Bungalow Musings

And so we are in 2010, and I feel rather as if it is time to update this blog and let everyone know that we are alive. As I do this, I have a very happy cat sitting in front of a fireplace, while drinking some Lady Grey tea out of an awesome owl mug that Rudy’s mother got me for my birthday.

The holidays were lovely fun – we were able to host Christmas Eve at our house and I had fun decorating for Christmas. In general, although there are many little things I want to improve, I feel as if home is home-y, and it pretty much always makes me happy to be there!

Last weekend I was able to enjoy a trip to Seattle to visit with friends, and hear a lecture at the Seattle Museum of History and Industry, or MOHAI, because one has to love an acronym, on the Arts & Crafts movement in the Pacific Northwest.  One of the things I’ve become a tiny bit passionate about as I became passionate about Bungalows, is a more general passion for older homes and buildings. As William Morris said, “We are only the trustees for those who come after us”; A sentiment that seems to fit very well with many popular sentiments of the day.

I received my February/March issue of Cottages & Bungalows while I was in Seattle, so I’ve spent today, looking through it, and enjoying the special on kitchens that is within it. And I ended up sidetracked on the Preservationists Windows website for quite a while as well. This Repair or Replace brochure on windows, is an excellent visual example of everything that is hateful about new windows in old buildings. The main problem being that old windows are almost always custom fit into design, and new windows very rarely are. It is possible to have new windows that fit, but most people don’t do it – and believe me, I know. There is an old home I drive by frequently that is being refurbished, and they have replaced every single one of the windows with new ones. While I am mostly pleased that the house is being restored- it’s a beautiful building, huge, and probably 1890s vintage – and this mostly cancels out my ire at the new windows,because at least the building will still likely be standing in ten years or twenty or thirty… It doesn’t entirely though, because I can tell. And that is the biggest problem with replacement windows in old buildings. Even if they ‘fit’, you can almost always tell, and it changes the aesthetics.

And looking through Cottages & Bungalows, I found Old California Lanterns advertised, and specifically found this lantern and since I know we will eventually need something more period to put on our porch to replace the evil flickering things that are there now, the owl is quite tempting. But that is still a ways down the road I think…