House and Home

Moving is Hard, Barbie

It seems like I’ve hit a bit of a wall when it comes to the moving and unpacking process. My muscles are incredibly sore, making the task of lifting boxes much more challenging than it should be. Everywhere I look in the new house, there are boxes piled up, obstructing the spaces where we need to start unpacking our belongings. I wonder if hiring a professional West Jordan moving company could alleviate some of this stress.

My latent OCD tendencies are causing me to feel overwhelmed by the clutter and disarray created by all these boxes. It’s like having a persistent buzzing noise in my ears; the visual chaos of stuff scattered everywhere is exacerbating my stress levels. Last night, I had a meltdown due to the mounting pressure, and Stephanie is graciously trying to support me through it all. She truly is a remarkable person for being so patient and understanding.

We managed to make some progress on Tuesday when we packed up a significant portion of the kitchen at Stephanie’s house, thanks to the invaluable help of Elizabeth. However, there’s still a considerable amount of work left to do there. Additionally, I still have about two truckloads of belongings at my own house that need to be transported to the new place.

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Caylor – Jenkins – Riddle House

Copied from the Old Northside Historic Plan, information on our house:

Caylor – Jenkins – Riddle House
c. 1876
Built by Joseph Caylor, who lived next door, this Italianate cottage has had its original frame porch replaced by the present brick porch with battered columns. The window sash has also been changed to four over one. These changes were probably made after 1910.

Dennis Jenkins took up residence at this address in 1890. He was publisher of the Jersey Bulletin, a publication for Jersey cattle breeders. A permanent memorial to Jenkins exists in the form of the bell at Irvington Presbyterian Church, which he donated upon its construction.

From 1919 to 1925, Charles L. Riddle, Jr. resided here. Riddle was president, treasurer, and general manager of the Charles L. Riddle Company. They were dealers in wholesale plumbing supplies and electric light fixtures.

The Charles L. Riddle Company is mentioned in Indiana’s Historic National Road: The East Side, Richmond to Indianapolis because it was located at 462 W. Washington Street in 1919. According to that book, “The Charles Riddle Store sold automobile tires, tubes and electrical supplies.”

After doing a bit of searching on the former residents of our abode:

Charles L. Riddle
Charles L. Riddle Co., Merchant’s Heat and Light Co. wagon, 1919

Regarding Dennis Jenkins and his Jersey Cow publication (from the PDF file, courtesy of The American Jersey Cattle Association):

Into this void came The Jersey Bulletin, established in 1883 by Dennis H. Jenkins, a railway clerk in Indianapolis, Ind. “To it belongs the credit of being the first magazine published exclusively as a dairy breed paper,” writes Gow. Its 16-page premier issue was dated October 1 and in the “Salutatory,” Jenkins wrote:

“The mission of the BULLETIN will be to give promptly all the Jersey news of interest, publish the transfers and movements of Jersey cattle, the experience and views of practical breeders, collect all items of value or interest, employ able writers on the subject, and to make it, in fact, perfectly indispensable to every one who has an interest in this great (breed) of butter makers.”

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Weekend Update 2006-06-12

We spent the weekend moving and unpacking, and unfortunately we missed both Pride and the Talbott Street Art Fair in the process. (We have our rainbow flag out at the new place, though! So we’re trying to represent.) We did get a lot done, although there’s still a huge amount to do. I think I have my house cleared out down to just a couple more truckloads of stuff. Stephanie’s friends helped her pack lots of stuff Saturday and move five carloads over to our house, and Stephanie did a lot of packing Sunday afternoon. But most of Stephanie’s stuff is still at her old house, so we have several busy weekends ahead of us.
I managed to unpack some of my books last night. I’m hoping to bring over another load of stuff tonight, and get the washer and dryer hooked up, too. Currently, we have boxes all over the house; I’m hoping to get some of them put away.
We brought my cats over to the new house, so all the kids are in the new place. Mine are all in the guest bedroom right now, getting used to the new house. Lucy is still hanging out in the upstairs bathroom, and Spike has staked out the dining room as his territory for now. So they all sorta have neutral corners, although Spike was chasing Lucy around upstairs this morning. Poor Lucy.

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The furniture is moved

So I spent 6/6/6 packing my house, mostly. I got to mow the lawn at the new house! I love lawn mowing, and the grass was knee-high in the back yard at the new place. On the Old Northside mailing list, they announced a gardening contest — you don’t compete with the neighbors, (we’re out of our league there) but with your own yard. You take a bunch of “before” pictures now, and at the end of 2007, you take “after” pictures, and whomever has the most improvements wins. Considering we just inherited the largest weed collection in North America, I think we’re shoe-ins for this contest. If people need Atlanta, GA landscaper for their garden, they can get them from here!

Stephanie took me out to eat for dinner. We were going to go to Colorado Steakhouse because I love their prime rib, but they’re closed for remodeling, so we went to Outback Steakhouse. Outback’s prime rib — not so much, really. However, you can always hire contractors for commercial projects from this site!

She gave me — a cool blue pillow, the Curious George Xbox game, the DVD of Good Night and Good Luck, an excellent terra cotta firepit for the backyard, and some great other stuff that I can’t remember because my brain is totally fried after yesterday. My girlfriend is excellent. Please let her know!

Yesterday the movers came and moved all the big furniture and boxes. Also, the Pod people picked up the pod, an electrician (click here for options) came to work on the kitchen lights, and the cable guy came to set up cable. We are now wired at the new house, and Stephanie can finally get her email.

I still have some truckloads of stuff to get to the new house (kitchen, hanging clothes, gardening stuff, and, oh yeah, the cats) but we got a major amount of stuff done yesterday. And of course, we have to pack and move all Stephanie’s stuff. We might be about 3/5 of the way done? I think.

And I still have to sell my house.

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Johnny Socko used to play in our basement

We found out the band that used to practice in the basement of our new house was Johnny Socko. I guess the drummer, Dylan Wissing, lived there for 9 years. That’s pretty cool.

span class=”hilightyellow”>2019 update: They actually had the basement tricked out as a studio space and recorded several albums there. Dylan sent us CDs of the music they created in our house.

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1876, not 1900

This weekend we met Pete Pappas, a long-time resident of our new neighborhood, Old Northside, who told us that our house was built in the 1870’s, not in 1900, as it said on all of our house sale paperwork. And he was right — he showed us a copy of the Old Northside’s neighborhood plan, which is a written history of the neighborhood with research on each of the houses back to the original owner. Our house was built in 1876. So it’s 130 years old. Wow. I have a similar plan for Herron-Morton Place neighborhood, but I didn’t know that one existed for Old Northside. We’re going to have to hunt down a copy of it. Old Northside was slightly tonier in it’s day that Herron-Morton Place. Besides the home of president Benjamin Harrison, some other famous hoosiers lived there, including the Ayres of L.S. Ayres fame.
Sunday we packed a lot of stuff at my house, with Melissa’s help, and we moved bunches of breakable stuff and things the movers probably wouldn’t take, like flammables. We also moved the aquarium and the fish, which is quite a load off my mind. I go to work today, then have tomorrow and Wednesday off to work on the Big Move, which involves a moving truck and all my big furniture. Yeah.
Then we have to start on Stephanie’s house.

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Pod unpacked

With the help of our friends Jen and Mike, we got the pod unpacked and loaded in the house in record time this morning. Pretty freaking amazing. Then Dan and Doug came over, we all went to lunch at English Ivy’s, and Dan and Doug helped us drag all the ratty carpet out of the basement where the band used to play. We dragged it out to the garage for heavy trash day.
Our friends rock.
Now we’re back at my house, working on packing and waiting for the woman who’s buying my full bed frame to come pick it up. Yeah! We got a lot done, and I feel much better. Still lots of packing to do, but I’m feeling like it’s really doable now, thanks to all the help we got. If we’d had to unpack the pod and drag carpet by ourselves, we’d be exhausted and unable to function now.

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My prediction is…

That someone will call and want to see my house today or tomorrow. Because that is the worst possible thing that could happen right now, so of course it will. I haven’t done laundry, I haven’t done dishes, the house is only half-packed. We have electricians, plumbers and locksmiths coming to the new house, and we have to finish painting there. And at some point this weekend, I have to pack enough personal stuff to start staying at the new house.
I’m not sure when to schedule my nervous breakdown, but I’m sure I’ll fit it in somewhere.

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Painting, Day Three

Carolyn came for the third day in a row to help us paint yesterday, and we got the library, dining room and living room all finished. Carolyn Elliot is certainly the woman of the hour in our book — she did tons of work and was so helpful and amazing in a hundred little ways. We are so greatful to have her as a friend.
Unfortunately, we still have mountains of work to do. I have to pack up the rest of my house this week for the move on Wednesday, June 7th. The pod is arriving this coming Saturday, June 3rd, and will need to be unloaded, which is way more work than Stephanie and I can do ourselves. So if you have next weekend free we’d really appreciate some help moving stuff from the pod the house. Please, please, please!

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Painting, Day Two

With Carolyn’s help, we managed to finish painting the library and get a first coat of paint on the dining room. Tomorrow we start on the living room and finish up the dining room. The colors we picked are exactly what we expected, and they look fantastic. The rooms look much bigger and brighter — with the lighter colors, the sunshine bounces around the room and everything looks clean and cheery, not all somber, like it did with the darker colors.
I must say, the weather could really cooperate a bit more — it went from rainy and wet to sauna, without a pleasant interval in between. I resorted to throwing the air conditioners in the windows at the old house just to cool everything down.
Eventually, I’ll write about something other than houses and real estate, I swear.

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