11-07-2012  Today is Mc's birthday.  Hard to believe that 31 years has passed since we lived in California where he was born.  Happy Birthday sweetie!

Well, the vessel sink for the downstairs bathroom was delivered yesterday.  It is a beautiful iridescent blue.  It plays with the light just like the Caribbean Sea!  It came as a set that included the faucet.  Only this isn't any faucet.  It's a waterfall faucet!  It is operated with a toggle and the water flows over a disc of the same glass as the sink.  Now that I have the sink, I can go to Menards and order the vanity top.

This morning I had to be at the Flagg House by 8:30 since the heating/cooling guys were coming to put in a furnace.  That's right, there was no heat in the house.  There are radiators throughout the house and a boiler in the basement.  We were looking forward to having steam heat.  Last week we had a HVAC guy come out to show us how to work the boiler since it was turned off.  He spent a good bit of time with it.  First, of all it was dry.  He wanted to know if we knew who drained it and how long it had not been used.  We didn't know, so Mk called the listing agent to see if he had any information.  He didn't.  the HVAC guy then started to put water in the boiler and decided he better have another guy come out and watch for any leaking water from the radiators.  Turns out the boiler didn't even work.  Bummer.  That is $3500 we didn't plan on spending.

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Saturday and Sunday 10/27-28/1012

Well, J may be a bit upset with me because I forgot to take pictures of the room we worked in this weekend before we tore down the wallpaper.  )-:  However, I will be sure to take pics of the wall BEFORE I prime and paint it.  (-:

On Saturday, we made a grocery run for food to put in the "new" house so we don't have to keep eating out or go back to the "old" house when we get hungry.  We made a trip to the rental center to inquire about wallpaper steamers and perforators.  At $25.00/day for the steamer and $5.00 for the perforator, my husband, M, decided to explore his options.  Off to Menard's home improvement center. 

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Things to remember next time:
Rubber mallet (for closing paint cans without making a mess of the lids)
Measure distance of wall outlets in closet room
(I know there's more.  Just can't think of anymore right now.)

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Well I never completed the blurb I started last week (just before Halloween) and I guess it's floating around somewhere in cyberspace.  I'll see if I can catch up.
So, the weekend before Halloween, we started pulling down wallpaper.  The first room in which we started is the little room that is going to be MY closet.  M had bought this wallpaper remover solvent at Menards.  (He was convinced that he wouldn't need to rent a steamer.) and he started spraying and scraping.  I was supposed to be scoring the wallpaper with this little palm thingy with spiky wheels in it--BORING.  I got distracted by a curled corner near the floor.  I grabbed and pulled and the whole strip peeled off of the wall!  Well, I was inspired at this effortless procedure, so I started picking and pulled another strip. Next thing, M put down his stuff and started peeling too.  We stripped that room very quickly! It was so easy!!!  We felt that if things continued to go like that, we'd be done with all of the upstairs rooms in short order.  Next room:  the center room upstairs.  Motivated to go.  Start pulling...rrrrriiiiiippppp!  :-(   Um, this was not going to be easy.  Get out the scrapers.  Score, score, and score some more.  Spray, spray, spray.  Well, this room took more effort.  The top layer of the paper came off, but an underlayer still stuck to the wall; and, no, it was not another layer of wallpaper.  This was all the same paper.  M finally caved and went to Waters to rent the steamer which did a good job of softening the glue and paper.  It was quite labor intensive.  M finished on Sunday, 10-28-2012. 

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Second entry

10-25-2012:  Well, I was pretty tired when I signed-off last night.  I had a lot of good things to say, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to introduce some basic information about the house, which I will now proceed to do.  When my husband and I put an offer on the property, we knew it was a VERY old house, but we didn't know much more than that.  We had talked about eventually doing research on the house to try to discover the original owners and some of the history.  Little did we know how effortless this would become.  While sitting in the abstractor's waiting area on the closing date, I picked up a book (The Architects and Buildings of Manhattan, KS  by Dr. Patricia J. O'Brien) about some of the buildings in town, particularly the ones constructed from native limestone, and I came across a picture of the very house we were purchasing along with a brief history, including the name of the original property owner!  Very exciting for sure!  The house, in its current footprint, contains two bathrooms, 4 bedrooms upstairs (of which the smallest one is to become my "Carrie Bradshaw" closet) and a bathroom.  The main floor has a living room, bedroom/office, a bathroom, kitchen, family room, and a "dining" room that is more like Grand Central station because to get from one room to another on the main floor, you have to go through this area.  So I doubt that we will be using it as a dining room!  There is a huge basement with a "farmer's bathroom" (this is a sink, toilet, and shower, but not in a room per se.), the foundation being stacked limestone and quite stable and dry (damp, but not wet) even after 150 years.  Behind the house is the well and a root cellar/tornado shelter, a VERY rare find in town (I don't know if there is another in existence on the property of any of the other old homes.), which J has named "The Shire" and swears it's a Hobbit House.  LOL!  The house is sitting on about 1/4 acre of park-like beauty. There are black raspberry plants, a chestnut "bush", a couple of black walnut trees, a pear tree, and assorted other trees and plants on this remnant of the original homestead.  Because the previous owners were up in age upon their departure, the gardens are rather overgrown, but we will begin to remedy that problem once we get the inside transformed to our satisfaction.  It is a special oasis in our mid-sized community.

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Introduction

The John Flagg house is located in Manhattan, KS.   The earliest part of the house was built about 1860-61.  It is a vernacular stone house of Manhattan, constructed in a New England style with local limestone blocks.  According to the research of Dr. Patricia J. O'Brien, author of THE ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS OF MANHATTAN, KS, the house was constructed for John Flagg, who acquired the land "via a U.S. Patent from President Buchanan on October 10, 1860."  Mr. Flagg was born in Lincoln, Massachusetts on March 3, 1822.  He married Mary Ann Fiske in 1848 and they lived in Boston, Massachusetts where Mr. Flagg worked as a wheelwright.  He came to Kansas from Massachusetts in 1854, arriving first in Lawrence, Kansas, then moved to Manhattan.  Mr. Flagg was a charter member of the Boston Association which started the town of New Boston at the confluence of the Blue and Kansas Rivers in the Flint Hills region of Kansas.  That town would soon be renamed Manhattan.  Mr. Flagg "joined Co. C of the 17th Regiment Kansas Volunteers during the Civil War," but had earlier served in the "3rd Corps of the Kansas Cavalry when it was formed in 1861. The Flagg family was active in the Congregational Church."  Mr. Flagg was also a member of the Lafayette Masonic Lodge No.16, the A.F. and A.M.

"John Flagg and his son John Jr. operated a ferry to cross the Blue River before bridges were built".  Mr. Flagg "received a license from the Riley County commissioners for a ferry...in 1859."  Mr. Flagg also "tried being a merchant.  The advertisement 'Baker, Flagg & Co.' appeared in the paper reporting that they were merchants dealing in clothing and shoes."  John Flagg died on May 21, 1874 at the age of 53, survived by his widow and five children.


Late 10-24-2012:  So, my husband, Mk, and I recently completed the purchase of this 150 year old limestone house in the Flint Hills of Kansas.    My son, Mc, and his girlfriend, J, thought it'd be a great idea to give me something else to do in my life.  The idea being that I should keep a blog as Mk and I embark on some renovations to this house before we move into it.  I shall do my best not to disappoint Mc and J, as well as any others who find their way to this blog.  Until next time, signing off.  B.

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