Coats House

Coats House's cover photo

I braved the cold for a couple pictures.

Painting the library just got a lot harder.

The wallpaper came off the top half like it wasn’t even attached. The bottom was harder. There was a skim coat of plaster that came off with it.

So while repairing holes and cracks I discovered the ceiling was covered with a heavy fabric. There was one corner that was sagging so I took the cloth off to repair it.

And, well, things just kept getting more complicated from there. Now we have what you see here. It’s time to take a deep breath and make a plan.

The Coats House lit by the early morning sun.

When we found our house, it didn't have a name like so many other cool, old houses in the neighborhood. So I gave it one. Mostly because I was moving Google Fiber from our previous house and needed a new gmail address for this house.

This house was built by a Dr., and has a Spanish style roof and parapet. In the original application for the Historic Registry, someone even said it was a Spanish revival.

It's not.

It's a limestone foursquare. With a Spanish style roof. There are some white limestone homes in Dr. Coats' home town of Tarrytown New York but none that I have found that look like this one. The tile roof? I don't know. Dr. Coats must have seen something similar somewhere and liked it. It's all him. As are the carved staircases and stained glass. There's so much of this house that even after a year, I can't explain, I have to attribute it to Dr. Coats.

Dr. Coats should get the credit for all the unique things he put together to make this building a home.

Not to be confused with Kansas City's historic Coates House Hotel. Maybe that's why no one ever made the obvious decision to go with Coats House. No doubt there will occasionally be some confusion. Hopefully not more than there already is when people hear my house was built by a Coats.

Hopefully Coats House will stick but maybe when I leave, the next owner will change it to something else. That's one of the many great things about owning a house like this. You get to make some big decisions.

Here's a view at The Coats House you don't see very often.

The Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company published maps of US cities and towns for the fire insurance industry.

1940

As we approach one year in the house, it seems like a good time for a solid update.

In the 3 1/2 months before 2017, we still spent our yearly renovation budget with a new boiler and service panel. Throw in moving expenses, landscape lighting, security system, cleaning, carpet removal, trash hauling, one bedroom paint, new lighting, and new furniture, and I hope a year like 2016 never happens again. On the plus side, Tara and I went to Florida with the American Express points.

In 2017, we've replaced every light bulb in the house with LED, some wifi and internet enabled. That's over a hundred light bulbs! We've added lighting in the back yard, a privacy wall, about 200 plants, shrubs, and trees, and as of this weekend more than six yards of mulch. We have two big expenses left this year, one we're not ready to talk about but it's very exciting, the other, not so exciting but necessary - repairing gutters and rotting soffits in the front and rear. And probably more tools - because I like them.

What's up for 2018? Probably every inch of wire and plumbing so we can start doing fun stuff like remodeling bathrooms and bedrooms. I made the mistake of removing wallpaper from a bathroom that Tara liked so I put myself in a corner there. Fixing that is now a priority.

So, 2019 will probably be cool stuff?

Timeline Photos

Weekend: Just replacing some 115 year old faucets.

You saw this coming, right?

There's delight around every corner.

Coats House

The Dr.'s House

One of my favorite parts of this house is in the basement. As you round the bottom of the steps, it's natural to hold on to this post. I suspect everyone who's lived here has done that and that's why this post is worn smooth and rounded. From every owner's hand.

Royal blue.

Took most of the day to hang garland. Of course that included a trip to go buy more garland.

The Coats House has seen over 42,700 sunrises and sunsets.

Squeezing every day we can out of the flowers.

We've got some wallpaper removal and painting on the agenda in the next week. Which got us wondering, so we took some measurements and did some math:

Wallpaper - 3,350 square feet
Windows and exterior doors - 34 covering 1550 square feet (600 square feet are stained or leaded)
Electrical wire - A mile and a half
Light bulbs - 118

The average house weighs about 515,000 pounds. The Coats House, all three stories of 22-inch thick limestone and concrete roof included, weighs about 2 and a half million pounds.

That's three 747s, eight adult blue whales or 500,000 chihuahuas.

Also, it's owners are somewhat obsessive compulsive about numbers.

The Coats House was eight years old when the Cubs last won the World Series.

The first step to the power upgrade is done! New panel and breakers next week!

The warm weather is giving us extra time to do outdoor projects. On the agenda today was pressure washing 100 ft of stone wall.

Yard work.

Next up: power for the 22nd century.

Tomorrow is day four of New Boiler 2016