Some mid-century magnificence

I've been working at the zoo the second half of this month, and haven't had (and won't have) too much time to post, due to a million things going on.  I have some longer blog posts in my head I've yet to write, and don't have time to just yet, so I thought I'd share some pics from a book I bought at a thrift store in Wisconsin:

I have a couple of versions of this book, which was republished every few years.

This one is from the 1950's.

(The book is in great shape, too!)

Note: I am an old house lover, and I love ALL old houses: farm houses, victorians, colonials, antebellums, etc.  The House of Goodwill was built in 1974, and I love it's architecture!  This book showcases mid-century style, which I also distinctive and fastastic.

These books are filled with photos; at the end of the day, I love to make some tea and sit and look through books like this.

Click on the photo to make it bigger.

I love the modern wood stove here!

It's interesting how many things here look current, like the patterned wallpaper, the monochromatic dishes and the half painted cabinet.  It really is true how styles always come back, just in slightly different forms.

Maybe in another ten years, paneling will make a comeback, or the crocheted rug.

(And don't say no way - everything seems to come back into style eventually!)

I love to see a perfect time capsule.

Again, the monochromatic wall and paneling look really modern.  So does the painting over the fireplace.

I love the shape of midcentury sofas, and these chairs are perfect.  They look comfortable, but they aren't enormous and poufy like so much furniture now.

Check out this cool ceiling-high "railing!"

Kind of looks like the paintings on the wall are in prison.

I'm not sure I *love* it, but it just makes such a strong period-stylized statement, that it kind of *does* make me love it.  I mean, this is different!

There's a lot going on here: super modern "railing," reddish tile floor (love!), grandfather clock...

It's just fun to look at!

Oh, to have a sunroom like this!!  This would be a dream. 🙂

When I glance at this photo, I always think at first I'm looking at a small swimming pool, not a rug.

I want to eat lunch at this table!

This patio!

Mid-century patio furniture had great style.  It's so collectable; whenever I see iron patio furniture from this era that has survived well, it's always expensive.

I'd love to have a glider from the '50's some day - but unless I had a covered porch or sunroom for it, I'd never buy one if I could.  If it's survived this long, it would be a shame to kill by putting it outside.

I just want to lie on this lounge chair and sip some wine and look at the stars.

This room - with it's matching bed linens and formal window treatments - reminds me of my grandmother's house.  Maybe that's partly why I love this mid-century look.

A lot of 1950's style was combining older, antique furniture with modern style like this.

It just looks cozy to me.

This is the back cover of the book, but there is so much more good stuff inside!

I wish I could be a time traveler, but if I could just pick one era to go back and explore, I have no idea which one I would choose...

It sure is fun to think about!

The Portsmouth Ghost

I've been enjoying a couple of my favorite thrifting finds this month; I've found some great vintage Halloween items over the years.

I absolutely love this pair of ghosts!

The first one I found at an antique store in Ohio.  We were visiting my aunt a few years ago, and the day we left, we went into town to see some beautiful river murals.  Next to the river was a great little antique store.  I had to see it, of course.  It was October, and while looking around I saw this great little ghost.

This little guy was $9.

I thought he was so cute.  While obviously not an antique, I had no idea who made him or where he came from.  I call him "The Portsmouth Ghost" since I found him in Portsmouth, Ohio.

I think the reason that thrifting is so fun is because of the occasional and unexpected great finds.  I loved this little ghost so much, imagine how excited I felt later that year when I came across this in my local Goodwill:

It was another ghost - clearly by the same maker - in the same style but a different design, in the original box!

 Only $5.99!

And now I know they were made by JCPenney, about 25 years ago.

The original price on the box then was $19.99.

The details in these pumpkins are so delicate.

I just love these ghosts!

And finally, two days ago we got our first below-freezing temperatures of the year.  I went out to the garden and cut the last two flowers remaining.  (Not counting the knockout roses, which the cold temperatures didn't seem to impact.)

One balloon flower and one pink hydrangea.

The last of summer!

This amber candleholder was under $10 at an antique store, and the little amber bottle was $2 at Goodwill.  I love using amber glass in the fall.

I've been working every night at a trick-or-treating event at the zoo.  I love coming home and finding my husband in front of the tv with the ghosts lit up.  (He attached all the lights to a remote control for me, which I love!)

It's always nice to know I'm not the only one who enjoys them!

The lower level: before and after

Continuing with more before-and-after pics!  So, I never know exactly what to call this part of The House of Goodwill.  I used to call it the basement, but it's nothing like the basement in the house I grew up in.  This house is built on a hill, so the front door opens up to the second story of the house; when you go downstairs you can walk outside at ground level to the backyard or the driveway.

So the main living area is on the second story.  Anyway, all that said, here is the lower level of the house or "the downstairs apartment" as we sometimes refer to it.

Here are two pics of it from the day we bought the house: 

The door on the left is a bathroom, the door on the right leads to the garage.

While the upstairs has a wood burning fireplace, this one below is gas with an on/off switch.

I kind of like having one of each.

The wall not in this pic, to the right of the fireplace, is a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass with a sliding glass door.

When we first bought the house I loved this room, because it was the only light-filled, bright room in the whole house.

Here is the kitchen in the lower level.  The back wall is painted dark olive green (always with the dark colors!) and has the original dark walnut-stained cabinets.

The room has a wonderful tile floor.

The bathroom aside, the lower level is one large room.  It only lacks a bedroom to be a complete apartment.  We put a sofa bed in it in case a large family rents it and someone(s) want to stay downstairs.

Here are the after pics:

Quick story: I saw this awesome game table on craigslist for $200, and I thought it would be perfect for the house, but I was really busy and waited too long to contact the sellers.  Then the ad disappeared. 😟  I was SO mad at myself for losing the opportunity....UNTIL three weeks later, the ad miraculously reappeared, but now the table and chairs were only $100.  They hadn't sold, so the seller lowered the price.  Turned out they'd never even been used; they were purchased to help stage a high end home for sale, then moved into storage.  Score!

You can see the wall of windows in this pic.  I just love the light!

I bought this sectional from a lady on craigslist who was moving out of state for $300.

The tv-facing end has a recliner; the other section has a sofa bed.

This chaise lounge was around $100 (I have it written down somewhere) and is in great shape.

This is MY spot when we watch tv.

The oak side table was free from some people getting rid of furniture.

The orange container I won in a contest, I keep it full of magazines I've finished for guests to read.

This enormous shag rug was $100.

Everything in this room was in like-new condition when I bought it.

Everyone loves lying on the rug, especially my dogs!

Side story: this was the one room in the house that I really didn't have a good idea of what I wanted to both color and furniture-wise.  I started collecting stuff that seemed like it would work furniture-wise; the rug I mainly bought just because of the size.  I knew I really, really wanted to paint the kitchen cabinets orange, but the only things we knew we were keeping and not changing in the house were the window curtains (because they are a special size and custom) and the barstools at the island, which happened to be maroon.

I was really afraid everything I was collecting just wasn't going to work, and that orange cabinets would not go with anything.  (Orange was one of my theme colors for my 1970's house.)  But in the end, as we were putting the room together, we were all amazed at how well everything worked, color-wise.  Orange and maroon?  Hard to explain, but it really does look great!

I found this huge peacock wall hanging for $45 at an antique store, and I just loved it!

Birds are one of themes throughout the house, and the blue and purple (maroon?) colors in this help bring the room together.

My husband says he feels like he's in a Thai restaurant every time he walks by it.

(But he loves it.)

Another view of the room and the door to the back yard.  I let my husband and son put a huge tv down here.  (It was not allowed upstairs!)  It covers a lot of the beautiful stone on the fireplace, and it's so big it eliminates the possibility of a mantel (! 😧 !) - so we did it my way upstairs in the living room and their way down here.  That's fair, right?

And finally...

Here is my beloved orange kitchen!

Sanding and painting these cabinets was a NIGHTMARE, but we got it done.  

(We also soaked, sanded and cleaned all the hardware to remove the tarnish - it took hours and hours of work because there were so many.)

The walls are the same light green color we used throughout the house.

Honestly, it's so much brighter and cheerful now.  I really think the pictures don't do justice to how nice it looks.

I found these resin 70's fruit wall hangings at Goodwill - they were just what I wanted!

They looked like they could have come with the house.

Finding era accurate decor made me so happy!

And here are the cabinets on the other side.

The dishwasher that came with the house was broken, so I found someone giving one away on craigslist who was changing kitchen colors.  It's free and it works!

My husband taught himself how to install a dishwasher.

It was a project.

Some of my favorite little details in this room I forgot to take pics of, so I guess that'll be another post in the future.

This was a big room, but I bet we didn't spend more than $800 total - that's for all the furniture, the huge rug, the games, the dishwasher, and everything in the kitchen.  (This is a very well-stocked kitchen!)  Considering that two new pieces of furniture could cost $800 together (or more), I think I did well!

My guess is that probably 90% of the things in this house were purchased secondhand.  There are very, very few new things in the house.  (Bed sheets and towels being the main newly purchased items.)

I was sitting in the living room at my home/house yesterday, looking around and thinking how almost nothing in the room was bought new, so I didn't do The House of Goodwill this way just because it's not my main residence.  This is how I live.

I like the challenge of making things beautiful on a budget.  I like the sustainability factor.  I like not spending a lot of money unnecessarily!

And finally, I have to credit my son, who painted the entire downstairs himself.  (Including all the walls twice, because the paint company gave him two gallons of different paint, but that's another story...)  He painted all the kitchen cabinets as well.  All I did down here was sand the cabinets and help clean the hardware.  (But it definitely felt like enough!)

It wouldn't have gotten finished without him.  He learned a lot.  He's picked up a lot of simple handyman skills from this house; he's an excellent painter, and an excellent cleaner.  He's seen what's possible with hard work.  And he's observed what can be achieved when you manage money well.  He's not afraid of thrift stores!

A finished house and a kid with skills for life.  Would more could I want?

The hallway bathroom: before and after

Some more before and after pics today; this room feels a million times different than it did when we bought the house. 

Here are some pics of the hallway bathroom (the main upstairs bathroom), when we bought the house.  It had dark-stained molding, a dark-stained vanity, and more of the same formal wallpaper that was in the entry hall.  It also had a super cool avocado-colored laminate sink top.  This was a 1970's style point I loved.  I had to keep it!

Like the rest of the house, this bathroom felt very dark.

I like wallpaper, but I don't think I would have liked this even when it was fresh and new.

The bathroom is separated into two parts, the sink half and the toilet/bathtub half.

People always comment on the sunken tub.

I think it's a really unique feature.

Below is a photo-in-progress.  This is after I spent two weeks deglossing all the molding and putting five coats of white paint on.

Another photo-in-progress below.

I've removed wallpaper many times in my life, but I've never had the difficulty I had removing it in the hallway and bath of this house.  Whoever wallpapered this room meant business!

It took a really long time getting the wallpaper off all the corners and around the mirror, etc.

Removing it from around and behind the light fixture was a nightmare.

But I did it!

Removing the wallpaper exposed yellow paint, I assume the original color.

When we removed the paper from the wall on the side of the vanity, we found this huge (about 10") hole in the wall.  We had no idea it was there, because it had just been papered over.

We're sure it was the location of one of the built in radio/intercom systems that are in every room of the house.  Hard to believe such advanced technology could become obsolete! 😉

Here's the wall after my husband patched and resurfaced it.  He had to do this in multiple places in the hall as well.  It's what took us so long to get these rooms done.

Aside from the huge hole, after removing the wallpaper, there were glue remnants that were impossible to get off in hard-to-reach areas around the mirror and light.

The texture looked a little bumpy and I tried to sand it, but ended up just having to leave it.

Here is the bathroom after.

I knew when I first saw the avocado countertop, that I wanted to paint the vanity orange.

(We kept the original drawer pulls - they have great 70's style - but scrubbed all the tarnish off them.)

I painted the walls an ivory-yellow color, and put a green stripe behind the light fixture.

I wanted to disguise some of the uneven wall surface; I think it worked pretty well.

I love this wall!

I wanted to do something fun and creative with the wall; at first I wanted to try to paint some "wallpaper."  But I ran out of time and it just seemed too complicated.

So I ordered some stencils and painted some 1970's-style flowers on the wall, using leftover paint from other walls and projects in the house.

This was harder to do than I thought!

After painting the flowers with the stencils, they all pretty much looked like this.  I was afraid I was going to have to paint over all of them...

But I got some wall paint, and painted over the messy edges (as if the paintbrush was an eraser).

This actually worked really well and gave all the flowers clean edges.

I don't have steady hands, so this is one of my successful projects that I'm very proud of.

I love these vintage plates: one has all the presidents (ends with George Bush), the other is a bicentennial plate.  My dad always called me his "bicentennial baby" because I was born in 1976.

And of course, my little emoji.

The new wall paint (in this half of the room) is green with a yellow tint - it seemed to match the avocado sink top and went well with the 70's harvest gold bathtub.

This half of the bathroom already had this beautiful tile work.

Like the rest of the house, this room feels so different now.  Lighter and brighter, fresh and clean!

The final change?  My husband removed the old, non-working bathroom vent fan and replaced it with a new one.  In the process, he managed to drill his finger with his electric drill.  It was one of those accidents with enough blood that - although it's still bad - you feel relief afterward that no bone was broken or infection caused.

When I say a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into the work on this house, I mean it!

The entry: before and after

The House of Goodwill is basically finished (minus a couple more pictures to hang), but I realized it's been a while since I've posted some "finished" photos.  So I'll do a few more before & after posts, starting today with the entry at the front door.

When we bought the house, here is how the entry looked:

Because the front door is open, it's hard to tell how dark this entry way often feels.

The front and back of the house face north and south, so most of the windows don't get a lot of light.

At first, I didn't like this dark brown tile.

But it's kind of grown on me.  I don't mind it as long as there's a rug over part of it, and it IS very practical!

The corner of the hall has a spiral staircase.

Here is a close up view of the (likely 40-year-old) wallpaper.

It felt very formal.

My husband built this scaffold over the staircase so we could remove wallpaper and paint.

Because we spent so much time trying to find someone who could fix the walls after the wallpaper removal (chunks of wall came off in places with the paper), we had to use the staircase outside the house to go up and down for eight months.

After months of fruitlessly searching for a wall re-surfacer, my husband gave up, watched some Youtube videos, and did it himself (with my son helping).

The walls came out beautifully!

Here's how it came out; the light isn't great in this photo, so below is the room taken at night.

It feels so much lighter and brighter now.

All the dark molding was painted white; the blue paint on the wall below the chair rail is one shade darker than the wall above.

Here are a few of my favorite details:

one is this wooden duck that I found at a thrift store for $3, that my husband turned into a coat rack.

That's him above, in action.

He's a perfect place for me to hang my purse and the dog leashes when I come in.

This little toile chair for putting on shoes was free from a house that we bought some chairs from.

I think this puppy was $14 at a thrift store.

I hung this (from Goodwill) right by the front door.

Perfect for a guest house, don't you think?

Here is the $40 antique cabinet that I couldn't bring myself to paint.

So my son and I used removable wallpaper to brighten it up.

I keep all the thrift store vases I use there inside.

I ordered a stencil and painted these little ducks on the wall.

I loved how they came out.

It may just be a hallway, but it's a room I love now!  It's so bright and cheerful, it just makes me happy whenever I walk in.

There is only one little project left for this room - the curtains.  The two narrow windows had off-green sheer curtains that just didn't go with the new paint.  So I bought some regular-size sheer white curtains at WalMart, and I'm hoping to have someone cut them smaller and hem them.

It's a simple and small project (I think so anyway), but I haven't sewn anything in so many years I don't think I want to relearn on the curtains.  By the time I was ready to give them to the only person I could find in Lexington who does alterations, she was out of the country for a month.  So I brought them home with me and I'll take them down to the alterations place while I'm here.

And then it's done, all the way.

After 2+ years of working on the house, it feels great to have it done!