Deck the halls!

I love Christmas, it's my absolute favorite holiday.  I love the decorations, the music, movies, food...everything.   I'm was so excited this year to have a new house to decorate.  The vintage style colored bulbs are our favorite, we used them around the porch and on our tree in the living room.   In our "parlor" we had two ceramic lighted trees with the colorful bulbs (one from my husband's Nana, the other his mom found at a yard sale).  The front staircase banister was perfect for the lighted garland and ornaments.   I will be sad to take it all down this weekend...the house always looks so empty without the bright, cheerful decorations.   However, it might just be a good excuse to shop for some new non-seasonal decor, especially when flea market season comes around.

New House Part 2

A few weeks ago I shared our new house along with the downstairs.  Today, we will head upstairs as well as show the kitchen!

The kitchen was fully renovated by the previous owners.  There are gorgeous granite countertops, custom cabinets and of course the farmhouse sink!

 This is the eat in section of the kitchen, I will post more pictures soon with the table set up.

Front staircase and hall upstairs.

We were so excited that the master was big enough for us to upgrade from a full size bed to a king size bed finally!  After way too many years with a full size bed and two dogs it was time.  You can see the doorway off of the master to the balcony.  The railing is a bit too low, something we need to fix in the spring.

There is a bedroom next to the master that will someday, hopefully, become a nursery.  In the meantime it's an extra guest bedroom.

We don't have a master bath but there is a bathroom in the middle of the house connecting the two sides. You must walk through the bathroom to get to the rest of the rooms or walk downstairs through the house.  What can I say old houses have odd layouts sometimes.

This is a bonus room upstairs, that currently serves zero purpose other than to house my husband's many hunting clothes.   I hope to turn it into a play room when we have kids.  There is access to a secret staircase in this room that leads into the kitchen.   At bottom of the stairs is a built in pantry so you can't actually use it fully as a staircase.

Another room upstairs is my husband's office.  There are some great built ins that were probably added in the 1950's.

In the back of the house above the garage and addition to the house is the guest bathroom.  

Lastly,  is the guest bedroom.  Since the guest bath and bedroom are in the back of the house we jokingly call it the "South Wing".  

So that is basically it!  Minus the garage, shed and yard.   A new post with our holiday decorating is coming.   It's always fun in a new house to find out where to decorate!

New House

I have taken quite the blog hiatus.   Early in the summer my husband took a new job which almost tripled his daily commute time.   He was spending almost 3 hours a day in the car and I was spending almost 2.   The real estate market was also heating up around us so we decided to take advantage and move.    Selling and buying at the same time was chaotic and stressful but we absolutely love our new house.  

When we set out to by we knew we wanted something old.   As much as we loved our old house, a 1970's split level wasn't really our style.    Our goal was to find something pre-1950.  And oh boy did we find it!   It was pretty difficult though, there was a sea of post 1950's ranches and split levels on the market!

Here it is! A 1860 antique colonial with a wrap around porch: 

It was at the top of our budget but was completely remodeled with it's historic charm kept in tact.   It crossed off almost everything on our dream house check list:

1. Wrap around porch
2. Porch swing
3. Farmhouse sink
4. Walk in closet
5. Old house character
6. Hardwood floors
7. Fenced in yard
8. 1+ acre
9. Claw foot tub


Old house + lots of land is almost impossible to find in our area unless we are spending big bucks.  And the claw foot tub can always be remedied.   The house even features some bonuses such as a secret staircase, gazebo, and balcony off of the master bedroom.

Shall we begin the tour?  Let's just start with the downstairs (minus the kitchen that will come in a separate post along with the upstairs).

 The entry has a beautiful door,  I love the window above it.  We also have the most ornate radiators! 

  A better look at the banister and the radiator in the entry.

 

The formal living room, or as we affectionately call it the "parlor" has amazing hardwood floors in a square pattern.  There is also an original arch into the dining room.

Both the dining room and the office on the opposite side have a curved windows.   The dining room also has a tin ceiling (not original but fits with the period). 

A view of my office, the opening overlooks into the dining room.   Since there is no radiator in the office it helps to flow heat from the dining room in.   The picture below shows the curved windows on the office side and the detail work of the wood floors.  I'm debating putting in a window seat, the only downside is it would cover up some of that detail work.

 The downstairs bathroom has an old cast iron tub (although not a claw foot).  

The previous owners when remodeling kept the old antique door knobs turning them into quite the conversation piece as a coat rack.   It hangs in the mud/laundry room off of the garage.  I'm so happy they left it! 

The last room downstairs (minus the kitchen) is the family room.  It is huge,  20X30 feet.   This part of the house is an addition from the 1970's-1980's.  We love the gas fireplace, it makes it such a cozy room.   You can also see the 2nd staircase leading to the back wing of the house.

I will be following up with more pictures of the rest of the house soon, along with some decorating, antiquing and DIY updates! 

Spring's Vintage Finds

Last month I went to the opening weekend at Todd's Farm Flea Market.  Sadly, I have been busy almost every weekend since so I haven't been back.   I was on the hunt for a vintage, almost antique toaster.   Finally, my friend found one for me!  It was sitting on the back of a truck next to a white scale.     I asked the man selling it how much he wanted for it.   He responded that it was "near and dear to him".   My first reaction was "oh no he has some sentimental attachment to it, like it was his grandmother's, this is going to cost a lot".   He laughed after I paused for a moment and told me I could have it for $5 and he would throw in the scale.   Score!  And off I went with a toaster and a scale I didn't even know I wanted.

The toaster is from the late 1910's or early 1920's and is a General Electric Hotpoint.   Both sides open out so you can slide a piece of bread in.   It came with the original cotton cord, however I had my father in law remove it.  I found similar ones for $25 on Esty and eBay so I think I got a pretty good deal.  I still need to shine it up a bit but I love the deco style design!  I can't wait to find some more vintage toasters.

The little scale I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at first.  I thought about trying to sell it but then I thought it would be a great plant stand, especially with a potted fern.   

I was able to find a unique looking fern on clearance at Home Depot.  Its almost moss like.  Here is how it looks together on my little round table in my living room.  I think it makes a perfect plant stand! I do still need my husband to remove the spring from the scale so the weight of the pot doesn't break it.

Winding up the light

Since we renovated our kitchen we have wanted to update the lighting.   When we first moved into our house we did remove the old 90's style canister track light and replaced it with a brushed nickel and glass light.    It served us fine but we wanted something more unique.   Originally, we were planning to make a light out of ball mason jars, yet when we came across this item at a local junk store it screamed "make me into a light fixture".    It is an antique yarn winder,  I'm guessing industrial because to be honest I haven't found anything that looks close to it on the internet.  It might not even be a yarn winder, that is just what the dealer thought.  The best part, it was only $25.

My husband was able to remove the iron rod that went through each of the winders to add the wiring, light socket and bulb.   He has become quite handy with these types of projects.  

I love how it came out, especially the interesting shadow it casts!

Winter Thrifty Finds

Even though I have been quite busy during the winter we did manage to get in a few stops to our local Salvation Army.

I got this sweet little enamel planter with lace-y deer border for only at $1.   I'm starting to get into all things enamel and will definitely be on the look out when at flea markets this spring.

My husband stopped in at a Salvation Army one day without me and found these two solid wood tall but narrow book cases.   They now are on either side of my desk in my office and almost look like built ins.   There are a few dings in them so I may end up re-staining or painting them in the spring.   I think they would look nice in an antique white with a robin's egg blue in the back. 

Earlier in the fall my husband had stopped by at a yard sale and bought this tin painting for $3.   We added it to our foyer where we are trying to build a gallery wall.   The size of the painting worked perfectly over our front door.    You can also see the German Expressionist painting we had bought back in the summer.

Kitchen - Before and After

Our kitchen is now 99% done and it looks amazing!   It is so much brighter and has the farmhouse look we were going for.   I can't believe we waited so long to make the updates.   In total we re-did the entire kitchen for about $250 (paint, tile and a new range hood).  The cabinet color is Ashes by Behr and the grout is Delorean Gray (I pretty much picked it out because it was called "Delorean").  I love the new kitchen so much and can't wait to start cooking in there more.

Before:  You can see the old wood molding around the cabinets as well as the lovely blue backsplash.  What makes the old backsplash even better was it was black tiles that were painted blue with painted on "grout" lines, ugh!  You can see we also briefly thought of a tin panel backsplash a few years ago and never took it down.  Yup, so this is what we lived with for the last four years!

 In progress: 

 After:

We just have a few minor touch ups left to do.  We need to re-paint the window frame and add a new piece of molding underneath it.   My husband also wants to make a mason jar light fixture for the center of the kitchen ceiling and we want to find a new rug.