Washstand Redo & Old Age

I am plowing though my shop, trying to get it ready for my first ever at-home Antiques Sale.
We took possession of the house in March, but didn't move anything into the house until the middle of August.  Over five months of buying antiques and stashing treasures into the shop for future sales.

 I went to a great estate sale in June, bought a vanload of stuff and promptly dropped most of it off at ground zero (the garage aka "shop").  By the middle of August I had pretty much buried/forgotten the stuff on the bottom of the stash.  Which brings us up to now.  I am "rediscovering" so many things that I barely had a chance to register because I handled them such a short amount of time....
and because I am getting older and simply don't have the recall I used to.

What a great surprise to find a gorgeous washstand at "ground zero".  Just when I decided I needed some great furniture pieces for my new antiques booth!  During those 5+ months I really had tried hard NOT to buy furniture.  Too hard to get it from one part of the state to another, and too many other items that needed moved.  But yeah for me...apparently the washstand was just too tempting to pass up.

No major work needed to be done.  Thank you.  VERY dirty though.  So sanding was the best way to remedy this, and the sanding revealed a lovely oak top that I couldn't bear to paint over.  So I sanded the top a bit more, and wiped on an Early American stain.  I finished the top with a light brown briwax.

Three coats of white on the exterior, and two coats of gold on the interior of the cabinet.  A little
distressing. Then I spraypainted the original hardware and voila....

Laundry Room Finished!

This is how the laundry area looked in March when we 

took possession of the house.

Dark, with a weird cubbie area for the washer and dryer.

 This is that same area above the washer and dryer now!

Bright and vintage flavored.

The bottom two shelves are the walnut board

with the live edge that I posted about a couple of days ago.

 This is the area above the folding table.

I should have taken a pic of the wall light

above them because that is new too.

I showed you my great folding table before,

that I hired someone to make.

 
 Now that all the wall stuff is hung,

we actually have space to fold laundry.  Lovely.

Live Edge Walnut Shelves For Laundry Room

I purchased three great live edge walnut boards at a flea market.

At $10 each, they were a steal. 

I used the first one this weekend.

First I sanded it, until my belt sander gave out.

Then I stained it with a walnut color (to bring out the walnut!)

The above pic shows before and after staining.

 Then I tried a danish oil finish for the first time.

My husband had made these brackets years ago for the other house.

I stained them darker to go with the walnut board.

We cut the walnut board down the center because we

needed two shallow shelves. Here is a sneak peak
after we put them up in the laundry room.
Stay tuned for a full-on tour of the laundry room.

On-Line Auction Weathervanes

The last local on-line auction I picked up included

"pieces of weathervanes".

 I had to put them together like puzzles.

I ended up with two complete weather vanes

and one partial.

This one is my favorite. 

 And I had to find wooden bases for both of them.

 For this last one I didn't have any directional letters,

but it scored a wood slice for a base and is still cute.

I am selling them at my first ever Antiques Sale

at my home the first week of October.

Fall Wildflowers

 Fall wildflowers from our property.

I know this is goldenrod, and now I have exhausted my knowledge

of the names of the flowers on this post.

But we are enjoying them anyway.

 So sweet and tiny,

don't tell me if it is evil.

 My garden center purchases don't even look this good.

 In the middle of all of these puffy white flowers,

there are a couple of pink blooms that look like sweet pea.

 These blooms are so tiny and cute.

I bet our local hummingbirds love them.

(what is it with hummingbirds? they always act so irritated)

Many shades of morning glories.
 

And this one with the gorgeous stem.

Yeah, a weed.

All are weeds.

All flowers started as weeds.

"A weed is but an unloved flower.”
― Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Tour Of Hard Working Mud Room

This is a tour of our hard working mud room.

As in, no staging -- this is how it looks and how we use it.

Although we should call it the grass room,

because that is what we track in.

Back door took alot of abuse from previous owner's dogs.

I may be able to talk my husband into letting me paint it.

My husband painted the walls gray and

hung the coat hooks on the west wall.

 This (heavy) shelf was in my last antique booth.

I almost didn't keep it, because it was so heavy
-- but glad I did --

 all 6 of my wire baskets fit inside of it perfectly.

Eventually the wall behind it will be corrugated metal roofing.

The barrel on the right will be replaced with a standing washtub

that will serve as a sink....And we still have a partial stone wall to get rid of.  Sigh.

 Speaking of hard working....

these locker cubbies are stuffed with tools, screws, etc.

I wish we had a second set of them.

I am picturing myself working on pricing antiques

at this table in the wintertime.  Nice light from the south facing window.

The table has been in my family longer than I have been.

The four cats are enjoying the windows and wildlife shows.

Tour Of The Tiny Kitchen

 I had a fairly small working kitchen in the last house,

but this is tiny.  We opted not to have an island so that it

wouldn't be so tight.  Very limited storage and counter space.

In  a couple of years I am thinking of a rehaul, but

for now I have pared down "stuff" to what I really need.

This is facing west.  The countertops are local limestone,

which I really like.

You may remember that my husband took out the dishwasher, 

and made some storage for me in August.

 An electrician came last week and installed this light over the sink...

 and this triple light in the middle of the kitchen.

Our ceilings are not very high,

so the lights can't hang down very far.

(I purchased this sign in June.)

 This is the north side of the kitchen.

Whenever we redo the kitchen that "pass through"

will be walled over and open shelving put up.

 This is the south side.

We decided that for the two of us we wanted to squeeze in seating,

I don't want to haul every meal to the big dining room.

My husband made the table.

As you can see, the chair needs to be moved if I'm baking.

And this is the sweet reason that we have made the move,

what a cutie!

Junking Trip To The Old Stomping Grounds

 We needed to make a trip north this past weekend to check on our other house

that is still for sale and do a little cleaning there.

As soon as I realized we were going, I checked the on-line

auction calendar and realized that I could bid and pick up items 

during the time we would be there.  And hit a flea market on our way out of town.
The above pic is after we unloaded the van after the weekend!

 While at our north house,

I got a text reminding me that I had purchased these two

tubs months ago and had forgotten about them.

So we were able to pack those up as well.

 From the on-line auction I purchased

bits and pieces of newer weathervanes.

At this point it looks like I have enough parts

for two complete ones, and one partial.

At the flea market I got four great pieces of wood,

including this cedar cross-section.

Chopping block?

I got all of these junky screens for $1.

I plan on using them to line the walls of my

future antique store booth.

Grandmother's Quilts

Everything right now revolves around "the move".  Mostly trying to take things from a spacious victorian house and squeeze it into a small cottage.  Things just have to go.  I have collected many quilts and plan on selling off about 9/10 of them.

I am fortunate enough to also own three of my Grandmother's quilts.  

 I decided to give one of them to my niece for her birthday, 

so I took photos of all three of them to help her decide.

It would be interesting to know how many more quilts Grandma made.  I was only two when she passed away, so I don't have any memory of her.  But I think I may have inherited her creative genes.  I don't know of any other ancestor that had a bent toward creativity.  I came across a note written by my mother this week, it said that grandma sewed without patterns.  What?! Have you ever tried to sew with a pattern?

I know that my mother also said that some of her quilt patterns were original as well.  She hand quilted each with with tiny little stitches.  So beautiful.  And they have held up so well.  My mother said that Grandma would have wanted them to be used.  So they graced twin beds in a guest room when I was growing up, and I took the four-point star quilt to college. They have all been washed often and well used, resulting in a buttery soft cotton.  I hope my niece will enjoy hers for decades to come.

Ready To Show Off The Sun Room

Many of the rooms in our house are still "in transition". Over the last 5 months we literally stuffed our Ozarks garage to the rafters.  Every time we made a trip down from "up north" we brought a vanload and unloaded into the garage (while working on the interior of the house).  Now is the time to painfully go through the "stash" bit by bit. 

Which means, each day as I pull out tubs from the shop -- more stuff gets added or rearranged in each room.  So that is why I haven't taken any "reveal" pics of our vintage Ozark home. 

But the sun room is there, or almost there.  Whatever "there" is.  Since we took possession in March it has had a fresh coat of white paint, new curtains, and two new low-profile ceiling fans.

We knew that our vintage porch furniture would look great in here, 

and we were not disappointed.

As I sort through the garage items -- some get tossed, some get donated, some get relegated to the outdoors, some will be priced and sold, and a very few items will make the cut and be invited to come inside the house.  Looking for a piece of furniture for storage in this spot, we went out to the garage and found we already owned the perfect piece -- a perfectly pumpkiny dresser.

We used more "fun color" in this room than the subtle neutrals that we normally enjoy.  So the feeling is cheerful and bright.  The brighter pops of color were a good excuse to display my vintage Ozark Roadside Pottery collection.  Who knew that it would someday make it back to the Ozarks?