Home improvement

The sale of Mom's/my little place in Lake City made possible some repairs at my Robbinsdale home that had been needed for some time. What a great feeling to get things fixed! Here are some photos (also posted in the previously mentioned spirit of having some photos of Noah's childhood home on record):
  THE LIVING ROOM: At the front door: new tile and quarterrounds to replace the old, chipped asbestos-bottomed linoleum. No change to the green-heavy scheme!
  Lucy the cat, age 15, made friends with all the workmen, and wasn't a bit scared of the noise and dust. She's a very social, friendly cat. Turtle, age 14, hid under the furnace the whole time.

Work on the roof, in the attic crawlspace and on the ceiling and wall itself took care of winter water leakage around the wood-fireplace chimney (a sort of internal ice dam).
 THE DINING ROOM: The wooden floors have a lot of scratches from skateboards, baseball cleats and general wear, but still look pretty good, especially in sunlight and low light.

That's Mom and Dad's old dining room table, once in the Old Frontenac kitchen, then in the Lake City kitchen, now in my Robbinsdale dining room. Can't bring myself to get rid of the 1950s-era vertical candystripe wallpaper; as Mom used to say, "Well, at least it helps you keep your pictures straight on the wall."
 The "armoire" is a combination of a piece of furniture Aunt Annette gave me and a shelf I bought from my late neighbor, Bernice Peterson, that I stacked on top of it. Note the wooden high chair, once owned by Uncle Harter Kulseth's family. We've used it a lot for Elizabeth and Avamarie.
 In the kitchen, the workers installed quarterrounds and made other small repairs.

The precious, priceless blue plates go well with a pink ceiling, don't you think?
 

THE PINK BEDROOM: One of Mom's old armchairs makes a comfy spot in my bedroom.

I'm not much on new furniture -- much of my stuff is just what I had in my Old Frontenac bedroom as a kid.
 THE BLUE BEDROOM: The blue recliner Noah and I bought at a garage sale in Red Wing, at Anna's former apartment building, doesn't quite match the blue of the walls, but it sure is comfy.

A portrait of Cosmo Kramer, from "Seinfeld," hangs in Noah's room.
 

THE HALLWAY: Entrances to Noah's old room and the yellow "media room."

THE YELLOW "MEDIA ROOM": No beige in your scrapblog editor's house! I get enough of that at work.

Lots of stuff hanging on the wall in every room; I've followed in Aunt Annette Kulseth's footsteps that way.

No fancy HDTVs here, just this fuzzy old lunker. Don't have cable now that Noah has moved out; not much time to watch TV when you work nights.

THE BATHROOM: Yes, the bathroom! It was a wreck, and still isn't fancy, but is much improved, with a new vanity, leaky plumbing repaired, a ceiling fan installed (what a lot of work that was -- work on the roof, in the crawlspace, in the walls, and finally in the bathroom itself) and a newly surfaced tub.

Doesn't look like much, but having a spotless, relined tub is sure nice!

THE BASEMENT: The biggest rehab project was in the basement, where the workers repaired the ceiling and sealed and padded the 1940s-era asbestos-bottomed linoleum tile and resurfaced it with pretty nice vinyl flooring that goes well with the knotty-pine walls. Perhaps the most significant change is invisible -- repairs outside to seal a small leak in the basement's northwest corner. The basement has always been a good, usable space, but now it's even moreso.

Moved the double bed from Lake City here, and that's my old dining room table, with a few leaves taken out, now a basement game table.

Gotta have books. Books in every room, even in the basement.

The basement fireplace is workable, but seldom used. It's right under the one in the living room.

THE BASEMENT BEDROOM: There's a cozy, warm little bedroom in the basement that I use when I have guests. I put the awesome shell artwork that Aunt Mavis gave me in there! You can also see the old family trunk that our Augustin ancestors brought from Germany, full of all their possessions. It holds family scrapbooks now.

The old chest, a comfy bed and chair, and a few old family things, like the painting by Aunt Marilyn Miller, are in this room...

...along with more books. This room houses my poetry books, our childhood encyclopedias and old National Geographics -- classic basement fare! Lucy the cat likes this room a lot.