Treasures

Sometimes I forget how satisfying it is to go thrifting, I drool over expensive antiques like these Thonet chairs here or overpriced junk from big box furniture stores and lament about my lack of furniture. Last weekend I left the house and ended up on the south side of Baltimore rummaging through crockery and broken lamps at the Goodwill. It was a very fruitful endeavor if I do say so myself. I found a silver plated dish that is now cradling my perfumes and a cheeky change dish for M's dresser, if it will catch all that wayward change I would be beside myself. Here is what I am most excited about though, my new bentwood chairs,



They are a bit rickety and need some maintenance but for $6 you can't beat it and upon further inspection they were made in Yugoslavia, which isn't even a country anymore! How cool is that? The home-done upholstery job is a worn dark blue velvet that I actually really like, this could only have been a better find if there were four of them.

I had some pretty good luck in the kitchenwares aisle too. I found this adorable set black with tarnish.



It's a silver plated 3 piece tea service, I polished the outside, I'm just not sure what to use on the inside...

I also picked up this ugly lovely chair,



I love mustard color anything, and tufted mustard velveteen is just over the top for me. I'm not usually a big fan of cane on furniture but it works here. And if you look closely at the paperback it is an old edition of a William Blake collection, with a beautiful mustard and red cover, such a score. Even more impressive is that I fit all of these items into my little Honda Civic.

So what are you waiting for? Get out and hunt.

Dining Room Reveal!

Teaser photo shot from the front parlor.....It is already better and brighter even from so far away!


The hated color before the transformation...



I am so excited that we actually accomplished something! Sounds lame I know, but there seem to be so many glaring eyesores in the house that demand attention. This one was my personal nemesis. I enjoy color, and I really like red, however, blood red walls in a dining room with almost no natural light and a dim fixture is a recipe for disaster. Every time we ate in this room I felt like I was in the belly of a beast. So naturally it was the first "not necessary" project that I embarked upon.

Not necessary is definitely not quite the same thing as unnecessary...



With floodlights on the walls, the color doesn't look so awful, but I don't care to dine in the glow of 100 W bulbs...



It took 3 coats of Kilz stain-blocking primer and 3 weekends to finish the job. It really wasn't that time consuming, it was just kind of boring and hard. I was in favor of painting after two coats of primer but M was adamant that we should do another, he was probably right. The new color is a light grey that reminds me of bleached oyster shells, two coats of Benjamin Moore--Lacy Pearl. We also followed my mum's advice and hit up the dingy ceiling with one coat of paint. We used Benjamin Moore ceiling paint, it is white and flat and gives a slight contrast.



Here are some final pictures with natural light. It mights seem bland, but I love the minimalist/clean feel of it, especially in such a dim room. We ended up buying 1.5 cans too much so I think this color may go well in the office too since it gets limited natural light and the walls up there are currently the color of rancid butter....my little mind is whirring at 100 mph with projects and fixits right now! Oh how I wish I could just focus on the house for a month straight.




And one final one of the room put back together. I need to find a sideboard, a Shaker bench and some interesting things to put on the walls. I'm hoping to score a few of those old 2 foot high galvanized milk jugs next time we head to Wisconsin, and I'm currently obsessed with mercury glass, odd mixture I know but I think it will turn out well.



I have a hoard of things to post about, namely some delicious thrift finds, come back soon my dears!

To Be Modern or Not To Be...?

I love this fan! It is a MinkaAire F602 modern twin-turbo fan in brushed nickel.
It is industrial and attractive, and it actually performs. After seeing it in action, I know that it packs a powerful breeze and will lay waste to the dog days of a Mid-Atlantic summer. M doesn't really like it and even I'm on the fence about how it would actually look in our house. I'm not sure if it is too modern for an old brick row-home. It definitely works in a loft space, or modern glass dwelling. I just don't know if it would work for our place. What do you think?

Yea or Nay?

p.s. We're finally painting! It wasn't planned at all, but I hope it works out.

All talk, No action

Today I slept in, ignored my alarm clock, missed the Farmer's Market [http://www.32ndstreetmarket.org] didn't make breakfast, or lunch, and didn't get out of my pajamas until after 3 p.m.
To put it simply, it was wonderful!

It was gray all day with a heavy threat of rain, a cold breeze has been blowing through the house, scenting everything with that fall smell of wet leaves and damp pavement. I got dressed, got out of the house and as we were on the stoop, our lovely neighbor told us that a real bad storm was coming, enter immediate scurrying on three levels to shut storm windows and lower the flaking double hung warped wood windows down inside of them. The rain started as we were driving through the city and the smell of fall leaves hung like a heavy perfume.

We were on a mission to buy a new refrigerator, the current one pisses freezer water all over the interior of the fridge compartment, we could get it repaired but who knows how much that will cost, and the ice cubes taste like used dental floss anyway. Luckily, we received a house-warming present in the form of a gift card and with Energy Star rebates, we are now in the market for a new fridge! I have been eyeing a 21 cubic ft Samsung model for some time now, it's quite pricey for our budget but I am adamant about having a bottom freezer/ top fridge. So my Saturday was spent dreamily wandering the aisles of our local home improvement mega-store, stuffing paint sample cards in my purse like a klepto and sizing up step ladders. We're scheduled for a refrigerator delivery and haul away on Sunday, WOOT!
So after my jubilant consumer experience I am sipping wine on my back porch, smoking my tasty deathly cigarettes and I hear a raucous party going on 3 row homes down. I think, "Hey I should go check it out!" in my flannel pajama pants and threadbare V neck tee, it would be fun right? Then all of sudden I hear a veritable Greek choros of young drunk absolutely white girls start belting out the words to the theme song of the 90's sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and as the strains of Yo Holmes Smell Ya Later reach my ears I'm reaching for another glass of wine and turning back to my book of poetry for underachieving community college students, and am steadfast in my appraisal that I am fine just right where I am.

Making This House a Home

So I finally got this off the ground. We moved into our home last weekend and just got our mitts on internet. Needless to say it was a very long week... The house in gaining some semblance of order and I was able to make the bed and wash all of the curtains. The weather has been nice and cool lately which is a blessing since the only AC's we have are window units in varying states of disrepair. We're still living out of suitcases and boxes but I was able to actually cook dinner last night (Chicken Mole)! Pictures will follow as soon as the rooms are picked up a bit, but for now feast your eyes on kite flying at Ft. McHenry.