Most of us are WAY too young to know about ICE Rooms, but when this old house was built, an ICE room was the only means available to keep things cold short of a root cellar. A man in a wagon used to deliver ICE into this little door every day over this concrete room, hence where the original name, ICEBOX came from for early refrigerators.
This room is made of poured concrete, lathe and plaster which made it extremely difficult to work with. I just couldn’t deal with more lathe and plaster tear out, so we created a new wall structure along the old walls in which to change this ICE room into a Mud room/broom closet/recyclables/gardener’s shed.
Along one side wall will go shelves for gardening tools, winter bulb storage, pet foods, cleaning supplies and such storage. I’m adding hooks for a jacket or two and a bin for recyclable cans and bottles. On the other side are all the hooks for brooms, mops and such. I painted it Oklahoma Wheat from BEHR to brighten it up and hubby add decorative trim. I have enough of the oak flooring from the kitchen left to do the ICE room and outer landing too.
Even though it is storage room, I want to get it looking nice as it is the first thing you see when you walk in from the side door, which ironically is the door most people tend to use.
Now that the sign is planted I guess it’s official!
Ha, ha, this reminds me of the story of the Ice Man visiting Hart Mansion during the 1920s and catching up the folks on the gossip.
My great grandfather was an ice man. I have heard stories about his route, but had never envisioned where he put his customers’ ice. Fun.
Playing catch- up while listening to Emi *not* sleep on the monitor. 🙂
I have loved this whole series, and wow, everything looks great! Congratz on getting it listed. That is *exactly* what I am looking for …. something fun and with lots of character. We’ve had cookie-cutter (yuck) and Mr. Handy-Man (who shouldn’t have been), but I’d love something darling, cute, fun and original. Don’t suppose you could pick that up and plop it in SC in a few months? 🙂
Cheers, and congratz to both of you. I know you put your hearts (and backs!) into it.
Kiy