The Ursuline Centre

While visiting family, we toured the Ursuline Centre in Great Falls, Montana. It was opened in 1912 as school run by the Ursuline Sisters. There are a few pictures on their website; here are a few more:



Alabaster light (bought from a traveling salesman!)


Stained glass windows in the chapel

The art studio

Gingerbread Architecture

This post is all about gingerbread and houses. It is NOT, however, about the kind on MY house!
We made gingerbread houses for Christmas:

Here is my gingerbread house... big suprise! It's a classic quasi-Victorian cottage!

Other houses included the avante garde with lots of trees and a really cool fence...

... cottages with gardens and dog houses...

... and flowers and a basketball hoop.

Merry Christmas From All of Us!

Just a Note on the Two Ads At the Top...

They are not paid ads; they are for family members' businesses that are sort of related to old houses and home improvement/decoration. Just wanted to clarify, as I've received a few comments asking for paid listings. At this time, Tiny Old House is not accepting paid advertising. Thanks!

The New Old Front Door

Here's the new old front door.


It has a very pretty dentil style molding under the beveled glass window, and matches our house age perfectly... it's almost identical to the one on the version of our house a block away.

The finish is cracking in places, and there is quite a bit of dirt on the door; luckily, it is shellacked and a simple wipe with denatured alcohol and a nylon scrubby removes the dirty cracking finish while leaving all of the aged character.



The door is not perfect; at one point in it's history, a standard lockset hole was drilled into the side opposite the original mortise lock. We'll be using the original holes, and plugging the circular hole. Hopefully, with stain, shellac, and the careful used of artist paints and brushes, we'll be able to hide the patch!

Woohoo!

We're a $300 gift certificate richer, thanks to Houseblogs.net. Very excited about this! It will be nice to have the money to buy new materials for a project for once... and not have to search for them used (though, I do enjoy that immensely most of the time!)...
... or maybe I should just buy a few more router bits for the router I got for my birthday! What a birthday present.

Welcome Back?

Some flu, some bronchitis... coughing, bruised ribs, fevers ... that's how our two months have been. It amazes me that I still woke myself up coughing last night, two months after coughing for the first time. I will say that Delsym is a miracle cough syrup, that tomato soup and saltines is the only palatable thing at many points, and that my husband and I are very lucky to have each other to take care of us!

Needless to say, not much has happened on the house. There is a door leaning against the water heater closet waiting to be installed and a new router and table received as a birthday present waiting to be used for the first time. The new old front door is still waiting half stripped in the garage. Even the backyard was left in a state of half completion... leaves need raked and composted, weeds mowed, tools put away.

I'll raise a glass of orange juice to continued improving health... and to getting back to our Tiny Old House!