New Bedroom Furniture

My furniture was delivered today. I had to ditch the boxspring or it looked really bad. We have a really thick mattress. This furniture is actually cherry with maple panels, but it's hard to tell because the cherry is still so light. It will darken over time.

This was a silly purchase, but I had a spendthrift summer and ordered it from a local furniture maker and it's too late to change my mind. LOL It's nice that I can finally clean up this bedroom.

35th Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 35th wedding anniversary. We had originally planned to do something grander than stay at home, but the pandemic.... 

We went out for breakfast this morning at City State Diner & Bakery. It's been ages since we've gone out.

Then Jeff made a fire when we got home and we hung out and spent the day in the living room. He put a huge log on the fire (after this photo) and it pretty much lasted until dinner time.

We bought dinner as well. We decided to try a weird-looking pizzeria and pub about 5 blocks from our house, The Blind Onion. It was pretty good.

Tomorrow we are getting new bedroom furniture for the upstairs guest bedroom. To be honest, I'm a little embarrassed about buying it. I had a spendthrift summer and decided I needed cherry furniture instead of oak. When I found Mission Craft Furniture, a local furniture maker, I put down a deposit and ordered a bedroom set. It seems so long ago now. I was supposed to get it long before Thanksgiving, but they called and said it was delayed because they were sick. I'm supposed to be getting it tomorrow. Crossing my fingers.

Bedroom Furniture Upgrade

With the basement remodel we are planning to shuffle around furniture so it's been making me rethink what furniture I'd like to have long term. A couple years ago, I found a Sorenson Reverse bed from The Joinery on craigslist. I really wanted it, but I missed out on getting it. So, when I found another one a few days ago, I knew I needed to try and get it.

This time, I was successful! We took it to storage temporarily. We'll run back and get it in a couple of weeks.

Sorenson Reverse bed made by the Joinery

And I have to admit, I also ordered a coordinating nightstand and dresser from eBay. They're being shipped from Glendale, California. These are the photos I grabbed from eBay.

Stickley Harvey Ellis Long Dresser

Stickley Harvey Ellis Nightstand

I was bummed they only had one nightstand, but now that I know what I'm looking for, I'll put in automated searches to see if I can eventually find another. And, in theory, I could buy a new one from Stickley, but I'm usually too cheap to buy new furniture.

I've decided to embrace the multi-wood look so when I found this bookshelf on craigslist, I needed it too. It sure is nice that Jeff has an income again. LOL

Even though I like the current oak bedroom set, I'm pretty excited about the new furniture. I've had wanderlust for a couple years now but Jeff really doesn't want to move so I'm trying hard to settle back in. It will be nice to have a change.

Sifting Stuff Again

We are going to have out-of-town guests over Labor Day so we're trying to get the upstairs bedrooms cleaned up. They still had big piles of boxes sitting around that had been disgorged when we cleared out the closet to build in the cabinetry.

(I haven't given up on the stained glass. I am definitely planning to finish it this year, but our weather has been so hot that I really can't spend all day down in the freezing basement and then go up to bed in the unseasonably hot upstairs bedrooms. I don't get a lot of sleep when the weather is consistently over 100℉. We really need to get a bed down in the basement before next summer.)

Anyway, I have been trying to talk myself into cleaning upstairs, but it turns out I like quilting more than I like cleaning. LOL 

Today, I decided to try something drastic. I asked Jeff to help me carry all the piles of stuff lying around in the bedrooms down to the living room so I could get it all in one place. I'm hoping it will make it easier to sift. Plus, it has the advantage of being located in a cooler area of the house.

It's quite a lot when you get it all in one place. I have two weeks to get this mess cleaned up. =)

Cleaning/Downsizing

I can hardly believe it's already the end of January. I don't know what happened to the month. I haven't really been posting because we mostly spent our energy cleaning and downsizing.

We had a friend from out of town come stay with us for a weekend so we spent the first two weeks of the month cleaning and dusting for that visit. Even when our rooms were tidy, they were so dusty that they were filthy. We spent at least a couple days wiping everything down with damp rags to remove the dust buildup. While cleaning the house was sort of unfun, we have really enjoyed having it clean the two weeks since.

We are trying to arrange our schedules so we maintain it a little better. Once upon a time, we had a bi-weekly maid, but we can't afford that anymore. So we are now trying to schedule a once-a-week cleaning (by us) of one of the floors, i.e. main floor, upstairs or basement. Our hope is by alternating each week through the different levels we manage to keep the house from getting so filthy again.

This past week we worked upstairs. Since we'd just cleaned for the visit, we were able to focus on another long-neglected activity. It only took us 8 years, but we finally hung some art in the guest room.

Finishing Sewing Projects

This week has found me in my sewing room. I am trying to finish projects already in the works before I take over the room with my massive reupholstery project.

I am currently back working on my sewing room curtains. Since I tend to work assembly line fashion, I only have the one finished sample square to show. I'm still building components to build the blocks and should finish quite a few at a time.

I guess it's been since December since I last talked about this project. Ultimately, I decided to disassemble the Roman shades and reuse the squares in curtains. It took me about a day of hanging out watching Netflix and ripping apart all three Roman shades. I ended up with 16 of the green squares, but that isn't enough for curtains for my sewing room. So I am making a second set of 16 squares, this one with purple as the basis. Once it's put together, I think it will go well with the sewing room colors.

Anyway, I did get started on it in December, but then I didn't have the motivation to make 100s of 2.5" pieced squares. This time I'm taking it a little slower. I work on it for a few of hours then go do something else.

The something else yesterday was making new pillowcases for the guest bedroom. I realized I never made matching pillowcases for the purple and yellow quilt so I spent about an hour pawing thru fabrics and then making these.

It's really nice to have the guest room back in useable condition.

Closet Installed

Thanks to Jeff for installing our new brass closet rods. Apparently the new bracket was a little larger than the one in the closet before we refinished. There was exactly one size available in brass finish and I bought it. I can live with it.

I also FINALLY shellacked the doors in the guest bedroom. I stained these all the way back in late 2013, but after they were hung they required some repair in the staining. I have no idea why I didn't just get it done at the time...but I think I was already too busy goofing off in my video games. Now I need to figure out what happened to the door hardware. :D We have so much sifting to do.

Since the guest room is still full of my sewing room furniture I can't back up enough from the doors to get a good photo.

I'm hoping we get some cooler weather next week so I will be motivated to finish painting the sewing room. It's not terrible up there in the morning because of the AC, but it's pretty warm by the end of the day. And the heat has messed up my sleeping schedule again. Ugh. Insomnia sucks.

Furniture Moved

I'm so pleased we managed the motivation to get all the furniture moved today. It was a bit of a challenge by the end because we were tired, but we finished! :D

There is a little bit of mop up left to do (like removing the racks off the wall) and then we can remove the shoe moulding and mask the floors. Oh, and I have to dig around the cluttered garage to find the heat gun and other paint stripping supplies.

The guest room is not open for business right now. LOL

Emptying Sewing Room

I have goofed off for long enough—time to get moving again. This week I started emptying out my sewing room with the intention of finally finishing stripping the paint in this last bedroom. But since the sewing room has been a bit of a dumping ground for the past many months, I'm having to spend many hours cleaning and sifting it before I actually start packing.

It's actually getting easier to imagine a day when we've finished stripping paint and I hope it will come before next spring.

Late last week Jeff also managed to finally re-hang the doors in the guest bedroom! Woo hoo! It only took us an extra year. 8-)  Pictures will follow soon. I actually stained the doors in September for Jeff's mother's visit, but the doors didn't make it up. Nor did they get hung for another friends visit earlier this month. Oh well, they're up now and once I finish touching up the stain and shellacking them, I'll post photos.

Installed Wood Blinds

After I discovered that mini-blinds were period (1900), I've kept them in mind as a solution for finishing the windows in our bedrooms.

Originally, I had a plan to make quite elaborate applique Roman shades, but I'd never gotten beyond the planning stage. I did have the basic plain Roman shades I could have hung, but I didn't like the fabric with our refinished bedroom colors.

Shortly before Christmas I ran across a good sale (35% off) on Levolor wood blinds. I thought about it for nearly a week, but finally, in the interest of being done, I ordered them.

Unfortunately, our windows were not deep enough to accommodate the 2-inch slats, so I contented myself with the 1-inch. I ordered them with the fabric straps—to match the period drawing at right—in colors that matched the wall paint.

I don't love them, but they'll do. And it will be nice in the morning after we've gotten to bed too late.

Survived the Party

It seems odd to pass over the house's 100th Birthday party open house and not even mention how it went. I think it went pretty well. We were ready only with the amazing help of my father, Lloyd, and my stepmother, Maxine. We surely never would have been ready through our own efforts, without hiring outside help.

My father arrived and quickly hooked up our washer and dryer and installed a light fixture in the guest bedroom. I'm excited to have the laundry machines upstairs! (I guess I haven't taken a picture of them yet after they were hooked up. They're up in our back enclosed sun porch.)

Then, on Friday my Dad installed all the new door hardware throughout the house. At one point in his career he was a locksmith, so his skill at fine-tuning mortise locks is excellent. Even so, it still took several hours. (On Sunday, he also installed a deadbolt on our new garage and started installing our new solid brass hinges.)

Maxine worked pretty much since she walked through the door on Thursday until Saturday, cleaning the house. With her help, the house was quite respectable by the time noon rolled around on Saturday. Thank you Maxine!

Jeff, on the other hand, spent three days in the kitchen prepping the food for the party. All was quite delicious and there was plenty of food. I don't have a good picture of all the things he served, but here is a photo from early in the open house.

Unfortunately, Saturday was a very rainy day, so the house was not looking its best in the dreary overcast light. But we turned on all the lights and had quite a few visitors drop in. We got lots of nice compliments and it felt wonderful to show what we'd accomplished in 2½-years. Thanks, especially, to all my blogger buddies who dropped in for a visit; it was so wonderful to meet you all in person.

I didn't manage to take any photos as I was busy visiting and giving tours. But my friend, Storm, and my father took a few pictures of the rooms. Here are the best of them.

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

Linen Cabinet

Living Room

Den looking toward Dining Room

Den Area (also called Parlor)

Dining Room Built-in China Cabinet

Bedrooms Unpacked

Our bedrooms seemed pretty spacious when they were empty, but now that we've got all the furniture moved in, things are, shall we say, "cozy." This old house just wasn't built to accommodate queen size beds.

In both rooms, we had to rotate the bed so it was in front of the window in order to have enough space for the end tables next to it. This wasn't my first choice, but it will have to work because we won't be down-grading to full-size beds.

I was pretty excited to get to hang our monster tapestry back up!

You can't get a picture head-on because the hallway isn't wide enough, but here's mostly what it looks like.

I'd actually like to hang it on the opposite wall over the staircase, but that would involve two people and ladders, so we'll go with this spot for now.

My father and step-mother arrive in the next hour, so I'd better get back to cleaning.

Moving Up In the World

At long last, we got to move out of the basement and into the upstairs bedroom.

It was such a relief to have beautiful weather today; I actually saw some sun. I had imagined a pretty bad day with pouring rain.

The movers spent something like 5 hours moving our stuff from storage and rearranging furniture within the house. This is how the master bedroom looked when they left for the day.

Then we spent a couple hours putting the master bedroom together. This evening it looks like this.

As usual, the picture isn't very good because we didn't finish until after dark and I had to adjust the exposure to lighten it up.

Since Jeff has been sick this week, he was pretty wiped out after working on the master bedroom, so the guest room still looks like this. I guess we'll finish that tomorrow.

Our washer and dryer also moved upstairs into the back sleeping porch. They're not hooked up yet, so it will be a few days before we can do laundry again.

The worst part of today was the movers accidentally scratched our newly refinished floors—right at the top of the stairs where it is oh so visible!

Our floor refinisher is going to come out tomorrow and take a look and give us an idea of what it will take to fix it. I hope it doesn't mean taking that bit of floor all the way back to the sanding.

Ready or Not, the Movers Are Coming

I spent a couple hours today finishing up the final tasks to prepare the upstairs bedrooms so we can move in tomorrow. First, I touched up messed up spots in the frieze.

Then I, finally, stained the door in the guest bedroom out onto the sleeping porch. (Sorry the photo sucks. That one overhead light in the room just doesn't cut it for photos at night. I'll have to get a better picture during the day.)

I didn't get the door shellacked because I want to give the stain time to thoroughly dry, but I've done the messy part so I should be able to finish after the furniture is in the room.

We've also been packing up our "bedroom" down in the basement so the furniture can be moved upstairs. And we're planning to do some rearranging of other pieces now that we can.

I'm hoping tomorrow with the movers will go OK, but I'm sure we've forgotten some things. I checked the weather forecast and there is a good chance we won't be moving in the pouring rain, so that is good, at least.

Guest Bedroom Stenciled

I was all set to stencil whatever design you guys chose for me, but it turns out with all the comments and emails, I ended up with a tie between the Pansy & Morning Glory and the Moonflower. Initially, I planned to put on the bigger Pansy & Morning Glory; I even put up the registration marks yesterday and sprayed the stencils with the adhesive. But, this morning, when I went up to stencil, I couldn't bring myself to start.

I guess I always sort of preferred the Moonflower design, but I felt it was a little small. Then I poked around my saved pictures again and found this one from a 1910 Sherwin Williams painting brochure. It even looks like a very similar stencil.

From "Your Home and Its Decoration," by Sherwin Williams Co., 1910.

This is when I gave myself permission to use the smaller stencil.

I had to get a bit creative at the corners.

And it is hard to decide what to do about the back wall ceiling. It is finished at an angle, so I think it would look funny stenciled as the design would appear shorter when viewed from the front. So, for now, I've left it blank.

Finally, but for a bit of paint touch up, we're all ready for the movers on Monday. It's time to start cleaning.

Update, more than a month later. I found the original source of the stencil I used in the guest bedroom. I found it shown in a 1915 Wards paint catalog. I flipped the stencil horizontally from the way it was shown in the advertisement because I thought it looked like it had flowers, which should be facing upright. =)