Bedrooms..sorta before

 Here is my bedroom. If you've ever stayed at our old house, you probably recognize the furniture and bedding as the ones from our old guest room. The bedding is from TJMaxx and I love it...crisp and fresh. The spoon carved bed was my Grandmother's.

 This vintage chair used to be in our living room...I got it an an auction for a dollar! It goes with the bedding very well, and just manages to squeeze into my little room. Please excuse all the stuff laying around...still trying to figure out where to put everything, and what artwork I want in this room.

 Here you can see that the bedrooms are tiny and tucked under the eaves. When you reach the top of the stairs there's a bedroom on either side, and the bathroom straight ahead. I like the gray color Jane picked, but it really isn't the best with my bedding, so I'm going to paint.

 Here's Colleen's room. The iron bed was my childhood bed. Mom bought it at a garage sale for 2.50 back when I was in early grade school. Wish I could find bargains like that today!!  The windows are out in both of these rooms because they were in such bad shape. They are supposed to be replacing the bedroom windows soon...I wish they'd hurry!

Colleen found this bedding at Walmart. It goes well with the vintage chair in her room. I got two of those chairs for 40 dollars a while back. I sold one, which more than paid for both of them...gotta love that! The gray paint in my room would go great with this, and if I was smart I'd just switch rooms. This room is on the east side of the house though, and you know me...I don't want the sun streaming in first thing in the morning. No, I'll take the west side of the house, thank you very much.

Upstairs Bath Before

 Before I show you the bathroom, check out the fall colors...so pretty through the leaded glass!

 The upstairs bath is pretty much a blank slate, and it has some nice features. It gets a lot of light, but it definitely needs a window treatment, because the neighbors could look right in! And it has a claw foot tub. I loove bathing in those old tubs. They are so comfy. And it has a new vinyl floor which should be easy to clean. I wish I could show you some true before pics, because it was just in awful shape. The landlord and his workers put a lot of work into the place to get it to this point.

 They put in a big mirror, that I might want to find some way to frame.

 This little medicine cabinet is in a strange place! Cute though, and it has glass knobs. I've taken them off to try and get the paint off of them.

This is the bathroom doorknob. It's a wee bit grimy, but I think it will sparkle when I get it cleaned up. The former owner smoked so the things that are left to clean are covered in a film of ick. Lots of the doorknobs in this house are this type.

Finished Kitchen Curtains

 These were so easy and fast to do that I'm going to try to find some ready made curtains for the dining room too. All I had to do was cut and hem. I made all the curtains at the old house when we moved there...roman shades and all...talk about a lot of measuring! This was a cinch compared to that.

 Today I finished the curtians over the sink. I think my favorite part of the kitchen is the rug.

Yes, I'm pretty happy about having a bit of privacy...living in a fishbowl is not for me.

Kitchen Curtains

 The light streams into the kitchen in the mornings, which is great, because I need that to wake me up! However, I also need a little privacy.

Mom told me about these curtains in the clearance aisle at Walmart. I think they are going to work great. They are the insulating kind, so maybe they will help keep the house warmer this winter. I also got rods and rings for the dining room and kitchen while I was at Walmart. I love using rings like these. They are so easy to open and close, and you don't have to fuss with arranging gathers everytime you close them.

 Here I've hung them and pinned them up to the length I want. I want these sill length because I plan on having these windows open fairly often. I don't like how apron length ones get pulled into the open window in the breeze and the bottom of the curtain gets dirty.

 All done! Starting with ready made curtains makes it all go so much faster! Just one measurement, and hem!

 Here they are open this morning. They are almost all the way off the glass, which lets in a lot of light.

 Oops. It's a long span over the sink so there's a center support. I tried to put it in the center, but because of the light, I couldn't get the drill in there, and then I hit something so hard the bit broke off. ugh. Finally, I decided close is good enough, and moved it a little left of center and down a bit. Oh well, that's what they make spackle for. Hemming these is one of tonight's projects.

I got this embroidered valance at an auction in a box of vintage linens. I used it at the old house, and it fits fine here too. That screen door has got to go. It's very beat up and grungy, and completely hides the pretty old door underneath.

It's Curtains for the Living Room

In the living room, I'm using our old living room sofa and rug. I bought new curtains and pillows at Pier One since our old curtains were sold with the house. It's kind of fun to be able to try a different look. Jennifer went with me and we pulled the red and the blue-green from the rug. Notice that the walls are kind of chocolate milk color..yum. And the pillows a chocolate candy bar...yummy. Those pillows are so sooooft too. You just want to pet them.

 I have a cute little floor lamp upstairs in the bedroom that I think would be perfect to replace this lamp in the corner. Then I could move this one to the end of the sofa...it's not as cute, but it gives great light to knit or sew by.

Just to keep it real, if you turn around and look into the dining room, this ridiculous mess is what you see. I know it's hard to tell from this picture, but we really are throwing a lot of stuff away. It is amazing how much stuff you accumulate when you live somewhere with an attic and basement for 23 years.

I bought this plate with a bathing beauty on it at an antique shop several years ago. This is the first time I've had it up. It's hanging in the bathroom. Imagine going swimming in that swimsuit and leggings!

This is a vintage mirror I bought in a Streator junk shop many years ago. I've always loved it, and I really like how it looks in here. Tomorrow we are putting a little glass shelf under the mirror because, as you can see, that is a tiny sink with no real good place to set your soap. This bathroom is downstairs. They just added it to the house. It used to be a closet.

Tonight Dad and I hung towel rods and such.

Curtain Call...

Dad and Mom came over tonight and helped me hang some curtain rods in the living room. Jen and I went to pick out curtains earlier last week. Pics to come of the curtains as soon as I steam out all the wrinkles. Also got the cable hooked up, water softener in, and the washer and dryer hooked up! We've been working on getting all the windows unstuck and clean too. I'd say we are about half way there on that one...it's a big job.

Moving Day

I'm not sure what Stewart is moving here, but we had to take a window out to take the box springs upstairs. The stairs were too tight. Stewart is strong. He used to move furniture for Wright's Furniture, and he knows how to get the job done.

Joe and Grandpa Joe moving a bed in.

John providing comic relief. He is an expert at this.

John unloaded a whole pick-up truck load piece by piece. He was a big help!

Lots of stuff laying around, and Jennifer too! She has been a huge help to me. Mike also helped, but somehow he avoided the camera.

I got a flat TV because there was not room for the old one in the living room. Kevin and John hung it for me.

I called this "Moving Day" but really it has been moving week. We had to move Joe, me, and Mike and Jill. It has been wild, and we are still not quite done, but we are getting close.