The Two Hour Project Which Almost Wasn't

Every home project takes longer than one thinks. This should be no surprise. But this project I had in mind had nothing, absolutely nothing which could backfire and take two weeks to finish. I was just going to paint.

This has been bothering me since we moved in. Someone painted the cupboards but apparently ran out of paint? They had about 4 brush strokes worth of off-white paint so that got in the mix as well. And then I took off the cover plates and what should I see staring back at me? 

Old Linoleum!? It's hard to see but it is that brown/green marbleized kind. My parents had  some in one of their bathrooms and on a laundry table and we assumed it was original to their 1918 house. The stuff may have been made for 40 years so who knows how old mine is. I took out a flashlight and I could see it all along the crack between the upper cupboard and diagonal trim. I JUST about ripped out that 70's diagonal wood but came to my senses and realized it was not a good idea because A. They nailed right through it when they attached the wood B. It might not go all the way to the counter so then what? and C. Despite how much it intrigues me, come on, it would totally clash with my classy orange and harvest gold décor.

It's all painted and all the same color so I am satisfied for now. The mystery of the Linoleum will still be there if I ever get up the nerve to redo the kitchen.

An Old Abandoned Farmhouse

A friend and I took the little ones to the water park in Mahoney a few days ago and since she lives in Ashland we drove back that direction instead of the way I usually take to the interstate. Not too far down the road I spotted an extremely old (for this part of the country) house perched on a hill right next to a new housing development. I remembered reading a newspaper article several years ago about an abandoned house in this area. I didn't remember details, but I remembered they mentioned the cupola and how you could see both the state capital one direction and downtown Omaha the other. This must be the house? I went home and without too much googling, found the article and photos. (The photo is from the news story. It is not still snowy here thank goodness!)

 The original family had lived in this house until 1999, when they sold it along with the farmland to a developer (hence the brand new fancy housing development next door). 1999? Seriously, the place looks haunted and like it has been abandoned for 60+ years! Now I'm not as fascinated knowing the original 1870's kitchen with cobwebs and dusty utensils I was picturing has a 1980's update and there is baseboard heating throughout. Though I'm not quite sure why the family moved away as the developer claims to (surprisingly) have no intention of tearing it down due to its historical landmark status. Couldn't they have sold off the farmland, leaving them with money from the sale and a smaller lot?  If I had inherited my family home from the 1870's I would be doing everything in my power to stay. Jobs and money are still the reasons I suppose. It's not like it's in the middle of nowhere, Omaha and Lincoln are a 1/2 hour in either direction so it's not a bad commute.  Here is another webpage with some inside photos.  It looks like it USED to be fairly updated and modern inside. What is keeping the developer from selling it to someone who will appreciate it?  You would think it would benefit their housing development too since there wouldn't be a boarded up "crappy" house front and center. Hopefully soon I will see a story about someone fixing it up! I also really want to go up in that cupola!