Vintage House Quirks

Hi! Welcome to our house! This is the view from the front window where the cat likes to watch the world go by. When I was writing this post about our house, I had a lot more to write but blogger somehow crashed and I lost a lot of work. 

When I first realized I'd probably be moving in here (March, almost a year ago) I got interested in the history of the house. I read this blog a lot and was super impressed by how Daniel tried to keep his (extensive, insane) home renovations true to the historic character of his 1865 house, and the other properties he worked on (because one home reno isn't enough?) Plus I like watching a lot of HGTV when I'm on vacation.

Anyhow I wondered how to identify the age of the house and the general architectural style. I looked at some books and pamphlets about Chicago architectural styles - Georgian, Edwardian, Victorian, bungalow, American Four Square, Dutch Colonial, etc. This article pretty clearly describes the "frame two-flat" but said the era varies from 1900 - 1920 and could be in a variety of architectural styles. Ours looked similar-ish to the illustrated Victorian, with the bay windows and dormered little front porch off to one side. But the descriptions of other architectural styles seemed to sometimes fit too. The exterior of our house has been covered in vinyl siding like most old houses around here, making it a bit harder to really tell what it used to look like. Then I remembered that our moldings around the windows and doors looked a lot like the windows in Daniel's old Brooklyn apartment, and he had said they were original and 120 years old, and that was in 2011. So I googled around trying to describe them correctly until I found some images of molding that looked just like ours with the date of the house they were found in. That confirmed the general ballpark era, and I was able to search around more effectively. I decided on 1887 although never could find the original building permit.

Here's the first picture I took of the moldings, you can kindof see here where I think someone sawed off (?!) the top bit which is like a little crown. I remember reading somewhere that back in period the house was built the moldings likely would have been painted white with patterened wallpaper on the plaster walls. The walls are still plaster but full of cracks, so many cracks. I am afraid fixing them is going to end up really expensive.

If you look closely in this picture, you can see the little crown. Sorry about the poor contrast in the photo, white on white was hard to capture well. First of all, I don't know why some of the trim has no crown and others do. The kitchen only has basic, boring trim around its three doors and two windows but it does have the super tall grooved baseboards the rest of the house is #blessed with. Second of all, look even more closely at the picture above and notice how the trim on the right side of the closet (that's my closet, you can see my striped dress poking out of the darkness) just disappears into the wall. WTF. This really gave me pause, because I was so convinced that the trim and walls were original and I couldn't imagine why they would have just designed it like this. It just looks so much like an afterthought, like they wanted a closet and put it in and then they were like oh, crap, the trim doesn't fit here, let's just cut it off, no one will notice. 

By the way, see how narrow this closet is? There was a folding door in there (you can see the tracks for it) but when folded, it took up precious inches and wall space, so I took it off. We don't use this room as a bedroom so it's ok with me to have it open (you know if you have your closet door open at night that's how the monsters get you). I'll show you my closet some time, it is a work of art how I squeezed everything in this tiny narrow space.

Back to the topic at hand, which is the crazy things going on with the trim in this house. Ok, this is basically my view right now, lying in bed, except we now have an IKEA light fixture instead of this broken sad thing. The acoustic tile drop ceiling is horrifying and I hate it. I especially hate the parts that are coming loose. But I can't do anything about it, and that's not the point of the picture. The point is where the diagonal line of the bottom of the staircase that that leads up into the neighbor's place cuts off the window trim. Daniel, my hero from Manhattan Nest, dealt with a similar situation on the outside of his house, and concluded that the windows were added later, disrupting the trim line, and so I wanted to conclude that the plastering over of the stairwell bottom was a later addition, but after noticing the closet trim abnormality in the spare room, I am wondering if the original builders were just not as detail-orientated as they should could have been.  I mean, it was a working class dwelling, built probably pretty quickly in a subdivided urban lot with a lot of basically identical working-class dwellings. I was raised in the 1990s version of this, and let me tell you that the builders are not always perfect artisans. However, the tract home nature of the house makes me think, wouldn't they have worked out the kinks if they were working on a plan that they did over and over again? But then again, I think that the original owner was a carpenter. Maybe, just maybe, he decided to take the plans into his own hands, but messed up a few details. I really like this idea. I now have a whole personality in my head for him (basically the dad from Home Improvements).

Now that I showed you the terrible ceiling in my bedroom, I might as well show you the even darker underbelly of it, as a further example of the madness that went into the multiple renovations of this old house. The light fixture that was here when my husband moved in (before I met him) was an ugly frosted glass dome with flowers etched on it that was held flush to the horrible ceiling with the three hook looking things you can see in the picture. One day the bulb blew out and I discovered it was a weird-looking tiny halogen tube. We didn't replace it for, like, a month. I went to Ace Hardware (which is located next to an Ulta, Kinko's, Pizza Hut, my phone carrier, and a coffee shop and across the street from Binny's making it basically the most amazing shopping strip ever) and found the bulb but it was kinda pricey and I hate the light fixture anyway, so I convinced husband we could replace the whole fixture, no problem. I wanted to install in the bedroom the chandelier which I had gotten him to help me install in the kitchen, and in the kitchen I would put a globe light I'd been carrying around for years since I found it in a dumpster. This is making me sound crazy and kind of awful, I know.

However, that plan was not to be. We took down the ceiling tile to assess how possible it would be to install the chandelier and found the scene above. The yellow line of wire comes from the light box, which is sensibly mounted into the ceiling, travels about a foot or so horizontally, and then goes through the foam-board ceiling tile to attach to the light fixture. The whole weight of the fixture is just hanging on the quarter-inch or less of foam tile that hangs on the cross-bars, which as you saw are not all attached to the wall and basically falling down. I reassessed my plan and decided to get something extremely lightweight and something that would detract attention from the ceiling instead of attract it, which in retrospect was a way better plan and a chandelier would have been a terrible mistake.

So we went to IKEA. It was amazing as it always is. I drank a bunch of coffee and bounced off the walls but managed to choose this funny paper lamp. Husband said he thinks his parents had a similar one in a different shape in the 80s, and it does have a sort of retro-futuristic style that I don't hate. Its a very different style from the classic 1880s/90s style that I was going for, but it gets the job done, weighs basically nothing, and has a lasts-forever LED lightbulb. I actually like how the dots on it mirror the dots in the ceiling tile pattern. Since we aren't going to remove and replace the drop ceiling anytime soon if ever, it seems a decent compromise. Once I saw what lies beneath the drop ceiling, which is open ductwork and pipes and a horrific collection of dusty wiring, I see why there is a drop ceiling, and lost interest in trying to tear it down. And after a month of crashing into stuff in the dark trying to get to the bedside lamps, having an overhead light is amazing.

 Here's some more pictures of the living room windows to apologize for making you look at the atrocities behind the ceiling tile. You can get a shot of our bay window, which is a pretty cool thing to have, actually. We are about half-a-story above street level, so we don't get a lot of light, but this window really maximizes what we do get. It's kinda messy; we've made some changes recently since we got terrariums for a wedding present! The cat and his paraphernalia get pride of place. You can see in the top photo the white globe on the floor. Around the time I was in grad school I walked past a dumpster outside one of the 1960s era buildings that was getting some mild renovations and they had tossed out some glass dome light shades. I took three -- two like this white one and one really huge, beautiful gray smokey glass. One white one broke almost immediately, all over my former roommate's apartment building lobby. The gray one went with me to several more apartments, used as a vase, a source of Darth Vader voices, and eventually I dropped something on it and it cracked. However, I knew I could use this globe and it would be worth it, but I needed lamp parts. I tried a lot of places: Ace, Home Depot, and a lighting store. I was finally directed to Midwest Lamp Parts, which is in a giant warehouse in a random part of town. We went over one day only to learn they are only open 9-5 Monday-Friday unless they feel like closing up for a few days randomly. Finally, ages later, I was sick enough to stay home from work but well enough to get in the car and drive over there. I was a little shaky and felt weak and feverish but I am very committed to this project.

It was amazing, dusty, jam-packed with light fixtures and well, lamp parts. I was helped by a Russian-sounding Orthodox Jewish man who at first seemed grumpy and was annoyed with me for not knowing the names of the parts I was looking for, but turned out to be awesome and nice once he realized I was planning to do all this myself. He made me an honorary construction company when he wrote up my invoice on a carbon copy machine. Cash only, of course. At this point I was still planning to put the chandelier in the bedroom so I got a whole new chain, ceiling mounting hardware, etc.

Putting this light fixture in was... difficult. Husband was not happy with me, because I can't reach the ceiling even on the ladder so he had to do all the hard work... four times because we couldn't get it right. It took hours, with lots of going down to the basement and back up to flip the breaker switch. There were a LOT of parts to get in the right order, and at the right height, and get the wires to connect. He is now officially done with DIY and I'm on my own, but all the ceiling-height work is done so I think I'm fine. Anyhow, we had bought the little (plastic!) ceiling medallion when we put up the chandelier, but forgot to put it up. It is necessary because there's a big ugly hole in the ceiling tile (this place and the ceiling tile!) that isn't fully covered by the light ceiling mounting plate thing (edit: canopy. See above where I don't know lighting terminology). I know it looks really tilted in the photo but it's not nearly so bad in real life. I bought the brightest dimmable LED lightbulb I could find, because the original light fixture (pre-blingy-chandelier) had 3-4 bulbs and the kitchen needs as much light as it can get. I haven't installed the dimmer switch yet mostly because I think the heat went off when I switched the breaker and it's just too cold to risk that. But it'll look so great on a dimmer when we have a meal at the table, or if we have people over! And I can crank it up to 11 when I cook, as I require professional-kitchen level lighting or I get grumpy.

In this photo you can also see the boring nondescript trim in the kitchen. The tiny bathroom is on the left, the two windows are on the wall to the left of that, and next to them is the sink and some cabinets. The door to the basement stairs and back porch is in the back. The door to "my room," aka the spare room, is in the right hand corner, and next to it is a strange piece of furniture we use to store liquor and spare glassware (we have SO MUCH glassware), and then cabinets on that wall include the stove and fridge. I want to replace the strange liquor cabinet with a nicer one, that doesn't have ugly faux-rustic metal scrolls on it. Maybe I could use one of our two identical leaning bookshelves, as husband and I both owned one before I moved in.

Here's the living room couch, which is a gigantic dark brown suede-like sectional. I was looking through my phone for photos of the apartment and there is a massive collection of photos of us and/or the cat on this couch, so it is basically where we spend 95% of our time. It is a little bit ugly but extremely comfortable. I got a lot of light-colored pillows to try to make it look better. I also put up one more painting on the wall as I thought this looked like there's a gap. I bought the map of the world that looks like a strange geometric shape for $20 at Brown Elephant thrift store. It's a Buckminister Fuller projection showing ocean temperatures, and it's awesome. Previously he (husband, not Buckminister Fuller) had a non-working weird modern clock there, and while I see (kindof) where he was going with the asymmetry, it just wasn't working for me. I don't want to hear that we hang the art too high-- we are both tall and the ceilings are tall and just let us live, ok? The tall bookshelf on the left has been mine since the apartment after college. It's a Billy and it's much more stable than the wider standard-sized Billys. My wide Billy fell down spontaneously in a giant crash on New Years Eve, after listing to the right dangerously for months, so I'm on the hunt for a replacement. The nice solid wood bookshelf on the right has been his since he bought it at a proper furniture store in New York. I tried to get him to let me spray paint the oval-with-cut-out wood lamp base gold but he said no. I just think there's too much dark brown going on in here.

See, he does love me! This was taken before the kitchen light installation, so I guess it actually proves nothing, except that we are weird adorable and I had just gotten a new phone to play with. This is taken from short end of the sectional couch. You can see the door to the bedroom and the cool archway opening into the kitchen with the spare room door open in the background. That's an IKEA rug and IKEA coffee table, and one of our two leaning bookshelves (the other is in the basement, awaiting its next role). See the strange underwater rippled effect on the blue wall of the kitchen? That's from the blingy chandelier! When I convinced my boyfriend or fiance at the time to buy it because it was on sale, he had a voucher, and it was fabulous,  I didn't realize it would do that, effectively dimming the light and generally just being Too Much. When I saw the same chandelier in multiples in a River North bar, I knew I had made a mistake. 

The blue walls with dark blue trim in the kitchen were another one of my ideas that I regret. Boyfriend did all the painting, but I gave him the idea, and now I feel guilty. You should have seen the walls before, though. They were tan with brown faux-aged sponging. I think the trim was a nondescript but beigeier tan. They were hideous. Together with the light brown wood floors, light brown wood cabinets, faux-aged metal chandelier, faux-aged metal liquor cabinet, and dark wood furniture, it was a brown abomination. However, white on white is what we should have chosen for the walls and likely will repaint. The apartment is too small for creative trim colors, in my opinion. 

Anyway, it's coming together, slowly. I try to get rid of things, style bits and pieces as I go. For example, I want get rid of a lot of glassware, which is so hard for me, and get some boxes or even shelves to contain the random mess on top of the cabinets, but more on that later. You can even see that I've improved the capacity of the spare room door to hold my entire 54 scarf collection. The issue with this apartment is that there are no closets besides the two tiny bedroom closets, so stuff that needs to be reasonably accessible (only long-term storage in the basement) has to be crammed in somewhere basically in full sight. I plan to address this partly with my larger, better, more sturdy shelving unit in the spare room. To be continued.

Alaffia Africa's Secret - my secret for dry but acne-prone skin

Alaffia Africa's Secret Multipurpose Skin Balm: As promised, this gets it's own post because it was so amazing. I bought it at Whole Foods because it looked like a much cheaper version of the cult-famous Egyptian Magic. It has a lot of the same active ingredients, behold: Egyptian Magic's ingredient list is: Olive Oil, Beeswax, Honey, Bee Pollen, Royal Jelly and Propolis extract; and Africa's Secret's is: shea butter, coconut oil, beeswax, wild honey, neem, baobab oil, sesame oil, royal jelly, pollen and propolis. So first off, Africa's Secret has more helpful ingredients including shea butter, which is luscious and amazing, and neem, which I'd really only heard of on this blog post but never tried the recommended product because it's too expensive. However, I think I might get into some neem oil in the future, maybe some DIY face oil or serum? Also, as detailed in this blog, Africa's Secret is Fair Trade and tries to help make a difference in the communities that produce the raw ingredients, so thumbs up for that.

I put this stuff directly on my face. Mine had these slightly annoying grains that disappeared into a smooth oil once I rubbed a bit in my hands; I don't know if that was because of the extreme heat in my old apartment and thus extreme temperature changes or just that batch. It smells basically like shea butter. It went on my face super shiny and oily, so this was strictly a before-bed treatment. The bottle says you can use it on hands or hair, and it's really the consistency of many of the multipurpose balms that are out there: Bag Balm, Aquaphor, Lucas's PawPaw Ointment, even Rosebud Salve, etc. However, I think that would be a waste as it wouldn't have time to sink in to your cuticles before being rubbed off and there's not much in the jar so it would be wasted on the vast expanse that is my hair. The important ingredients here are great for my skin and helped me to have soft, acne-free skin. I believe the honey and other bee-derived ingredients are great for my dry but somewhat acne-prone skin. I tend to have super dry, dehydrated skin, but have a few pimples a month, especially around my period / hormonal peaks. This is confusing skin, because most acne treatments dry my skin out further, and products designed not to clog pores often don't moisturize deeply enough. But when I take the plunge and smear this stuff on, I swear to you, pimples that were forming disappear. I feel like I've gone on and on about honey before, but I used it and the oil cleansing method, as well as 2-3 cups a day of Skin Detox tea, Biosil for a month, and this Alaffia stuff right before my August wedding and I had clear, glowing, beautiful skin if I do say so myself. I look a little evil in the picture below but this is no makeup. I'm bragging here but I really did work hard for this.

I have a bunch of other lotions that got left behind while I used up this whole jar, and now I'm going to try to force myself to finish them off before I go buy another one of these, but winter is setting in and this is especially good for winter! I just went and got the last tiny drops of this out and already my skin feels so much better.

Skincare and Coconut Hair Oil Empties

Hiya, I'm back with more exciting pictures of empty bottles. WHY? Don't care, embrace the mystery.

Here we go!

Vatika Coconut Hair Oil. I bought this at the Indian store on Devon for about $4 and it lasted me a really long time. I think I got it even before the coconut oil craze. My logic was that if I used this maybe I'll look like a non-Indian Aishwarya Rai. Although that didn't work, I highly recommend it! I used it as a deep oil treatment, usually putting it on dry hair and leaving it overnight then washing out in the morning for shiny, silky hair. My friend with very curly, much thicker/coarser hair used a little bit to tame down her dry hair. It smells great - not just pure coconut oil. I'm on the fence about re-purchasing - I might try to simplify, avoid more products and unnecessary ingredients, and use straight coconut oil or other DIY concoctions for my oil treatments.

Alaffia Africa's Secret Multipurpose Skin Cream: Oh boy, oh boy! This stuff deserves it's own post, coming up next!

The Body Shop Almond Oil Intensive Hand Rescue - This was some really thick hand cream I'm pretty sure my cousin got when she used to work at The Body Shop. It also came with an almond oil brush pen for the cuticles. I'm really into putting cream on my cuticles (so much that clients have commented) but I didn't think these were particularly special. The cream was a bit too thick to use throughout the day so I mostly used it at night.

Nip + Fab Coconut Latte Dry Skin Fix Body Butter - I think one time my husband (boyfriend then) went to the UK without me, and I said, "bring me back some stuff from Boots," and he got me this and some Boots hand cream. First of all, he's sweet, secondly, I should be more specific with my UK-only beauty requests. I love shopping the sample areas at Boots especially in the airport, there's just so many new skincare products! This was nice and light, I think, I used it up really quickly. Now you can buy Nip + Fab stuff at Ulta and I think at Walgreens, now that Walgreens & Boots have merged.

Clinique "Take the Day Off" Makeup Remover - This was particularly for eye makeup. I don't think I ever had the full bottle as this is part of the stuff I took from grandma's bathroom ages ago. It worked fine on a q-tip or cotton ball to remove any eye makeup left over after cleaning my face, but I don't think I'll buy eye makeup remover again. I did pick up some fancy French Bioderma Créaline when I was in Paris this summer because there is so much hype about it and other micellar water. So far it's pretty impressive but I don't need it very often. When it runs out I might DIY some or just go back to using lotion only.

OM SHE Anti-Aging Rosehip Oil - This was good stuff! According to this post, rosehip oil is super-orange and like a self-tanner, however I did not find that to be the case at all. I was just as pale when I used it as when I didn't. It went pretty fast, but my favorite way to use it was to spray on some kind of light mist, Evian or even better, water and glycerin mixed together, and to put it on while still damp, as referred to in my skincare holy grail article about dry but acne-prone skin, plus every other article ever about sealing in moisture. I actually used up two small containers of rosehip oil, but think I forgot to get a photo of the first one. It has a strange, strong, almost woodsy smell. I've got a skin oil now from L'Oreal (even though the reviews aren't great, I got a sample in a magazine and used it when traveling which is a weak spot for me, when I can't see all my other stuff at home!) but when that's gone I might go back to rosehip. It should be cold-pressed, this one is. The useful little bottle is now filled with a castor oil, almond oil, rosemary and lavender essential oil mix for oil cleansing.

Andalou Naturals Fruit Stem Cell Revitalizing Serum - Another TJ Maxx purchase! This was a nice vitamin C serum which I used under moisturizer to repair my skin from sun and pollution damage. Sometimes it tingled a little which was strange. To be honest I didn't see any big changes but it was really more of a preventative measure and also I just plain enjoy skin care.

This ECO.Organic Rosehip Oil is the other rosehip oil I used up back in August. I got it at my local TJ Maxx for super cheap. I can't remember where I bought the other one. I actually checked with the company and it is also cold-pressed. Both are from Australia. This bottle was super messy, you can see how it's gross and crusty on top. It had a stupid lid shaped like the pump which led to wasting some of it. I think I bought this because the other stuff isn't pure rosehip oil so I wanted to try it straight up. I think either way is fine, but 0.5 oz doesn't last long.

Aveeno Protect + Hydrate Sunscreen Lotion - I got a sample of this at Target. I'd already used up another sample before, see here. For being super tiny this tube lasted a freakishly long time. This time it didn't make my skin sting, I don't know what I was doing before to irritate my skin but it wasn't a problem with this tube. I somehow just don't like this product though so I am glad to see it finished.

"Life Changing" Products

I wanted to give you a break from skincare products and list some of the best things I've ever spent my money on, in any category. These are things I constantly talk up to everyone and would be the company spokesperson if they wanted to pay me / had any idea I exist.

1. Uniqlo leggings-pants. These are basically jeggings, but they are just thick enough and non-shiny, and they have real back pockets and fake front pockets and fly. In my opinion, they pass as pants. I wear these to work, on vacation, and I have basically forgotten to wear real jeans ever. I got my coworker hooked on them too. They are the ultimate bottom for a long plane ride in the history of travel outfits, ever. I have them in the dark green, shown above, a dark blue, and lavender (I wear these the least, they might have been a mistake but at least I got to try out the colored skinnies trend for cheap?). Next I want them in a dark wine color and my wardrobe will be complete. In the winter, I wear them over fleece leggings, and their tightness balances out big sweaters and coats. They are amazing. Being comfortable is the best.

2. Uniqlo Heattech anything, but particularly long-sleeve scoopneck shirts. I am not exaggerating when I say these are the reason I can still spend winters in Chicago and haven't moved yet. They are very thin and tight and look sexy, but they magically keep you warmer in a way a cotton long-sleeve shirt doesn't even come close. The scoopneck is low enough that your vneck sweaters don't look dorky. Looking dorky in v-neck sweaters was an issue for me pre-Uniqlo. I basically wear one of these every day all winter long. I also have socks and a tank top, and I am always on the lookout for more. They don't feel *warm* like fresh-out-the-dryer clothes, but when those get invented trust me I will be first in line to drop all the $$$. However they wick sweat and keep you insulated.

3. Expensive shoes. This encompasses everything from buying a second pair of waterproof winter boots (similar) when the first ones weren't really cutting it, to fancy Tevas, to Croc flats. Having comfortable, walkable footwear that keeps your feet dry and at an optimal temperature cannot be overhyped. I used to think that Target and Payless shoes would work fine and I suffered through years of unhappy feet. Now I have a job, so never. again.

5. Dear Kates underwear. This is about to get personal about periods, so men, feel free to look away now. I can't remember where I heard about these but I am now practically evangelical about them. They have a really amazing absorbent-yet-dry fabric layer that replaces the need for pantyliners and catches any leaks when you're on your period (or any other time). Never wash your sheets or pants again, especially never in the middle of the night while camping, not that that has happened to me. They are machine washable and do not stain, magically. They are also quite cute, they have lacy and sporty and plain versions. They also have yoga pants which are mostly good just because of the revolutionary fabric (it is revolutionary!), and they have made a new version hopefully working out some of the not-ideal fit issues (too-low rise in back). The company has great customer service. As it's a fairly new product they had some kinks to work out, namely, not the best construction on seams, and when I complained, they sent me another, for free. They did it a second time when I realized I'd ordered the wrong size. They really promote heavily on Instagram and blogs so if you watch out you can almost always get a discount of some kind. I WISH they would pay me to say this, but they aren't. Also, made in USA, company owned and started by a woman chemical engineer, and body-positive advertising and marketing.

EDIT : I had a positive review for the Seven Year Pen, however mine just ran out, easily shy of 5 years in, and after some further research I found out these are just priced-up Swiss promotional pens, like the kind they give out for free with a pharmaceutical drug name on them. They are still pretty nice pens, but no longer worth of the "life changing" title.

How I wake up early and go to the gym

Somehow, although I don't even recognize myself, I have become the kind of person who goes to an hour-long barre class before work almost every day. Before that, I wasn't a total sloth, but I didn't really ever work out for the sake of working out, except for a 6 month-1 year stint of Core Power Yoga a couple years back which hurt my knees. When I started this class in the spring, they have you fill out a little intro with how often you exercise and at that point all I was doing was the odd weekend hike, bike ride, or xc ski, and in the warmer months biking around the city a couple times a week. I have been going pretty religiously for about 9 months now. For awhile now I've been going only to the 7 am classes on weekdays. Not going to lie, it's rough getting up, especially after daylight savings as it gets darker and colder every morning. Here's how I am doing it:

1. Find a workout that is tough enough that you can brag about it a little, but not so tough that you won't go. This is the secret, I think. If it's spin classes or P90x or something called Sweat, I'm scared and disgusted and won't go, but I also want to feel like I pushed myself and got more fit. Bonus points for being able to see myself look more fit, and have other people see it too. If I don't have some trouble walking down the stairs afterwards, it's like, what was the point. Also, find a place with some kind of rewards program since getting fit is nice and everything but saving money is much more motivating. My friend said she used to go to a lunch-hour class where the instructor was particularly attractive as an added motivation.

2. Prepare everything the night before. I have the world's longest before-bed routine. I pick out my clothes and earrings and put them in my gigantic purse, along with any products I'll need the next morning to get ready. I grind my coffee beans and set my timer coffee maker with milk already in the cup and put it by my bed so I can grab it right after waking up. I prep whatever breakfast and lunch (leftovers) I'm lucky enough to be taking with me the next day. I have workout clothes already hanging up to put on. I hang them over a floor heat vent, so if I'm lucky they are warm when I put them on. I do my skincare routine at night and I don't even splash water on my face in the morning. This way, in the morning, I lie in bed, drinking coffee, looking at my phone, and cuddling my cat and husband for 30 minutes, then I throw on my workout clothes, brush teeth, put in contacts, and leave in 10 minutes.

3. Soften the blow of getting up in the cold and dark. I recently put a star-shaped lantern in the living room and put it on a light timer so as soon as I open the bedroom door to let the cat in, I can see it's nice soft glow. Hanging star lanterns were popular in Iceland in January when we visited, and I think they are big in Scandinavian winter/Christmas decor because they really help with the long dark winters. I also surround the bed with soft plush things like a faux sheepskin rug and my slippers so exiting the warm bed is slightly less painful. The next step is to get a gradual light alarm clock!

4. Minimal morning routine. After my class, I always shower. Quite frankly I am confused and disgusted by the girls who don't, which is 90% of them. Who are you, non-sweating people? Anyway I really only have 15 minutes from end of class to when I should head out to the train. So I don't wash my hair, I just leave it up, sometimes I wash my hairline/scalp around the bun which, you know, don't knock it until you try it. I've been using DIY deodorant; it's been an adventure. I used to use this spray moisturizer, or the regular lotion version which is provided by the locker room, but usually this step takes too long. If I'm in a hurry I do makeup on the train, but usually I do it there. I mix some SPF lotion with BB cream, or just do the SPF lotion if my skin is even. Sometimes I use some concealer, and/or mascara. Boom, done, out. The endorphin boost from the workout helps me to feel like I look great even if my hair is a mess or I didn't put on as much makeup as carefully as I would for a special event or night out.

5. Second cup of coffee. Eat breakfast once at work. Congratulate self.

*terrible phone picture is from my office window around 4:45 pm, to illustrate early sunsets and late sunrises.

New apartment, Old house

The apartment we live in now was built in 1887. The page on Trulia says 1889 but I'm pretty sure I found a record from 1887. When it was built, the neighborhood we are in now wasn't part of Chicago, but it's own town, Lakeview. Lakeview was annexed to Chicago in 1889 so maybe that's where the incorrect record came from? Chicago, always thinking nothing exists until they acknowledge it. So bossy.

Anyway I did a good bit of research into the history of the house, back in March when I realized I'd be moving in here, and recently as we've attempted some home improvements.  So this picture is from March, sorry about the view of the nasty snow. I am not happy about winter coming. You can kinda see our Scottish flag on the front porch -- it's blue and white.

Our apartment is actually a condo, it's us on the first floor, the upstairs people have the 2nd and 3rd floors, and another couple lives in the coach house. According to census records of 1900, there were about 17 people living on this lot which was laid out the same exact way it is now, including a lot of children, so I think it was even then divided into 3 family homes. I found a really interesting old fire insurance map from 1894 and the whole block was basically laid out in the same way it is now, lots of small narrow houses with coach houses in the back. Fun fact, in 1909, Chicago decided to just renumber a lot of streets. So I had to keep that in mind when looking up early records.

Lakeview was basically farmland from when the first white settler, Conrad Sulzer, arrived in 1837. Some brickyards provided jobs starting in 1863 and really hit their stride as Chicago had to rebuild after the Great Fire in 1871. Settlers arrived from Germany, Scotland, and Scandinavia. Around 1865 or so, land started getting sold off in big packages to developers who divided it into neat tiny lots, instead of plots getting sold here and there to individual small farmers and homeowners. Our house is on one of these subdivided plots. Around the time that this house was built, the transformation was basically complete from farmland/small town to densely inhabited housing for workers at the new industrial plants, factories, and other businesses. Some people still worked at vegetable farms near what is now Western Ave. A lot of the new immigrants opened small businesses, some of which are still in operation. It was pretty middle-class for the time. Some people who lived in this building between 1887 and 1900 were a carpenter (possibly the original builder??), a tailor who lived in the rear apartment, an iron worker, and a "filer." 

Our house is built on the model of the "worker's cottage" which was a common type of modest home, but was usually one-story while ours is basically 2 1/2 stories. A lot of these workers cottages were built in various parts of the city but most have been torn down, as they are tiny and Chicagoans in these fancy northside neighborhoods are terrible and hate history and want big new homes. Anyway ours was always a 2-flat, as far as I can tell which is fascinating because people often assume it was once a single-family home. Some research says that the 2-flats were often occupied by the owner on the first floor and renters on the top floors. But the floor plan follows that of the typical worker's cottage, which had steps going up to the front door, a front parlor often with a bay window, a hall or kitchen behind that, and two little tiny bedrooms off to the side usually with small closets. You'll note there is no bathroom included in the typical worker's cottage plan. I also read in some places there wasn't really a kitchen, but it was just like a shed off the back with a stove. I believe they used outhouses, even in the winter, which, ugh. This would explain why our bathroom is raised several inches higher than the rest of the floors and is poorly insulated, like it was kinda tacked on the back later. The kitchen is also clearly a late remodel so it's really hard to know how it was originally laid out, if it was part of the house at all.

I've been making myself crazy trying to find an image I remember from my early research. I was trying to figure out the style and general age of the house, and I came across a floor plan of a worker's cottage and it was identical to our floor plan. Then I was confused because actually we are in a two-flat, I think that was just a typical layout for the narrow subdivided lots of that time period. I have seen over and over that this type of building went up in that 1870-1900 time period. However, I can't find one with the same bathroom and kitchen layout that I'm expecting! They all have a bathroom in the middle of the house, which I guess could be possible? But I think it's more likely there was no bathroom at all originally. Where did people bathe though? More research is needed.

Vitamin E cream & DIY masks

This not-so-lovely picture is actually a two-fer of empty finished products. First, a long time ago I finished the original Puritan's Pride Vitamin E Cream. I got it from, you guessed it, my grandma's house. It was amazing! A really thick, lovely simple cream that kept my face soft and smooth through a harsh Chicago winter. I definitely planned to buy it again but haven't yet as I'm a product junkie and like trying new things. Vitamin E is a famous antioxidant and has moisturizing properties, so I was right to love this cream.

After I finished this jar, I cleaned it out and hoarded it, then later on I made a mask from activated charcoal, bentonite clay, coconut oil, aloe vera gel, chamomile tea, and peppermint and eucalyptus essential oils. The recipe can be found here. It made quite a lot-- I filled up three similarly-sized recycled containers. I didn't use it super often, and a little lasts a long time, so by the time I was finishing the last one the consistency had lost it's light fluffy texture, but it still seemed to work fine. The idea is that activated charcoal draws out dirt and oil out of your skin, and bentonite clay does as well. If I were to make it again I think I'd leave out the essential oils. I think they were in there as they have antimicrobial qualities, but Paula and others think they can be irritating to the skin, especially peppermint and eucalyptus. They did give it a really nice smell, though. I've already talked about how menthol is supposedly irritating even though I've never felt or seen any negative effects. Paula hates on all the "natural" plant-based ingredients that feel and smell "clean" to us, and she scares me by saying things like "skin can be very good at concealing it's being irritated." It seems counterintuitive to think that even if you don't notice irritation, somehow essential oils are damaging your skin anyway. She gives them some credit saying in low enough concentrations they are ok and they do have some benefits.

I'm on the fence about essential oils in general. Some people are really ALL ABOUT essential oils. There's a whole community of people online who are like snake-oil salesmen and swear by them for everything. This sounds mean but it's often the same people who live in Utah and are gluten-free even though they aren't celiac. Some of the essential oil hype I sortof buy and want to try: Lavender oil in your mascara for longer lashes! Essential oils as a bug repellant! DIY clove perfume! A subset of those people really caution you against putting them undiluted on the skin, but then you get others who are like, go ahead! As a teen, I used to get a cotton ball wet with water, drip a couple drops of tea tree oil on it, and use it on my face to treat acne. Now I think diluting it with oil would have been smarter. I still love my oils in steams for congestion, or in my winter humidifier, or I put my oil-cleaning mix in an old tea tree oil bottle so it has trace amounts of it and smells of it. More on that later. How do you find this shit, Amy? Pinterest. The answer is Pinterest. And Mormon bloggers. Enjoy that last link, I really am fascinated.

Right, but did the mask work? It was supposed to be a DIY version of the super popular and super expensive Glam Glow mask. I didn't feel like spending money on activated charcoal but found it was the main ingredient in some anti-gas capsules I had lying around (TMI??) and also I had some old Indian charcoal tooth powder, which although I couldn't confirm this, I suspect was made of activated charcoal. I just used a combination of those instead. Now that I finished it all, I think I'll just go with an easier version, which is Bentonite Clay mixed with apple cider vinegar. My bentonite clay is the brand Aztec Secret and I got it at Whole Foods. Because this mask is simple I can make it in one-dose batches and it has the same face-clearing effects. I don't have raw apple cider vinegar anymore but I have a load of regular kind, so I just use that, and it's nbd. It's better to use vinegar than water or the tea/oil mix in the charcoal recipe because it balances the pH making it gentler on your skin. It does smell funny but it helps to keep acne at bay and my face feels smoother afterwards. The charcoal one worked about the same, it helps dry up any pimples and to keep breakouts from getting started. I'm not great about regularly using a mask unless I have current breakouts, but my current skincare regime of oil-cleansing and the odd mask seems to be working for the time being.