Seeing Things in a Different Light

Hi friends!

Hope you are well. We had a couple of scary, stormy days here in Joplin over the weekend, complete with Tornado sirens and time in the basement. Thankfully that was the worst of it. My heart goes out to the people of Oklahoma City. Here's to hoping  praying the worst of tornado season is over!

On Saturday we finally got around to switching out some of the light fixtures around the house that weren't exactly in keeping with the time period/style of our digs.

I present to you our before and afters from the kitchen! Buh-bye 90's, hello vintage, schoolhouse charm!

 My husband is such a rockstar! Thank you, babe for your handiwork. I am so thankful we don't have to hire electrical work out!

On Saturday evening we had our neighbors from across the street over for dinner. What a lovely couple! We so enjoyed getting to know them better. Leslie is the director of the reference library in town and a published Joplin historian and Dale is an English professor at MSSU, specializing in Tolkien. They are also avid music fans and dancers! Needless to say, we had lots and lots to talk about. They even took us over to their house for a tour after dinner. What a neat, craftsman home the live in!

We have just been blown away by the friendliness and openness of all of our neighbors and can't wait to have them all over soon!

On Supporting the Little Guys and Poppin' Some Seriously Good Corn

There is a charming little True Value hardware store in downtown Joplin which we try to frequent as much as possible. It's much more convenient to buzz on over to the Home Depot, which we definitely do, but if we have the time and are up for some good old Midwestern hospitality, we head over to Pearl Brother's Hardware to support "the little guy" and meander through the crowded aisles. This place is such a gem. You truly feel like you have stepped back in time when you look up at the tin ceiling or have an extended, casual conversation with one of the sweet older gentlemen who run the place.

(Have no clue who this man is, but he's standing outside Pearl Brother's 

and that is enough to illustrate my story!)

It's the kind of place that sells everything from paint thinner to barbecues to kitschy lawn ornaments and candy. I'm pretty sure there are some products in here that have been on the shelves longer than we've been alive. The other day we went in with a list and came out with more than what was on said list. Namely, we are now the proud owners of an Orville Redenbacher Presto Popper!

Being that our kitchen is less than state of the art and our built-in microwave doesn't turn without winding and then when wound turns painfully slow, we decided to avoid the fire hazard that is microwave popcorn and go for a popper. We could have gone for a stovetop popper, you know the kind with the crank, but our electric stove is not so good at evenly distributing heat, so electric it was!

Sidenote- for all who are wondering, yes, at some point we will be remodeling the kitchen, but it's not our top priority, as of yet. We'll revisit the idea in a few years OR upon winning the lottery. ;)

I cannot begin to describe the goodness produced from our new popper. I've always known microwave popcorn is a feeble attempt at air popped goodness, and that it's chock full of unhealthy stuff, but now I am fully convinced I never ever want to go back to our old ways. Just a few small pats of butter and a sprinkle of salt is enough to season this fluffy goodness and you don't get that gross, oily build-up on the roof of your mouth, like you do with most of the microwavable variety.

(source)

So, today I am loving that for $2, we can buy a big bag of corn and have enough popcorn to eat every night for the next month, although I know that wouldn't be the wisest of choices, and I'm loving that we get to play a small part in keeping Pearl Brother's alive... Here's to old fashioned hardware stores and good old fashioned popcorn!

Our Time Capsule Stairwell

Unpacking is going well, but I thought I'd come up for air and share a bit more about this old house. One of its most unique features is the wheat pasted collage that adorns the walls of the basement stairwell. It's completely wallpapered in 1930's and 40's magazine ads, newspaper clippings, ticket stubs, maps, high school graduation programs, menus, buy war bonds posters and even a filled out IRS form. As previously mentioned, some of the pin-up girls are a bit, ahem-- scandalous, so we might need to sticky tack up a few strategically placed clippings from the same time period, but I truly love that every time we go down to do laundry, we have the opportunity to step back in time. 

I can't help but wonder what was going through the mind of the occupants of the house during that time. There are concert programs dating to mere months before the US got involved in WWII. You sort of get a feel for the mood of the era by reading the comics or looking at the tongue in cheek New Yorker covers. If I didn't have a toddler and a house to unpack, I think I'd be spending more time down there... One of these days I'll pour myself a glass of two buck chuck and spend an evening immersing myself in the 30's and 40's.

It's tricky to get good lighting for pictures, but I hope the following shots give you a glimpse of this treasure trove of a stairwell.

Bob Spurgeon (see name above) was the owner of the house at this time.

They appear to have been a well travelled bunch.

 War bonds poster reads "Hercules son is flying and buying bonds too! How about you?"

Looking up to the ceiling

Caption on this one reads "It's Christmas and they began saying good bye in August."

Going back up the steps

One of the more modestly clothed ladies of the stairwell. Love her face....

That's cheap, but they probably made all their money off concessions. ;)

I'm pretty sure this is Eleanor Roosevelt... Not exactly sure of the significance of her painting a room blue, although it could be Democratic party related. October 1943 was well into FDR's second term, at this point things were looking promising for the allied forces. If you have ideas on the meaning of this depiction, let me know.

Also, I kind of like the look on Eleanor's face because that's how I'm feeling about painting rooms these days. I'm back and forth about wall colors all the time. If that wasn't difficult enough, there is a china cabinet and chairs that need painting as well! I have the most massive pile of paint swatches known to mankind. I told Nick I wished I owned one of those big swatch book/deck thingies so that I didn't have to continually raid the displays at the Home Depot and he pretty much summed things up for me by saying, with a trace of exasperation in his voice, "Steph, owning a swatch book still wouldn't help you make up your mind!"

Please Tell Me If I Am Becoming a Creeper...

This Saturday, Nick was so good to watch Collin all morning so I could have some much needed independence. Any other stay at home moms out there who can relate to how amazingly freeing it feels to do something simple like running to Target without kids? No carseat battles, no trying to figure out what they can play with to keep them entertained long enough in the shopping cart, no unexpected diaper changes in public restrooms. Yeah, it's pretty luxurious, I tell ya. I absolutely love staying home with Collin, but can't help but wish I had truly savored my carefree days a bit more! 

I had the best morning out-- armed with a grande, non-fat Caramel Machiatto, I spent some time getting lost in a local antique mall. Soon you will see my fun finds displayed in our new house. I scored a pair of crosstiched, silhouette cameos of George and Martha Washington, a kitchshy wall plate for my planned wall of plates in the kitchen and for $2 a crumbly, old, hand-painted Kodak finishing sign which I took to Hobby Lobby for framing. I then ran a few errands and stopped off at the library to see what I could find out about our old house.

I met the sweetest old man named John who is in charge of the reference section. Although there was no specific information on the house itself in city records, he did show me how to search through the old city directories which started in 1925 and yielded me a long list of previous owners. In some of the earlier directories the owners' occupations were listed as well.

Turns out, our house was home to the former Assistant to the President and General Manager of Eagle Picher Lead Co., the Secretary Treasurer of R and S Motor Sales Co, and an Episcopal Minister, whom my new friend John knew of from back in the 70's.

I'm hoping to get back to the library some time soon to look through newspaper archives for any of these residents. Now that I have names, I can search the census data and find out the names of their children-- many of them should still be living. How cool would it be to invite some previous residents over for dinner?! Maybe I'm being too much of a creeper here. Please intervene if you think I'm going to far!

Before I left the library, I thumbed through a book on American house styles and while I really don't think our house is a Federal style home, it does seem to have a Federal style door like this one:

See our door here:

Hmm... I feel as if our house has identity issues. Craftsman? American Foursquare? Federal? Maybe if we can meet some of its previous owners, they could give us some insights as to whether or not it was built this way or later altered. The mystery continues!

Saturday night we were invited to a dinner at Nick's boss' house. It was neat to meet the team Nick works with, including their spouses. Collin, of course, was a totally ham. He loves people, like his mamma! What a great group. I look forward to getting to know them better. 

On Sunday we braved the morning weather for church. 'Twas a snowy Palm Sunday in Missouri. I really do hope Easter won't look like this! My brother, who is doing a grad program near Springfield, will be driving out to join us for the day. Fun, fun!

We received word today that we'll more than likely close on the house this Wednesday afternoon! Although our stuff will take a while longer to get here, we'll at least be able to start working on a few projects-- including painting. Lots to look forward to. Stay tuned, dear friends!

You May Call Me Sleuthy McSleutherton

Hi friends! After soliciting your thoughts on our new old house's style in my last post, my awesome, house-buff friend Deb, suggested it might be an American Foursquare house with craftsman details. This led me to do a bit of research and I think she is right.

If you look at what we now consider the front entrance to the house, you'll see some of the classic American Foursquare details, including the two up, two down window placement configuration and the dormer. It does not have, however, the classic Foursquare or even Craftsman Bungalow front porch. Hmm...

Here are a few pictures of the American Foursquare homes:

A modern-day shot of a Foursquare (not our house):

Here is Wikipedia's description of the style: 

"The American Foursquare or American Four Square is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian and other Revival styles popular throughout the last half of the 19th century, the American Foursquare was plain, often incorporating handcrafted "honest" woodwork (unless purchased from a mail-order catalog). This style incorporates elements of the Prairie School and the Craftsman styles. It is also sometimes called Transitional Period."

I love this quote:

After looking at our house from the side entrance/sunroom enclosed porch, I have become more and more convinced it's just a modified American Foursquare. Take a look and let me know your thoughts:

The previous owner was only in the house for two years and either doesn't know or doesn't see the value in passing along any tidbits about the house's history. We know the house is from the 20's, but don't even know the exact year it was built. In the seller's disclosure she wrote "80-something years old..." For all we know it could be older... For all we know it could have been the scene of a great murder mystery! Sorry, Nick and I have been watching Foyle's War on Netflix, so I'm kind of obsessed with mysteries these days. I'll have to make a trip to the library to check out the public records.

In the meantime, I have already done a bit of sleuthing and found out some cool facts about our house. Nerd alert: I feel the need to tell you I have spent much too much time the Historic Joplin website and am even considering volunteering at next year's Murphysburg Historic District Christmas Dickens' Festival and/or quite possibly becoming the only Historical Society member under the age of 65, but I digress...

Apparently, a prominent bean broker (didn't know there was such a thing) by the name of Fon L. Johnson was one of the home's early residents. Oh, and our neighborhood's name is Roanoke, but it's also called Snob Hill because it was home to all the wealthy Joplinites back in the day.

Once we move in, I'll snap some shots of the walls of the basement stairwell, which were wallpapered back in the 1940's with magazine ads and pin-up girls. Scandalous! Maybe some strategic poster placement is in order.

All this talk of history and intrigue begs-- nay, demands, a five second homage to Nicolas Cage and National Treasure-- the most historically accurate and riveting thriller of all time:

That's all for today. I sense the end of Collin's nap time is nigh!

If you missed the interior pictures of the house, check them out here.