My House - The real Gryphon's Lair
This is my house as seen from across the street. It was built in 1889 for Mrs. Dorotea Nordness (I think she was a widow) who probably added the second story and electricity about 1912 or so.
I'm not sure the maples are as old as the house, but there are only one or two others left on the street as large, so I think they might be.
The house has been remodeled a few times since Mrs. Nordness sold it. Plumbing went in shortly after World War II, if the fixtures are anything to go by, and they probably stopped using the summer kitchen about then.
The summer kitchen, in case you didn't know, was a detached building used for cooking in hot weather, back when everyone cooked with wood. It kept the house a lot cooler and lowered the chance of setting the place on fire.
This is a view from the backyard.
My house's summer kitchen was the outer half of the smaller building you see here-- it's finished inside, with curtains and hooks in the painted walls, and there are still traces of the chimney and wiring-- and the half closest to the house was probably used for storing firewood and tools, because they didn't bother to finish the walls in there or put up a proper ceiling.
This outbuilding shows up on a 1912 insurance map of the street, so I'm pretty sure it's an original structure. Unfortunately, one of the supporting piers is collapsing and the floor's rotting out, so I'll probably tear it down eventually.
The ugly aluminum siding was probably put on at the same time the porch was enclosed, the front roof raised, and the kitchen mangled-- excuse me, remodeled-- in about 1974. I'm planning on removing the '70s siding, re-opening the front porch, and gutting the kitchen and bathroom as soon as I can, but it'll probably have to wait until the mortgage is paid off, so I can finance it.
I don't have any pictures of the interior to put up yet, except this one:
This is my antique heirloom quilt. The dresden plates in the pattern were made by my great-great grandmother Lulu Callahan, who was born in Lanark, Wisconsin. She made them in Edmonds, Washington in the 1930s, out of scraps from my mother's and my aunts' dresses, and gave the pieces to my mother when she left school. Mom gave them to me when I bought my house in Wisconsin.
It took a long time for me to find someone I could trust with them, but eventually I did.
Helen Steele of Prince Edward Island, Canada, helped me design the pattern, using reproduction fabrics to show off the antique patches, and sewed the design and backing.
The ladies of the UCC Evansville Quilters did the actual quilting and edging.
I'd like to think Great-grandma Lulu would approve of the results.
I expect to be adding more pictures as time goes on, especially spring and summer views showing my hosta garden on the south side of the house and the huge white pine in the back, which was one of the major selling points when I bought the house-- I was homesick for Seattle's evergreen forests.
The Pewter Gryphon's Lair