North Country Chronicles

The house renovation continues–time for a new water main

We’ve made so much progress so quickly renovating our odd North Country bungalow. Until recently, we had our fingers crossed that the aging galvanized steel water main wouldn’t burst. The first time Jill’s dad saw the house, he looked at the cut off valve and said, “Do not touch that. Don’t even look at it.” It was long past its expiration date.

The original, ready-to-die-any-second water main and cut off valve.

Rather than roll the dice and hope it lasted through the winter — winter being the absolute worst time to deal with a broken water main — we had it replaced. The first challenge was cutting off water at the street, because the valve extension had corroded and wouldn’t turn. The guy from the city tasked with turning it off went away and returned a few minutes with a new extension.

Then the digging started.

That sandy-looking stuff? Cat litter. The previous owner and her housemates had disposed of years of cat litter in the front yard. I have a stack of zoning code violations that tell the story.

A steady stream of neighbors showed up to tell the team excavating the main exactly what it was, and what they should do with it. The supervisor was a paragon of patience, though he told me later that it was hard to hold his tongue.

A few hours later, we had this. Exciting, isn’t it?

A shiny, new copper water main.

Two sections of sidewalk were sacrificed, and three weeks later we did the city a solid and replaced it.

The finishing touch will be new grass, but that’s going to have to wait until Spring.

The art inside our front door, and the debate that followed

The first impression of our Plattsburgh bungalow is…polarizing. Since before we closed on the house, we’ve heard many opinions about what we should do with the walls just beyond our front door. Here’s a taste of what people are debating.

A local artist, Les Cosgrove, painted the entryway walls in 1995 in her distinctive style. It’s a riot of colorful, supernatural cats and feminine icons, and it touched off a running debate among friends and strangers who stopped by to satisfy their curiosity. Everyone had the same question: What are you going to do with/about that?

There were three trains of thought: 1) Paint over it, 2) Leave it, or 3) Split the difference, paint over most of it, and frame the remaining parts of the painting. Jill and I vacillated. We’d pour a glass of wine, stare at the walls, and continue the debate. We did this a lot.

For several weeks, we’d veer between answers. One week, we were keeping it. Another week, we chose option 3. Completely covering it never felt like the right thing to do.

The house has an interesting history, with art and literature baked into it, and in the end history won out. The cats, as we call the painting, are staying. At least for the foreseeable future. Nothing is permanent, but for now, the cats stay.

You can see Les Cosgrove’s work throughout Plattsburgh, including at the Koffee Kat Espresso Bar, where she contributed to painting the interior and sells her art and jewelry. It’s worth a visit, and the coffee is excellent.

Making a home in the North Country

If my move to New York had worked out as planned, I’d be putting my North Carolina house on the market right about now, and scheduling movers. But Jill and I seized an opportunity to buy a reno-worthy 1939 bungalow on a perfect street in the city of Plattsburgh, I sold my house in two days, and life accelerated.

The house, to put it kindly, is a project. But, it’s on a perfect street. Location, you know. And it was a bargain.

Jill and her dad worked miracles to get it ready for my arrival. By the time I touched down in P’burgh, the heating system was sorted, scary electrical problems dealt with, and some surfaces saw new paint for the first time in ages.

First major project: Refinish the hardwood floors, which had seen years of abuse and neglect. This meant living in the basement and great room for a couple of weeks, and while we navigated this with little disturbance, I do not recommend it to anyone.

But, voila!

Let’s go to an illustration of before and after. Our living room, in its post-purchase glory. Ouch.

And after paint and floor refinishing:

Next up: Replace the water line into the house. We don’t touch or even look at the galvanized pipe that’s way past its expiration date, so in a week or so we’ll have a trench across our yard, a new section of sidewalk, and shiny copper pipe that’s ready for the next few decades. Until then, fingers crossed.

People who know about this house know about the cats. That’s a story for another chapter. But until then, here’s a taste.