Monday, March 09, 2009

Be Still My Little Arts & Crafts Heart




Looky looky! A Rookwood pottery fireplace! Look at that leaded glass door! How can I resist?

Do you think my little Arts & Crafts heart will physically break when I find out the "half bath" is really a toilet in the basement? (What is up with that? Why are there random toilets out in the open in basements around here? What is that? Why? What do I do if my dream house has a random toilet?)

8 comments:

Teri said...

oh so cute! love the front porch!

Gwen said...

So cute! I love it! I can deal with random toilets. My aunt has a random shower (not the nice framed in kind) in her basement in St. Louis.

Gwen

Unknown said...

Aah, random toilets . . . the mocking evidence of good intentions unfulfilled. It's sensible to plumb for the toilet in a to-be-finished basement bathroom when the house is being built. Sometimes a room gets wrapped around the toilet and sometimes it doesn't.

Are there more around here than elsewhere? Really? Or maybe you're just hanging out in the wrong basements.

I say, if you find a random toilet, take a random pee.

Very cute house. And practical since A&C gives you a built-in decorating point of view.

Melissa said...

My parents 100+ year old house has a toilet in the basement. I'm not sure of the provenance of it, but its oddly common. (They would never advertise it as a half bath, though. It doesn't have a sink nearby for one, and it hasn't been used in at least 30 years.)

Knitting Granny said...

Random toilet? Build walls around it (with a door), add a sink and counter - oh, go all the way and put in a nice shower, too. Viola! a basement bathroom.
Seriously, the house is a keeper!

Anonymous said...

The house it too darn cute to pass up!! I LOVE the porch - something that's definitely missing in my current house. From just the photos you've shown, the house seems to have a lot of character.

Best of luck on the homeownership journey...

Bridget said...

Beautiful! Who cares about toilets in strange places in such a great house?

Anonymous said...

Beautiful home! We moved into a 1918 A & C Four Square about 6 years ago. We LOVE it. Some advice: 1. Get a thorough inspection! Don't fall in love with the house so much that you think you can 'live with' or fix any problem. 1a. Get a chimney sweep to clean the fireplace if you choose to use it. Oh, get a couple of estimates and make sure one of them is from a small firm, preferably with a little old man who has been sweeping for 50 years. 2. Pull up every bit of carpet and go to natural wood. Dog nails be damned! It's worth it. 3. Research the history of A & C before doing any demolition - the number of people who have ruined valuable A & C attributes are legion. 4. Small furniture is a must in small rooms. The more furniture on legs you can have (even a couple of inch rise on the sofa legs makes a big difference). Seeing the floor makes the room seem larger. 4. Decorate in period-ish pieces, if you can. It really warms up the home. There's something about a overstuffed lazy boy that looks odd in a four square.... 5. Take Sadie for a walk through to make sure she likes the house (and can make it up the stairs)... Lastly and most importantly 6. Notoriously small closets in this era home -- make sure you have enough room for your stash!

Some renovation is on our site at http://am4sq.com. Also houseblogs.net is a great resource.

Good luck! Post pictures.