The Original Owners, part 2

Wm. Kilby Fentress and Louise G. Fentress



In an earlier post I told you that the original owners of our new/old house were William Kilby Fentress and Louise Gale Fentress which I discovered on the 1930 Federal Census.  So, I decided to build a Fentress family tree on ancestry.com. If you've never used ancestry.com you've surely seen the commercials by now?  You build a tree by entering what you know about a family. Then you can search the vast archives that ancestry.com owns for more information but also, ancestry provides "hints" for you.  The hints are resources (documents, other family trees, stories, gravesite information, etc.) that have elements that match the information you have already entered.  So truly amazing!

So I began a Fentress Family Tree of my own on ancestry.com and very quickly I discovered a lot of new information about them. Before I go further I should mention that at this point it occurred to me that I have Fentress' in my own family tree but I don't remember any details.  I do know that Fentress was a common name in Princess Anne County, Virginia which today is the city of Virginia Beach.

 



William "Kilby" Fentress, Sr.

 



Moving on ... I mentioned before that the Fentress' had two children in 1930.  Well, it turns out that they also had another son, Frank who was born at the very end of 1915.  Frank died a little over a year later in April 1917 before they moved into our house in 1922.  I don't know what took his young life, tragedy struck families quite often back then, but I think that was close to the Spanish flu epidemic that hit the U.S.? Anyway, it explains the age gap between the other two children.

Both Wm. Kilby Fentress and his wife, Louise Gale Fentress were born in Norfolk around 1880.  William Kilby Fentress' father was born in Princess Anne County, VA and his mother ... one source says she was born in West Virginia and another Virginia.



Louise Gale Fentress

 



Louise Gale's (Fentress) father was also born in Norfolk, VA but her mother was from Savannah, GA.  Louise's mother died when Louise was only about 10 years old and her little sister, Blanche had just turned one.  Louise and Blanche had three siblings who died as children and they were the only two surviving children. Their father, Frank Gale never remarried and it appears that Louise became the female authority figure in the family with a lot of responsibility (more about that later).

I quickly gathered information about the Fentress family and soon it was apparent that there was one predominant source for my information. It was another family tree. Turns out the owner of that tree is ... drum roll ... the granddaughter-in-law of  my Frentress couple!  No way!

Mission: Track down these people!



Bathroom Design Dilemma



Most of the destruction of our master bathroom in our new/old house is complete. The shower and closet have been framed and the windows have been ordered. That means we will start putting it all back together again soon? Fingers crossed!

Contractor Chris came to have a pow wow and he mentioned that it is time to make decisions about fixtures for the bathroom.  Like, the sinks, toilet, and the faucets for the sinks and shower.  He sent me to Ferguson Enterprises in Virginia Beach where I met Paige, a showroom consultant.  The showroom is beautiful, by-the-way.  You should go! So, since I already have a pretty good idea of where I'm heading, designwise, we moved pretty quickly.

Sinks, check! Caxton by Kohler. They're simple, beautiful and the right size.

 

Toilet, check! Key West by Mirabelle. Just a little traditional detail and not too expensive. Is it OK to love a toilet? (Whose idea was it to photograph a white fixture on a white background?)

 

 

Shower hardware and sink faucets, check! Cassidy by Delta. I love the vintage crossbar handles but without the more common hot and cold labels.

 

"What about lights," Paige asks? Um ... well ... we have this wierd wall behind the vanities where the ceiling slopes ... and one vanity and sink will be in the corner ... and the whole room is only 8x10 feet and ... I have no idea! This is the top of the same wall that is pictured above and where the double vanity is supposed to go.  The ceiling slopes a total of two feet from 8 feet tall to 6 feet tall in the left corner (the rest of the 2nd floor has 9 foot ceilings but this was the original porch). The sloped portion is 42" wide. The total width of the wall is about 8 feet.

 

 

This is giving me a headache but, it is supposed to be fun!  We had a general plan for, from left to right, a 24" cabinet with sink, an 18" stack of drawers, another 24" cabinet with sink and then the remaining 2 1/2 feet of space for shelves from floor to ceiling. But that would put the left sink crammed in the corner and how in the world would a mirror and lights fit?  Especially considering the lower sloped ceiling on that side?  My brain hurts. When that happens a good dose of graph paper never fails!  So, here is my preliminary design idea.

 

 

The first solution was adding the six inches of nothing on the left side of the vanity which pulled the center of the first sink off the wall and out of the corner.  The second solution was using narrow sconces (5") instead of over-the-mirror lights which would have been really crowded over the left side mirror.  The last solution was reducing the width of the shelving on the top portion of the built-ins. Not bad for a first draft?

 

Now, imagine white cabinets with glass knobs, a Carrera marble counter top spanning wall to wall, those beautiful Delta faucets and Kohler sinks and these mirrors from Restoration Hardware. Yum!

 

 

I think we have a plan!











Moving Day!

 

We have moved 11 times prior to this move and I guess there were unique stressors related to each.  But this time ...

 

We chose, perhaps one of the coldest Spring days on record and it snowed! It snowed in southeastern Virginia where vacationers come for sun and sand! Can we pick 'em or what?

 

The truth is, moving day is full of highs and lows.  The moving, packing, hauling up and down stairs, standing in the freezing cold, is not a lot of fun. Saying "Hello" to a new home and a new chapter ... so exciting!



 

 

Some positives:

• We used Harrison's Moving & Storage and we were quite pleased. I called three companies for quotes. One company never called me back. Really? The second company called and gave me a quote over the phone. But only Harrison's actually sent a sales representative to my house. He did a quick inventory of our furnishings, asked a lot of questions, and then gave me a quote. What can I say, I was impressed with the individual and personal service.

 

The move took 8 hours and that was after our team of friends moved 9 loads of boxes the weekend before.  Although our moving crew, Junior, Foster and Stan, were skeptical that they could put everything from our old big house into our new little house - they pulled it off! They were very exhausted young men by 5:30 pm though. And, I thought if we told them, "it goes in the attic on the 3rd floor" even one more time they might excercise passive resistance, but they perservered! Thanks guys!



 



 Some more positives:

• We closed on our old house, without a glitch!
• The worst of it is behind us! 

 

The best positive:

• We found the coffee pot!

 

Renovation Rewind

Our contractor warned us about planning too far ahead. His point is, that with existing houses, particularly old houses, you never know what you're going to find until you open them up. We've all see the remodeling disasters on TV.  And therefore, you can never be confident of a project's budget. Remember that "rather unfortunate" sleeping porch turned bathroom that we are reconfiguring?  Here is the before pic:

10 days later this is what it looks like:

 



 

 What a difference a few days makes! Here is what we have learned about our project:

• First, the old bathroom (and laundry room in the other end) was constructed by cutting through the floor joists to run the plumbing into the area. So today when I went over to meet Chris, our contractor, he walked across said joists and one of them gave (flexed, bent) about oh ... maybe an inch? Yes, that meant the ceiling for our den below gave an inch and the plaster probably cracked down there. Yikes!

• Second, in addition to compromising the structure and stability of the floor, the drain line for the washer ran the full width of the house and it had no pitch - meaning there was no way for gravity to do it's thing. Yikes! 

• Third, the electrical wiring was connected to the old knob and tube wiring.  Chris says either one is fine but never marry the two types! Another yikes!

So we had potential cave-in,  potential flood and potential fire! Yay!

 

Another two days and ... 

 

 

The "potential cave-in" and the "potential fire" issues have caused our contractor to have to work from the top down (in the floor of the bathroom) AND from the bottom up (from the den on the first floor). The result is yet another room that is not usable. 

 

So .... I have mentioned that downsizing, while really, really what we want - is not that simple?  Case in point, we are now down to about 1200 usable square feet in our 2400 square foot house that is 1000 square feet smaller than the one we came from.

 

Unusable den space on the first floor 

 

 

 

It is true that old houses have character! It is!

But, apparently character can be either positive or negative or both.

 

 

Stay tuned for a future post about the roller coaster ride of moving day!



 

 

 

 





Bathroom Tile: Vintage with a Twist

A few days ago, while my daughter was home during her spring break, we went tile shopping. She always offers a different perspective and great ideas so I took advantage while I could.  I have decided to keep things very simple in our new/old master bathroom. I would like to use period-inspired details but with a little modern twist.  

I was inspired to use small hexagonal (hex) tiles for the floor while watching an episode of DIY’s Rehab Addict:

 

DIY Network's Nicole Curtis, star of Rehab Addict

 

I have a vague memory of very similar hex tiles from when I was a little girl. I think my memory is of tile on the entry-way floor of the house we lived in on Colonial Avenue in the adjacent Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk.  We lived there during the time when Norfolk's urban neighborhoods were in decline and many of the amazing old homes had been converted into multi-family housing.  My family occupied the first and second floor of a three story.  If that memory is accurate, I could use similar tiles in our bathroom and they would be both period and locally appropriate. 

So, we set off to ProSource Wholesale Flooring to go tile shopping. My contractor and I have both worked with ProSource in the past, so it was a natural place to start. We had great success!

 

 

I had come up with an idea for a black and white pattern of the hex tiles after seeing something similar in the Better Homes and Gardens, Bathroom Idea File. We discovered that the pattern I saw is a standard pattern, so it should be easy to install and less expensive (a big bonus!). We are planning to use white subway tiles on the shower walls. Subway tiles are basic 3 x 6 tiles that were also used in 1920s homes. You can see both types of tile in this photo (the subway example is brown):

 

We decided on standard 2x2 square white tiles for the shower floor. The 2x2 size was better (vs. 1x1) because the size was not similar to the sizes of either the hex or the subway tiles and they compliment rather than compete. 

But that is where the authentic 1920s tile stops, and the twist begins. I have chosen Carrera marble for a classic vanity countertop with white cabinets.  What about adding a Carrera marble mosaic detail at eye-level in the shower to tie it to the vanity and add some visual interest? Maybe put the mosaic between two narrow rows of decorative trim?  We ran across a few black and Carrera patterns, and I liked the addition of some black but these weren’t quite right.

 

Then as we were about to leave the store, this caught my eye.

 

I think it is perfect. I plan to use five rows in a horizontal detail, which will leave the white marble to create a natural border, avoiding the need for a trim piece. I love it! And, it should also save a bit of budget (another big bonus!).

It was a successful and surprisingly quick shopping trip. That left us the rest of the afternoon to work on the blog and pack for the big move! 

For more examples of hex and subway tiles in 1920’s homes see Good Home Construction

For some modern uses of hexagon tiles check out this post in Apartment Therapy

 

Moving & Downsizing

Our moving team (minus our superhuman daughter), aka the best friends ever

The last time we moved was the summer of 1997. The math whizzes in my family (everyone except me) tell me that was nearly 16 years ago.  Not only are we much older (we had a three year old then who is in college now) but in 1997 we relocated compliments of the United States Army.  Since they require their members to move, the Army rolls out the red carpet when it comes to moving services.  The movers show up a couple days before you move and they pack EVERYTHING! One time we had trash in a trash can that showed up unscathed at our next assignment. Then they load it in a truck and the next thing you know, you are telling guys where to put things in your new place. They will even unpack for you.

Not to belabor the point, moving is expensive, back breaking and all together stressful. Do you throw everything in boxes and worry about it later?  Do you go through every closet, attic space and drawer and purge before the move?  One thing I can guarantee, if there are two people who are moving together, there are two completely different approaches to moving. If there are four people, four approaches; six people ... you get the point!

In addition to the standard moving angst, we are also downsizing. Downsizing is a great idea in theory.  Less house, less cleaning.  Less yard, less weeding and raking. Lower mortgage, more fun, right? Let's just say that downsizing in practice is not so great. Current furniture won't fit in the new compact space and you most definitely will not have enough storage.  We don't even have a garage you can park in!

This gi-normous sectional definitely will not fit in a den that is only 10 feet wide!

 

We do however, have a scary, leaky basement with the original 1922 boiler right smack dab in the middle making that potential storage space nonexistent. Oh! and we recently got the news that the boiler is "Hot".  No, it won't burn you and no, it does not look attractive! Our boiler is insulated with asbestos and has to be "abated". Yay! (See a future post about that!)



What I have learned about downsizing: craigslist is your friend! You may not get what your furnishings are worth, but if they are in good condition and not too out dated, they will go to a good home with a family who loves them.  And, most importantly, said family will provide the transportation.

Mission: 3400x - y = 2400x, solve for y where x = square feet of furnishings, or solve for why?

Mission: Renovation

I don't think it matters how old your house is, there are always remodeling projects and updating to be done.  We have two immediate renovation projects for our new/old house.  The first is the master bathroom, closet, 2nd floor laundry room reconfiguration.  The second project is the exterior which includes new window sashes and siding (more about that in a future post).





Our house originally had porches on both the first and second floors all the way across the back.  Oh, do I wish I could have seen that! Both porches were eventually enclosed to become part of the interior of the house.  The second floor porch was enclosed, as it was, less than six feet deep. See the funky glass blocks and windows in the photo above? In one third there is a laundry room that is only accessible by going through the master bedroom, and in the remaining two thirds there is a rather unfortunate long, skinny bathroom. See below:

 

 

Our plan is to convert the existing laundry room, which is directly behind the master bedroom, into a closet. Also, we will be removing the wall that is between the bathroom and a very small bedroom (the far right side of the pictures above). We will construct a new wall that makes the bathroom bigger and makes that very small bedroom even smaller.  The bedroom will then become the new laundry room and it will be accessible from the 2nd floor hall. A must with adult children who visit or live here part time.  

       

Laundry Room

           

 

Small Bedroom

 

I know what you're thinking ... is it really a good choice to eliminate a bedroom when you think about resale?  Well, my thought is that this house is less than 2500 square feet to begin with and a family with three or more children, who require four bedrooms, would likely be looking for more overall square footage.  Also, the bedroom that we are eliminating would only be suitable for a baby or a small child. So a family with several children would soon outgrow that small room anyway. We will still have three bedrooms and an office but with a much better master suite with actual closet space which is a rarity in these old houses. Are you convinced?







Finding The Original Owners

1930 US Federal Census for our new/old home

Being a lover of history and a genealogist, one of the first things I wanted to do once we bought our new/old house was to find out who the original owners were. What kind of occupation did the owner have, how big was the family who lived there, how old were they, you know, personal stuff to give the house a story. We knew from the sales listing that the house was built in 1922 so the family who lived there would have first appeared in the 1930 Federal Census.

The logical approach to this endeavor would have been to go down to the Norfolk Courthouse and research the deeds to the house in backward order.  Start with the folks we are buying from and work back to 1922. (I still plan to do that one day) It is about a 45 minute drive to the courhouse and parking can be difficult downtown.  So ... practical trumped logical and one Sunday afternoon while browsing one of my favorite sites, ancestry.com, I just started a search for our new address in the City of Nofolk Censuses.  It took a very long time because I did not know the number of the ward or the enumeration district so I scrolled through pages and pages of census forms.  Eventually I stumbled onto some listings for our street and our address!  Here is what I found:

 

This is them! The first family to live in our house was Tentress. No, that doesn't sound right but that's what it looks like?  Being a Hampton Roads native with family roots all over this area, the light bulb went off!  The family name is Fentress. There was William K. and Louise G. Fentress with children William K., Jr. and Louise G. and also the sister of William K., Sr., Lillie Fentress lived there.

 

Reading across the line, William K. Fentress was head of household, owned the property and it's value was $10,000! Wow! The "R" means that the Fentress's, metropolitan family that they were, owned a radio in 1930.  They did not live on a farm, Mr. Fentress was 50 years old at the time and when he got married he was 30.

 

The children were 16 and 10 in 1930 so when they moved into their new house in 1922 they were 8 and 2. Awwww!

 

 

 

Continuing across the line, Mr. William K Fentress was a Chief Clerk and he was in the Rental Insurance business.  Sure beats the occupation of his neighbor who was a fertilizer broker! A what? Anyway, the "No" near the end of the line means that Mr. Fentress was not a veteran.

 

 

Mission: Learn more about the Fentress family





 

 

 

 

The American Foursquare

Our new/old house is an American Foursquare. The Foursquare was a popular architectural style in American communities in the early 1900s. It marked a return to functional and simplistic architecture following the elaborate and asymmetrical styles of the Victorian Era.  This more practical movement in domestic architecture was inspired by the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Foursquare was particularly popular in communities that were near railroads, including the predecessors to today's Norfolk and Southern Railway. This was largely due to the pattern books and mail-order catalog companies which delivered kits by railroad directly to homeowners. Here is a page from the Sears Catalog of a home similar to ours:

The Foursquare popularized the basic 2x2 construction--2 rooms wide by 2 rooms deep. It was box-shaped in order to maximize the space on a small urban lot. These homes typically had a craftsman or colonial revival influence. Ours has more craftsman features including the shape of the columns on the front porch and the exposed rafter tails under the eaves. (Translation: Rafter tails are the exposed portion of the rafter or roof structure, that overhangs the exterior wall. They look like decorative brackets but aren't simply decorative.) 

The 3rd floor dormer shows the original rafter tails with beaded board between them.  We are hoping to find the same details on the 2nd floor too which is currently covered with vinyl soffits. (Translation:  Soffits are the underside of the overhanging roof.)  

Mission: Solve the mystery of the rafter tails 

Tapered columns are one of the most distinctive characteristics of Craftsman homes and we have them  too on our new/old Foursquare. Craftsman columns support the porch roof and are typically short and sit on big brick or stone piers. We have three big brick piers but, oops! only two tapered columns! 

Mission: Investigate the existence of the third column

Image Source: City of Roanoke website, our new/old home
Information Sources: City of Roanoke website, Houzz.com Elements of Craftsman Style

Searshomes.org has interesting information and examples of different Sears homes.

WELCOME TO MISSION: FOURSQUARE

I am very excited to start this blog. I will be sharing my adventures with our new/old American Foursquare in the West Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk, Virginia. We just closed on the house a few days ago and are starting the moving and remodeling process. We are also beginning to explore the neighborhood and the history of the home.

What we know today:
Built: 1922
Approximately 2500 Square Feet
Original quartersawn pine floors
Original windows
Original 1922 boiler in the leaky basement

Remodeled kitchen, est. 2010
Questionably remodeled master bathroom (from converted sleeping porch)
Vinyl siding covering original cedar shake siding
Vinyl soffits covering? original rafter tails and beaded board
Missing front porch column?????

First owner: Accountant and his family (blog post forthcoming)