Today's Fresh Blogs...

• Welcome to the adventure

  Published: August 30, 2007, 4:55 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  time but we found a 1918 bungalow on Des Moines’ west side that had what we wanted and, importantly, a huge lot that will eventually become a great garden. (More on that adventure to come.) So the Sherman Hill house is now up for sale and we’re breaking out the power tools, sanding discs and dust masks. I’ll share stories

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• Up comes the carpet

  Published: August 31, 2007, 1:30 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  of old, nasty carpet. Our bungalow has carpet various vintages of the 70s and 80s in every room of the house except the kitchen. Up first is getting rid of it as quickly as possible, so we can start to refinish the oak floors. There's nothing terribly tricky about removing carpet. It's just time-consuming. Three tools will do the trick

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• Break out the pruners

  Published: September 3, 2007, 2:41 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  It's understandable to put all of your energy improving the inside of your house during the first few weeks. That's where you hang your head at the end of the day, after all. But take a few moments outside. Your neighbors will thank you. Besides, it's hard to convince people that you're taking care (or improving) the interior if you don't keep the

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• Attacking the kitchen floor

  Published: September 4, 2007, 6:00 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  Gutting the kitchen has been, without a doubt, the most physically demanding thing to date. My hands are so sore it hurts to make a fist. Thank goodness for whoever invented ibuprofen. We found there's three layers to get rid of a newer but inappropriate vinyl on the top, a layer of plywood in the middle and a dated layer of vinyl at the

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• Where in Des Moines is …

  Published: September 5, 2007, 1:34 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  No, no, not Carmen. We can’t afford her. Can you figure out where we are? Here’s your first clue: And a second one. The plywood over the window should help you narrow it down: Still stumped? Answer tomorrow.

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• Where in Des Moines (answer) …

  Published: September 6, 2007, 1:58 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  This is 1312 Locust in downtown Des Moines. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 28. It may be tough to recognize because for years you had to stare at this: But now that the original exterior has been uncovered, you can appreciate the work that architects Proudfoot and Bird did back in 1915: You’ve

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• Upstairs/downstairs

  Published: September 7, 2007, 12:49 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  bungalow had been used as two apartments one upstairs, one downstairs for many, many years prior to us buying it. I'm not sure what it is about us and converting houses back to single-family use. Maybe it's some compulsion to save houses. Our current house in Sherman Hill was a three-plex when we bought it, so there were three

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• My kitchen floor is evil

  Published: September 12, 2007, 1:07 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  Holy smokes we hate this kitchen floor. We've battled some tough hardwood floors in our time but nothing like this sucker. There's mystery gunk that's gumming up the big floor sander after only a few feet. (My mom thinks it may be adhesive used with the linoleum back in the 30s or 40s.) At a couple bucks per set of three sanding discs to change

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• Ooops

  Published: September 14, 2007, 1:05 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  What's that old saying measure once, cut twice? Ooops. Maybe that's the problem here. Well, I carefully wrote down the measurements for the various vents downstairs and headed over to Architectural Salvage with Stephanie. And, lo and behold, we found a number of matching vents! Then we took them back to the house where they didn't fit. I

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• Where in Des Moines is …

  Published: September 14, 2007, 7:28 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  … the womiting buffalo? (The nickname comes from an old James Herriot story about a “womiting dog.”)

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• Where in Des Moines (answer)

  Published: September 15, 2007, 5:48 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  The womiting buffalo fountain is part of the Soldier and Indian Guide statue on the east side of the Capitol grounds. Apparently the fountain was going to be a more traditional lion’s head when the project was underway around 1890 or so, but those in charge decided a buffalo woule be better suited to the frontier that was Iowa at that time.

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• Thank goodness it wasn’t a nail gun

  Published: September 16, 2007, 9:47 am

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  Progress has come with some pain during the past week. I had to go to my neighbor’s house to stop the bleeding. More on that in a moment. While sanding the hardwood floors is coming along nicely, my back tried to secede from the rest of my body. Taught me that you definitely want to sit while sanding, if possible, and not kneel on the floor

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• Swing away

  Published: September 18, 2007, 9:07 am

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  Playing Demolition Man is fun. There's something therapeutic about being able to swing a hammer freely and not having to worry about the consequences. The first-floor bathroom isn't much to write home about and, frankly, it's easier to start from scratch and update the plumbing and electrical before we put in a new pedestal sink and vanity. And

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• When washing machines go wild

  Published: September 22, 2007, 6:09 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  Struggling to be one of those practice-what-I-preach sort of people, I spent the morning taking advantage of the free day at the Des Moines garbage transfer station. First load: A pickup full of lath boards. (Unfortunately, it barely made a dent in the pile on the front porch. Time to rent a Dumpster.) So it was back to the house to get rid of an

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• The sky is falling

  Published: September 25, 2007, 3:05 pm

  Tags: Bungalow Blog

  The sky, er, the roof is falling. And that's a good thing. The first floor has these incredibly ugly white ceiling tiles in the living room, the bathroom, both bedrooms and the dining room. And we want to get rid of them ASAP but we're a little bit scared about what we might find underneath. So while whacking out plaster from the upper wall in

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