Free Fridays!

Three more days until Frankie signs for his house so the countdown is on!

Also my bathroom is soo close to being done. A little more paint, a light fixture hung, dig out my kitsch er, um, decorations and it will be done! *crossing my fingers*

We had snow, snow and more snow Saturday complete with a lack of electricity. With nothing to power our stove or *gasp* microwave Mark decided to venture out on foot for some food. Valentino's is about a block away and on a different electric line so he headed off. An hour later he finally came home with Taco John's. He reported they were frantically loading food onto a truck at Valentino's, Burger King was dark and the grocery store was open but they had employees with flashlights directing customers around the store. No ready made deli food. At this point he decided he had done too much to throw in the towel and go home to a sandwich so Taco John's 12 blocks away was obviously the only solution to our food dilemma.

The patio furniture and deck rail is under there somewhere

Jumping backwards a day when my car could still comfortably leave the alley. Our salvage store has started what they call "Free Fridays" to move out some stuff that has been sitting for too long. I foresee this situation adding to my hoarding of nifty objects which I plan to someday use in this house.

This Friday's find:

I had previously ogled this because they only had $5 on it but couldn't think of a spot for it. Suddenly it was sitting neglected in the free pile and I couldn't resist any longer. It will go in the upstairs sun porch someday after I convince my dad he needs to help put electricity out there. Hey, I even have it hanging from the ceiling out there already so it is kind of put away in its rightful place. If you look at it from outside you may even think it has the ability to light up!

Coca-Cola Ice Box

My parents are still digging stuff of mine out of their house. My neighbors must think I'm crazy (rightly so) because a couple more boxes are brought every visit. This visit brought my 4-H project from 7th grade but first I will tell you about my icebox stoop.

This is where my house's first icebox sat. The kitchen is to the left and up a step and the side door (convenient for ice drop off) is to the right. 

 An overhead view. If you look in the middle and a few boards out from the wall, you can see the hole where the drain pipe was (still is in the basement) so the ice could drain away.

So what is one to do with this space? I was using it for recycling but I am lazy and never seem to motivate myself to drop off said recycling until it is an out of control pile. Not a big problem but this spot is easily viewed from the kitchen since the basement is always open for the cat. Tired of looking at a giant pile of plastic I decided since this spot originally housed an ice box, why not "reinstall" one? Of course I have one...who doesn't??

Back to my 7th grade 4-H project. This one, as many projects did, came from the back of my parent's garage and was purchased at an auction for $5. At that point in my life, while most of my friends were in want of the latest clothing and shoes, I really wanted (I guess I still do) a vintage Coke cooler/machine but had no way of affording one. So my answer to this "need" was to get out the spray paint and make a Coke logo stencil. The ice box was missing a leg and is made from a hodgepodge of cheapy wood so this was a definite improvement.It won a big ribbon and went to the state fair so I was happy.

The top props up and I can cram all of my Coke bears right inside.

  Plus I can store some of my misc. Coke things in the bottom.

Now I just need to do something about that stained up 90's wallpaper in the background, add a few more shelves and my basement stair landing will transform into the perfect Coca-Cola area.

Frankie's "New" Home

I admit, I have been slacking on the blog and I use Christmas as an excuse but to be honest, I'm not that busy since the parents and rest of the family provide most of the food and gifts. Mark even does the shopping for the most part so I just have to wrap and decorate, maybe bake cookies if I feel like it.

This is another post for my "Save this House" section, but oh wait, my brother already is!! Hooray! I currently just have real estate photos and, you guessed it, the Realtor didn't take any photos of the "interesting" bits and pieces.

http://www.woodsbros.com/homes-for-sale/NE/Lincoln/68502/711-Sumner-St-67100554/popup#listingphoto-gallery-large

It looks like an unsuspecting 2 bedroom bungalow from the outside so it does a good job of disguising the 2 bedrooms, full bath and kitchen on the second floor. Aluminum siding and windows wouldn't be my first choice but it is maintenance free and the only thing needing done outside is a little paint and a new porch spindle or two.  

 Oak is everywhere from the floor to the crown molding. The woodwork is all immaculate too so no refinishing there. The floors will probably need something.

The shiny, clean woodwork definitely contrasts with the circa 1943 carpeting and wallpaper. I don't think it has been refinished anytime recently either because how would they have done it without damaging/staining the already crumbly wallpaper??
What we suspect to be the original 1920's dining or living room area rug is in the basement. If we determine it hasn't rotted completely away, Frankie will be convinced to move it back to its original location.

Oak french doors leading into a first floor bedroom/den/office/G.I.Joe battle room/whatever Frankie has planned for it.

This is the fantastic "shed" out back which is in addition to a garage. The original screen doors are carefully labeled "original screen door to stay with house!" Same with the porch swing.

What is not included in the photos which I will get photos of and include in the section "My Brother's Bungalow":

The original kitchen cupboards and the original farmhouse sink still perched on its original legs. The description says the kitchen needs updated?? Maybe a few more cupboards and a new fridge. The stove is cute and from the 1940's?50's? so we'll see if that works and cleans up. The floor is a cheery yellow 50's linoleum and it includes a matching chrome table.

The huge basement laundry room/1940's apartment kitchen has near mint condition art deco linoleum with a matching cabinet and hutch and it is topped off with a bead board ceiling.

The basement also boasts not one, but TWO more farmhouse sinks (I have dibs on one for my kitchen someday) along with TWO more 1940ish cute stoves, 3 more refrigerators (I also have a claim on the fridge with a lot of chrome and aqua happening), a 3/4 bath, another (not yet legal) bedroom, living room and a dining room with a built in hutch.

The second floor, as mentioned, has a kitchen with yet another cute 1940ish stove and a metal Youngstown kitchen sink cabinet which has a sliding drainboard. It also has another full bath, what is currently a living room (as it still has a couch in it) and a bedroom which also includes a pretty waterfall style bed.

I will also note, whatever was in the house when we saw it comes with the house because the people who inherited it live out of state. Everything in the shed photo is still in the shed and there are boxes of tools and all sorts of crazy things in there. There are things in the basement and crammed under the eves so it will be interesting to see what we find. Also, this house has been in the same family for 3 generations and the current owner passed away (not in the house) so we know this has to be almost, if not, the original family which adds to the intrigue of the left behind items.

Black Friday Shopping

It's true. I've never truly been black Friday shopping because A. I feel my time is worth more than the $50 I might save by standing in line for 10 hours. B. I like to spend time with my family and eat dinner with them rather than stand outside in the cold. and C. my immediate family is strange and doesn't request the typical items from the big box stores so in actuality I wouldn't even know what I would buy. My mom and I did do our own version of Black Friday by sleeping in and then hitting some thrift stores of course!

We decided to check out a recently re-opened thrift store which always looks kind of ghetto so I never have the nerve to go in by myself. Luckily the two of us felt brave and I found a practically mint Cinderella bowl set of my Butterprint pattern for $3.99 a piece plus a 15% Black Friday discount! Yay!

In my excited rush I also bought this little guy with the excuse it matches my kitchen colors...

New Rug is Open for Business

Putting up Christmas decorations forces me to dust and organize all of those nooks and crannies which means I FINALLY have a somewhat acceptable photo to post of my dining room with that new rug mentioned several months ago!? Yikes! well, better late than never? I guess?

Yes, the washed out background is intentional to hide that patio door thing. Someday it will be windows once again...

A New Color Scheme for the Bathroom

Mark is a pretty easy going guy when it comes down to the crazy and weird things I do. That is why when he said "no" to doing a pink bathroom sadly I knew it wasn't going to happen this time around. It's not like I didn't try. I even taped all of my pink paint samples to the wall but he kept on saying "you can paint it any other color, ANY other color but I don't want pink." He finally said I could do it but the guilt took over and I decided to change out my color sample wall and took down the pink. We went out shopping Sunday to see if we could find a rug and/or shower curtain which caught our (my) eye and while flipping through the clearance section at Bed, Bath and Beyond behold what I discovered!

My new bathroom colors

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew these existed but I completely forgot or spaced it off because I didn't think I would be able to find them around these parts. Mark looked at me strangely when I shouted to tell him I had just found a Vera shower curtain on clearance and then proceeded to ask me who Vera was? In the end it didn't matter as I told him we could paint the walls gold which is not pink so he told me to go ahead and get them!

As I was trying to find a picture which I could actually copy and paste I found the curtain on sale even cheaper at Dillard's but it doesn't look like it is or ever was at a store around here. 

I did get a hand towel for decoration but they didn't have the rug, the bath towels are white, white (they would last about 2 bathing sessions) and the trash can, soap dispenser etc. are breakable so those also were not coming home with me.

Previous Weekend

As usual I realized I never posted last week's post I had in mind, probably because it is boring. However, I am excited about the progress.

 We got the custom made by dad storm windows in place. He got a bunch of grandpa's tools and wanted to test them out. Who was I to say no? Especially since it meant I could get rid of that plastic which has been gradually falling off.

 Gross plastic. This picture also makes the neighbors house look really close.

Much Better. Plus there are no random breezes coming through this window anymore! Four first floor windows down, eight to go plus 2 doors.

Now a little peek at the bathroom. We got the new toilet installed!