From time to time we get the itch to ditch the house and move. We're thinking about unloading the house and moving into a condo. And then I see pictures of the house that makes me fall in love with it all over again. These are a few pics of some of it that make me love it.
The breakfast room area. Doesn't get a lot of use except walking through it to get to the back door. We had that bar cabinet on the far left custom made and installed. Our buddy Mike Young remodeled the kitchen for us.
I like this picture of the "dining" area that we had in the den. This was about as formal as our place has ever been -- formal is jut not us. That is a custom cabinet wall put in by Mike Young. It opens to the front and has shelving for things like mixers, blenders, etc. If we ever clean it out and use it correctly it will be nice. There are some things on the shelf unit in front of the kitchen window...a pillow made from left over large squares used to make daughter B's funky quilt, along with some of my vintage dolls - as well as my special Lucile Ball doll, still in the box, never taken out.
Ah! The den all clean and waiting on company. A good shot of the breakfast area and the upper cabinets Mike put in above the bar cabinet. We also need to clean this one out and use it appropriately. Problem is, I can't reach the shelves of the upper cabinet so whatever gets put up there is lost to me forever.
Just another shot showing more of the dining are that we used to have in the den. That set has been moved to the breakfast area and the round table/chairs from the breakfast area are now at the home of Tamara and Jason.
We wanted a division wall put in here to give some definition of the den from the breakfast area. Mike Young came up with an excellent idea of making it a dividing storage cabinet! Hugs, Mike! We love it!!
I love this picture of our "used to be" dining area in the den. Something about it reminds me of the "old" days. I purchased the antique crochet table cloth on one of trips to Fredericksburg, Texas. It needed to be cleaned and I was terrified I would ruin it. Fortunately we have the non-agitating front load washing machine. I washed it on gentle cycle, it came out very pretty. I put it in the dryer for a very short length of time, but did not let it dry all the way. I was afraid it would be come brittle.
That's Miss Sally asleep in that old funky rocker/recliner. The picture looks down our entry hallway. The china cabinet in there is full of the colonial pattern milk glass collection started by my mother for me when I was a child. It is stuffed full of it. On top are the bottoms of the antique glass lamps with dangling crystals that were my mother's - and they were once electric. Now days they hold votive cups for candles. The covered cake plate that is up there was given to me by my brother J.M. and his wife J.L. many Christmases ago. I love it. The vintage doll in the old chair is from my collection. I cleaned her up and fixed her, and my friend from Liberty Falls, Washington, made her new clothes. The old chair she is in belongs to my husband. He found it in the apartment complex dumpster many years ago, and at the time used it for a lamp table beside his bed. It does a great job of taking care of my vintage doll.
There is another vintage doll in a chair on the other side of the china cabinet by the door. The chair she sits in is an old ladder back chair which at one time someone decided to paint what I call "bathroom blue." The old chair belonged to Daddy's family and was cut down at some point. The original seat "died" many years ago. My dad was born in 1914. When he was 13 years old, he said, my grandfather replaced the seat bottom with criss cross strips of cowhide. That cowhide remains on the chair and is very brittle. Probably no one else in the world could love this chair but me and the pretty doll who gets to sit in it. No one else can sit in it because I am afraid the cowhide strips will break. The china cabinet itself is old. My first husband and I bought it, along with a dining table and chairs, back in 1968. The table and chairs are long gone, but I've hung on to the china cabinet. It needs to be refinished, but that's a "some day or never" thing.
The oil painting hanging on the wall above the lamps was painted by my husband's uncle, Ted Weinstock (deceased). The brass items on the coffee table were collected by my husband's family when they lived in Bagdad back in the 1950's.
Such a simple picture, but so much in it.
Another shot of the "used to be" dining table, with a few things I love. The rug in the center of the table is a hand crocheted fabric string rug made in the oval shape. I did not make this. I purchased it from Charlie at the Mercantile on the west side of Fort Worth. Charlie grew up with a mother who was did amazing things and as a result he learned how to do some neat things. This rug is beautiful as is its matching round rug which we formerly used on the round table we had in the breakfast room. It now floats to various places throughout the house. We never use these on the floor. The amber candy dish on the table is of the "thumb print" design. The amber vase was purchased some years ago just because I like it and it complements the candy dish. The grape leaf design milk glass bowl in the center has been around here for years and years. I think my mother gave it to me but for can't remember. It does not match the other milk glass mother collected for me, but it is much loved anyway.
Ah ha! The back yard. Except when it is unbearably hot, we love the back yard. We have to buy new cushions for the swing every 2-3 years, but we love setting up the back yard. Before the west nile/mosquito thingy became such a big deal, and before I had no immune system due to the meds I take to try to hang on to this transplanted kidney, we enjoyed being in the back yard and keeping it immaculate. Now days we hire a mowing company and don't do a lot back there.
