Summer reading

I've read some really great books this summer, and I've been finishing out August with a few of my favorite things: vintage books.

I love old books, and for so many reasons...aside from the fact that I just love old things, the smell of old books, the texture of the paper, the vintage artwork...it's all magic to me.  And one other thing about old books that I love - there's often a purity in the content of old books that's missing nowadays.  Something precious, that pulls me toward the past.

Here are the three books I'm currently reading;

I found the book on the right, Your Bible and You, at a thrift store for $2.  It's a book about the Bible, and why you should read it, from the 1950's.  On Sundays I only read the Bible, or Bible-related books, so I started this last week.  I love the beautiful vintage illustration inside the cover:

I'm not sure why mid-century artwork appeals to me so much, but it always has.  I love this sweet picture.

And here's a great analogy from inside the back cover:

Maybe I love these books because they came from an age that - compared to now - seemed simpler in so many ways.  Right was right, wrong was wrong, and everyone could define a woman.  In this crazy upside down age, the moral absolutes of the past seem so refreshing.

As I started the book, I couldn't believe how "current" the introduction was; it felt like it could have been written today.  Check this out:

And there's more...

They thought the 1950's was a volcanic age?  At least the country was united against common enemies.  Now we've become our own enemies...

And then there are cool passages like this one, where you can just imagine how wild these ideas seemed at the time:

Wow, I've got this on my phone!  What would my great-grandparents have thought?  All of this talk of technical revolution and worldwide hatreds made a pretty compelling argument for why the Bible matters, if you ask me.

But on to book #2, Nancy Drew:

An illustration from The Clue of the Dancing Puppet.  I read every old Nancy Drew mystery at least once when I was a kid, and reading these take me back to the old stone library building in town, that had this great old book smell and open windows in the summer when I'd stop in to sign out as many Nancy Drews as my membership would allow at a time.

I've been collecting them as an adult; when I find one at a thrift store I add it to my shelf, and I read one every summer.

I love that Nancy's often "sleuthing" in a dress, that she stops for a lovely "luncheon" each day, and still pauses her mystery solving on Sundays to go to church.

And finally, I just finished Lucretia Mott, girl of old Nantucket.

The illustrations in this one are absolutely beautiful:

This book is from an old series (also from the 1950's?) called "Childhood of Famous Americans."  The books are written for youth, they're fun to read, and very informative.  (I collect these too, and read one every summer.)  Lucretia Mott was a famous Quaker preacher, abolitionist and equal rights advocate.

While I'm burned out on identity politics, and sick of the constant microscope focus of what gender and race everyone is, Lucretia Mott was an ally to women at a time when they actually did not have rights in this country, and when slavery was legal.

This book not only described beautifully what life was like on Nantucket Island in the 1700s, it was also a really interesting glimpse into a Quaker childhood.  Again, the simple values are so appealing.

I've got one more, but I'll save it for tomorrow...

Flea + flowers = joy

I made it back to New York and I could hardly wait to visit my favorite flea market for the first time this year, a huge old building out in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

It's a really fun place to wander around, and the prices are pretty good.

I found a blue and white milk glass basket (that I didn't need at all), but I loved it and knew it was going to be my new favorite vase for summer.  I couldn't wait to fill it with roses.  Here it is:

Isn't it lovely? 😍

It was dirty.  It was unmarked by a maker.  It was $18.  When I went to pay for it, the lady checking me out asked, "Are you buying it because you think it's Fenton?"

"I don't think so," I told her.  (She had apparently already seen it and knew it was unmarked.  Fenton pieces are usually marked, but not always.)  "I'm buying it because I love it," I said.  "Do you think it's Fenton?"

"I don't think so because of the way the handle is attached" was her reply.  "I don't think so.  But it could be."

Of course, this made me want to research.  And I did find someone selling this same basket online, calling it a Fenton piece.  But I also saw it posted online as simply a "milk glass basket."  So Fenton it probably isn't.  But no matter, I love it!

I got it all cleaned up and filled it with roses from the grocery store.

Absolutely beautiful!

There were enough roses for more than one container, so I pulled out this blue glass (candleholder?) I had bought at Goodwill for a few dollars.

More blue glass 💗

Under $10 and so pretty!

And finally, one more.  I bought a ginger plant at Lowes; I had never seen one before, and it had such interesting flowers.  The flowers on the plant are tall, two of them flopped over so I thought I'd cut them and put them in a vase too - a little blue goblet from Goodwill.  I like how they look.  Simple.

😍

My brother-in-law stopped by last night and he noticed (and complimented) my flowers.  A man.  A man noticed my flowers!  See, I told you they look good!

A guest-ready master bedroom

I haven't posted in a little while, because after madly rushing to get The House of Goodwill complete (or maybe I should say "guest ready" - as we've still got a few details to complete in the future), my family and I returned home, unpacked, then repacked to spend some time in New York for the summer.

I'm going to continue posting "finished" pics of the house, though as I mentioned, there are still some things left undone, like pictures that need to be hung on walls, etc.

So here we go, here is the master bedroom, before and after:

This is how the bedroom looked when we bought the house:

dark walnut 1970's molding and dark gray walls.

The bedroom only has one window, which does not receive direct sunlight, so it felt very, very dark.

Another view, taken from the bathroom and closet entrance.

Here the bed is against the wall with the window.

We later moved it to the back wall in this picture.

It's a little easier to see how dark it was when you see it compared to the new light lavender paint.

Here's the after.

The total cost of everything here is under $500.

(Including the king-size bed, mattresses, rug - everything.)

My son and I found the bed and bed frame on the side of the road while we were walking the dog.  

It's a beautiful bed!  And the cost?  Free!

These paint-by-number lake scenes and vintage chalkware swans are a few of my favorite finds.
I purchased everything on the wall separately; the total cost of everything was around $50.

Here is the oak chest I paid $60 for and whitewashed.

The lamp was a few dollars at a thrift store.

Here is the master bathroom before, with more dark molding.
The cabinet under the sink was dark walnut-stained too.
(The room with the toilet and shower had obviously been redone at some point in the recent past, in beautiful green and white tile, with white-painted molding.)

Here is the bathroom after.

(The curtains, rug and bed linens and towels are the only new items in the room.)

It feels so much brighter now!

My husband had to remove the light fixture at one point, and when he took it off the wall, it removed a bit of paint from the wall.  I didn't have touch up paint, so I painted a stripe over the mirror the same color as the vanity to camouflage the missing paint.  It worked, you can't tell where the original paint peeled off.  (It also gave it a nice color-blocked effect.) 🙂

I totally LOVE these vintage '70's towel racks. 😍

This purple vanity came out beautifully.

It's a nice, rich shade of purple.

I love this bedroom!  I love the cheerful colors, and it's about as bright as a one-window bedroom can get.

The shower, which is completely covered in green and white tile, with white grout, is beautiful, BUT...after trying to clean the white grout with three different cleaning methods, I still couldn't get it looking fresh.  I am definitely not sold on showers and bathroom floors tiled with white grout.  So that's something I've got to figure out for the future.

To be honest, my regular, old, not fancy shower at the home/house is much easier to clean.  Tile is beautiful, but the grout is high maintenance.  If I figure out an easy way to get it clean, I'll let you know.

More pics to come!

From out to in

Ok, so one of my major life goals for the past few years has been to create a cutting garden at home, big enough so I can regularly cut flowers from my yard for vases indoors, but still have enough flowers left outside to enjoy outdoors.  It will definitely take some time to establish this, but I'm working on it.

It's so nice to be able to cut something beautiful from your own yard, instead of having to buy it at the store.  (The floral shops are for the winter months.)

I've been trying to plant more perennials each year.  Here are a few things that have bloomed for me lately:

I think lily trees are my new favorite plant.

I planted this lily tree maybe three years ago...it's now taller than my 6' fence!

It has about fifteen flower buds this year.

Here's one of the lilies in a vintage green vase I found.

The flowers are huge!

Just one looks lovely by itself.

And they smell wonderful!

I asked my husband not to buy me flowers for our anniversary this year, because we were going out of town three days later, and I couldn't bring myself to have to throw them away.

So he brought me a single red rose, just so I'd "have something."

I went out in the yard to see if I could find something to add to it; I used one purple gladiolus and cut one stem of purple balloon flowers.

But don't they look so beautiful all together?

Just three flower stems, but wow!

Another beautiful vintage vase from an antique shop.

I love this one because the back of it is tall (it's hard to tell behind the flowers), so it helps support tall flowers that might want to flop over, like the gladiolus.

Here is a jar of white hydrangeas, by night (all lit up) and by day.

This shrub came with the house I bought, and I never thought to cut any flowers till last year.

They look so simple and beautiful...I couldn't wait to cut more this summer.

This blue and white combination is perfect!

The glass jar is from an antique shop, of course.

The shrub is actually on a rental property; I was able to dig up an offshoot with some roots.

I'm going to see if I can get the baby to grow at my own house.

There is a heat wave/drought in Tennessee right now; I'm afraid I'm going to lose a few of my plants.  Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of gardening is suddenly losing a plant you've nurtured forever due to weather (or disease, or some other unknown problem). 

It's another reason I try to divide my plants and plant them wherever I happen to be...gardening can get expensive, but dividing and sharing help.  

I just found a big perennial sale yesterday, so I added a couple new plants to the collection.  Pictures to come, of course!

A beautiful back yard

Over the last couple of months, as we got The House of Goodwill in order on the inside, we got some of the outside projects finished too.  As I mentioned, the shoreline is currently a mess.  But the area around the house is so lovely!

Here are some views of the house looking up the hill from the lake.

I love the beautiful stone wall on the left.

We fenced in the other sides for our dogs, and for the dogs of guests, as well as small children.

The upper roofed deck is my favorite room in the house!

Here is the back patio.

Here is the front of the house.  The yard is almost two acres.

It's a great croquet lawn!

This house gives off Brady Bunch vibes in all the best ways, in my opinion.

I LOVE old houses, and period architecture, from any decade (as long as it's not new).

While working on this house and collecting decade-appropriate items for it, I found myself developing a major infatuation with all things 1970's.  Since this was my decade of birth, that might have had something to do with it.  Happy associations, I guess!

Back to the back patio again.

The concrete table and benches, that came with the house, are awfully practical, if not the most comfortable.

They are a great place to dry life jackets in the sun...🙂

Looking down to the lake.

I always love tree stumps because they make great platforms for plant pots, or just great planters for flowers!

Our cat likes to sit between the flowers on this stump and patrol for mice.

When the shoreline area is completed, this yard will be amazing.  The shoreline is Step 1.  Future hoped-for projects include adding a covered boat dock, finishing the beach house (with a little kitchen and apartment) and adding a pool and a pickleball court.

It's fun to have things to look forward to!  In the mean time, so grateful to have gotten where we are!

Back yard on a budget

Now that The House of Goodwill is just about ready to rent, I'll be posting some finished pics of the house for a while.

Today, a few of the patio area in the back patio area:

This little area is below the upper deck; not pictured (but to the right) is the outdoor grill.

I bought the two lounge chairs at an estate sale for $95 each.

They were in great shape, just dirty, so I took the covers off the cushions and threw them in the washing machine.  Now the lounge chairs are like brand new.

My guess?  That they would have been over $500 (or more) to buy new; instead of $190 for both.

The "grilling chair" on the right (where my husband likes to sit and drink beer while he's grilling) is my $19 paint-over project from a previous post.

The outdoor rug was about $50 from Wal-Mart.

Here is the patio to the left of the lounge chairs.

I can't remember how much I paid for these lightweight aluminum chairs (no more than $100 at most for both), but they're convenient to move around (near the firepit or wherever).

I collected the kids toys for free when I had my foster kids; I decided to leave them at the house for guests with small children.

Here's the grill; I meant to do a whole post on this but never did.

Our neighbors had this out on the street, they were throwing it away because someone had given it to them and it didn't work.

My husband saw it and was so excited to fix it up!

He ordered some parts online for just over $100.  (Ignitors?  Something like that...)

He took the grill apart, cleaned it, put in the new parts and voila!  A great grill for just over $100.

(The cover for it probably cost half the price of the grill...)

And finally, the firepit, another free neighbor cast off.

I was sitting at the computer one day, searching craigslist for items I needed for the house, when I saw my neighbor post this firepit as a "curb alert" on the next door app.

I immediately stopped what I was doing and ran to her house to pick it up.

It is still in good shape, it just had some rust.  (She was upgrading to a bigger, fancier firepit and giving this one away.)

I had my son sand it and paint it with paint for high temperatures.

Now it looks shiny, new and it's just perfect.

We even had time to enjoy it in the back yard a couple of times before we left.

This post reminds me of how and why I love thrifting and purchasing things secondhand.  For one thing, I try to live by the mantra of "reduce, reuse, recycle" and make as little waste as possible.  I never fail to be astonished at what people throw out in the garbage that is still totally usable.  I try to avoid being wasteful.

This whole patio area was put together for less than $400.  It could easily have cost upward of $2000 (on the lower end), had I just bought a bunch of new stuff.

The other reason?  It's just fun trying to create something beautiful out of trash and people's castoffs.  How can I get what I want and pay as little as possible to get it?  That's always the game!  It's a fun challenge to figure out how to do it.  And really, that is what I love the most.  

(That is, aside from the leftover money I've saved that I can use for something else I want to do.)

Looking at all these pics makes me want to start a new project.  I wonder what it will be?

Ready or not...rent!

Well, there's good news and bad news.  Make that - several pieces of good news, one piece of bad news, and one piece of terrible news.  But let's start with the good!

Good news #1:  The House of Goodwill is officially ready to rent.  It is 99.5% complete.  

After over two years of mostly living there, my family has vacated the premises in order to rent it.  From now on, we will be occasional visitors.  In order to get out in time, we worked feverishly setting up the final details: security system, installing interior doors with locks (for housekeeping and owner's closets, as well as blocking access to garage), labeling light switches, creating a guest book, replacing steps on outdoor stairs, etc., as well as deep cleaning and moving ourselves out.  It was an intense last week!

I say it is 99.5% complete because there are few small things we didn't get done: mostly hanging pictures on walls, etc.  Things that can wait a few months till our return.

Good news #2:  The House of Goodwill is expecting it's first guests July 4th weekend!

The bad news?  Well, we don't live there anymore, and the longer we were there, the more we loved being there.  As we got to know neighbors, and spent more time on the water, we got really used to it.  It is such a peaceful place, and so beautiful.  So leaving was hard.  I'm already looking forward to returning.

And finally, the terrible news: while the house is ready to rent (good!) the property is not!  If you recall, we began a massive shoreline project at the end of April.  The plan was to create a shoreline made from PVC material, with an area for a sandy beach, and a carved out portion for a future covered floating boat dock.  The project was supposed to be complete by Memorial Day.

The problem: after the PVC-walled shoreline was almost completely finished, there was a landslide, and the just-completed shoreline was breached and broken.  The reason?  Apparently, the backyard slope is full of underground springs (an unknown x-factor) that cause water to constantly flow upward and push the earth downhill.  Combined with two long days of constant rain, the pressure of earth moving downward breached the wall.

At Memorial Day, when the project was supposed to be completed, the waterfront was a disaster.

So it was back to the drawing board for our contractor to come up with Plan B.  That took a while, but when we finally heard back from him, his new plan was to dig massive ditches at the bottom of the hill to fill with rocks for drainage, add drainage pipes, and add a long steel beam underground along the shoreline, which will connect to three cement pilons to hold it in place.

It is June 25th, and our contractor has been onsite two days since Memorial Day.  We know he's managing another project, and he said he had to order some supplies he's waiting on.  But once he pours the cement pilons (which has not happened yet), he has to wait two weeks for them to dry before we can attach the steel beam.  Translation: this will not be rectified quickly.

When my husband last spoke with him, he said he plans on having the project done by the end of July.

Fingers crossed!

So, not only has the cost of the shoreline skyrocketed (I honestly can't think about it), but it has also cost us weeks of prime rental time.

The one good thing that came out from this?  The first renters (I prefer to say guests) are the family members of one of our neighbors at the house.  They sound like wonderful people.  Also, importantly, they do not need lakefront access, since as family of our neighbor, they can just cross the street to her house and access the water there.  I can't imagine anyone else could rent at this time, because access to the water is completely blocked on our property, not to mention the huge mess that is the bottom of the hill.

So after this first group, there will be no more guests until the shoreline is complete and water access has returned, which, God willing, will be at the beginning of August.  I had begun to post the house online, but I paused until it's completely ready.  I really can't rent a lakefront property with no lake front.  Even if the bottom of the hill is still mostly a dirty or muddy mess at the end of the project, the sand beach will be there to access the water for boating.

Whew, that was a long update!  So that's where we're at.  So you can see for yourself the current state of the shoreline, here are some pics:

Here is a view of the shoreline from the top of the hill.

That's a pile of rocks that will go underground to help with water drainage.

The boathouse on the left (and the edge of a roof of one on the right) belong to neighbors.

The A-frame "beach house" is on our property.

Another view of our beach house, and the boat house of of our neighbor.

The shoreline is currently a big slope of dirt!

Here is the carved out area that will be the sandy beach at the end.

We have two massive piles of pristine white sand in our side yard.

I look forward to coming back in the fall and sitting down here with my coffee under an umbrella.

My husband wants to move the firepit down here.

Here is the current shoreline after the collapse.

This sea wall used to be a straight line!

The rocks have been added since the breach, they are to add drainage for all the water in the hillside.

Here is the beach house, looking from the water.

It's a neat building; there is a door on the back that opens to a small room that has already been plumbed.  There is a shower and toilet in there still in the boxes; apparently they were never installed.

So the little room could easily be a bathroom for the beach area, and a bed could be put in too.

The front part is screened-in and had an old, rotted-out kitchen.

Here are my husband and son inside the beach house with the old, rotten wood kitchen, before they demo-d it.

Here is the current state of the beach house with the old kitchen gone.

We had planned to leave it clean and pressure-washed with seating when we left.

But our contractor is storing his tools inside (see below) and it's going to get dirty again when he begins work anew.  So we left it like this; our property manager will pressure wash it for us (and put cushions on the seats) once he's finished and done with the project.

A future project is to rebuild this small kitchen in stainless steel, so it will only need to be cleaned, but it won't be able to get destroyed by the elements (like the former wooden kitchen).

We'll keep seating in there, and we have a deck box we'll build to hold life jackets for future guests.

(I pick them up cheap whenever I find them at estate sales.)

In our heads, we imagine a really great waterside entertaining area in the future, with a big, covered boat dock (with swing chairs), a sandy beach, and a table for eating outside and in.  Also a little apartment in the beach house with a bed and bathroom.

It would be so great to get some rental income coming in to help cover the cost!

It's been a slow but steady journey from the beginning.  When I consider all we've done, and all the progress we've made in the two years and three months that we've owned the house, I'm amazed.

God willing, we'll get there yet!