I bought a house toward the end of last year, a quaint bungalow, built in 1910, in the northeast part of Baltimore City. Below is a picture of the house that I snapped during the snowstorm last week. A hunter green cedar shingle home with a fenced-in yard, it reminds me of a cabin getaway even though it's within the City limits. The (eclectic) neighborhood where it sits, with its sophisticated-sounding name, is called Radnor Winston and is a hidden pocket, filled with a mix of artists, professors and other wonderful people who look out for one another and their community. Radnor Winston also boasts a community garden, a 4th of July and Halloween parade, Pancake breakfasts and porch parties. I couldn't think of a cozier place to live.
As an optimist, I expected to finish all the major house projects before Christmas but I keep adding more to the list. Months later, I still haven't unpacked mostly everything and am cooking all my meals with a crock pot. I've moved stairs, refinished wood floors, opened a wall, hung new doors and painted. When I'm finished, the house will be a dream come true. But in the meantime, it's been tricky to keep track of things and generally keep up with Byrdie work. A lot of projects will be completed over the next few months. I cannot wait to have a kitchen, a closet and a dedicated studio space again.
My favorite project so-far has been refinishing the wood floors, made a beautiful light Georgia pine that were hidden under several coats of laminate flooring and dark stain. Now that the floors are finished in the main part of the house, I can begin to make it livable as I fall in love again with the belongings boxed-up in my attic that I haven't seen in months.
It's been fun finding hardware in the house that would normally cost fifty bucks at Anthropologie for a knockoff version. The house has the original glass doorknobs and beautiful antique hooks hung in almost every room. I'm trying to reuse what the house has to offer, including wood from the walls that will be part of my next project - a handmade dining room table.
I'll update the blog as I make more progress on the house. Until my master bedroom/bath is done, I'll continue to live a lifestyle that's similar to camping indoors, luckily with heat. So please bare with me as I take on these house tasks. I vow to have Byrdie operating at regular speeds again by April when the craft show scene picks up again.