Khandroma Squared

Long time no blogging!

2009-11-20T00:20:00.000-05:00

Time Flies!

2008-03-23T11:20:00.003-04:00

I can't believe spring is here. Now all we need is some consistantly springy weather. I shouldn't complain, though; there have been some lovely days and the weather is gradually geting warmer.

Things are slowly progressing in the house - the soygel works slowly but is really melting the paint off the fireplace brick. (note to self: take pictures) I tried some on my lower front windows and it peeled the ugly stuff right off. I am coming ot the realization, however, that no matter what one uses to strip paint the stripping part is tedious and nasty. Ah well, a little at a time. The great thing about the soygel is that is does not make me feel sick.

A friend who has a silent paint remover has offered to give me a demo when she starts stripping the paint from her porch. Even my beloved soygel drips more than I would like and it'll be interesting to see a painstripper that uses heat and not goo. The horrible heat gun I had a few years ago doesn't count. :P

The garden has been laid out and folks have started planting. The best part? I didn't have to do any of it. :) I did buy some herb seeds and I'm going to plant them in the front beds against the porch but it's going ot be small and manageable. (she says with great conviction) The heavy duty gardening will be left to the community gardeners. (note to self: take pictures)

There were some concerns over my Black Walnut tree and its poisonous to veggies nature but I found some websites that have lists of plants that will co-exist nicely with Black Walnut trees. Trees=bliss.

Here are some links with info about Black Walnut trees:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1148.html

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/nursery/430-021/430-021.html

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/fruits/blkwalnt.htm

http://www.walnutcouncil.org/botanical_description.htm

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/BlackWalnut.html

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/BlackWalnut.html

http://walnutsweb.com/

Ain't Google grand?

Community garden, part the second

2008-03-09T11:46:00.002-04:00

The gracious Mr. Mark Powell met one of my neighbors at my house last weekish to have a gander at my yard. My next door neighbor, a retired man who mowed my lawn all last summer when I was too sick to do it, came out and joined the conversation. I'm guessing that the sight of two strangers, one long haired, set off his neighborly concern alarm. The upshot is that he donated the use of his plow to the cause and a few days later I had a big plowed and tilled area in my back yard.

I went over to thank him a couple of days ago and he said that my gardening buddies impressed him enough that he was happy to lend them the plow. Apparently he was right in there plowing with my other neighbor with whom he seems to have bonded.

This never would have happened in my old neighborhood in Jersey.

Mark dropped off a set of rules for the gardeners and a lease for me. I suppose the next step is to figure out who wants a spot and how many we're going to create in the yard.

busy, busy, busy...

2008-03-08T18:39:00.002-05:00

It's been a scurrying sort of week as I try to clean my house, get back to work, and have a social life. A friend pointed out today that I've spent all of my time here in Roanoke either taking care of my terminally ill mom or being in cancer treatment. Despite all of that I still love this area and am really jazzed that I'll be able to finally see it as a well rested healthy person. :)

I finally bought a quart of Soygel and tried it on my painted fireplace. It works the way they said it would and the smell is really minimal. It does have a plastic-y smell that I wouldn't want to dab behind my ears but it's bearable and doesn't permeate the house. It does require quite a few hours to work, but work it does. It lifts the paint right off the surface and is stupidly easy to remove with a plastic putty knife.

Starting the paint removal process on my fireplace has solved a mystery for me: why did the house flippers paint over the brick in the first place? The paint is so thin that I assumed it was only one layer. Alas, there's a layer of deep red paint under the white. It's a horrible color and is being a real bear to remove. The white paint is lifting off nicely. The red paint isn't. I'm guessing that it's being difficult because it's right on top of that nice porous brick. I'm removing paint from a small area right now so if the red paint doesn't come off well I may just paint over it all in a nicer color. Cross your fingers for me.

It's over, done, kaput...

2008-02-29T17:01:00.002-05:00

One week ago today I finished radiation but more importantly, my entire 8 1/2 months of cancer treatment. :) I've been mostly sleeping this week, in between going back to work half time.

A small group of friends, including the uber fabulous chicken men, showed up and surprised me at the last treatment. Another friend, who is a cancer survivor, came with flowers. The radiation staff gave me a certificate. How cool is that?

My wonderful boyfriend took us out for breakfast afterward.

It's great to feel my energy slowly come back.

Yet another blog...

2008-02-20T23:55:00.002-05:00

I've started another blog. It's intended to be a listing of sites/resources I've found with regard to historic designations and home owner politics in Roanoke. Here is the link:

www.thisismyroanoke.blogspot.com

Community Gardens

2008-02-20T23:43:00.002-05:00

I attended our neighborhood association meeting last night and heard a terrific presentation from a guy named Mark Powell who has started some community gardens in Roanoke. What a neat dude! I was so impressed with his attitude and committment to the cause that I volunteered my back yard for use as a community garden this year. The part that convinced me this was a Good Idea was the fact that all the gardens his organization plants are organic. Perfect!

I thought that having a community garden in my yard would be a wonderful life affirming thing. What better way to get my strength back from my cancer treatment? And make new friends to boot!

One of my neighbors is already talking to me about planting in my yard. Bring on the seeds!

Bring Spring! Like, Now!

2008-02-18T17:13:00.002-05:00

I have that flu that's been stomping through the Roanoke area. Somewhere along the line it managed to turn into bronchitis.

Four more radiation treatments and I am oficially done with cancer forevah! Like, totally.

The house is neglected, poor thing, while I cough and hack. I have a basement drain to unstop as soon as I can muster the energy for it. Ah! The joys of home ownership. Bring on the baking soda, vinegar, and the snake. Oh yeah!

A friend has offered to help me plant a garden this year. I seriously need to look at some garden planning books. I have big dreams of an herb garden and a labyrinth.

Here's a description of how one goes about walking a labyrinth on the veriditas.org site:
http://veriditas.org/about/guidelines.shtml

Wouldn't it be lovely to have one right in one's own backyard? Ya know, next to the chicken coop? :)

Ask Google and Ye Shall Receive

2008-02-03T12:09:00.002-05:00

Here is a link to the Department of Historic Resources website:

http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/index.htm

Of particular interest, to me at least, is the FAQ:

http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_faq.htm

I found this entry really interesting:

"Some friends live in a historic district, and they tell me that they have to get permission from a board to repair their porch or paint their house. Will I have officials looking over my shoulder if I register my house? No. Only locally designated historic districts are subject to local zoning ordinances and procedures. Sometimes, a property or district may be listed at the national, state, and local levels but it is only the local designation that places restrictions on private owners."

So the actual registration of a property does not mean that the owner will be subject to restrictions on what they can do with their property. Those restrictions are left to local governments, who are organized under a Certified Local Government (CLG) program. More info here:

http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/clg/clg.htm

This makes sense in terms of the differences between varying Architectural Review Boards.

I have a lot of questions with regard to accountability, the public's role in setting these CLGs up, and citizen aproval processes, if any.

There's a local DHR office right in Roanoke. It would be interesting to pay them a visit and get a detailed overview.

Another Unpacking Party?

2008-02-03T12:09:00.001-05:00

One of the friends who helped organize the unpacking party thrown for me last summer is talking about doing it again. It's true that I am completely overwhelmed with boxes and spending my unpacking energy getting back to work. Lucky for me, there's a terrific pizza place a few blocks away that makes yummy box unpacker feeding goodies. :)

Also lucky for me I have little shame when it comes to my messy house. :P

My friends amaze me on a regular basis.

Someone Else's Local Politics

2008-02-03T12:09:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting article about a neighborhood battle over a historic designation:

http://hamptonroads.com/node/336441

I'd like to find out what the procedure is for a Historic Designation application. One hopes that it is a more democratic process than the one outlined in htis article.

Local politics

2008-01-22T01:02:00.000-05:00

A very nice representative from the city came to our neighborhood association meeting last week. One of the things I love about my neighbors, at least the ones who regularly come to the meetings, is that they are not shy. They are not shy about asking difficult questions or saying what is on their minds. They are also so nice about it that one cannot be offended.

We asked the rep about everything from recycling (he'd come to tell us about a recycling contest between our neighborhood and the one next to us) to civic plans. The city spent a lot of money on an Architectural Planning Guide to guide folks through the exterior renovation process. It recommends things such as period appropriate colors and building styles and adornments. Some of us have been suspicious that it is a move toward designating more neighborhoods as historic. So we asked. The rep said that our neighborhood was not in the works for any kind of historic designation. A lot of us heaved sighs of relief. Nonetheless someone did ask the million dollar question: if the neighborhood were up for consideration as a historic district would we be informed? The rep looked a little surprised and said of course we would be informed. Being a suspicious sort I'm still going to keep my eyes open.

The rep did remind us that Old Southwest residents requested the designation. True, but I suspect that a lot of those people did not fully understand what the designation meant in terms of rules and costs. I've looked at one or two other areas with historic review boards and it does seem that Roanoke's is pretty draconian. I would hate to see my neighbors a few doors down have to remove their rusted chicken sculptures. I swear that they look much cooler than that description would suggest.

And furthermore!

2008-01-21T20:07:00.000-05:00

I Got Stuff Done this past week. Small things but for me, huge.

I cleaned and polished the oak floors in my TV room and put down an area rug. The color is totally awful for the curtains in the room and I absolutely refuse to put up a picture. Ok, maybe once I'm ready to replace said clashing carpet.

The other reason it took me so long to put down a rug was my 3 cats. or rather, the 3 cats who own me. Claw the carpet they must. I sprayed with some Lambert Kay Boundary Indoor/Outdoor Cat Repellent, stuff I used when I was an apartment dweller. It worked really well for that place, and I'm hoping that between the spray and the expensive kitty condo I put in the room here the little darlings will claw appropriately. Sure they will.

Holy Moly it's freaking COLD!

2008-01-21T20:01:00.000-05:00

Even though southwest Virginia tends to be way warmer than my former home in the greater Philadelphia area, these mountains are COLD this week! It went below 30 degrees last night!

What does this have to do with my house? Ha! My house, like so many 1920s abodes, has no wall insulation. Brrr. And let's not EVEN talk about my leaky windows that are still leaky even after the shrink plastic. There were cold breezes wafting though my kitchen last night. I had my thermostat turned up to an embarassingly high temp last night and it was so cold out that my inside temp never got over 66 degrees. That's frigging cold.

I look into my crystal ball and forsee blown-in insulation. Oh Hell, yeah.

In other news the radiation treatments are going well. I feel a little better each week despite the tightly controlled sunburn. That nasty yet life saving chemo is slowly leaving my system. w00t!

City Dwellin, Chicken Havin Folks

2008-01-06T17:10:00.000-05:00

I heard that at a New Year's gathering from one of my neighbors, who was decribing some other neighbors who have some "heirloom" chickens. Here in Roanoke, we're allowed to have chickens and other sorts of birds. I wish I could have a couple of sheep, but alas it is not to be. And yes, I fantasize about having pretty egg laying critters all the time. It's prolly too much work for me at this point but wouldn't it be fun to be a city dwelling, chicken having folk?

I love my neighbors.

Season's Greetings and Happy New Year!

2008-01-05T12:58:00.000-05:00

The holidays were nice, and quiet, and I'm glad they're over. I started radiation on Thurs and will be getting zapped for the next 6 weeks. It's really nice to be getting a treatment that doesn't involve geting stuck with sharp pointy objects.

I'm so happy I finally recaulked my shower stall after putting it off for so long. I finally had to sit myself down and give me a peptalk. "Self," I said "it won't be perfect. It's your first time doing it and there's a learning curve. Put on your big girl panties and deal!" So I did. It is indeed imperfect, but there's a good seal and it works. w00t!

My list further down in the entries has been greatly modified to reflect how tired I've been lately. :) My big goal for 2008? Refurbish ONE window. I'm not EVEN going to talk about unpacking boxes, nosireebob.

I may peek at the earlier to do list when I'm feeling better. :) Even at my slow pace the house becomes more of a home every day and that's the most important goal of all.

Having a Cool Yule. Literally!

2007-12-22T23:46:00.000-05:00

It's been a couple of weeks since I updated and there isn't really much to report. The boyfriend helped me pick out some curtains for the TV room and hung them for me a few days ago. They're heavy velvety brocade in muted browns and beiges. They look much better than they sound. :) I did find my camera last week but have misplaced it again. It's been like that for the past 3 weeks.

I've done a little decorating for the holidays though I never did get a proper tree up. Both the bf and I are not physically up for hauling his tree from the attic so we've made do with the 2 foot table top tree that belonged to his mother. It has fiber optic lights and is super cute.

I've been hurting enough from surgery that I haven't felt like doing much. I did go back to work and that's been taking my house energy away. Ah well. Patience is my lesson this season and it will all eventually get done.

I did cover my leakiest windows with plastic and have noticed a huge difference in the breeziness of the joint. Or rather, lack of breeze in the joint. My electric bill came in and it's just awful. The lack of insulation in my walls and my leaky windows are the guilty parties. The fireplace guy said that the $4000.00 high efficiency wood burning stove would solve my heating bill and that I would, in fact, be wearing shorts in the house because the heat would be so intense. I have to admit that the idea of shoving logs in the stove and ignoring the windows and walls would be lovely. Now all I need is 4k and lots of wood. :)

This is my first Christmas season without my mom. It's been tougher than I thought it would be. Friends tell me that they've never stopped missing their parents who have passed but celebrating the season brings them some joy. I know my mom would love my mantle and the festive goodies I put on it.

I didn't do a lot for Solstice but did count my blessings. The bf lives on top of a mountain and the snowy view is so beautiful that I remembered why I love this time of year so much. I'm lighting lots of candles and celebrating the light's return. :)

My fireplace

2007-11-20T18:47:00.000-05:00

I had my fireplace looked at and cleaned by a local chimney sweep outfit today. I have to say that they did not want to clean it, largely because they didn't want me to waste my money. Alas! There will be no cheery fires at my house this winter as the chimney is not in good shape nad prolly is not worth the money needed to fix it. I just liked the thought of the damned thing being clean. :P

Apparently at some time in the past the chimney was damaged enough to get a rebuild from the roofline up. A poorly done rebuild. The chimney guy said that he's not 100% sure he can put in the required liner tile and seal it enough to get the whole thing up to code and safe because of bad materials used in the fix. Bleh. The other thing is that it has no smoke chamber, something common to the fireplaces built in my neighborhood. He says it's prolly because most folks burned coal in this neighborhood. Oh well. Candles will look pretty in there.

His suggestion was to either put in a gas log or a wood burning insert, complete with stainless steel liner. Gas I'm not excited about, but the insert is gorgeous. It's also *cough* a $4000.00 job. Candles will look pretty in there. :)

The final results!!!!

2007-11-20T18:45:00.001-05:00

The cancer is gone. My surgeon called me yesterday to confirm the lab results.

Some friends gave me a shirt a few months ago that says "Hey cancer! You picked the wrong Bitch!"

I'm going to start wearing that shirt even more than I already do. :)

let the house projects begin!

A tentative project list

2007-11-14T15:11:00.000-05:00

Now that I'll slowly be shifting back into regular life I guess I'll do That Thing House Bloggers Do and make a list of things I want to do to the house. Ha!

I'm really really lucky because it's all cosmetic with one or two small plumbing items that are more maintenance related.

In no particular order:

1. finish painting the bookcase I'm placing in the craft room so I can unload the rest of the craft book boxes and set up my workspace.

2. caulk the durned shower stall. This one is so silly - the caulk the flippers used dissolved after a few showers. Duh! I got some good guidance from a nice gal at Lowes and am putting silicon caulk in there. This is a first for me, as a life long renter I've always just called maintenance. Let the lessons begin!

3. Get some soygel and start cleaning up the 41 windows. I'm going to start with the upstairs bathroom since there's only one small window in there. Oh dear gawd, this could take years!

4. The windows are all spilling heat out into the ether, so I have to decide on a method for stopping it. I do want to make some insulating roman shades for the bedrooms, but I've also been looking at interior storm windows. I saw some instructions on how to make simple frames with heat shrink plastic and I may try one or two to see how they go.

5. Get the plumber to fix the outside tap. It's leaking.

6. Paint my walls pretty colors.

7. Make curtains. I love making curtains. It's a good thing with my budget!

8. Take a friend up on her offer to help me paint a "rug" on my porch floor.

9. Set up my spinning wheel and make some yarn.

A major hurdle cleared

2007-11-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

At long last, I had my surgery. Yesterday. The tumor is gone. The chemo showed amazing results that could be clearly seen on my mammogram. The doctors were all really happy about it. I'm waiting for the final biopsy results, then I rest for a month and start 3 weeks of radiation. Then I can finally leave this liminal state and get back to making plans for the future.

Said plans aren't all that complicated - I want to start taking long walks again, start painting my rooms, sew fanciful window treatments, and unpack the rest of my boxes. I'm raring to go on my 41 windows, too. I talked to a nice man who presented at the Renovate Roanoke window restoration workshop and he invited me to call him for advice on restoring my 41. Oh, and go back to work. My old job is no longer available, unfortunately, but it does open a new door for something new that will make me happier.

Once again, the lovely old bungalow

2007-11-05T13:51:00.000-05:00

The bungalow is for sale. I saw a for sale sign on the front of the porch last week so I pulled into the driveway (the place is empty) and wrote the number down. While I was doing that I noticed that the city had tacked up a sign saying that property had been condemned. That makes me sad - such a lovely house. I'd still love to know the story of this house and its owner.

I called the number but keep getting a message that says the number is not taking messages. I'm really curious about how much the owner wants for the property and if I really want to get myself into such a huge - and expensive - project.

That Lovely Old Bungalow, Again

2007-10-22T09:56:00.000-04:00

Curious, I looked up the civic plan for the neighborhood in which the bungalow resides. The entire neighborhood is not designated historic, but a few of the major thoroughfares are, and some of the more interesting houses. The lovely old bungalow is one of the historic sites.

The civic plan makes two interesting observations in two separate sections. First, in a description of the district, the planners write that the neighborhood has a disproportionate number of low income residents. Second, in a section describing the historic sections, they wonder why so many of the houses designated historic have not been restored. Could it perhaps have something to do with the high number of poor residents? A look at the tax map shows that many of these houses are owned by older folks who purchased the houses long before the historic designation. I imagine that some of them are rentals, too, though most of them look well kept even if they aren't restored. A couple of the larger houses obviously need a lot of work, the lovely bungalow included.

The planners do say that there are some funding programs available to help residents with restoration, but I wonder if it's enough, especially when a house owner has to choose between feeding and clothing the family verses spending money on fixing up a house beyond basic maintenance?

I've been looking at lots of house blogs and haven't found much discussion of the problems associated with living in a historic district.

eco-friendly thoughts

2007-10-15T19:21:00.001-04:00

Since it's blog action day I figued I'd make a public committment to getting more eco-friendly, cause, ya know, if I say it in public then I have to do it, right? :) Some things I've already done, and some things I always did because my family did them when I was growing up. A blogger I read somewhere said that a lot of the things she was doing originally came out of a desire to save money. That's really true - saving heat energy saves money on the bill. So here's a list of things I either do or am going to start doing:

1. Find those darn tote bags so I can stop using plastic/paper grocery bags. Less junk to clean up in my house too.

2. Get back to composting. I'm eating a ton of veggies these days, oddly enough because a chemo side effect is that I'm craving veggies like a crazy woman. I have lots of refuse that can easily go into a pile in my back yard. And since I've always been lazy, when my mom and I composted years ago we didn't do anything besides mark out a spot for the pile and toss the compostables on it. No lime, no box, nothing. It worked great and we used it on our plants.

3. Get rid of the non-local plants in my back yard. My wonderful, wonderful boy friend took me for a tour of my back yard and pointed out the non-local growth. We have plenty of gorgeous local plantings here and I don't need invaders. :)

4. Replace all my toxic icky cleaners with eco-friendly products. I already started on this one. Since the cancer diagnosis a few months ago I've decided that avoiding toxins is not a bad idea. Ya think? Besides, anyone ever notice that the natural cleaners smell good?

5. I just bought a ton of micro fiber wash cloths and dish towels. I'm determined not to buy any more paper towels. I'll save cash and create less trash. Hey! That would make a cool t-shirt. Something my Depression Era Baby mom always did was cut up old t-shirts and use them as dust cloths. I'm fed up with Swiffers and stinky floor scrubbing pads. Give me a mop and a bucket. In the same vein, I'm going to get cloth napkins to replace the paper ones. We used those when I was a kid. Let's hear it for saving money. They're pretty, too. Yay Martha!

6. I already knit and do some spinning, so turning down my heat will encourage me to do more knitting and wear the stuff I make. I love shawls so there ya go. Eco-friendly *and* fashionable. w00t! I'd like to make some pretty wool curtains, too. Nice looking insulation is something I can definitely live with.

7. My local food coop sells local products, and their organic veggies are actually less expensive than the big box stores.

I know there are a lot more things I can do but I think this is a good start.

My other passion

2007-10-10T10:40:00.000-04:00

I have another blog that highlights my other passion - fiber/needlework/Victorian macrame.

it's here: www.skymosher.blogspot.com

Finally, pictures!

2007-10-10T01:16:00.001-04:00

My wonderful, wonderful boyfriend took some pictures of the house for me:

Here it is - an American Ugly as one friend jokingly calls it. Note the 41 windows. I really love my corner windows. The light inside the house is lovely. I'm so grateful the flippers put blinds on all of them. :)

Here is a close up of one of the two porch lights. There's one on either side of the door. These are original to the house! The picture in the upper right corner of the blog is the front light. It's original, too. Those are three metal pine cones shaped over the glass. It can't be seen well but there's also a pine cone knob at the top of the light. This is one of my favorite things about the house!

Here's the fireplace. It's kind of hard to see the detail under that white paint. The hearth is red underneath the black paint the flippers used. I'm guessing that the fireplace was originally unpainted. It looks like there's only one coat of paint on the brick. The screen was a gift from my bf, who noticed that it's decorated with metal pine cones and nicely evokes the pine cone theme of the outside light. It's a good thing one of us picks up details. I am totally Ok with him having better taste than me.
That's me, modelling a hat that I'd just recieved from a friend that day. I have an impressive wardrobe of hats now, all from knitting friends. :) That's my living room. I love my floors. The flippers did a great job. See all that light streaming in through 3 of the 41 windows? :)

Yep, still unpacking.

That gorgeous old bungalow

2007-10-10T00:54:00.000-04:00

Right at the edge of the south western most part of the city is a gorgeous old bungalow. It looks, at least to my untrained eye, like a real Arts and Crafts type place, complete with river stone worked into the chimney and front porch. It has narrow little windows that remind me of Frank Lloyd Wright inspired houses. Unfortunately, it's rotting. Some of the windows are boarded up, the porch flooring has obviously seen much better days, and the surrounding property is unkempt. Oddly enough, there's a newish looking antenna attached to the chimney.

I was wondering about this place to a friend of mine and was told that attempts had been made by some local folks to buy the place from the owner who lives in one of the local projects. The story goes that the woman refused to sell, saying to let the place rot. Said friend and I figured that there had to be a story behind that and I promptly forgot about it.

I was reading the latest architectural review board guidelines this morning and was surprised to learn that the historic district actually extends as far as the south western most part of the city. This also happens to be a poorer area, which is probably why there aren't many restored houses to be seen. It occurred to me that maybe the renovation standards required by the city are beyond the means of the owner and is the reason that lovely old bungalow is rotting.

There's a kind of beautiful irony in that.

and by the way...

2007-10-08T20:06:00.000-04:00

...in case the previous entry wasn't an indicator, the chemo ick has gone. :)

More sides to the story...

2007-10-08T19:39:00.001-04:00

The historic district - I have been avoiding naming it but anyone from the Roanoke area knows it's "Old South West" - is ever interesting to me because of the model it provides for what could happen in my own neighborhood.

A friend who rents an apartment in OSW was telling me the story of how OSW was being destroyed, and I don't believe this is too strong a word, by slum lords who were buying up old Victorian houses and chopping them up into sub-standard housing. Crime was rampant and lovely old historic buildings were being torn up. The neighbors were in agreement that designating the district historic would save those old houses and the neighborhood. Here is a link to an article at roanokejournal.com: http://roanokejournal.com/pg001.html written by a local man who lives in the Historic District. I've read a few of his online articles and frankly find him strident much of the time, but I think this particular piece is pretty well said in terms of how that designation has created a class rift in OSW.

It's a tough call. Gentrification is something that is obviously happening in Roanoke and it can really be seen in OSW. I really hope that Mr McCLure at the Journal is proved wrong and that the ARB doesn't end up running the elderly and working class folks out of the city. The neighborhood plan as seen here: http://www.roanokeva.gov/WebMgmt/ywbase61b.nsf/vwContentByKey/N25ZDHSM267FGUREN

shows that the ultimate goal is to eliminate multifamily housing and establish only single family dwellings. Having seen this happen in Philly back in the 80s, it means that lower income residents will have to move elsewhere, which means that the artists, poets, and other artistic types will leave. The heart of a city is its residents, and its soul is the artists and creative thinkers.

Anyway, back to my friend, who according to the OSW neighborhood plan will soon need to look elsewhere for affordable city living. Said friend is grateful for the lovely homes and safer neighborhood. I have to ask, however, couldn't this goal have been attained by enforcing already existing laws? The historic designation is a tidy way around what had to be some very messy battles with the local slum lords but at what cost?

It will be interesting to see how things play out. In the meantime, I've already started attending neighborhood meetings and have decided to go ahead and paint my porch door in some kind of artistic statement. Maybe I'll get a single Leisure Suit Window and take my time restoring the rest of my old funky glass single hungs.

here is a link to the neighborhood planning page for Roanoke: http://www.roanokeva.gov/WebMgmt/ywbase61b.nsf/vwContentByKey/N255BRDR436FGUREN

goodbye to chemo

2007-09-30T20:16:00.000-04:00

I had my last chemo on Friday. Now I sit and wait for the familiar sequence of side effects. Today is "everything tastes like shit day," which will likely end tomorrow when "coming down from the antinausea drugs" kicks in. Then "I am so hungry but can't eat much day" will hit, then my bones will hurt, then my blood counts will dive in two weeks, then I'll start feeling normal again. The best part about this last cycle is that I won't start feeling better just to get knocked down again!

Last Thursday, the day before the final chemo, I went to Lowes and bought some melon color paint for an old bookcase of mine. This bookcase is going to go in the room I'm setting up as a studio. It'll take time for my strength to gather, but I'm determined to start making the house my own by painting something a lovely color and setting it up in a Room With a Purpose. Small significant steps. :) I also got some hardware for my wall shelves.

Preparations for setting up my first studio: stud finder, check. Drill, check. Laser level, check. Wall screws, check. Cats to supervise, check. Bed for frequent naps, check.

More unpacking...

2007-09-23T15:35:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to get my craftroom set up today. It's slow going but I'm getting there. I have actual places to store supplies so I can finally unpack the boxes I've been staring at for almost a year. I love having a whole house to myself.

I decided to use my mom's desk as a place for my beading/jewelry making supplies. It has a nice fold down desk top that will make a terrific work surface. I have some Ikea shelves and a bookcase too. Organizational stuff makes me feel like my life works. Haha.

Alas!

2007-09-19T10:28:00.000-04:00

I am still looking for my camera.

Nesting while resting?

2007-09-16T12:55:00.000-04:00

Some friends threw me a cleaning party a few weeks ago, right after chemo #2. I was not allowed to do anything but tell folks what needed doing. I'm still really blown away by the generosity and kindness of this group of people I've only known for a few months since moving here. My kitchen was completly unpacked and set up and my hard wood floors got a thorough cleaning. I'm really looking forward to the time when I can reciprocate. :)

Chemo #3 was just over a week ago. This one hit me harder than any of them in terms of side effects, though I was up and around sooner than normal. My last chemo is in 2 weeks. It's getting harder to do anything for the house so I'm spending a lot of time looking for ideas and dreaming. I'm still obsessing over my windows and have found a local carpenter who does beautiful work. I'm planning to talk to him about the cost of restoring my existing windows versus replacements. It would be really nice to make my single hung windows into double.

The main branch of the library downtown has an entire room devoted to housing and neighborhoods and has tons of pictures available so folks can see what their houses might have looked like back in the day.

An unpacking interlude

2007-09-04T14:58:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to unpack one box a day, a not unreasonable goal given my blood cell counts and energy level this week. It's been weird to unpack the boxes of my mom's things. I hired movers to pack up her apartment after she died because I wasn't ready to sort through her things. I'm taking those boxes very slowly as each one brings back a vivid memory.

I found her Stewie Griffen t-shirt the other day. I bought it for her Valentine's Day present this year because she loved Family Guy and thought "that little monster" was a hoot. I did unpack her mother's dishes and have them in my vintage china closet. It occured to me the other day that those dishes are around a century old. She used them as her everyday dishes rather than let them gather dust in the closet. I've decided that I like that idea and am using the crystal bowls and other vintage dishes for my everyday meals.

I miss her every day.

Kicking back

2007-09-01T08:47:00.001-04:00

My red and white blood cell counts are down this week. I knew I wasn't feeling great. :P My ambitious plans to unpack one or two boxes have been put on hold until I get some energy back.

I really need to find my camera so I can take some pictures of the house.

I pretty much have myself talked into fixing up the original wood windows. After reading many many many housing blogs I suspect that vinyl replacement windows are akin to 70s leisure suits.

Our local government has put together a "Plan Book" that suggests styles for folks fixing up their old houses. My neighborhood is made up almost totally of foursquares. There is much fear around here that the plan book is a tentative step into declaring our community historic and installing a review board. The next neighborhood over was declared Historic a few years ago and the review board horor stories are legendary. Proir to its historic designation, that neighborhood was a run down area where folks with little money could afford to purchase houses. Most of hte houses there are old Victorian places. A few years back people with more means started buying the houses and restoring them. Somewhere along the line the district was designated historic and the folks who moved to the neighborhood first - a very sore point among those residents - suddenly found htemselves having to get permission to do outside repairs with many of those repairs getting turned down because of inauthenticity.

If a house in that area had a non-historic repair or replacement done prior to the historic designation, then a similar repair or replacement is fine. The problem is when a tin roof needs replacing and the owners can only afford shingles the review board will tend to not approve the replacement. We had a very big case of just that in the past year. There is some quaking in fear and gnashing of teeth in my neighborhood because if I do decide to use leisure suit windows I want to be able to.

What bothers me the most about a historic designation here is the fear that our lovely community will disappear because people will no longer be able to afford living here. This is by no means a poor community but the reality is that historic houses require a certain affluence. Not everyone has the desire or the skill set to do the work themselves. Friends have been suggesting that I replace my windows as soon as possible before a review board gets set in place here.

Windows

2007-08-27T22:54:00.001-04:00

I counted my windows today. The house has 41 windows, and that doesn't include the windows enclosing the front porch. Murphy says that if I have that many windows and the house is older the one thing the house will need is windows.

It's an interesting dillemma. I've been doing a lot of reading on the net, everything from house blogs to houseblogs.net to real estate sites and home improvement sites. When I bought this house I was looking for a place to recover and nest and to make my own. I hadn't thought about renovations or preservation or historical accuracy or anything beyond moving in, taking care of the few things that needed fixing, and painting the walls pretty colors. I bought the house from a small local company that buys wrecked houses, renovates them, and then sells them (ideally) in a ready to move in state.

One would think that replacing windows would be fairly straight forward. I've seen some vinyl windows I like and that I can afford but now I'm wondering if perhaps I should try to restore the original windows that are still in the house. The sills are rotting in about three of my windows so I'm feeling a little pressure to do something.

A small part of the affinity I feel for this house is the fact that it's been abused. The previous owners lived hard lives and the signs can be found throughout the house. It's obvious that the windows have been broken multiple times, all of the original interior doors have been replaced, and I can see where the renovators replaced moldings and placed new pieces of wood in an attempt to match the old. I'm sure I'm over identifying with the house, at least in terms of my own current battle with cancer and the signs I can see in my own body from my treatments.

So, take the modern, easy way and use modern replacements? Or start what will probably be a never ending process of restoration? And how far does one take these things? I already have modern heating and air conditioning, a new modern kitchen that I like, and modern bathrooms. I have no desire to change those. My mother, who was a Depression Era baby, used to always laugh about how they couldn't wait to replace old furniture and household items with newer more modern things. In the 70s she couldn't wait to cover our beat up hard wood floors with wall to wall carpet. In the past few years she went back to her hard wood floors, but loved her updated vinyl windows. Her house was a 1959 square tract house so the windows looked good in it, but I wonder if 40 years from now someone will buy the house and want to go back to the old less efficient windows.

New chapters

2007-08-26T12:11:00.000-04:00

So many changes this year - a move to Va, my mother's passing away after battling breast cancer and other chronic illnesses for a number of years, and my own diagnosis with breast cancer three weeks after my mother's passage.

Then reason for this blog is the house I just bought. It's a 1920s four square in Roanoke, Va. Why would I take on an old house right in the middle of chemo? Because I wanted something to focus on besides being sick and it's really exciting to finally have my own place after 30 some years of renting. The house has "nice bones" but a spectacularly terrible cosmetic rehab. Fortunately the house is completely liveable and and renovations I need to do are cosmetic in nature.

Ok, except for the windows. There are a lot of them and they need replacing. Soon. I'm in the middle of weighing the pros and cons of replacement with modern windows vs restoring the old wood ones.