Renovation project
Preserving a 130-year-old Potwin home
Saturday, February 20, 2016 An advertising feature of The Topeka Capital-Journal
pages 6, 7
n Jamie Kidd on starting seeds, pages 2, 3 n Ways to create a healthier home, page 4 n Glass makes spaces seem larger, page 10
homes.cjonline.com
REALTOR
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REX WOLF/SPECIAL TO THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
2 | Saturday, February 20, 2016 | The Topeka Capital-Journal | At Home
No need to wait for spring to begin growing plants Is anyone as antsy as me to see something growing and green? Winter does drag on, with very cold days and then warm days that tease us unmercifully. Where is a good garden when you need one! The recent Kansas Garden Show at the Kansas Expocentre really gave me my gardening “fix.” Now, I plan to start seeds — found locally or from reputable catalogs — in my home. If you have never done this, you have to try it. The thrill of watching the “babies” come up, grow into tiny plants and then into gorgeous flowers or vegetables is so uplifting, especially when you have a hand in it. Start with good seed; annuals and vegetables are easiest. Some of you like to save seed from past
Jamie Kidd Jamie KiDD
jamiehan@ksu.edu jamiehan@ksu.edu
seasons. Many of those seeds will be fine; others may have low germination rates because they didn’t store well or were stored improperly. I like to use 11-by-21-inch flats with clear, raised lids to germinate the “babies.” Foil cake pans with clear plastic lids or Styrofoam cups, half milk cartons, etc., with glass from picture frames or plastic wrap can work as germination containers. You want to create a
type of terrarium that will generate its own water cycle. Once the soil is wet and seeds are planted, put the cover on and the “rain” cycle should begin overnight. If the lid is dry in the morning, the soil and seeds need to be misted so they are very moist but not soggy. Be sure to put drainage holes in the bottoms of the containers. Purchase good soil-less potting mix from local nurseries. Name brands have the best qualities. Mix the soil with water in a bucket, which is the easiest way to wet the soil. Squeeze a handful of soil. If water runs out, the soil is too wet. If no water runs out, it’s too dry. If a few drops run out, it’s just
UPCOMING EVENT
“Spring Lawn Care” will be presented at 7 p.m. March 31 at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, 1515 S.W. 10th Ave. The program focuses on how to care for your lawn. right. Place a 1- to 1 1/2-inch layer of soil in the bottom of the potting container. Deeper soil can be a problem because it allows water to move away from the seed and rooting zone. Note: Soil from your garden has too many disadvantages when used in pots. Sprinkle the seeds in rows. If seeds have the same germination times, temperature and light requirements, place several kinds of seeds in the same flat. Be sure to label them. It will be important when it’s time to transplant. Large seeds, such as
marigolds and tomatoes, need a light covering of soil. Small seeds won’t need any covering. Mist the container heavily to settle the seeds into the soil. Cover with clear plastic lids. Some seeds require darkness to germinate (read their package to find out), so cover the plastic with something that will block the light. Most seeds will germinate in a few days. The soil needs to be between 70 degrees and 80 degrees for good germination. I use a greenhouse heating pad with a soil probe
for temperature regulation. A waterbed heating pad and a thermometer can work. Setting trays in the sun won’t generate consistent warmth or light. The sun moves, and the soil cools. Sufficient light is the biggest obstacle to growing plants indoors. A regular 4-foot shop light works well. Suspend it 4 to 6 inches above the trays. The light should be on 12 to 18 hours a day. Regular incandescent light bulbs generate too much heat and will dry out the “babies.” Grow lights aren’t necessary. When the majority of the seeds have germinated, remove the tray from the heat pad. Remove any
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At Home | The Topeka Capital-Journal | Saturday, February 20, 2016 | 3
Kidd: Fertilizer can be applied to plants two ways Continued from 2 covering to create darkness; leave the clear lid on for a couple more days. Place trays in a cooler spot and continue the lighting. Raise the light, keeping it a few inches above the “babies” as they grow. Once the “babies” de-
velop true leaves, it’s time to transplant. The first leaves are seed leaves; the true leaves are secondary and are characteristic of an adult plant. Two-inch cell packs or pots are a good size for root development and are easily stored. Scoop out a grouping of seedlings. Holding them by their
leaves, not stems, gently shake to separate and place one plant in each cell. Firm the seedling into the soil and water thoroughly. Fertilizer can be applied in one of two ways: Osmocote is a slow-release fertilizer mixed into the soil in the 2-inch pots, which can last two to three months; a
liquid fertilizer (10-10-10) can be applied about every other watering. A week before planting seedlings outdoors, they need to begin the hardening-off process. Place pots or cells outside in a shaded area for half a day for three days, followed by eight hours for four days and then per-
manently when the danger of frost has passed. The last frost date for Topeka is typically May 5. Mother’s Day is a good marker for planting outside without fear of frost. Each seed variety will have a weeks-to-flower indication on its package. Count that number of weeks back from May 5 to know when
to start the seed. If this is too much, you can come to the Master Gardeners’ plant sale on May 7 at the Extension office parking lot, 1740 S.W. Western Ave. More details in the future. Jamie Kidd is a horticulturist with K-State Research and Extension in Shawnee County.
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Home styling choices can affect health By Sophie Miura Domaine
Picking out new dinnerware or buying fresh linens might seem like a purely aesthetic decision, but a string of studies suggest the way you style your home can have a subtle but powerful impact on your health. Here are some easy changes to make at home to boost your health and well-being. n Dine with colored dinnerware. White chinaware might be the most common dining choice, but studies suggest it’s not the healthiest. Researchers at Cornell University Food and Brand Lab tested the link between plate color and serving size at a New York dinner party. Guests were given a red or white bowl and asked to serve themselves a tomato- or cream-based pasta. Diners who ate white cream pasta from a white plate served themselves 22 percent more than those who ate from a dish in a contrasting hue. Portions look smaller when they appear
against a contrasting color. Something as easy as switching your crockery could have a huge impact on how much you eat. n Turn down the thermostat at night. In the depths of winter, the thought of a warm, cozy bed can be what gets you through the day, but turning the thermostat down while you sleep can have a big impact on your metabolism. Experts from the National Institutes of Health found that sleeping in a cooler room can cause your body to burn more calories while you sleep. n Wash your linens weekly. We know dirty linens can be a hotbed for bacteria and dust mites, but how often should you wash them? Philip Tierno, a microbiologist and pathologist at the New York University School of Medicine, says you can only use bath towels a few times before bacteria breeds. “If you can dry it completely, no more than three times max,” he told Tech Insider. As for bed linen, a weekly hot water cycle is enough to rid sheets of dust mites. If you
have allergies, wash your sheets at a minimum of 130 degrees for a thorough clean. n Add a mirror to your dining room. If you’re styling a kitchen or dining room, consider this: Researchers at the University of Central Florida have found that introducing a mirror to eating areas can influence you to make healthier choices. Students who ate indulgent food in a room with a mirror said they didn’t find it as delicious or satisfying. Researchers believe it’s because mirrors force us to view ourselves objectively. n Create a charging station. A Harvard Medical School study found that using your phone or tablet at night throws off your circadian rhythm, leading to a bad night’s sleep. Create a charging station outside your bedroom so your phone and tablet won’t interrupt your sleep pattern. If the thought of cell phone separation gives you nightmares, try an app like Twilight, which masks the blue light with a warm filter, allowing you to use the device at any hour.
METRO CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
Bath towels and bed linens can be a hotbed for bacteria. Sheets should be washed weekly, towels after three uses.
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In event of gurgling noise from drain, check plumbing vents first By C. Dwight Barnett Tribune News Service
Q: We have a gurgling sound that erupts from our bathtub drain every time we flush the toilet. No water comes up from the drain, and it drains well when we shower.
Could something be wrong with the roof vent? A: For waste water to properly drain, there must be air behind the water, which requires a plumbing vent above the roof. In some instances, an automatic air vent or air admittance valve can be used to provide the
air needed without allowing sewer gases to enter the home. Plumbing vents provide air to allow the water in the pipes to drain; it is not a vent for odors. If you think of placing your thumb over a soda straw immersed in a glass of soda and lifting the straw
out of the glass, the liquid will remain in the straw until you remove your thumb. That’s an example of a vent at work. Because the tub drain and the toilet drain are at the same height above the main sewer pipe, the vent may be partially blocked,
too small, not pitched properly, or it may not extend high enough above the roof. When the toilet is flushed, the rush of water into the sewer is pulling air through the tub drain causing the gurgling noise. First, make sure the plumbing vents extend above
the roof. In cold weather, simply run hot water to the sinks and look outside to see if steam is coming out of the roof vent pipes. In an attic, make sure the vents are not blocked or covered. If everything appears to be correct, you will need the assistance of a licensed plumber.
6 | Saturday, February 20, 2016 | The Topeka Capital-Journal | At Home
Quest for hands-on project leads Topekan to Potwin original By Shanna Sloyer Special to The Capital-Journal
photographs by REX WOLF/SPECIAL TO THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Topekan Sally Kahle replaced a transom window that was too badly damaged to restore to its original condition. She had a custom-fit piece of stained glass installed with designs that mimicked those carved into the original woodwork of the house.
When Sally Kahle was house hunting in 1989, she didn’t set out to buy a house in the Potwin neighborhood. Her main requirements were a large house to accommodate her growing family and a project that would allow her to work with her hands. She wanted something that wasn’t so badly deteriorated that it couldn’t be restored to its original condition, and she wanted to be able to live in the house while it was being rehabilitated. After Kahle’s real estate agent showed her the house at 303 S.W. Woodlawn in the historic Potwin Place neighborhood, she was hooked. Built in 1886, the 130year-old house is one of the original 13 houses constructed in Potwin at the turn of the 20th century. It’s the only house original to Potwin that is on the state and national registers for historical places, according to Kahle. The property has a rich history, starting with its long list of previous owners. C.W. Potwin was a land prospector who purchased the land now known as Potwin Place from a local American Indian tribe. Instead of immediately selling the plots to prospective builders, Potwin sat on his investment until it was most profitable for him to sell. Anyone who bought a plot of land in Potwin had to agree to spend at least $2,000 on building a home. Coal yard owner Frank Wear had the 303 S.W. Woodlawn house built for his fiancée. The construction was complete in October, and they were married the following December. Known as “The Honeymoon House,” they lived there for seven years before selling it. During her research into the house’s past, Kahle discovered it had multiple mortgages in several different states between 1900 and 1940. States had no system for communicating mortgage records to one another at that time, so if a homeowner wanted to take out money on a mortgage, he could do so many times over without anyone being the wiser.
‘Historic bones’
Indoor heat was added in 1906, and the first indoor bathroom was installed in the 1920s. In 1924, a chimney flue fire destroyed part of the house’s upper level and changed the original roofline. It also witnessed a scandalous divorce in the 1940s, which transferred its ownership to the wife, and then changed hands five times in eight years, three of those being repossessions by the bank. Kahle is the longest residing owner to live in the house. Stately in appearance and standing three stories tall, the exterior is painted in muted shades of sage green and cream with bright teal and magenta gingerbread trim. It is assuredly Victorian in design, featuring a large front porch with decorative spindles that invites visitors to step into a time when life moved at a slower pace. A secondary porch, which juts off the front bedroom, boasts original stained glass and leaded window panes, while a sleeping porch built off the back of the house once offered relief on hot summer nights when central air conditioning was still nonexistent. Modernity has forced its way into the house over the years out of necessity, but Kahle has followed strict guidelines to stay within the parameters for historic rehabilitation and preservation set by the Historic Preservation Office. “Preservation means that you have to try to stay true to the historic bones of the home,” Kahle said. “The Historic Preservation Office has standards you have to meet if you want their approval, and you must abide by what they say. They were wonderful to offer advice and help, and they approved a lot of projects.” When she purchased the house, it still had a coal-burning boiler in the basement, which at some point had been converted to natural gas. By 2006, Kahle was spending approximately $1,000 a month to heat the house during the winter.
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photographs by REX WOLF/SPECIAL TO THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
In 1989, Topekan Sally Kahle fell in love with a house at 303 S.W. Woodlawn, in the historic Potwin Place neighborhood, and decided to restore it. Left: The living room features a wooden floor and an encased doll. Right: In 2007, Kahle had a high-tech, energy-efficient natural gas boiler installed and restored the old radiators to their natural copper hue.
Potwin: Renovation work included restoration of woodwork Continued from 6 In 2007, she had a hightech, energy-efficient natural gas boiler installed, which lowered her bills considerably. Kahle stripped and restored the radiators to their natural copper hue, and they are eye-catching fixtures in each room in the house. Other projects include restoring the decorative woodwork on the first floor, including having custom millwork cut to replace pieces that had been damaged or gone missing over the years. She replaced and refinished all of the ceilings in the house and replaced the roof, along with numerous other projects. “I didn’t know anything about historical preservation when I moved here,” Kahle said. “I had to learn
all of that. The neighbors helped, and I read historical preservation magazines to get ideas.”
Forgotten treasures
Kahle’s most recent project was finishing the living area, which is off the main foyer. The centerpiece of the room is a beautiful period oak mantelpiece that isn’t original to the house. It was added in the 1980s. Kahle chose Lincrusta wallpaper, ordered from England to paper the sitting room. The paper, which has a lovely relief pattern, required a multistep process to hang, including a layer used to smooth out irregularities in the plaster, a relief texture layer followed
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Left: The centerpiece of the living room is a large period oak mantelpiece that isn’t original to the house. It was added in the 1980s. Above right: Kahle chose Lincrusta wallpaper in a relief pattern, ordered from England, to paper the sitting room. Below right: Kahle replaced a transom window that was too badly damaged to restore.
ON THE COVER
Homeowner Sally Kahle says the Rose Bedroom, aptly named because of the rose wallpaper in soft hues of cream and pink, may have been a child’s bedroom originally. A master bathroom was added off the room at some point, which makes it more practical as a master bedroom today. Photo by Rex Wolf.
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Service Directory
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Glass ideal way to enlarge small space Transparency of glass creates lightness, avoids visual clutter
Continued from 7 by a coat of paint and then a glaze to bring out the relief design. During the renovation process, Kahle discovered a transom window she hadn’t known about previously. Unfortunately, the window was too badly damaged to restore to its original condition, so Kahle had a custom-fit piece of stained glass installed with designs that mimicked those carved into the original woodwork of the house. The rich history that Kahle has uncovered, along with her own stories of living in the house, have only strengthened her conviction that old houses are the best houses. “It’s important to recognize the historic character of these old houses,” Kahle said. “We don’t place a high value on historic preservation in Kansas, and we won’t be able to get back what is lost. It’s important to place a value on these houses while we still can.”
By Cathy Hobbs Tribune News Service
Small spaces present unique challenges that don’t exist in larger spaces. Not only are small spaces challenged by their spatial restrictions, but there are also visual challenges that homeowners may wish to overcome. When it comes to small spaces, there are ways to visually expand a space to make it appear larger. One of the main design techniques in order to achieve this is to creatively utilize glass and reflective surfaces. The transparent properties of glass automatically create a sense of lightness in a space, as opposed to creating visual clutter. Surfaces that are solid or heavy by contrast tend to visually consume space, which may be desired in rooms that are large and cavernous, but is not desirable in smaller rooms. Reflective surfaces in general are ideal for small spac-
Potwin: Historic character of value
TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Dual glass mirrors on either side of a fireplace help give the fireplace a sense of depth. es. When looking for ways to incorporate reflective surfaces, keep in mind these surfaces reflect and bounce light, as well as reflect off other surfaces. If you have rooms with little light or few windows, glass and reflective surfaces will not only help to make the room appear larger, but they will also help bring more light into the space. When looking for the types of furniture pieces to incorporate into your decor, there
are some core selections that will help enlarge small spaces, including glass dining tables, small glass side tables, large mirrors, frosted glass and colored glass. Looking to enlarge your small space beyond the use of glass? While glass is an ideal solution, there are other reflective surfaces and design techniques that can be used as well. Metallic surfaces are a great way to bring reflective
surfaces into your space. Metallic surfaces also will help you incorporate color into your room. If you have a space with few or no windows, consider hanging mirrors or reflective decorative wall hangings in a series. These decorative items will act like windows and visually enlarge your space. Reflective stone surfaces and materials such as lucite and lacquer also can help to visually enlarge an area.
Shanna Sloyer is a freelance writer from Topeka. You can reach her at ssloyer@yahoo.com.
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