Linen Closet Napper

Note: I shall not be held responsible for cat hair on the clean towels.

Retro Lighting Craziness

My friend is currently in the market for a house and she always knows what weird things will catch my fancy. This popped up in one of the houses she toured today so she had to take a photo and share it with me.

This is in the bedroom. I don't even know what is going on here. It appears to be a pull down light? and the owners couldn't decide whether they wanted to go square or round so they chose both. Why not?

It sounds like this is the house currently on the top of her list and rightfully so! Any house with a crazy light like this has to be good. Right?

Right?

 

Well...this is the bathroom. Now I admit to liking a lot of things the general population frowns upon in the decorating department. BUT this combination is even a bit much for me. Now note I did say combination. I do think that wallpaper would be flower-power-rific in the right space. I have a feeling that tile is plastic and gross in person. If it was ceramic I like that color combination too. 

Doomsday Dinner

We all have survived the end of the world premonition and more importantly, the craziness of Christmas. Fortunately I was more stressed about getting Christmas plans organized and underway than the end of the world. Though last Thursday night Mark and I decided to indulge in some Runza. If I had to choose a last meal (sadly?) eating at Runza just might be it. We were waiting for our food when we heard 667 being called. Was that our number? No, that was the order after, wait, what was their number!?

LOL, yes, the evening before doomsday our order number was:

I would have expected my chili and cinnamon rolls to be a little warmer!

 

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!

 

(a more merry post will hopefully follow though I won't promise anything!) hehe

 



Furnace Time Part II

So I've had this post about 1/2 written for the past 2 or 3 weeks. I should just schedule a weekly time to sit down and write so I don't have to start out my few measly posts lately with excuses.

It's been fairly warm outside but so far so good on our new furnace/heat pump. It's amazing how much better it seems to be working already though our gas bills will be the real test.

The old furnace.

The new, clean furnace. No more groping around in the dank, dark corner trying to get a 3' x 4' door off just to change a filter. The new little sliding door is front and center! The furnace guys even scrubbed down the floor so they definitely get bonus points.

 

The old ac.

 

The new monster ac with heat pump.

 

The one thing I was sad about losing was my vintage controller. They wouldn't even let me keep it. I thought the guy was going to have a heart attack talking about the mercury thermometer inside. Gesh, I'm glad I didn't mention my old cooking thermometers which are in the drawer right below. Really I didn't need this lying around in my vintage decor hoard so it was a good excuse to tell it goodbye.

 

Ugh, this is what I get to look at now. It is nice because it is programmable but I'm not used to what looks to be some kind of NASA control panel on my wall. It also glows a bright green just in case I am fortunate to forget its presence for a moment.

New Furnace Time! Part I

I need to have a blogging marathon and since I am holed up in my room due to chilliness and contractors wandering around downstairs, today might be the day! (pending baby nap time) I think I will have to go backwards on my time line though because I didn't even post my b-day giftings or my last garage sale weekend find. Gesh! Is there a "most disorganized blogger" award out there? I think I would win it.

Back to why I am hanging out in the bedroom today. Last week the pilot light went out in the furnace. I grew up with a father who was (is) an electrical engineer and decided electric was the way to go so he installed electric everything and even had the gas lines removed. This idea of a pilot light freaks me out, Mark is also a weanie when it comes to this so I had my brother check it out. We opened the furnace up to discover gas was still spewing out which is supposed to stop when the pilot goes out, isn't it?? We turned off the gas to the furnace, examined it further to find one of the little safety buttons was not popping closed. I called the heating place to see if it was worth fixing. The guy came over to check out the problem along with a general check over and found the heat exchange (er, something like that) was cracked. Whew, not that I wanted to put money into a new furnace BUT we did buy the house knowing this day would come so I was kind of scared the repair would be only moderately expensive and I really didn't want to put money into the old furnace.

The huge old furnace. I'm just glad the original asbestos octopus was long gone.

Adding on the central AC in 1981 involved sticking a bunch of random wires all over the outside of the furnace.

 

Here is the above mentioned central air from 1981. It was still plugging along last summer but we decided we may as well get it replaced too since at 31 years of age, with little to no maintenance from the previous owner, it has to be on its last legs.

 

I thought they had all of the furnace out when I shot this but I saw them loading another big chunk onto the truck later. It seriously looked like a rusty plane part fell out of the sky and landed in our yard.

 

I snuck downstairs during their lunch break hoping to find a huge empty spot to photograph though I was also pleased to see they had already set up the new furnace!

 

So far so good. Hopefully everything will be 100% set up tomorrow with everyone gone because I get so antsy when strange people are wandering around my house. Not that I like to walk around naked or anything (especially with no heat) but I just feel awkward and uncomfortable!  

Free Friday

Once a month our salvage store has a "Free Friday" at the beginning of the month. It's been sparse the past couple of months but this month I did come home with some cra...er, useful treasures.

A very awkward shot on the porch but it works.

 

I've been looking for a "new" coffee table, preferably a Lane Acclaim to match my side tables but this blends with my Lane Perception dining room so it works. It has a model stamp but no brand name. I believe the legs and decorative middle would all be one piece if it was from any of the major furniture makers so it is probably just from a random furniture company. It is much sturdier than my current table (I believe it could hold up to a small dance party on top) and hey, it was free so it will do and I can hold out until I find that Acclaim table at a decent price - remember my $20 limit, though I may splurge and pay $50 for one if it is in good shape...

 

The old time-y light will replace the broken 1980's fixture above the garage door and I have no clue what to do with the pendant light in my 100 yr old house but I thought it was pretty cool for free so it will be added to my collection of possible future basement lighting.  

Happy Halloween!

Growing up it seems like all of the holiday decor had its own place so when we pulled it out of the box we knew exactly where it went. I haven't gotten to that point with my decorations yet but it seems to get closer every year.

My mantle is still a work in progress but I do like how my bats turned out so they will be coming out again next year. They are a result of my Pinterest browsing and the pattern is here from Country Living.

My goal is to someday have enough kooky Halloween records to fill my frames but alas some tacky dollar store pictures will have to do for now.

Obviously I have a Halloween black cat obsession and this was a new acquisition which I actually won last weekend at a luncheon my mom brings me to every fall (I am bribed with the promise of country club food).

Another birthday gift this year was this witchy owl who may stay out a little past Halloween. I'm sure Mark will inform me I forgot to take down a decoration though he may be too distracted by my Christmas reindeer who will be making an appearance shortly.

I also had the grand idea of framing some of my vintage paper decor. I started painting some ugly frames but that is about all the further I got! This candy bag fit perfectly in this frame which was already somewhat beat up and Halloween looking so I did get one done!