Thoughts on Living with Less

Happy New Year!  I loved having up my Christmas stuff, but  was anxious to get it packed.  I am always pretty excited about a New Year and a tabula rasa.  Plus, we had such a here or there, gogogo sort of year last year with the move.  So, I'm ready to start this New Year.  Before we moved, we knew we were seeking a smaller home.  So, we purged and sold and donated what we didn't truly love.  After physically moving to a home that is smaller (by about 600+ square feet,) we are still editing.  I'm having to be so picky about what I keep and sometimes it is hard.  But, other times, I feel so free!  It is so much easier for me to pass up some cute vintage piece (with a great price) when I know that I will have to give away something I already love to make it fit.  A "one in, one out" philosophy, if you will.

We aren't just living with less vintage stuff, but with less small appliances and what not.  When we started ripping out the kitchen, we decided that in order to execute our grand scheme of centering the sink under the window, that we would have to leave out the dishwasher. Now, I had already not used the dishwasher in our old house for over a year, so it wasn't a huge sacrifice.  And, honestly, I will complain about doing the dishes whether I am loading them  or doing them by hand.  We also decided that we didn't really need a microwave after we took the  one over the stove down to rip out the old backsplash.  We replaced it with a simple range hood.  Not only do we not miss these things, but that is 2 less appliances to replace when they inevitably stop functioning.  I also gave up my coffee maker for a simple Chemex and a kettle.  My old coffee maker would have taken up a fourth of the total counter space in the kitchen.


Our last home had 2.5 bathrooms.  This one has 1.  As today was my bathroom cleaning day, I can tell you that I do not miss an extra toilet, sink, or tub to clean--not one bit!  And, since we have exactly 7 rooms, I only have to clean one room a day.  I'm technically not even cleaning our ***Room of Requirement yet since I can barely walk in there, let alone vacuum.

Living with less house has been better for us. I know that our house is still huge to some.  And, that we have a long way to go in simplifying.  We don't miss the extra space at all.  I think with some well placed built in shelves that it will work even better than our previous home with more space. And, it frees up time to do things we enjoy (besides compulsive vintage shopping!)

We aren't completely finished with anything in the house, but here is a little before photo for comparison to the first photo.  I'm going to pretend my kid didn't just tell me that this red kitchen looks better.  We need to have a little talk about keeping certain thoughts to ourselves.

 

Here's to a simple New Year!

***affectionately named since if you can't find a place to put something, it goes there.  If you are looking for something, it is probably in there.

Changes

Wow!  I really haven't been keeping up with this old blog and there has been so much to write about lately.  We have been making updates to our new old home.  Some, like our new counters, were planned.  Others, such as the new heating and cooling system installed just yesterday, were not.  So many things have been surprises in this house.  We don't feel that the previous owner did much upkeep.  And, while I try to keep my blog positive, this has been frustrating to say the very least.  It has slowed us down to to the things we really want to do.  Right now, we are working on the back splash in the kitchen and I hope that will be finished really soon.

We have (ahem, the Mr.) has been installing the lights that I picked out and had rewired or purchased new.  It is so hard to get a clear photo of this one.  The actual fixture is new from Schoolhouse Electric, but the globe was found in a vintage store in Knoxville.  The detail on it is so pretty, but the hallway is pretty dark.  I will see if the Mr. can use his camera and knowledge to get a better photo.

 Our room is newly painted and it nice and light!  I framed a collection of bird prints that I received for Mother's Day.  Now, I just need to repaint the peeling trim in here and find a bed or headboard.

All the windows in the house were covered in wood, stainless steel or pleated blinds.  I've slowly been taking them down and hanging drapes.  I had some great linen Roman shades made for the windows and doors that I didn't want to install drapes.  My friend Annie from My Swallow's Nest did a  wonderful job and they are so much lighter than the dated wood blinds.  I did decide to leave the wood trim unpainted throughout the house.  I am only painting over previously painted trim.  The wood really grew on me and it just suits the house and our style right now.  Plus, thinking of painting all the windows made me crazy!

 

We have had some other changes around here as well.  We have made the decision to cut out many animal products from our menu and our life in general.  We had already limited our meat intake earlier this year and we try to eat very little processed food. Becoming vegetarian is something that has been on our hearts in differing degrees over many years.  We have been doing this for about a month.  We bought a few cookbooks and we haven't been hungry or missing meat.  We are focusing on our meals being primarily vegan, We have had a very limited amount of milk from a local dairy that we have contacted and asked many, many questions about the cows. We aren't currently getting rid of clothing or furnishings right now.  We feel better using them up and wearing them out and not repurchasing leather items.  I know that this can be a controversial subject, but I feel so at peace with this decision.  So, we have been playing around with some of our very favorite recipes and making them without animal products.  Shh... not all of them are made with lentils and quinoa....

 And, for our next change... we took the big leap into home schooling our son.  We have always planned on sending him to public school and that helped influence where we decided to move.  He was even part of a program in a public school last year that we all loved.  But, after much discussion and research, we decided that home schooling will fit our family's needs best, at least for this year.  We have a huge community here that home schools and offers great classes and field trips.  And, while some days are more difficult than others, I can see he is learning so much already.  Right now, we are filling up a nature notebook with drawings and leaves and taking frequent trips to the library.

So, that's what has been going on our way.  Hopefully, I will have some decent after photos soon.... I will get the Mr. to take them with his camera instead of me just snapping!

New House (Before)

I am finally getting around to posting the before photos of our new home.  I wish I could share the exterior of our house, but some creepy people spoil all the fun for the others.  So, trust me when I say that when it originally popped up in my Zillow feed I oooohed.  I went right over to where the Mr. was cooking dinner and flipped through the photos.  He liked it too and told me to send the owner (it was listed as a Make Me Move) an email. At that point, we were quite smitten with Maryville.  We were having a difficult time finding what we liked.  It seems the homes sell super fast here, so we knew we needed to jump on this one.  I think that was a Wednesday evening.  She wasn't ready to show it yet, but said we could come on Saturday.  She also had a few others who wanted to see it.  I asked for her first appointment.  On Saturday, we saw the house and had scheduled to look at one other while we were here.  In between the appointments, we talked about how much we really loved this one.  At the next house with the agent, we asked if she could help us fill out the paperwork to place an offer. We submitted an offer at 4 that day.  There was a verbal offer from another party that day as well.  We found out the next day that our offer was accepted! And, that is where I am going to end the story of our home buying/ selling process since it was completely submerged in stress from that point up until late last week.  So, moving on to the before photos.  When we saw this house, we knew that we were going to make many changes.  But, we love its bones and its location and its size!  

This house has 2 or 3 bedrooms depending on if you consider a room a bedroom if it doesn't have closets.  This is also the only room with carpet, but we were told that it has hardwood underneath, but not necessarily pretty hardwood.  Once I get the boxes moved, we will tear up a little to see what we are working with in here.  Most likely, we will paint it instead of trying to match the stain on the existing wood.

Here is a true bedroom with 2 closets.  One of those will likely disappear.  

Here is another (the largest) bedroom.  In here, we will paint and change out lighting and the window treatments as well.

We have a looooong hallway that has many doors and doorways.  It was so much fun taping off and cutting in around those doorways when I painted earlier this week.  A much lighter color than this medium grey, by the way.

This is the dining room and I do like the color in here, but we have a shady yard, so everything in the house will be lightened up quite a bit.  Except maybe for the moldings in here and the living room.  I usually really like white painted trim, but these original moldings and the wood framed windows are so pretty.  We will be changing out the chandelier in here though.  We think it may be the only original light left in the house, but up close it is quite Gothic and not our style.

This is one of my favorite parts of the house. The set up in the living room around the fireplace.  The arch is pretty fantastic too.I dream of having built in bookcases flanking the fireplace. Sadly, the fireplace is gas burning and we may have it removed.  We will definitely be removing the black and shiny brass front. Here, the paint looks quite light, but in the mornings it is pretty dark.

All of the hardwoods are in really good condition except for this spot in the living room that was covered up with a rug when we initially viewed it.  Well played previous home owner!  No worries though.... it is currently covered up with our sofa.  Now, we know our new home isn't without  its flaws.  The main thing that we dislike about it is that the walls in the living and dining rooms and the hallway have a thick, stucco like texture on all the walls and the upper moldings (not truly crown.) They even textured over some of the light switches! I really, really wish they wouldn't have done that. The ceilings are textured throughout the house.  The ceilings are something that may change eventually.  It isn't the easy, spray water on and scrape off popcorn texture either.  And, the walls are the texture over plaster.  Neither will be easy to change while we are living here since the dust will be maddening.  So, I am painting over the walls and hoping to install some beadboard ceilings at a later date.  

And, now we come to the kitchen.  The newest and my least favorite room of the house right now.  Funnily enough, this kitchen was featured in Southern Living magazine 12+ years ago.  It is probably the room that needs the most, even though most people wouldn't agree with us.  I mean, the walls and trim are painted RED.  No bueno! I am not a fan of red.  And the stainless steel blinds and the stainless steel quilted backsplash make everything seem to glow.  I keep thinking the lights are on in the middle of the day and then I realize the room is just glowing and reflecting the red.

There was (WAS!!) this little built in half round cabinet and eating nook combo that is no more!  The Mr. ripped that out soon after closing and I have a little antique cabinet there now.

He also ripped out the wine rack you see. We don't have much counter space and my mixer is big.  It just happens to fit in the area where the wine rack used to be.

New counters and backsplash are in the future.  The Mr started to get rid of the backsplash but they didn't make it easy.  It is installed about 3 inches behind the cabinets.  It will be easier once the counters are out, but it won't be pretty since it is glued to the wall and rips off plaster when it comes down. The cabinets will be painted and the hardware changed too.

Now, besides the exterior, this bathroom floor is what sold the house for me.  It is original and unglazed porcelain hexagon tiles.  We are missing just a few, but we have them and they just need to be replaced. The wallpaper can't come down fast enough!

The tub seems to be original, but the tile surround is new-ish.  I wish it was subway tile and if I get my way it will be one day.  Right now it is white and khaki tiles.  Not atrocious, but it could be better. You can see in this photo the crystal knobs on the door.  All the interior doors have them!  I may have not decided about painting the natural wood work (that red is getting painted!) but the doors will definitely stay natural.

We have a dream sink we are steadily searching for here, but we haven't found it yet.  So, we may do a big pedestal or a pair since this is the only bathroom.

So, there it is!  Our new home!  It probably isn't obvious, but we downsized quite a bit.  We moved from a 2100 sq. ft. home to this one at under 1500.  And, it was by choice.  Some of my family and friends thought we were a bit batty going into a home willingly that only has one bathroom.  And, 1 1/2 baths would be ideal, but it definitely wasn't a deal breaker.  Especially for me since I only have to clean one toilet now.  We truly only lost a playroom and the Mr's office.  The playroom will be combined into the boy's bedroom.... he really didn't need 2 rooms to mess up anyhow.  It is tight, but with some new storage solutions, we will be able to make it work.  And, the Mr. found a studio space outside of the home.  And, we actually have a space for guests to stay now that will be like a sitting/ guest room.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are enjoying ourselves in this pretty little town already.

I will have lots of inspiration posts for each room ahead!

Misfits Finished!

Hello and Happy Spring (haha!  it is actually snowing right now in TN) I finished the misfits last week, but couldn't get it together to write a blog post until now.  I was on sick boy duty and the Mr. was out of town all week, so blogging wasn't in the cards.  But, now the Mr is back (and is sick) and the boy is well, so I thought I could fit it in today.

Basically, I wanted all these chairs to look as they had been found *as is*  The only one that I didn't touch is that sweet black and white gal (her paint is chippy and showing green too!)

This is the formerly green girl.  I painted her a thick coat of a soft white paint and hope she chips eventually.  I didn't want to distress her... just let her age here and there.

This was the au natural beauty.... I painted her with a warmer white and distressed her.  Since she was so similar to the last one that I had already painted in the grey, I gave her a little something extra...

Maybe it is the desire to paint eggs, but I thought some soft blue stripes would be perfect.

This is the grey one... I painted her a mix of the soft white and a pale, pale grey that I call Mora Clock to make her sort of white, not quite grey.

If you have been reading my posts for awhile and have a steel trap memory, you will notice that this table is the table I originally used in my studio that is now a playroom.  I also changed out the curtains here and they were too short.  I have had these linen panels since college and I have always held onto them in case I ever moved into a place with really low ceilings again.

 What to do, what to do??

 I machine sewed a little band with some leftover linen from another project and then did a quick and casual blanket stitch along them.

So I have a completely different breakfast nook and really spent very little on it.  I really like moving stuff I have to new places. 

Here are a few other views of this little nook over the past 7 years....

I hope it is warmer where you guys are!  I am ready to spend more time outside!

bye for now~

Mismatched Chairs

Last week when I was at my booth at Winchester Antiques, I turned around and saw the sweetest little chair (3rd from left.) I knew I had to have it even though I didn't know what I would do with it... I had my heart set on some industrial chairs with my recently repainted table in my kitchen nook.  I currently had a set of 4 white Navy chair knockoffs that we bought before we were married.  I always try to buy vintage when I can, but I was super tempted by 4 matching Tolix with my lion paw table.  After I got that sweet black and white beauty in, I saw how wonderful it looked at the table.

Rewind several months ago.... I found a little curved back chair (far right) and it was so lonely.  I bought it to sell at the store and painted it a weathered grey.  I kept telling the Mr that I would get over the industrial chairs if I could find a set of 4 just like this one. 

So, as of last Thursday, I had 2 curved back chairs with spindles in my possession.  Cue a text to my friend and shop keeper  Carol.  She had a green curved back chair (far left) that was similar... different spindles from the grey.  I liked it.  I took it home.  Then, we decided to go on a little hunting trip on Saturday.  My goals: yellow flower pot (check, McCoy) and a curved back chair, preferably in white, definitely not red!  And, as you can see (2nd from right) I came home with my prize in au natural!  So, after being quarantined for the past couple of days, I have been pinning some tables all with misfit chairs.  

 After much discussion that went sort of like this:
me: I am kind of liking the really mismatched look of the chairs... especially the wooden one.  Do you want to leave them as is?
the MR: no. I don't like it with everything else that is going on here.
me: all shades of white?
the MR: sure.  whatever.

He had more input later, but it is pretty decided that they will be white, but different.  I wish they were all *found* whites, but since they aren't, I do want them to look more collected and that different hands painted them. So, to get that look, I will probably use different kinds and colors of white paints.  That black and white one won't be touched though.  I love how in the last photo, they all have a similar shapes and spindles and different whites.  I am honestly surprised it has taken me so long to collect a bunch of random chairs... I always loved Monica's table *wink*

Back soon with the chairs' makeovers~

bye for now~

The Table that Needed It...

Hello and happy Thursday!!  The best day of the week!  I am off to the shoppe in just a bit, but I thought I would show you a piece that I just finished for the house.  Here is what it looked like before.... 

Can you see it... it is also before I knew how to make my photos larger, heehee!  Anyhow, it looked nice with its original black finish, but that was before the accidents with fabric glue and the scrubbing pad to get off said fabric glue.  We use this table quite a bit.  There is usually stuff all over it.  So, I had taken to covering it up with a table cloth.  Then I got a wild hair to paint it my Vintage Map. (edited to add... Vintage Map is a color from my Favorite Colors pallet and it is custom :)  I do use all Benjamin Moore paints though.  They may have one named Vintage Map, but I have never checked.  It is a pale, pale aqua.)

And, it brightened up the whole space!  I have been changing quite a few things up downstairs and this is a fresh little change.  I still love the black finish that was on it, but it needed to be painted.  And, if I am going to paint something, I want to see a change.

The table isn't even old.  I think we bought it at Target about 6 years ago.  But, from what I can tell, it is a solid wood piece.  I have even toyed around with the idea of painting it seasonally... sort of like how JCrew repaints their windows every time they change them.  The Mr. probably wouldn't like me rolling it out on the deck to work on it every few months.  I still love my metal navy chair knockoffs (Kmart yeeeaarrrsss ago) but I am wondering if I would like something different.  They are a breeze to clean though!

Okay, I am off to go clip some more peonies to take to the shoppe with us today!  My bushes have been on fire!!  Sure beats having to drive 30 minutes to a store that carries them.

Oh, and a quick question for all you people who know what you are doing out in the garden... am I right to think that if I move 2 of my peony plants this fall they won't produce next year?  They are being crowded where they are now and I would rather not have to dig up 2 evergreen bushes to give them room.

Be back soon... I framed my sampler!

bye for now~

Move this here... and that there....

Hello all!  Lately, I have been so busy at the shoppe, that I haven't really done anything or changed anything at home.  A few weeks ago, the Mr. came home with a piece that I just couldn't part with, so I shuffled some things around to make it work.  I still need a mirror or to change up some wall stuff, so I thought I would wait to show you the new piece and instead show you what moved to the kitchen.  We had a long black table and some shelves that worked, but I wanted to change them.  So, away they went!

I moved my metal and glass industrial cabinet here and piled the ironstone in!  I recently *edited* my ironstone  and this is what remains.  I have a few more pieces sprinkled throughout the house.  I like actually using my ironstone, so the kitchen is the best place for it.

While moving something else the other day (in the living room... yes, that has changed too!) I found this vintage French poster showing the production of bread.  I had seriously forgotten that I had placed it behind a shelf to keep it safe until I found a spot.  Serendipity!  After a few text messages with some friends (does anyone else do that?) it was decided that I would move the bored lady and put this up.  Now, I just have to lovingly nag my husband to mount this big measuring device against the wall.... it stretches waaaayyy up!

 I love the changes so much!  The table was sometimes used as a piling station, and since we have several of those already, I was pleased to get rid of it.  And I also love the patina of the ironstone stacks against the patina of the metal cabinet.

I will show you some other changes very, very soon.  I have new paint in my possession people!  The living room is next *wink*

bye for now~


the black shelves and the table are for sale if any locals are interested.  You can email me at michelle at vintagejunky dot com.