A Sneak Peek at the Interior of the House...

The Bay Window

My husband and I had a rare week without our two children - they were at the grandparents' for a week - so in mid-July we camped on the property and worked on cleaning up the house. It was such a joy to remove the shutters from the windows and to let in the light! I think the house must have been relieved to "see outside" after 3 years of darkness... Here is the view from the parlour, looking out the 5-sided bay window. Notice the sagging wallpaper on the ceiling... The linoleum floor is relatively intact, although it's coming apart in several places. It appears to be an early vintage linoleum; from my limited research, I think that it may be from the early 1900s? It is made up of little geometric squares, which seem to have been glued or pressed together in the manufacturing process onto a backing of burlap. There is old newspaper underneath. And beneath the newspaper is a wood floor.

Need anything pressed? Just let me know! Oh, and sorry in advance about the rust stains on your shirt...

Here is the woodstove in the corner of the parlour. The chimney is badly rusted; we surmise that water came in through the chimney at some point, perhaps before the roof was redone. The stove itself is in pretty decent shape, but we will not use it presently. The chimney has a nasty double 90-degree bend series near the ceiling... definitely not safe to use. For now, it will remain an ornament in the corner. I think we may put an electric fireplace there in the distant future, one that looks antique. There is a beautiful cookstove in the kitchen, however, that we will use!

Tinnerman Steel Range Company Cookstove from Cleveland, Ohio

Here is one of our favourite things inside the Little Blue House! It is a vintage cookstove, used up until the previous owners' last visit 3 years ago. These stoves were manufactured in Cleveland, Ohio by the Tinnerman Steel Range Co. around the turn of the twentieth century. It is in good shape, and I think it just needs a good cleaning, a new gasket for the woodbox, and perhaps a shine? How do you clean a stove like this? I must find out... We plan to get her fired up in the near future, before it gets cold...

Do you see the fairly heinous 1970s wallpaper on the wall behind the stove? I am a child of the 70s, and I know avocado green and orange when I see it! We found a roll of this wallpaper on a sitting on a shelf, so we know that the previous owners must have installed it. They owned the house for 40 years, up until July, 2012. That puts their initial possession of the house squarely in the 70s.

The linoleum on the kitchen floor is an earlier vintage, and I am guessing perhaps the 1950s? That is a wild guess only. It is just laying on the floor, and it is only attached in the 2 doorways that lead into the kitchen. There is a wood floor underneath! We would love to see it...