All of the work that I’ve been doing with the Historic Irvington Home Tour has inspired us to start thinking about the next phase in home improvement. We love the new light fixture in the front hall, and the restored floor in the kitchen, so we’re looking at other ways to take the house back to its original state.
The first thing to tackle is the bathroom. Since the house originally had no running water, we’ve decided to remove the bathroom and replace it with an outhouse in the back yard. We think that will be more in keeping with the year, 1907, the house was built in and will cut down on water bills considerably. The biggest challenge will be installing a hand pump in the kitchen to pump water from the street. Although I’m excited by the renovations, I’m not sure how long it will take to heat water on our new woodstove for baths.
We found a lovely tin and enamel washbasin for the bath. We had considered using an old winebarrel as a nod to Rob’s days at the winery, but decided that it really didn’t fit with the rest of what we were trying to do.
Don’t worry, we won’t go crazy with this. I’m not ready to give up central heating yet! It’s just a little foolishness for April.
