One Year.

Dear House,
Happy Re-Birthday! We bought you one year ago today and have been trying our best to get you back to your former glory. Whenever I see photos of you shrouded in your vines I'm amazed at how different you look today. I'm sorry that you haven't been painted yet or that you're not completely finished on the inside. I promise we'll paint you as soon as we can. Believe me, you look (and smell) a thousand times better today than on this day last year when we first walked through you after the closing.
Thank you for providing a happy place for us to live and for being in such close proximity to a lot of nice people. Thank you for not being haunted. Thank you for not being infested with any creepy living things either.
We love you House and hope to spend many more happy years living inside of you.
Love Always,
Heather & Fernando

a little peak inside...

We did a little work in the foyer (finally!) over the weekend. Some painting above the picture rail, sanding and staining of the banister, re-painting a pair of vintage sconces and changing one of the 3-way light switches. Waiting for the banister and newel post to dry:

We also attempted to put up our wallpaper in here and it did not work out. I'll be trying again next weekend so hopefully it will look more like a finished room soon.

befores and currents

I know I've been absent for a while now but I figured I wouldn't bore everyone with more of my gardening adventures. Actually, it's more like hacking away at our little jungle than gardening. Our privet hedge is a bit of a lost cause at the moment. We can't reach the top even with a ladder. It just bloomed so we can't chop at it for at least another month. It needs some renovation and a proper cut - it has a few bald spots and it's too top heavy.
Fernando going for the gold in Olympic gardening:

We have done a few things around the house but alas I have no photos at the moment. You'll just have to settle for more photos of stuff growing. Like my beans that went from this:

To this:

Yes - actual beans are growing on those stalks! I even ate the largest one and it was pretty tasty!

My Mom dug a few ferns up from a friend's yard for me. I had a harrowing experience when I picked them up involving a giant spider that had been hiding in the ferns running around the car while I was driving home from my mother's house. After eyeing the spider on the back seat (and Fernando missed swatting it, sending it running into the seat creases,) I actually drove back to my Mom's, took the ferns out of the car and drove home in a state of panic with Fernando manning a rolled up Elle Decor at the ready. When she brought them over for me the following weekend they were all shriveled up and brown. We planted them anyway, hoping that they would come back and luckily they've started to green up nicely. I also received a peony for my birthday that we planted in the center. I'm hoping it grows larger and hides some of that old pipe. It hasn't flowered yet and I'm thinking I'll have to do something to make it bloom next year. Research.

We hung two of the MYNTA planters from IKEA between the lattice on the sides of the front porch. I planted some lobelia inside but it's not doing too well. I'll probably switch it out for something else in a few weeks.

I started a little patch of garden up the side of the house. Currently there are a few sunflowers (more to come) and zucchini plants and one Moon and Stars watermelon plant. If these take off we'll have to walk up that path very carefully. I'm not that good with plant placement. I bought a few strawberry plants to add to this patch too as soon as it stops raining.

My window boxes went from this:

To this:

Close-up before:

Close-up current:

Even more blooms opened up today - I guess all of that rain is paying off. There is still so much to do in the front I'm hoping we get a few sunny days to work on it. I want to remove a huge yew growing in the center of the front yard. It's so random, large and mishapen - we certainly don't need it. Maybe add a brick path going up to the side of the house and some perrenial plantings around the path... more soon.

do something pretty while you can...

It didn't rain on Saturday.
My Dad came by and hung these two window planters up for us.

I couldn't wait to see them with something in them so I packed them with some annuals - mostly pinks and alyssum.

I hope they fill in and get really lush. My favorites were these dark purple salvia:

I also popped the string beans I started from seed into the ground near the basement hatch.

Fernando did more toiling in the backyard, digging up bamboo and removing a huge rock pile by the fence. I should have taken a before and after photo of the rock pile. Here are the highlights: the before was ugly and the after is much, much better.

Our bamboo is doing really well (too well) and popping up all over the yard. I tripped over an overturned cobblestone from our patio on Saturday - there was a new bamboo shoot underneath trying to get out! Upon taking a closer look I realized there were four new shoots trying to get through the patio. We have huge runners running throughout the entire yard; this was a 5 foot length:

We have an accumulation of bamboo stakes and some pretty purple flowers blooming under one of the trees. Any idea what these are called?

There is a huge bunch of wisteria in full bloom too!

Fernando dug these up from the ground under the rock pile:

He came running around the front (I was planting the window boxes) when he found the first one. A few minutes later he came back with the other!

We think they might have originally sat on top of an elaborate iron fence but are not sure. I love them. I think they might end up on one of the fireplace mantels in the near future.

Images of America, the St. George edition

Last Friday, Fernando and I stopped in at SHOW gallery to check out the release party for the new book Images of America, St. George. The book is part of a series published through Arcadia Publishing and was written by David Goldfarb and James G. Ferreri who were on hand to sign copies.

The book is filled with historic photos as well as some fairly current photos of the St. George neighborhood. There are so many that I had never seen before - a result of Goldfarb and Ferreri spending countless hours of research and probably pouring over the NYPL Archives.
It really struck me how much our neighborhood has physically changed over the years since its start when it was initially known as New Brighton. New Brighton was mostly divided up into grand estates. The proximity to the Staten Island Ferry made New Brighton (St. George) a perfect spot for wealthy residents wanting a private yet conveniently close location to Manhattan.

The map below, included in the book really puzzled us because it shows a building exactly where our house stands today, part of the J.C. Green estate and is dated 1874:

Unfortunately, from the scan I couldn't read the type next to the building. We don't really know the exact date our house was built. All of the Staten Island land records were destroyed in a fire. We were originally told by the previous owner that it was built in 1910. He claimed this is what he was told by the first owner. After speaking with our neighbors (they own the very similar house next door) we all agreed that it must have been earlier than 1910.
Seeing that map prompted me to look around the NYPL digital archive for some more maps... and I was lucky enough to find a larger example of the same map:

Ah-ha! There was a greenhouse here before!
And then there was this one from 1906-1913, actually showing our house:

As well as this one dated 1917, that shows our house on a much smaller lot of land:

A little internet searching and I found this circa 1880 article from the New York Times:

It seems that where FERNando and I now lay our heads was possibly once a peaceful place for ferns to grow.
Let's re-cap: There was a greenhouse on our lot in 1874. The grounds and presumably the greenhouses were still in use in 1880 since Mrs. J.C. Green received a special prize for her magnificent collection of ferns. Our house existed at least since 1913 according to the confusingly dated 1906-1913 map above. So basically my research settles just about nothing other than sometime between 1880 and 1913 our house came into being. I'm going to push it a little further - Curtis High School was built between 1902 and 1904. Those grounds were also once upon a time part of the J.C. Green estate according to map number 1. It may be safe to say that the land was divided up at that time - they obviously tore down the estate mansion to make way for the school fields - it could have been around that time that the land was sold off. Maybe a better time frame would be between 1880 and 1902? Oh and somewhere along the way our lot increased in size.

ANYWAY, below are a few former gems, long ago ripped down to make way for apartment buildings, semi-attached stucco houses and paved parking lots. Perhaps we can thank J.C. Green for such improvements?

The Anson Phelps Stokes house, which had it still been standing, we would have been able to see from our office window (and remember just how modest our accomodations are:)

It's opulent interior that we would not have been able to see from our office window:

More of the (cluttered) interior:

Could the greenhouse that stood on our property have looked like this? Phelps Stokes house greenhouse:

Architect Edward Alfred Sargent's double house on the no longer existing Lennox Street:

The De Escoriaza house formerly of St.Marks Place:

The Staten Island Academy which I'm pretty sure was torn down to make way for either the co-op building we used to live in or the adjacent vacant lot:

An aerial view of St. George looking towards Curtis High School:

View up Hyatt street toward the Brighton Reformed Church and the former Tiedemann House on right:

Some things still look pretty much the same as they did in the old photos like these streetscapes of St. Mark's Place:

And some houses, like this one on Belmont Place and Vine Street:

And this one on Belmont Place and Daniel Low Terrace:

spring!

Damn you IKEA! Just when I find something I like - you never have it in stock! For my front porch, I desperately need a couple of these:

That's the MYNTA hanging planter - completely unavailable in NY and NJ at the moment. You see it matches these gunmetal grey Jonathan Adler pots I've been holding onto for more than a year (or two?) now:

I need to finally fill them up with flowers. And I'm pretty sure I need the hanging planters for a few of these:

I suppose with a profusion of flowers like that it doesn't really matter what the hanging planter looks like. It shouldn't be too hard - at least I'm not attempting this:
I've been starting my garden from seeds in Jiffy greenhouse trays. They work just great until they sprout too big for the greenhouse cover. I went a little crazy with the seeds - I think there are 11 kinds of tomatos:

Toby the cat loves digging up plants and killing them. Anyway, now is about the time when a few IKEA FRO mini greenhouses would come in handy:

Well, they would if they were available in any of the NY or NJ stores.

In other garden news, we've bought "new" vintage lawn furniture. We found two chairs and a small settee - perfect for the small patio area:

I want to make some bright stripe-y cushions for the seats. Now we just need to find a matching wrought iron round table.

The yard has gotten quite a bit cleaner:

Yes, it still needs a ton of work but at least we're not standing knee deep in leaves anymore - remember this:

I do.

I'm gonna chow down my vegetables.

We've been taking advantage of the nice weather by doing a little yard clean up. Winston (the neighborhood gardener) has been an enormous help. He managed to clear all of the remaining ivy that was heaped up in a corner of the yard since last summer as well as all of the bamboo and sapling refuse that we pulled out on our clearing spree. We're going to mulch our leaves in one of the corners of the yard to use in the future. The soil in the yard is already really rich with nutrients from years of neglect and piles of leaves left to mulch on their own.

Today, Winston is going to clear a bed in the yard for my future vegetable garden! I don't know how much I'll get planted this year but I'm trying to get an early start.
Dried up bamboo roots and rhizomes:

I'm keeping some bamboo to use as stakes in the garden:

Not much has gone on on the inside of the house. We're not lazy - just preoccupied at the moment with work and other projects. I finally finished a little baby blanket I've been working on for my friend's son (due any day now!)

A couple of months ago Fernando decided to lose his wedding ring. He was pretty bummed about it. I decided to make him a new one:

It's unfinished (not plated with rhodium) white gold and much more brutal. He says he likes it. :)

Yesterday, we worked on clearing out our remaining storage unit. For lunch, we hit up Montalbano's in Rosebank for a 120 hero and decided to eat down by the Alice Austen House.

Smoke on the water:

Hopefully, I'll have photos of the finished garden bed tomorrow.

two steps forward, one step back

I've been sick since Friday. Needless to say my bathroom did not get painted this weekend. We did get the office fixture up and the Kulla lamp up in our bedroom. We also lost (sold) the living room fixture.

I'm still waiting for your suggestions! We've had vistors to the blog from Milan to Minsk (no kidding!) so vistors, welcome and please feel free to leave a comment. :)
Perhaps I should show you my dream fixture for this spot?

Unfortunately, unless this becomes available at my dream price (much, much cheaper) it's not happening anytime soon. We did have another idea for this spot but it's just plain crazy and I won't mention it again unless I'm forced to do it.

Let's see... we also wrestled with the garden on Friday, before I came down with a fever. I toppled 20 and 30 foot bamboo stalks. Fernando managed to dig up massive chunks of bamboo roots and rhizomes. I was going to take a photo for you - I had left them lying on our patio - but it snowed heaps all over the yard and they got covered up. I've realized that getting rid of the bamboo (or even just controlling it) is not going to be easy.

I did discover a huge old climbing rose in the back corner of the property while picking up a dead branch. Ouch. There were also the first signs of spring poking out - crocuses and I think daffodils. We did so much hacking that we can actually walk around the yard now. I'm just dreading binding up the branches and stalks to throw away. If anyone is in need of some cut bamboo for a project - let me know!

what's going on here?

In all of the time between my posts you'd think we would have done a ton of things in our house - but you'd be wrong. It's been really cold inside and my hands don't work when they're cold.

We are lucky enough to still have all of the original storm windows for the house. They have been sitting in our basement for a very long time - they even have the cobwebs to prove it. They are all engraved with locations so it's just a matter of figuring out which way is north and hanging them up.

We put up all of the storm windows that we could. They cut the cold and stop some of the wind. Our house is tall so the only windows we've been able to cover ourselves are on the ground level and the ones that we could reach from the front porch roof and back mud room roof. They, like the rest of our trim, need scraping and fresh paint. I love the 4 pane design over our existing windows and how they compliment the glass vestibule. I think we'll keep them up year round on the front and back of the house to keep the cold out in the winter and the cool in in the summer.

I know I said we'd be hanging lights but what I didn't realize is how hard it would be. Every room has had at least two problems to address. In the foyer we needed a deeper ceiling canopy, in our bedroom we have to add wood to have something to mount the fixture to, in our office we also had to crack open the ceiling and move some stuff around, we have weird metal things sticking out from here and there and a lot of re-plastering to do.

One of the bedrooms needing a larger ceiling cap and some plaster work:

The office now has a Structo-Lite foundation and now needs a coat of plaster:

Some of the bulbs broke for this fixture so we'll need to find more (they're a little hard to find.) This one has glass globes that cover the bulbs (not currently on) but it's still too bright and we'll need to put it on a dimmer.

This one is vintage and in its previous life it hung in our old kitchen:

We haven't tackled our bedroom yet but I did purchase a white Kulla lamp for this spot.

Below is the only fixture we were able to actually hang. It's in our living room and guess what? We hate it. I love the fixture. I love the medallion. I hate them together. Since the medallion is already up, we're going to have to find another fixture for here. Any suggestions would be welcome - whatever it is it can't hang too low because we've installed a TV above the fireplace.

We still have not painted our upstairs bathroom. I did spend an eternity patching and sanding all of the trim and walls. I have another quick sanding to do and then we'll be ready for paint. We actually even agreed on a paint color! We'll be using Benjamin Moore's French Beret. I'm trying the Aura paint in here since it's supposed to be cleanable and mold resistant and just so amazing... that's what I hear anyway.

French Beret:

so, let's make the most of this beautiful day...

The beautiful weather today is putting me in the mood for a nice walk around the neighborhood. Maybe this evening after work?
For now, I thought I'd post a link to Forgotten NY's latest walking tour of St. George for you to check out - it's an interesting read. I actually happened to catch the tour group stopped in front of our house from our living room window when they did this tour! Here's another link to an older Forgotten NY St. George walking tour from back in 1999.
And I thought I'd share a few old photos we've taken around the neighborhood over the last 6 years or so...

Walking up from the ferry at night - view of Carrere and Hastings designed Borough Hall.

An unsung bit of prairie architecture on St. Marks Place close to Hamilton Ave.

St. Peter's church on St. Marks Place.

A face of Stuyvesant Place.

Crumbling brick near Bay Street Landing ("The Pearl" being built in the background.)

Corner of Westervelt Ave. and St. Marks Place - house designed by Edward A. Sargent.

Opposite side of same corner - brick colonial with plaster lions keeping guard.