Restore|House

$1 Headboard, completed.

Two coats of black paint, and the old headboard is looking better than it probably has in decades.

Full of Eastlake-y inspired goodness.

Next step: attaching the bed frame I got at auction for $2.

Front Yard Report - Memorial Day

I've decided to start taking more pics of the house from the outside..because looking back through my archives, I seem to be lacking in them. And since I usually pore over the archives of this site when I'm feeling overwhelmed with the house and need to be reminded how FAR it has come, I thought I'd start adding some from today.









The rarely photographed East side of the house, with my irises that have gone insane this year.



















The west side of the house, that sees all the action [because the entrance and driveway are there...sheesh..what were you thinking?]






















My irises this year are doing wonderful. I planted them 3 years ago, mid summer. They didn't bloom the first year, or last year. I was beginning to wonder about them....they kept spreading, but never bloomed. I guess they're making up for lost time.







The irises in front of the house must be heavy of something, because the blooms are causing them to fall over. Guess I'll have to by stakes/supports or something.










I went to a wedding in Iowa this weekend at the Salisbury House - which is a beautiful historic home...I think the entrance we went in at was actually covered in geodes...which, according to the radio on the way IN to Iowa, is the state rock of Iowa. Who knew?
Anyways, the house is a Tudor style mansion that was built in the 1920s

front yard progress

Looking out towards the street

the first iris to bloom this year

the redbud still has it's blooms

View of park across the street, from my front steps.

front porch

front porch from the side

west entrance of house, with my hanging baskets.

house portrait - 4 year anniversary

2008

2004

Back in 1920, when she was 25 years old.

eastlake headboard rejuvenation

At auction last fall, I got this headboard for $1. I think it's because it had been in someone's barn for decades, and something decided to gnaw on the leg.

I had to glue some of the boards back to each other and clamp it in place.

Because the wood was so badly weathered, I decided to paint it. I put a coat of flat black on it, but not a thick coat. You can still see the grain in some areas.

This will end up in the library/guestroom soon.

 

window hardware restoration

I spent some time this week removing the hardware from my windows and boiling it to remove the paint. The detail that appears afterward is amazing.

The little details of the house are what always  amaze me the most.

Only 1 bedroom in the house has painted hardware still....I'm getting to that soon :)

circle

When I was young, the things I remember most about my Great Grandma's house were:

1. She had a horse skin  blanket on the back of a couch in her basement.
2. She had sparkly sequined wall calendars that my aunts embroidered when they were young, which were WAY out of date from when I remember them.[like by 10 years]
3. She had a small cuckoo clock in her kitchen.
4. She had a bowl of fake grapes on the dining room table in her basement that looked SO real I would always go up and try to twist one off to eat it.

The grape thing really upset her. My grandma [her daughter] would come running over and try to re-attach the grapes to the plastic stems, but it never really worked, so she would just lay the loose grape in the bottom of the bowl.

Over time, the grapes looked really worse for wear.

Looking back on this, I feel really bad. But I was like 4 at the time, and I don't really know what else there was to entertain me there. My grandma watched me when I was little, and when she had errands to run, she'd drop me off at my Great Grandma's [her mom's] for a little while. My poor Great Grandma. I don't know if I could handle pre-schoolers running around my house when I'm pushing 80.

Anyways, here's a pic of my great grandparents on their wedding day in 1925.

I showed this pic to a friend once, and he said "God, who are these people? They look so grouchy!"

That kinda hurt my feelings, since I'm related to these people....but I guess I'm biased.

I've put so much time in to asking relatives what ever happened to Great Grandma's wedding dress. No one knows. I'd even take Great-Great  Aunt Lorena's bridesmaid dress.
Supposedly my Great Grandma took a street car into Omaha to taking sewing lessons, and made her dress.

The whole point of this post is that yesterday I went to an estate sale, and I bought a bowl that was filled with plastic grapes and other random wax fruit. I just wanted the bowl, but the grapes came with it.
When I got home, I was getting ready to wash the bowl, and throw the plastic grapes/fruit into the trash, but then I remembered Great Grandma and her grapes that I tormented years ago. I washed them in the sink and put them in a crystal bowl on my dining room table.

I've  not seen any plastic grapes gracing tables in any homes lately,  but when I come home and see these, I think of her, and smile.

Salvaged Cabinet

I went to an auction Northwest of here last Fall. The lady was quite the collector and  they had to set up a separate building just for all the furniture/woodwork/incomplete projects she had. (Oddly, I can imagine this being my destiny.) There were church railings, window pediments, cabinets, Victorian screen doors, rows and rows of orphan chairs etc. And tons of old cabinets.

I saw this one in a back corner and liked it immediately. Maybe because it was black. Maybe because it had red shelves. Maybe because of the cool old hinges on it.

My mom waited in that building until the cabinet came up for bid, and even though some guy was bidding against her, she got it, because she knew I wanted it. When we went to load it up in the car, we found out the back was totally rotted out. We put it in her backseat anyways, and she sat with it all the way home.

My dad added a new back to it, and they gave it to me for my birthday this year.
I had planned to put it in my unfitted kitchen, but I don't think that plan will come to fruition.

So I put it on my old library table and somehow it works :)

I have no idea what I'm going to keep in it yet.

But it makes me smile when I look at it.

[on the wall is a antique "double-x" pattern quilt that I bought as a top and quilted/restored myself. The 2 chairs flanking the table are old "orphan" chairs. I decided to make them "match" by giving them both a coat of black paint.....since the wood was beyond help.]

What's in your Cupboards?

I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that I may have a hoarding problem when it comes to certain things. I prefer to call it collecting.

The one item I seem to have a real issue problem interest in since moving here is dishes. You can go to farm sales out here and get whole sets of dishes for a price that is kinda sad, in a way.

The first kind of dishes that I collect is Fiestaware. I originally wanted Lilac, but they quit making it and it's really expensive if you can find it. Then I liked  Plum and  received 5 place settings as gifts. Over the years, when it goes on sale, I pick up different random colors.

I have 12 place settings of Franciscan Desert Rose. This pattern has been around so long, my great grandmother had it. Mine is all the new stuff though. I  have a bunch of accent pieces too - mugs, lasagna dishes, serving platters, cookie jars, etc.

I just love it.

I also collect aluminum drink sets. I have pitchers, glasses, children's cups, and ice cream dishes made of brightly colored metal.

I got this whole set of Homer Laughlin Eggshell Nautilus at auction up north of here for $5. For the whole set. Not per piece. All of it. I don't even think I could buy that much plastic picnicware for that price.

At that same auction, I got these old green glass dishes that came out of a ice cream parlor that closed decades ago.

I got an entire set of Meito hand painted china last fall for $20.
It is so beautiful. Not that I needed any more dishes....but at that price, why not?

My mother's tea set from when she was a child.

Random vases. Not that I'll ever have enough flowers to fill them all :)

How I came to love the kitchen I have.

Way back when I first bought this house, I thought the first thing I would do is gut the kitchen and put in something more period appropriate. The house is from 1895. My kitchen is from the 1930s, I think.
I've tossed around lots of ideas, from an unfitted kitchen, to trying to find some salvage pieces of old cabinetry.

After awhile, I realized and remembered that I don't even like cooking.

It's not that I can't cook, I just think it's time consuming and I would rather spend my time doing other things. Why should I sink a bunch of money into tearing out my perfectly charming cupboards which are not only totally functional, but also in pristine condition? Why should I run out and get stainless steel appliances when the ones I have are in great working order, and awesomely retro?

So that's it. The cabinets are staying as long as I live here. If my stove implodes [*knock on wood*] I will probably pay to have it repaired, rather than replaced.

I made the curtains using a fabric panel called Kaye's Kitchen....if anyone is curious]

I have been having fun lately, adding kitschy touches to the kitchen. I like putting shots of reds every once in awhile.

[yes, that's a slab of beef in the skillet on the stove. This is Nebraska - Beef Country]

My mom gave me the embroidered towel on the stove handle. It's a creamer chasing/trying to beat a sugar bowl. You just can't find these things anywhere :)