has decided to try to overcome her fear of driving and had asked me to take her out to learn to drive. She didn't do too badly. I drove her down to a local business park and let her drive around in deserted parking lots for about a half an hour. We both survived with all our hair intact! After her driving lesson, we ran a few errands and headed home. V had been a busy boy while we had been gone.

A new window!

He installed a replacement window on the North side of the basement, between the house and garage. There had been a window there but it had been boarded up and covered over. We decided we wanted all the natural light we can get so we've been uncovering many windows that were boarded up in the basement. The North window went so smoothly that he decided to tackle one on the South side of the house as well. This one is at along the basement stairs and was a bit more complicated:

Before, all boarded up and nowhere to go.


Out with the old.

He's not messing around with this one!
But, best of all, we had a surprise. Stuffed into one of the cinder blocks of the wall below the window were a few crumpled sheets of newspaper. Now we know about when the 'addition' was built onto the house: late July 1961. A few highlights:
What a great headline!
J15 worked hard to reconstruct a recipe from the "Women's pages"
She was excited by all this and found the recipe for a Raspberry Linzer Torte. YUM!! We'll have to try it sometime.
More news.
Check out the latest fashions!

New furniture anyone?

And I like these prices at the grocery store!

But, back to the job at hand. We did get the window done. It didn't go in as smoothly as hoped but it is in.
It looks out on where the deck used to be.
It will eventually be underneath our new deck that we are planning so we opted to put in a glass block window to soften the view but still let in some light and air.
All done!!!

8 comments:

  1. So, do you have egress windows in your basement? We just put one in because I've been paranoid about people burning to a crisp in the basement, since firefighters couldn't get in. Just wondering. It was a hard task. I think where you're at, they may have basement doors?????

    ReplyDelete
  2. The old newspapers are fun -like being an archeologist. Nice job on the windows!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What an exciting find-I LOVE those old newspapers! And the prices-those alone are great to read.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Meadowlark, there is a door out the back of the basement. We've been thinking about putting in at least one egress window though, as a back up, especially since our daughter has her bedroom down there.
    Kris and Sue- the newspaper was a blast! Reading about things that happened before I was born. There was an add for a sewing machine center- the were selling used treadle machines for $5! What I wouldn't give for one of those.
    Judy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love the newspaper find! "The satellites put into orbit"... lol, back then that was a big UFO coverup, right? :) lol

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cool find and 10 lbs red potatoes for .39c? Sigh!

    ReplyDelete

Glad you stopped in. I would love to hear from you.