Autumngal, I love your windowsill, apron, moldings and baseboards! I hope you choose to keep them. The tile walls are more recent (I dunno, guessing 40-50 years old), so from a preservation standpoint you don't have to keep them, but from an I've-got-kids-and-other-things-to-do standpoint, what if you keep the tiled walls, and get white and blue hex tiles that coordinate with them? That would be both period appropriate and work with the walls, making less work for you. White with blue daisies might be lovely. Actually, with those black edge trim tiles, you could do white hex with black daisies. To add to the general discussion of victorian bathroom floors, I plan to do encaustic tile similar to that in fern4's link in 2 of my bathrooms, 1" white hex with an intricate mosaic in black hex, kind of like a medallion in the center, with a border and some field stuff going on, in another bath, and finally another cool mosaic of mostly 1" white hex with some 1" carrara marble hex hand inserted in another bathroom. I'm also a big fan of Daltile's octagon and dot, especially the cobalt. Wish I had more bathrooms so I could use it too. Incidentally my neighbor has an 1895 victorian with more recent spattered tiles in their bathroom like yours. They carefully chose a paint color that matched the spatters, and their bathroom looks great. In general, when you have something distinctive like that, it's best to either embrace it or get rid of it. I think your bathroom already looks cool and it will only get better!

Thank you for posting so many lovely, inspirational, and informative photos. I am extremely impressed by your kitchen, but actually, I was wondering if you could give me the paint colors you used for your exterior clapboards and trim--they look fantastic! tia, Alex indentured servant to an 1887 victorian, hoping to actually be done in 7 years.

I do really like your house. OK, trying to work out why I said your house could be called a Queen Anne bungalow. It's a bungalow. Some may want to call it cottage, but it isn't cottagey, it's bungalowish, and bungalows were very popular in that era. many think of Craftsman and Arts and Crafts when they hear bungalow, but a bungalow can come in any style. The reason it can be called Queen Anne has to do with its mass, in other words, the pyrimidal shape of the roof and the slight irregularity where it juts out in the front. There are folk Victorians, and Four Squares and plain ole no style at all just 4 walls and a roof houses with pyramidal roofs too, but it's other details that sort them out. The front bay, the cute elliptical window, all fit it with Q.Anne. We generally think of lots of gingerbread with Q.Annes, but they come with simple colonial touches or a bit of Arts and Crafts too. I often shy away from giving houses labels, anymore, because so many overlap styles, but your house looks to me like a Queen Anne bungalow. 1910 was pretty much the tail end of the Queen Anne period, and the Victorian age ended with her death in 1901. You may find my blogs of interest, if you haven't checked them out.I'm giving the link for one, you can find a link there to the Victorian one, and to all sorts of pictures etc. Here is a link that might be useful: early twentieth century homes

" trunk room" I am assuming ( we all know how that works ) that the farmers who lived here were not rich. Would they still have had a trunk room? A new basement was put under at some point. Probably in the 1950's. The newspapers we found under the old sink base were 1950 and that's what makes me think the porch to kitchen was Dec., 1950 or thereabouts. I really have no idea but it's a nice basement. I've wondered where the old basement doors might have been. I can't tell anything from the existing basement. There would have been steps somewhere?? No evidence of cement steps. I don't see anywhere that would make sense for an outside entrance BUT the house is not at all like original. There's been a breezeway and double garage added. The septic is under the breezeway and will have to be replaced this year. There is not one scrap of complete original woodwork left. I have to think it wasn't very fancy. Taking out a built in cabinet (not old) and taking off two layers of paneling and a few layers of genuine old wallpaper showed the patched windows/doors. I have found three 4 panel doors in the machine shed and one 1950's kitchen door with glass in the top. It's just a regular nothing special plain door. It's back in the kitchen doorway now. The layers of paint matched and the hinges matched so it had to have lived there once. There are no doorways that match the size of the 4 panels I found. The outside is sided in aluminum siding. Not new. As I said, there is not one shred of character left in this old house. I can't remember exactly where the road in front used to be. The interstate went through in 1975 cutting through at a diagonal. That's when the farm was sold and this acreage survived. It was "this close" to being bulldozed. None of the maps I own show the house in relation to the road as it was. I know I traveled that road on occasion but I was young and things like that didn't impress me. I'm trying to find surviving relatives but I likely won't. The people before me lived here 30 years; from around 1978 to probably 2002. I am sure they were responsible for one of the two layers of paneling. I think it was they who refaced the kitchen cupboards. I know where their son is and I am going to try to contact him to return some photos I found during this last facelift. He was a child so I don't know what he will remember. I am hoping he has a photo album. The people before them are long dead and I have no idea if/where any relatives would be. I've asked around about the history or other living people who would know but get no where. Everyone is dead or moved away. I think the first family that I know about/knew were not very neighborly??? I think the husband was a "dirty old man". Maybe that's why no one knows what the inside of the house was like? I think they would have been the ones to do the kitchen. I knew them in the '60's so it's likely they lived here in 1950. The cement apron beside the barn is etched 1950. There must have been some money during that time. The barn foundation is still visible. Also two other small foundation outlines. I think a milkhouse for one. I don't know what the other would be. I'd like to find pictures of everything. Probably not possible. There are still usable outbuildings and those have always been kept up. I was only curious, I will stay here until I die no matter what. I assumed (again) that familes of that era had lots of kids and I didn't think a house of two bedrooms was sufficient.