Home Tour: Living Room

01/14/2015

Our living room has changed a bit since February 2013 when I originally did a photo tour.

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Sources:

Sectional Sofa – IKEA Karlstad
End Table – vintage from Jason’s grandmother
Arm Chair – yard sale find, reupholstered by us
Pillows, Throw blankets – Target
Coffee Table, Lamp, Wall Birds, Clocks – vintage from estate sales and antique stores
Lamp Shade – made by us
Rug – overstock.com
Painting – gallerydirect.com
Bookshelf – IKEA

If I missed anything you’re curious about, feel free to ask.

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Drexel Declaration Hutch

08/12/2013

I’ve been plowing through my to do list, including selling off a bunch of stuff to clear out the garage. We have this one big item left that needs a new home. Any local readers interested? It’s the top half of a china cabinet hutch, part of the Declaration series by Drexel. It’s big and heavy. We haven’t done anything to clean it up or refinish it. I have it marked down to $20 on craigslist and I still can’t get anyone to buy it. Dimensions: 52″ wide, 55″ tall, 13″ deep. It comes with shelves.

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Pretty soon it’s going to be sitting by the curb for free…


ReAbide New Photos

01/16/2013

Remember that handsome Bassett dresser that we picked up a few weeks ago? Jason did an amazing job cleaning it up and restoring the top surface. It looks so gorgeous (and it’s also really functional storage for our master bedroom) so we decided not to put it up for sale on ReAbide for now. We’ll continue looking for more dressers because I know there is a demand… but for now, it’s ours.

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I’m working my way through rephotographing many of our items that were quickly and/or poorly documented during the time we were living in transition. Here are some new photos I added to ReAbide.com yesterday:

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ReAbide additions

01/01/2013

We had our first official ReAbide sale just before Christmas:

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Over the weekend Jason and I set out to find a replacement (and anything else we could find!) We were thrilled to find this Bassett long dresser. It was in pretty rough shape but Jason is truly a restoration artist! He got started on it right away, sanding, staining, polyurethaning. It was not 100% done before he had to go out of town for work so it’s not officially in the shop yet.

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I also updated a few pictures and added some new items to the ReAbide website and Facebook page.

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We’re excited to get rolling in 2013, doing more furniture pickin’, restoration, selling and staging. Happy New Year!


ReAbide

12/20/2012

There has been a theme resonating through our lives for the past year or two… restoration. Actually, it’s been longer than that. When we bought our 1954 ranch nearly 6 years ago, we started collecting vintage furniture and accessories to match the era of our home. Jason and I enjoy a good vintage store or antique mall but more for looking than buying. We prefer the treasure hunts through yard sales, thrift stores and estate sales. We like sifting through junk and finding diamonds in the rough. They often don’t look like diamonds until they’ve had a little TLC. That’s where the restoration theme first started ringing. It was almost two years ago that Jason and I started talking about becoming foster parents. When God gave me a vision of “the room” — a mix of new and old pieces carefully selected, each with a story, coming together to make a beautiful space — I started to connect the dots. Foster care is all about restoration, too: restoring love, restoring trust, restoring health, restoring family, restoring hope. Out of the steady hum of restoration ReAbide was born.

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In short it’s a new business, Jason and I are starting. I have a full vision for 3 parts of ReAbide but for this season in our lives, only part 1 is unfurling: New Life for Quality Vintage Furnishings. Giving old furnishings a second (third, fourth…) chance at a new home. If you’ve been reading this blog more than a month, you know that Jason and I have quite a collection of vintage, mid-century modern furniture and accessories. Jason is a lamp fanatic… I think I’ve seen at least 12 since we’ve started unpacking. Since we have more than we need for ourselves and also because friends have started commissioning us for find things for them, we decided to start reselling some of our furnishing through private sales.

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The second facet of ReAbide Furnishings is home staging. We love putting rooms together and we love real estate — home staging with mid-century modern and modern furniture was a natural progression of things. Many of the pieces we’ll use for home staging will also be available for purchase. We’re just starting out in this facet. We have a good friend who is a real estate guru and we were able to add a few of our items into the mix at a house he recently renovated. We were hoping to have whole finished rooms to reveal but he had already hired another home stager who scrambled our pieces in with hers. I did take a few progress shots while we were bringing in our collection, before it was all rearranged by the other stager and before we had brought in a dining table or rugs. Quick snaps with my phone but I’m glad I got them; better than nothing.

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I’d be honored if you would check out ReAbide.com and like the brand new ReAbide on Facebook!


It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas…

12/12/2012

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On the eve of moving day, Jason and I went to a fundraiser dinner and a friend snapped this picture of us in front of the ginorous Christmas tree in the lobby. I would just slap it onto a Christmas card template and send it out to our friends and family this year but it’s missing a certain little cutie pie. I’m going to attempt to get a picture of the 3 of us and whip something up in time to send out. I’m also hoping to have time to do some Christmas shopping before I run out of shipping time. Yikes! So much to do this time of the year and we kind of have our hands full with unpacking and all… I did put up a few Christmas decorations as I was unpacking boxes.

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I bought 3 more boxes of vintage ornaments this summer to add to my collection. (Sidenote: I still have a couple of 11×17 Wishing You a Shiny Brite Christmas posters for sale at my etsy shop, as well as some digital download prints.)

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The silver wreath Jason and I made many years ago made it’s way onto our new front door.

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A year or two before she passed away, my Granny gave me two boxes of her vintage Shiny Brite ornaments. They’re half broken and the glitter is a bit corroated but I treasure them. That’s why they’re on this tree stand on the counter, away from toddler hands.

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Speaking of toddler hands, yeah, this is going to be interesting… I’ve already said, “No, Ali, we don’t touch the Christmas tree!” about 500x. Which just makes her want to touch it more, I’m sure. “Ball,” she says as she pokes at the ornaments. No picture of her with the tree yet for obvious reasons.

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We’re Home!

12/11/2012

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Friday was moving day. It felt so different than when we’ve bought houses in the past…we would close at a title company, get our keys and let ourselves into our new, empty house. This time we’ve been in and out of the house almost daily for the past 6 months while it was constructed. On Friday Jason was cleaning the windows while I moved a few things over from my parents house. Then the last inspector from the city came and we paced around nervously while he walked through the house. Our site supervisor Scott put the last of 4 final inspection approval tags on the kitchen counter as he walked the inspector out. And that was it: we’re allowed to move in! Jason and I looked at the 4 final inspection tags on last time and gave each other a high five. Go time.

We met the movers at our storage unit and spent the rest of the day—the rest of the next several days, really—slinging boxes, moving furniture and unpacking. We are physically exhausted but oh-so-happy to be finally in our new home. I had hoped to sneak over early Friday morning and take final photos of a clean, empty house before we started moving in but it didn’t happen. Why? Because early Friday morning the tile guy, Peanut, was finishing grouting the fireplace and the bathroom; John, the painter, was doing touch-ups and Scott, our site supervisor/problem solver extraordinaire was putting the final touches on our front porch railings. In other words, the house was not clean or empty.

When we arrived back to our house, my mom had set up sloppy joes in her crock pot for us, as well as dropped off a bunch of food to get us through the first couple of days. She’s the best!

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After her afternoon nap, my parents brought Ali down to check out her new room. She hasn’t seen most of this stuff since she was 7 month old…so basically, she’s seeing it all for the first time. Who needs Christmas gifts!

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She was so excited about all the “new” toys that she climbed into her toy box.

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…and assembled:

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The first morning in our new house!

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On Day 2, my sister-in-law Ginger came over to help while my niece Eliza played with Ali. After they left, my parents and Jason’s parents helped us unpack and move more things from my parents’ house all day. It’s so wonderful to have such an awesome family to help us! I was too preoccupied to take many pictures on Saturday but I did snap this one of Ali. Nana (Jason’s mom) was unpacking a box with Ali and found some of my sunglasses…

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Day 3 in our new house: Sunday.

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Ali seems to really like her new room. It’s one of the most complete rooms in the house. All that’s missing are things that hang on the wall: pictures, book ledges, curtain rod, etc.

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Ali also seems to love her playroom (AKA the den) and it’s nice to have 2 rooms in the house that are mostly kid-safe.

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The hall bathroom is for Ali and guests:

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The living room is pretty much a big mess because the two couch pieces of our sectional and an armchair are being used in a home staging project. They’ll be back in a few weeks. I’ve been meaning to write about that. I’ll do that soon…

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Meanwhile, this is our makeshift couch: a pile of old blankets and pillows on the floor. Lucy approves.

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LuLu can be a very anxious dog but she seems to be adjusting really well. To my knowledge she hasn’t peed on anything or had any seizures so that says a lot for her.

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The kitchen is almost mostly complete, however it’s still a big mess because it’s the heart of the house. (Note the tool box and cleaning supplies on the counter, the step ladder in the dining room.)

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I really, really love how the kitcehn came together.

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We’re planning to add a tile backsplash at a later date.

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The coffee and tea bar is pretty much my favorite thing ever.

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After three days of hard work, we decided to use our last bit of energy on Sunday night to set up the TV so we could properly relax. It involved a mount that fixes to the concrete fireplace with a floating shelf below the TV. I’ll tell you about that later. We don’t have cable or internet yet, but we could use the DVD player so we found our box full of Seinfeld DVDs.

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Random: Any Nashvillites interested in a beautiful, big, heavy gold vinyl sleeper sofa? I was planning to use it in the den but it’s too big for that room so we’re selling it. It’s on craigslist for $100. Sold! Thank you to Mark and his wife. I hope you enjoy it!

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Recent Estate Sale Finds

11/26/2012

I head out to estate sales looking for mid-century modern treasures. Like this Cosco stool that doubles as a step-stool and metal wastebasket with cut-out circles.

Sometimes I end up finding a bunch of kid stuff that’s too cheap to pass up. I’m particularly excited about this swing and finding a place to hang it in our new yard.


Secret Projects and Randomness

11/20/2012

I probably won’t get around to doing a full New Home Update this week because of all that’s going on with Thanksgiving, family visiting and a boat load of graphic design work I need to do this week, but here are a couple of shots of our new wood floors in the great room.

There is still a lot of slippery sawdust on the floors. Ali looked like she was at a skating rink.

I moved/helped move a huge amount of furniture this weekend (no… we’re not moving into our new house for another couple weeks) including this sofa (with hide-a-bed), desk, wall cabinet and a large media cabinet  (not pictured because it’s for my parents) from an estate sale…

And also all this furniture for a secret project that has been in the works for many, many months… Here’s a sneak peek at our first home staging job. Much more about that coming soon… including the official launch of our new business, more photos and hopefully a video tour of this house:

This goober is 16 months old today! I’ve been looking forward to 16 months for a long time because that’s how old Ladybug was when we parented her. Oh, 16 months! I have experience with that age! Of course, the two girls are very different.


Recent Yard Sale Finds

11/05/2012

A couple weekends ago we had a gorgeous day for yard sales so my mom, Ali and I set out to see what we could find.

I was thrilled to buy this desk from a friend for $5. Since I had a “cloffice” at our last house, I didn’t have a desk. Now I’ll have a surface to work on in our new house. Hooray! This vintage desk is metal and laminate and will make a great sewing/craft desk once we find the perfect wood desk for me. For now, this will be just fine. The open shelf will be great for my sewing machine or printer.

The straps on one of our old strollers disintegrated and tore off a few weeks ago. This excellent replacement was just $4 from a different friend.

I got this chair for Ali for $0.50. She likes it. It’s a bit too big for her but I think it’ll be just right next summer.

This ornament tree was $5 and I talked the lady down to $3. I spray painted it green (it was brass) and I’ll use it for my Shiny Brites this year.

And this was from a consignment sale this past week. I have been looking for some kind of ride-on toy like a rocking horse or a Rody or one of these. She was too small for the first couple I tried but she really seemed to like this one.

My mom says it looks like it has a concussion because one of the pupils is broken. She helped me name it Dizzy. Ali’s not really into riding on it yet but she likes to push it around.