Patience Returns

The new digs on West Avenue in La Crosse.

Back of the house with porch and balcony above.

On Friday morning, I got up at 6:45. Amanda and Natalie were here getting ready for school, but there was no real rush for the bathroom. I took off about 8:10 for La Crosse and my Realtor's office and the signing of the papers. This being a cash purchase, there weren't a whole lot of them. There was the guy from the title company, Mike and myself. There was a lot of relaxed chatter, the presentation of the final statement on the escrow, and once I handed over the cashier's check for $153,003.16, the deal was done.

Kitchen door onto the
rear entryway off porch.

On Wednesday, Mike had e-mailed me the final amount for the cashier's check, and on Thursday afternoon I drove into La Crosse and got the check from the bank. My personal banker, the VP who had helped me open the account a few weeks ago, was on hand to walk the teller through the process (no fee for the check, which was nice). Afterwards, Mike and I headed over to the house for a final walkthrough.

Kitchen, ugly fan, from the rear entry.

The seller's Realtor, true to form, was not there for the closing. The people from the trust that was selling the house had presigned the papers the day before, so by 9:30 on Friday we were out of there, and I was heading over to my house with keys and garage remote and deed in hand.

Arch leading to stairs, dining room.

My first order of business was measuring out the kitchen. It's kind of a weird space, though open, and I wanted to get a schematic put together in Illustrator so I could play with the configuration of the room. My second order of business was to go through the house and take photos so I could show the place off on Facebook and here on the blog.

Up-and-over stairs
into living room.

If you have Facebook, you've probably already seen these pictures. If not, this is a first-time viewing for you. I will try to generate enough copy here to wrap around the pictures, but there over 20 of them, so forgive me if weird gaps show up on the page, as I may very well run out of things to say before I run out of pictures.

Turn around and you
see the guest bath.

Once at the house, I realized I still didn't bring anything to pry up a corner of the carpeting. I'm feeling torn by the carpeting. On the one hand, it's top-notch, cut-loop wool that's bound to be a plus in the winter. On the other hand, if there's original hardwood underneath (and I'm almost positive there is), taking the carpet up might really lighten up the rooms.

Living room (left) and kitchen
entry as seen from dining room.

I've already promised Pam, my sister-in-law, that we'll cut a section out if/when we pull the rug up, and it will fit perfectly in their living area upstairs in their home in Ettrick. When I mentioned that to her, brother Steve gave a sideways glance, I'm assuming at the chore it will be to lug that much carpet from La Crosse to Ettrick (about 35 miles).

Dining room from kitchen entry.

Even if we do take the carpeting up, I do want to keep it on the stairs, since is just seems to belong there. All of the upstairs is also carpeted, as well as all the spaces in the basement (which was not photographed for this blog, since there are really only two "rooms" down there: the laundry room (with its own 1/2 bath and shower) and a room that would be another bedroom if there were legal egress through one of the windows down there.

Dining room, looking toward
front door and living room beyond.

The basement is painted all white, though, and very light and airy. I'm sure this summer it will be an escape from the heat and humidity we are bound to experience.

Front door and period
mail drop in entry.

The last chore I had at the house on Friday was taking an inventory of the lighting fixtures. I'm sure someone came through the house and removed all the original ones, since the ones in the house now are the cheapest of fixtures, some wired unsoundly, with peeling brass finish over plastic and cheap metal.

Entry seen from front door: living
room left, dining room right.

Where there are ceiling fans, I'm replacing them with ceiling fans (the kitchen and the two bedrooms), relying on the previous owner's wisdom about their placement. The rest of the fixtures are being replaced with what I hope to be a coordinated design of bronze-finished fixtures with an arts-and-crafts/art deco twist.

Gas fireplace in living room.

After leaving the house, I drove back to Winona, stopping at a Perkins (kind of a Baker's Square type restaurant) for a late breakfast. When I got home, I crashed for a time before getting up. Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent online looking for period fixtures (which cost a fortune) and appropriate new-designed fixtures that are more in my price range.

Stairs from living room to
upstairs landing; note
period telephone shelf

Pam texted me in the afternoon, asking if I could pick up a pizza for Pizza Night (which is every Friday). So I stopped at the Papa Murphy's Take 'n' Bake here in Winona before heading out to Ettrick for the evening.

Stairs up to landing

We've already had several muggy days, but nothing terribly uncomfortable. So Steve and Pam and I sat out on the front porch in Ettrick with Natalie playing in the sandbox while her mom, Amanda, was working her part-time job at a local bar.

Period details!

While sitting upstairs in their living room, I commented to Steve and Pam how calm I've become since the house is really, officially mine. And I realized that, once that had occurred, I began thinking about my move-in and the improvements I wanted to make on the place, and my plans have been heavily revised.

Balcony off the office space.

Originally, I was going to drop a large amount on replacing all the appliances, since they were supposed to be removed before the close of escrow. I'm thinking that the seller's agent simply filled out the MLS forms wrong. In any case, the appliances are all there, so I'm not replacing them right off. Once that decision was made, my mind turned to the lighting.

Office space at top of stairs.

So I drove back to Winona that evening feeling much more grounded, more connected to this new place I've adopted for my home. The people have all been so nice and every time I need a person for electrical or plumbing or yardwork, half a dozen folks have someone they know who does what's needed at a reasonable price and in a conscientious manner.

Upstairs bath will get a soaker tub.

Saturday, Amanda, Natalie and I drove into La Crosse, got some lunch and went to Wettstein's Lighting, which is a satellite store of Wettsteins where the appliances are. Like with most lighting stores, it's rather overwhelming when you enter. So many designs, so many prices, I have a tendency to lose focus in a place like that, looking at stuff I like but that is no solution to the design parameters facing me.

Master bedroom (w/fan) is almost as big as the living room.

So I decided to focus on the fans. Seems the federal government recently defined fans as appliances, so for some reason the lighting intensities of lighted fans have been stunted. This was rather a downer, as all the fans' lights are also the main light source in each room.

Fan style for the bedrooms.

I settled on two lighted fans with a nice deco-styled motor mounting and a single central light. For the kitchen, I swapped out the light over the sink with a four-bulb rail fixture. That way, I can put the light where I need it and not have to rely on the kitchen fan's light for anything but a general light.

So I made the purchase and asked them to hold the lights until I could pick them up (I don't want them lying around while I'm trying to unpack the household), and we drove over to my place.

Focused rail lighting over sink will help keep kitchen bright. 

Natalie was delighted to explore a new house, and Amanda liked the place, I think. At one point, Natalie came up to me and asked, "Do you have a TV?" Yes, I explained, but it's on the way here, on the truck, like all the rest of my stuff. She seemed to accept the explanation, but you could see it was far from convincing her that I didn't just live in an empty house.

Kitchen fan to match rail lighting.

And so we headed back to Winona. I spent some time online and finally found the kitchen ceiling fan that I liked, pricewise as well as designwise.

So I'm hoping my stuff will arrive sooner than later next week, and that I can show you pictures of my old stuff in my new place. And perhaps, by then, I'll have a solution as to whether or not I'm going to tear up that carpeting. It might be a different story once we get the furniture in, but I still want to see the floors underneath; that may trump everything.