Follow My Board on Pinterest!

I thought it might be interesting to start brainstorming, and gathering ideas regarding the restoration of the Little Blue House. There is a wealth of information online on this subject, and it is challenging to organize all of it.

To that end, I've started a board on Pinterest entitled, "Victorian Home Restoration."

You can visit the board at:

Victorian Home Restoration on Pinterest

I have tried to put the "Pin It" button here on my blog, too, but I have obviously not figured it out correctly... I am figuring this stuff out as I go along.

I hope you like my bulletin board! I promise to write more here soon.

What I'm Reading

Happy 2013! I cannot believe that it's nearly the end of January. I haven't written a post in well over a month... We are planning the gradual restoration of the Little Blue House. I met with a contractor in late fall regarding the home's foundation. (I described the issues with the foundation in a previous post - see Our Home's Feet.)

We plan to do as much of the groundwork as we can, prior to the contractor starting work on the foundation in July. He is going to bring the house back to a level position and, in addition, he will add insulation to the floor. Currently, the floor (like the walls) is not insulated.

I have been reading two books, which are proving to be really informative. We have some time to research and school ourselves up on Victorian houses, prior to starting the groundwork in the late spring. We will have to wait until the ground thaws before we can really do anything. It's currently frozen solid...

Here is the first book, by Kit Wedd. It is a nice, large size with some good photos and drawings. I am finding it to be a great primer on Victorian houses.

The second book is by Alan Johnson, and it contains more specific information on how to restore houses (ie. foundations, roofs, floors, staircase, porches, etc.). I wish to become more informed on these subjects, not being a handy person myself... At least I will know what the contractor is talking about, and perhaps we can make better informed decisions this way...

In any case, it's enjoyable reading, and as it's too cold to work on the house, it seems to be a practical way to prepare ourselves. I think our plan has always been to start with the foundation of the LBH. Then we can move upwards from there, right? If she's not standing up straight, how can we restore her to her once beautiful self?

Merry Christmas!!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!

I promise to write more about the Little Blue House in the early new year. We have not been doing any work on restoring the tiny Victorian house lately. It has been far too cold! And Christmas preparations and work keep getting in the way...

All the best, and Happy Holidays!

Outhouse Haiku

Cold, leaning outhouse

Weather-worn, it stands alone

Chills my frozen bum

Our Victorian Outhouse, Nov 2012

Chilly

Guess what? Last week, it was colder inside the Little Blue House than it was outside. It appears that the LBH has a second calling in life, as a refrigerator.

I had to keep my warm jacket and boots on in the house. The snow I tracked indoors did not melt, but lay scattered about the floor in small white clumps, in the shapes of the tread on my boots.

Just to prove this fact to you, I took photos of the thermometers both inside and outside. The amazing thing is, it isn't even cold yet!

Here is the thermometer inside the LBH, reading about -3 degrees Celsius.

Inside

Here is the view from outside our front door. It was a mild day for mid-November. The temperature reached a high of about 3 degrees C. It was a gorgeous day for the drive, too. There was lots of fresh snow, which always makes everything look clean and new.

Outside

The coolness of the house illustrates the need for some insulation. Presently, the floor is not insulated at all. In addition, the walls are essentially uninsulated. At the time the LBH was built, in around 1898, it was common practice to insulate walls with sawdust. Whatever remains of any sawdust in those walls is certainly not providing any insulating properties now. I think it may be good nesting material for mice. God only knows what is in the attic. I'm quite sure that it's not insulation. I will write more on this project in a future post... it is near the top of "The List."

Lest We Forget

Eva

Did I tell you about Eva? She is a mysterious figure in the history of our Little Blue House. I wrote a little bit about her in an early post.

Did I tell you that the LBH was once a brothel? It became a brothel after it was moved to its present location (it was moved sometime between 1917 and 1920, probably). Eva Daniell was the madam. Here is the LBH, as it looked when we bought the house in July of this year, all overgrown. We removed the shutters, cleaned the house, and took this photo. The house, as seen from this angle, looks  much the same as it did when Eva was running the show.

I have done some preliminary research on Eva, although I feel that there is still much I have to learn about her and the house's colourful past. During these winter months, we don't plan to do much work on the house, so I may write about Eva as I learn more...

See the bay window in the picture below? Eva's shady ladies would sit in that 5-sided bay window, sewing, and gentlemen would pass by in the street to have a look. As I've said before, if they liked what they saw, then perhaps they would have "some tailoring done."

LBH

Eva was a Gold Rush madam before she moved into this house and opened it as a brothel. She apparently ran several brothels in the nearby town of Discovery, during the height of the Gold Rush, which started in 1898. Eva Lee Lambert was an American, born on 24 April, 1874. I still have not discovered where exactly she was from.

At some point, she met and fell in love with a British miner named Samuel James Daniell. They were married, although I don't know when. Was she running the brothel when she married? Mr. Daniell was born in Cornwall, England on 21 January, 1873.

Sadly, Eva's love passed away in their home town on 17 September, 1944. Eva, according to a person who was acquainted with her in the 1950s, never really stopped mourning the loss of her husband. (He was a child at the time, and commented that she always wore black and that some of the local kids thought of her as a witch.) I guess every small town needs a Boo Radley.

Eva erected a large headstone in the cemetery for Samuel, and he was buried there. She wished to be laid to rest next to him, according to local historians. However, she died elsewhere and she was never buried next to her true love.

Eva and Samuel Daniell's Grave

There are several mysteries which I should like to solve. One of them is that the headstone says, "Ena L." and not Eva. Another, and perhaps the most significant, is why was Eva not buried here?

I searched through government records and found out that she died on 11 May, 1956 (age 81) and the location says Victoria, BC. Where is she buried? It's sad to see the headstone, marked "1874-    ."

We are so intrigued by the little house, and the many stories that seem to be waiting to be told. Do you think she will let us in on her secrets?