LET THE MOVING BEGIN!

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Progress continues at the Dutch colonial!

One day this past weekend,

I insisted that we haul our dining room table + chairs

over to our new dining room:

Man, that table is HEAVY!

I love it, though.

Its lumber came from an old factory in Manchester, England.

Isn’t that a cool story?

I thought so.

But wait.  It looks a little sad, all by itself, don’t you think?

Here ’tis, all staged + pretty, inside our current house:

Check out our art ledges!

G.O. made them from an old door frame

+ bent the iron brackets himself!

Man, I really miss that Pottery Barn rug!

I just think a room looks unfinished without a rug.

So.  You might be asking,

“Why isn’t your dining table in the center of the dining room,

where it’s supposed to go!?”

Funny story: G.O. asked the same thing!

I just said “trust me” + kept moving.

Here’s my plan.

The dining table sits semi-inside the bay on one side . . .

. . . + on the opposite side, this:

Yes!  It’s my beloved postal sorter

from my old retail store, Heart in Hand!

 We are currently using it as a media center

+ display piece in our living room.

I am thinking possibly a home office in our Dutch colonial.

Stay tuned!

A NEW FAUX CEILING BEAM — UP + RUNNING!

Even though I’ve not blogged about it,

progress at the Dutch colonial has been fast + almost furious!

  Remember this day when we retrieved some old lumber

from our neighbor’s garage tear down?

My plans for said-same:

A faux beam spanning the ceiling between our kitchen + dining room.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

YUMM-O (at the beam, not so much for my photo!)

YUMM-O (at that vintage sign of mine — once again, not my photo!)

* * *

Sorry about that — we had a torrential rain storm this afternoon,

which made the lighting less than favorable for photos.

There’s more progress to share,

but I’ll save all that for another time with new + improved photos.

Here’s just a sneak peek:

Stay tuned!

 

Brass Is Back!

Sometimes I can’t make up my mind.

When this happens, I just call it a day, already,

after wich, I procrastinate like crazy.

This can’t be good, you think.

• * * *

But wait.  There are these:

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Yes, it’s true — I’ve finally jumped aboard the brass-is-back train!

I have big plans for these vintage beauties

in our Dutch colonial kitchen.

• * * *

But wait, you say.

Didn’t you already select red glass pulls in your kitchen?

Congratulations!  You’ve been paying attention!

Here they are . . .

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 . . . already up + ’em on all the white cabs in our kitchen:

I love them!

* * *

But wait.

What will happen to those antique brass pulls?

Here:

Yes, we do have an oak kitchen island.

I chose it to complement all the natural woodwork in our Dutch colonial.

It looks good, alright, but aren’t there 4 drawers that need pulls?

Yes, they do, but which pulls?

I COULDN’T DECIDE!!

So.  I dealt with this issue by putting it on the back burner, as one does.

Until maybe 4 days ago.

. . . when I had this light bulb moment:

  Vintage brass + warm oak wood tones = perfect!

Sounds so easy, doesn’t it?

I was inspired by a new (to us) set of old wooden drawers from the flea market.

Here:

As is his way, poor G.O. did not immediately love this idea,

but he did agree to play along by holding a pull on its proposed drawer front.

Here:

Okay.  Now I am going to need to add some additional antique brass into our home!

I’m thinking of over-the-sink light fixtures.

Stay tuned.

Window Sash Musings

So.

First thing yesterday a.m., as we often do, the dogs + we went for a short hike.

Here are the girls, en route:

Chloe, at left, + Dory in the back of “Daddy’s” Ranchero.

On the way home, we had a little cruise around town,

which is just another way of saying

 Kay’s looking at + passing judgement on houses.

 Yesterday’s cruise was especially exciting for me.

Check this out:

So, they pretty much had me at that siding + all that trim work.

But what is so over-the-top awesome that I would be so enthusiastic?  you ask?

Here’s a hint: the black window sashes:

People.  I shan’t lie — I am obsessed with colored window sashes.

Back at home, I headed to Pinterest, to search for more

because I wanted to blog + share with the class:

the36thavenue.com

It’s like eyeliner for a house!

That works indoors, well.

BH + G

YUMM-O!

BH + G

urban cottage blog

Black isn’t the only window sash color that I love.

Here we have maybe my favorite:

BH + G

OMiGosh!  RED RULES, does it not?

In case you’re not on board, here’s more!

I blogged about this:

 https://redbirdv.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/designer-karin-blake/

Designer Karin Blake’s Malibu home

If I am so obsessed,

you are probably asking if we, too, have colored sashes at the Dutch colonial.

Oops.  No.

Sadly, the black or the red versions of our windows were over our budget.

We really love them, though.

They’re vinyls from Andersen, + I blogged about them, here:

https://redbirdv.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/windows-siding-foundation-musings/

That sash, while vinyl, sits on the outside of the windowpanes,

which gives it the illusion of being original to our house.

So.  I really want to know.

Do you love to cruise around + admire/dislike houses in your town?

What’s the best one you’ve seen this summer?

My Love Of The Interior Shutters

This just in:

much progress has been made at the Dutch colonial!

Its wonderful, original woodwork has finally been restored!

Have a look-see for yourselves.

That is the view from our dining room,

looking through our pocket doors into the living room.

Here are the dining room’s beautiful windows:

Hell-O gorgeous, am-I-right?

But wait.

How on earth could I cover any of that with window treatments?

I couldn’t!

So here’s what I want (lower half of the window only):

Faux wood shutters from JC Penney.

Notice that, in this version, there are 4 panels per window.

This style is what I like to call old school,  

 + wouldn’t that be perfect for our vintage Dutch colonial?

But wait.

I always fear that old school might actually be the dreaded GRANNY!

In fact, when I showed the shutters to G.O.,

even he said something about their being too Seventies!

Ha ha ha!  What!!??

So.  Here’s why I blog (today, anyway):

 I need your votes, re: the old school shutters . . .

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. . . versus something a little more now, like this:

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I have to admit that I’m loving the what’s-happening-now version!

Yikes!

Either way, they’re really not that expensive,

+ the Penney’s window lady will come out to your house,

with samples + everything!

I need to make time to call JC Penney today!

But wait.

 If you would give me your opinion, which shutter style has your vote?

OLD SCHOOL, yay or nay?

 

Or would you prefer the What’s-Happening-NOW version?

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Disclaimer: Actually, I’d prefer the old schools,

as they would be age appropriate for our Dutch colonial

(unlike how I dress ** — HAA!)

**  See ME, rocking the 10-year-old boy “look”.

Stay tuned!

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