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Showing posts with label Home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
The Christmas Spirit
This year the AOW household has received numerous Christmas blessings from Decorate A Vet, an organization that thanks veterans for their military service by putting skilled artisans and volunteers' hands to work.
Jeff Jones, the founder and vice president of Decorate A Vet says when we thank him, "Gotta love the Christmas spirit!" And the expression on his face when he makes this statement is one of joy.
As you'll see in the some of the photos below, the blessings we received from Decorate A Vet go far beyond decorating veterans' homes for Christmas. Permanent home improvements are made!
Jeff Jones, the founder and vice president of Decorate A Vet says when we thank him, "Gotta love the Christmas spirit!" And the expression on his face when he makes this statement is one of joy.
As you'll see in the some of the photos below, the blessings we received from Decorate A Vet go far beyond decorating veterans' homes for Christmas. Permanent home improvements are made!
Monday, December 16, 2013
More Christmas 2013
The first photo was taken on December 9, 2013 after an ice storm, and the second photo on December 10, 2013, after a snowfall:
Decorate A Vet is responsible for decking out our house and front yard in style.
Decorate A Vet is responsible for decking out our house and front yard in style.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Christmas 2013
Before Decorate A Vet decked out this old house:
Now, for Christmas 2013:
We have outside lights, too.
Now, for Christmas 2013:
We have outside lights, too.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Jen's Nightstand Project
Jen Nifer proposed this little project.
Here is my narrow little nightstand, an antique made of black walnut, and it allows for no clutter:
Mr. AOW's nightstand is a lot more interesting than mine:
Here is my narrow little nightstand, an antique made of black walnut, and it allows for no clutter:
Mr. AOW's nightstand is a lot more interesting than mine:
Monday, December 31, 2007
Some Redecorating
Over the past twelve months, this old house has been getting a long needed face lift!
The interior hadn't been painted since 1982 because, for at least a decade, we thought we'd be moving. The house is so old and outmoded, without central air-conditioning and with only one bathroom, that developers considered the house a tear down. Once our sales contract fell through in September 2006, Mr. AOW and I decided that it was high time to stop living in a dump so bad that I don't even have many "before" photos. But I do have several "after" photos.
OUR NEW BATHROOM!
In December 2006, we redid the bathroom, the most hideous and the most dangerous room in the house. The floor ominously creaked every time I stepped into the bathtub, and it was only a matter of time before I ended up, tub and all, in the crawlspace!
Here's what the bathroom looks like now, complete with a window made of glass bricks and all new fixtures, including a bathtub with whirlpool jets. The walls are lavender, my favorite color:
Check out the medicine cabinet in the above photo: an authentic antique, with a black-walnut frame.
Of course, once the bathroom was so lovely, we couldn't stand looking at the dining room, despite all the beautiful antiques therein. We converted the dining room into another kind of room.
MY NEW PIANO ROOM!
In spring 2008 I bought and moved in a Yamaha upright, thus finally having a piano room, with gray walls and white trim:
In this photo, the piano is decorated for Christmas:
The "cat table" below is made of black walnut. My father cut the tree from his father's farm and milled the wood at this own sawmill, which Dad operated on Granddad's farm. He took the wood to a cabinetmaker and had this "telephone table" custom-made for my grandmother, never mind that she hated and rarely used the phone:
This three-cornered china cabinet, complete with Grandma's Bavarian dishes, graces the northeast corner of the room:
On the east wall next to the right side of the above china cabinet is a Queen Anne's sheet-music cabinet, with bow front and beveled mirror:
Yes, the piano room is crowded. In the above photos, you can't even see the wine cabinet and the mirror from a brothel in Georgetown. But the piano sounds like a Steinway, and that's what counts!
OUR NEW LIVING ROOM!
This room got a new face just a few weeks ago. I have one "before" photo, which shows the contrast between the old color and the white primer. This is the corner by the front door and the coat closet. The door furthest to the right is the one leading to a hallway:
Below are the "after photos" of the living room. The first is the same corner as the above ugly picture:
Note the antique mahogany banister, which looks beautiful against the damask-rose accent wall going up some 50 feet:
The big mirror opposite the banister and above the fireplace captures the reflection of the accent wall:
When I'm blogging from my laptop, I sit in the corner of the love seat under the floor lamp in the background of this photo:
Every year, I string Christmas cards from the banister posts to one of the high-placed windows:
Our Christmas tree sits in the southeast corner of the living room:
Now that the living room has such beautiful walls, we'll have to get some new curtains and a new recliner!
The interior hadn't been painted since 1982 because, for at least a decade, we thought we'd be moving. The house is so old and outmoded, without central air-conditioning and with only one bathroom, that developers considered the house a tear down. Once our sales contract fell through in September 2006, Mr. AOW and I decided that it was high time to stop living in a dump so bad that I don't even have many "before" photos. But I do have several "after" photos.
In December 2006, we redid the bathroom, the most hideous and the most dangerous room in the house. The floor ominously creaked every time I stepped into the bathtub, and it was only a matter of time before I ended up, tub and all, in the crawlspace!
Here's what the bathroom looks like now, complete with a window made of glass bricks and all new fixtures, including a bathtub with whirlpool jets. The walls are lavender, my favorite color:
Check out the medicine cabinet in the above photo: an authentic antique, with a black-walnut frame.
Of course, once the bathroom was so lovely, we couldn't stand looking at the dining room, despite all the beautiful antiques therein. We converted the dining room into another kind of room.
In spring 2008 I bought and moved in a Yamaha upright, thus finally having a piano room, with gray walls and white trim:
In this photo, the piano is decorated for Christmas:
The "cat table" below is made of black walnut. My father cut the tree from his father's farm and milled the wood at this own sawmill, which Dad operated on Granddad's farm. He took the wood to a cabinetmaker and had this "telephone table" custom-made for my grandmother, never mind that she hated and rarely used the phone:
This three-cornered china cabinet, complete with Grandma's Bavarian dishes, graces the northeast corner of the room:
On the east wall next to the right side of the above china cabinet is a Queen Anne's sheet-music cabinet, with bow front and beveled mirror:
Yes, the piano room is crowded. In the above photos, you can't even see the wine cabinet and the mirror from a brothel in Georgetown. But the piano sounds like a Steinway, and that's what counts!
This room got a new face just a few weeks ago. I have one "before" photo, which shows the contrast between the old color and the white primer. This is the corner by the front door and the coat closet. The door furthest to the right is the one leading to a hallway:
Below are the "after photos" of the living room. The first is the same corner as the above ugly picture:
Note the antique mahogany banister, which looks beautiful against the damask-rose accent wall going up some 50 feet:
The big mirror opposite the banister and above the fireplace captures the reflection of the accent wall:
When I'm blogging from my laptop, I sit in the corner of the love seat under the floor lamp in the background of this photo:
Every year, I string Christmas cards from the banister posts to one of the high-placed windows:
Our Christmas tree sits in the southeast corner of the living room:
Now that the living room has such beautiful walls, we'll have to get some new curtains and a new recliner!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
My Front Porch
As you enter the gate and walk on the flagstones leading to my front porch, you'll first notice a big planter. Every spring, I buy some annuals to fill the planter, which is at least years old and make of solid concrete. Talk about heavy! My aunt wanted to take the planter with her when she moved from this house, but the management at her apartment building said that it was too much weight for the balcony.
This year, I chose purple petunias:
On the northeast side of the above antique planter sits a rain gauge, a Christmas gift from Claudia. Isn't he a cute little fellow?
Ever since 9/11, I've made sure that a flag is hanging from my front porch, except in the most inclement weather. I've had to replace the flag three times, and the present one is getting pretty battered now. The flag is probably the first thing one notices about my front porch.
This picture was taken in the fall of 2006:
Once you climb the few steps to the porch, you'll notice Mo and Osama, both enjoying a life of leisure next to the Adirondack chair which sits under my dressing-room window:
Turn right to enter the front door. Look who welcomes you!
Muslims aren't fond of visiting my front porch. LOL.
This year, I chose purple petunias:
On the northeast side of the above antique planter sits a rain gauge, a Christmas gift from Claudia. Isn't he a cute little fellow?
Ever since 9/11, I've made sure that a flag is hanging from my front porch, except in the most inclement weather. I've had to replace the flag three times, and the present one is getting pretty battered now. The flag is probably the first thing one notices about my front porch.
This picture was taken in the fall of 2006:
Once you climb the few steps to the porch, you'll notice Mo and Osama, both enjoying a life of leisure next to the Adirondack chair which sits under my dressing-room window:
Turn right to enter the front door. Look who welcomes you!
Muslims aren't fond of visiting my front porch. LOL.
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