We closed on the Myrtle House on March 26, 2021. The structure is a two bedroom, one bath, 1296 sq foot home. The front of the home has a wrap around spacious covered front porch. There are two front doors; one leading to the formal living room/sitting room and the other leading directly into a bedroom. The home has 10 foot ceilings and large openings between rooms, making it feel roomy. There are hardwood floors throughout, except in the kitchen and bathroom, which are linoleum flooring. The tax records claim this home was build in 1935, but I am pretty sure that is not accurate. I will go into that a bit more in a later post.
I really wanted to capture some "before" pictures on day 1. I wasn't quite fast enough - Scott started pulling down wallpaper before I got the pictures. We were certainly excited and ready to get to work! 😀
As I'm look at the pictures now, I am realizing I didn't do a great job of getting pictures that really reflect the before condition of the house. Lesson #1: Take good pictures.
Caption/explanation is above each picture below.
The front room: The front door is to the left of the piano from this angle. I really need to get some pictures of the front door.
The front room looking into the a second front room of the home. This was Mamaw's bedroom. The front door is to the right of this picture. You can see the cased opening with dark wood. This is a Classical Craftsman molding, typical of homes build from 1900 through the 1930's. You can see the edges of the trim are clean shapes, well defined and simple. This was a hallmark of early 20th century homes breaking away from the ornate styles found in many Victorian style homes build before 1900.
Mamaw's bedroom: This room is on the front of the house. When I was a kid, my mom and my Aunt, Robin, built a closet in this room. In this photo, you see a window - this window looks out to the covered front porch. There is another window to the left of what can be seen in this picture.
This is Mamaw's bedroom looking toward the dining room. The aforementioned closet can be seen on the right with accordion doors. These doors are decidedly not Classical Craftsman. I would guess they were added somewhere between 1985 and 1990.
The doorway leads to the dining room. This doorway holds pocket doors on both sides. These fascinated me as a kid.
Below is the dining room. There is a doorway off to the left that leads to a bedroom. The doorway straight ahead leads to the kitchen and bathroom. Behind the mirror is a "paper plate" that covers the hole where the old coal stove used to enter the house. It links into the chimney that runs up through the middle of the house.
The other side of the dining room is pictured below.
This is one of the bedrooms. This room was known as Denny's room. Denny was my mama's brother. When my mom was younger and her whole family lived in this house, this room was shared by her and her sister. The other front door comes into this room.
At some point, mom and Robin decided to redo this room and took all the wallpaper off the walls. They hung new wallpaper with a border around the middle. As you can see, it all came down rather easily for Scott.
The next group of photos is the infamous back room. Scott didn't believe me that it actually existed. No one really went to the backroom, except for my Mom, Robin and Mamaw. It was the place where everything was stored, including Christmas presents. Several of us lived in the back room over the years. The initial residents of this room back in 1959 were my uncles C and Mouse.
The closet in the back room. Mom and Robin built this closet too! I heard that others contributed to the construction of this, but I think Robin was the driving force.
These are the doors to the backroom. The door on the right leads to the other bedroom. The door on the left leads to the bathroom. It doesn't currently open, but we are working on that. 😊
The five panel doors were very common in early 1900's homes. I need to take some pictures of the door knobs. Refer to Lesson #1 mentioned earlier. Good pictures are key in this adventure. I guess good pictures are key in any adventure.
The kitchen is located in the back of the house, opposite the back room. The trim in this room was painted white, which is good since the walls are paneling. Scott and I are pretty sure this house was built before indoor plumbing was in houses. The ceiling in the back room, the bathroom, and the kitchen is only eight and a half feet, compared to the ten foot ceilings everywhere else. The white door on the left in this photo leads to the pantry.
The cabinets over the stove were hung by my Papaw. They are solid cabinets. We are hoping to keep them. The doorway in this picture on the right leads to the dining room.
The cabinets above the sink were also hung by my Papaw. In this picture, you can see the door to the carport on the back of the house on the right. The door to the bathroom is on the left of the sink.
Below is the pantry. When I was a child, my cousins and I could spend hours in the pantry, organizing and reorganizing Mamaw's canned food. This pantry was always FULL. It was the perfect place to store cold food in the winter - like the Banana Pudding when there wasn't room in the fridge. There is no vent for the HVAC in there, so the winters were very cold in the pantry. The dryer is also in the pantry.
The only bathroom in the house is between the kitchen and the back room. When I was a kid, there was a claw foot tub in this bathroom in the same place where the shower is now. I hated that tub as a kid, but I sure do wish it was in there now. The door on the left leads to the back room. Yes, that door is white on one side and dark stain on the other side. Remember the dryer in the pantry? The washer hook ups are in the bathroom on the wall to the left in the picture below.
The bathroom from the other angle is below. The mirror was tilted my entire life. My uncle, Denny, had polio as a toddler. It left him paralyzed and eventually in a wheelchair. Having the mirror in the bathroom tilted made it possible for him to see into it. It was also perfect as Mamaw aged and she could sit in the bathroom and see herself.
I think that covers the indoor Before photos! I will try to get some better pictures of the house hardware to add at a later time.
Work began on Day 1, with the removal of wallpaper in Denny's bedroom. Scott and I did a walk through of the house inside and out and made a punch list of work to be done. We were ready to hit the ground running on Day 2.
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