In the Mail

Look what we got in the mail yesterday.

This is the completion of the 2nd step in the process. If we are approved at this hearing, we'll be on the Indiana registrar and they will forward our application to the national registrar. We keep making progress, even if it is in baby steps. Stay tuned as we hope to improve the regularity of our posts. And sometimes, technology is not in our favor - which was my issue yesterday. (Don't you hate it when the computer implies you're stupid?)

Have a great weekend & we'll have more to post next week!

Finding a Contractor - Part 1

Our current search for a contractor takes me back to the early days and how we never really explained how we found our original person. Going back to the beginning, it was Match of 2011 when we first found out that the house was up for sale. In April, we gave our earnest money to Indiana Landmarks and were hoping for a quick closing. There was a problem with the title and it took until August. In those intervening months we had extremely limited access to the house itself and knew that any upkeep we did on the property could go to waste if the purchase did not go through.

This was a very frustrating time for us. I knew that we would need to act on the stabilization as quickly as possible once the purchase was completed, but we did not have access to the house to bring through the contractors that we might be interested in. Since we stay very busy with our business in the summer this was not something that I spent a great deal of time worrying about.

Once we owned the house, we had a few things that needed immediate attention. There were no keys to the bungalow, so we had to replace the locks, and we needed to get the security company out as soon as possible. We also had to contact IPL and find out what was required to get electricity to the bungalow. Without electricity nothing could be started on the Horner House without significant additional expense.  Then came the overwhelming task of finding a contractor to do the work.

I knew that Indiana Landmarks had looked at purchasing the property for their FLIP Program and obtained estimates as part of that process. (Unfortunately for them, good for us, the estimates came in too high for the fund to cover.) So, I called Chad and asked him who had given them the estimates. I don’t know the history or details, but one of the contractors had been in the house numerous times over the prior several years. By this time, the back wall and floors had been down for months and time was of the essence, so I decided to take a chance and just went with him.

Unfortunately, sometime this past fall our old contractor went out of business. I was unaware that this had happened until I tried contacting him in the early winter when I began feeling better. While this does bring about the issue of needing to find a new company to work with us, I am happy to say that there have been no other problems for us as a result of this situation. We had finished the first stage of the stabilization and not yet begun the second, so even the timing was not detrimental to our project.  Now it’s time to leave that in the past and begin our search for someone new.

To Be Continued…

Next Blog: Why It’s Not Just a Search for a Contractor

Fireplace Tiles

During the last couple weeks of January, things really started to roll again on the Horner House. I have been working on finding a new contractor for the house and we have found that the delay in our initial plan is changing the overall order in which things need to be completed. First it was a few little things, then a few more, until it has become a waterfall of other things that need to be decided, researched, and done. While trying to juggle all of these details, we hit another bump on the road.

Back in early February, I began battling the same autoimmune issue that knocked me out back in August. It has progressed much more rapidly than last time and I am already feeling much better. We are hoping for me to back to functional by the end of the month. This time it has really only knocked me off schedule by a few weeks, for which we are all very grateful. 

Now for the fun things that have been happening! Eric was finally able to gingerly pick his way over to the fireplace in the front parlor. Between the fallen plaster, holes in the floor, weak floor joists, miscellaneous trash in the room and the lack of light due to the boarded-up front windows, it is a risky area to traverse. But it was worth the trip.

The parlor fireplace still has ceramic tiles on it! And they look nothing like the tiles in the upstairs bedrooms. Eric was able to remove one and bring it home:

Front of the tile

Back of the tile

The letters on the back side of the tile U S E T W may stand for the United Stated Encaustic Tile Works, but we do not know that for sure. The bluish cast is from the flashlight being used to highlight the raised letters.

In each Preservation Brief provided by the DNR there are resources listed. In the Tile brief one of the places listed is the Tile Heritage Foundation. This is a wonderful resource on old tiles. We contacted them and all they have asked of us is a couple of pictures and some basic information, and they will try to determine the age and manufacturer of our tiles! They also know what companies can make reproduction tiles if additional or replacement tiles are needed. Needless to say, we have emailed them these pictures and are waiting impatiently to hear what they have to say!

-Amanda

Vintage Irvington

Bill Gulde writes a blog called Vintage Irvington that has a lot of really wonderful content on it. Back on November 24^th  he posted a blog called: Film Clip of Charles Dorn's Standard Grocery and the Nearby Horner House c.1933.

This clip has a few seconds of the Horner House shown in the background! We have watched it so many times it’s a good thing it’s in digital form; otherwise it would be worn out already… Here is the link to the Vintage Irvington blog!

http://vintageirvington.blogspot.com/2012/11/film-clip-of-charles-dorns-standard.html

And on a personal note, I likely find this even more fascinating because my father was an independent neighborhood grocer when I was  growing up. In fact, my brothers & I worked for him while in high school. We got to know nearly everyone in the neighborhood. Wonder what the folks at Dorn's Grocery would be able to tell us about the folks living in the Horner House...

Mary

2/6 Addendum

This is a picture of my father, mother, brother & me in front of daddy's first neighborhood store which was newly opened. This was the summer of 1954 on the near southside of Indy near Shelby & Minnesota Streets. Unfortunately, the building was demolished years ago.

Getting Caught Up

It has been almost 4 months since I last posted a blog here, however, we continue to plug along. Back in August & September, we posted several times regarding Amanda's health. It has been a very slow process getting her recuperated enough to come back to work. She is beginning to feel better but each week is still filled with appointments with doctor visits and tests. She now has a tentative diagnosis but has been told that they may never be able to confirm it. They are doing the best to treat her symptoms, one at a time. We're all just very happy she is feeling better and did well over the holidays. Going forward, one of our biggest hurdles will be to prevent overwhelming & stressing Amanda out. The doctor is concerned about even a "normal" stress load, let alone what Amanda has been living with and we all know that restoring an old house is a very stressful process. So, we will be looking for ways to make the entire process smoother for us and hopefully have some tips for others as well.  

During the past 4 months, we've also had more "drama". Our general contractor has gone out of business and will no longer be working with us. Amanda has been trying to find another contractor and has had several good interviews. Hopefully, she'll find someone within the next couple weeks. And their current residence suffered some appreciable hail damage that needs to be fixed prior to going up for sale. Who knew that there are a limited number of contractors willing to do insurance work? We thought we could get a single company to work on both the Horner House & her other house. Not so. This results in a search for not 1 but 2 (yes 2) general contractors. Why is it never as simple as you initially think?

And speaking of drama, there have been a fair number of break-in alarms lately. Although there was some damage late last year (including some new gang signs in one of the second floor bedrooms in the Horner House), it appears that most of the alarms have either scared them off or were false alarms. We've been very blessed that the police seem understanding and have not gotten impatient with the number of false alarms.

Ron has continued to move forward with his work on the bungalow when possible. He has completed a majority of the work required to repair all the damage done when the scavengers broke into the basement last summer. Additionally, demolition on the kitchen & 2nd floor bath are complete. They both need to have cabinets, plumbing, painting & flooring completed. We hope to get things completed to the point where Amanda & Eric can move in this spring.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg in regard to what all we've been doing. I (Mary) have finally found a new dog. Her name is Summer and she is from the same litter as Amanda and Eric's Hagen. She was placed in a home in Texas, but was not treated well there so she was taken back by the breeder. We feel very blessed to have Summer as a part of our family.

Due to work constraints and other projects, I can only promise to post once a week for the first half of 2013, although I'll try to post more if there is a lot going on at the Horner House. Eric & Amanda will be contributing as their time permits also.

As posted on my Facebook on New Year's eve:  While 2012 could have been much worse, it could also have been much better. So I'm wishing all my family & friends an early but awesome New Year. Praying that your 2013 blessings will be as abundant as last week's snowfall and your heartaches will be as scarce as last summer's rain.

-Mary

A Nice Surprise September 2012

Yesterday, we received a huge, pleasant surprise in the form of a post on our Facebook page. Rather than paraphrase, I'm just going to copy & paste here.

On your blog for July 20th. 2012 you have researched well. James Monroe was my great grandfather and Roger was my grandfather. While James Monroe was living here he operated a real estate office in the home and it was called Risley & Toon. Richard O. Toon operated from the Baldwin bldg. downtown & James operated from Irvington. This photo shows the family after they moved up to 73rd & Spring Mill Rd. I don’t have any pics of the time they lived here. James son Roger married in 1916 to Ruby Messersmith and they resided in Broad Ripple. The newspaper clipping you posted shows Roger at Lafayette when he was attending Purdue graduating in 1906. We have many kin here in Indy. You are taking on an enormous challenge. Can’t wait for the open house.

This is just too cool! This is the first photo that we have of a family who lived in the house. Irene, Roger & Lula Belle were all born before the family moved into the Horner House. Percy was born while the family was living there and was just 2 years & 8 months old when they moved away. And we have a new piece of data, that the house was used as a Real Estate office during the Risley's time there.

On another note, Amanda continues about the same. After being released from the hospital, she has added a sinus infection, allergies & asthma to her list. She went to the doctor today & they've given her the OK to add back all her regular meds, so we're hoping her new symptoms will begin to resolve. Otherwise, things are no better but at least they are no worse. So for now, most of the work on both houses is delayed a little longer while we try to keep everything else going.

Thanks so much to Bob who shared a bit of his family history with us. And thanks to everyone for continuing  to hang in there with us.

Continued Scilence

We apologize for our continued silence. I (Amanda) am still ill and it is beginning to take a great toll on my family. When I went to see the specialist on the 21st she admitted me to the hospital and I was not released until earlier this week. The doctors still do not know what is wrong with me and are hoping that I can stay out of the hospital while they track down the problem. 

Unfortunately, when someone is sick and you run your own company, the others have cover for whomever is gone. Eric and Ron have been working extra hours to keep things going and Mary has been spending a lot of time tending to me. For the time being, there is little to no work being completed on the houses or research and we will not be completing any more blogs until I can become well enough that I can begin contributing to the business and household.

We appreciate everyone's continued interest in our project and ask that you bear with us a bit longer during this challenging time.

Amanda