Open House & Now A Well Deserved Rest

Real estate photo -- "before"

"after" -- Sunday Open House

Sunday afternoon was our open house at our Mid-Century Modern AirBNB for friends, neighbors and those that helped out along the way.  A bookend to all the work that started months ago. AND our first paying guests arrive tomorrow!  

I will NOT miss working on it.  I am ready to shake the proverbial work dust off of my tired feet and not look back.  I really like the way it turned out, but it was not a joy ride. And I am tired. And have plantar fasciitis because of all the ladder work.

The next step (which I can do with my foot elevated!) is to do all that is necessary to get it listed on AirBNB.  We will probably be accepting AirBNB guests by mid or late July.  Thank you for doing this journey with us.  It is valuable having a record of the process, and it is a bonus that others shared the adventure with us.  Blessings.

The Firepit Area

The firepit area was once a chicken coop.  Now all that is left is a bit of foundation and a concrete slab.  We had an overgrown jungle to deal with (my husband did most of the hard labor to clear it.)

There are two levels.  The upper level is the firepit seating area.  (It is bigger than it looks from this angle).  The lower area is only partially concrete.  

The big rock in the middle isn't going anywhere -- so we have to figure out how to make it look like more of a feature. (Pictured above is some of the fossils in the big rock.) There is a little section right behind the rock where I want to plant a small "understory" tree.  

And that whole front section will become a simple shade garden.  This fall I will plant some hostas and maybe bring in a couple more large rocks. (My husband will be excited to hear about the "large rocks".)

Metal lawn chairs (we talked about those in an earlier post) that we purchased for $150 from Facebook Marketplace.  Of course they received a coat of spraypaint and I put little rubber feet on them to help prevent rust. The metal firepit needed to be round, because we wanted to incorporate the rounded landscaping bricks which the previous owner had used as his firepit. We learned that you can't build fires right on concrete, the heat will eventually destroy the concrete. This one was around $100 from Lowe's.  It is ready for guests!

Furnishing & Decorating The Den

 

I will be happy if I never need to assemble another piece of furniture ever again.

But I do like the mid-century look of these two shelves.  $125 for both, from Ebay. 

They are on the north side of the den.  

The shelf nook is now loaded with books / toys / games / art supplies.

This area is hidden from the TV viewing area by an Ikea room divider screen, purchased from Facebook Marketplace for $20 and painted the same color as the upper walls. Pink shag rug and fluffy white stool came from the local junk store.

The room is small, and I needed to leave a pathway from the back door to the stairs that lead to the living room.  A very narrow TV and DVD cabinet was needed -- $40 from Habitat Restore.  

Rug from our favorite Thrift Store -- $35.

Chairs from a church garage sale -- $30 for both.

Loveseat from Facebook Marketplace -- $150.

Foosball Table came from Habitat Restore for only $25. 

7-Up cooler was ours -- remember I did antiques for 30 years.

 We squeezed a little bistro table and chairs in a corner.

Kevin purchased the bistro table and a different set of chairs from a thrift store for $60.

We got the vintage Samsonite folding chairs from Habitat Restore for $3 each.

We do like how it all came together.

And we finally found the perfect spot for our mid-century swag light.

MCM Looking Planter For Front Of The House

 

From the very beginning I wanted a large planter for the front of the house.

But it was mind-bending trying to think of what we really needed.

(And trying to get two people to agree.)

Plus we knew we wanted to incorporate the six breeze blocks that we had snagged.

(Purchased them from Habitat Restore for $11!!)

So I thought we needed to do concrete.

My husband thought wood, but I wanted it to last....

A heavy duty plastic planter from Home Depot was our compromise --  30 in. H, 10 in. W and 38 in. L. About $160.

I good place to display the address numbers --

who knew that they would cost $10 each?

The ornamental grass was $5 each at Lowe's.

Large black polished rocks were $14 at Lowe's.

I bought 10 bags of small black polished rocks at Dollar Tree (another $14),

but only ended up needing four of them.  

It was an expensive feature,

but I think it will be a good mid-century focus for the front of the house.

Overview Of Our Mid-Century (looking) Ceiling Lights

 Most of the lighting that was in this little house when we purchased it was ceiling fans.  Very practical, but they didn't add much personality to the house.  Don't worry, the fans will all have a new life via Habitat Restore.  

In the living room we put a very simple drum light. You are going to be hearing a lot more about drum lights.  I like the clean mid-century lines of drum lights.  And with only 8' ceilings, our lighting has to be flush or semi-flush.  This one was only $25 at Habitat Restore.

The kitchen "drum".  Love is not too strong of a word.

$40 from Amazon.

The faux mercury glass pendant light that hangs over the kitchen sink.

It was here when we purchased the house, just a $10 spraypaint makeover to help it tie in.

Fun little light I got for the bathroom above sink, but it was too long. 

(Purchased from Habitat Restore for $20).

Itt ended up in the cozy nook area of the den.

Amazon $104.

The front bedroom has a silver sheen drum.

From Amazon for $40.

The primary bedroom has a geometric drum light.  

Amazon $42.

The Den ceiling light -- one of the first things I purchased for the house.

Ebay $42.

And then the killer swag light.  The only authentically Mid-Century light -- and for that privilege we paid $170.  

More Finish Work On The East Side Of The House

The east side of the house connects the parking area to the side door.

And it was a disaster when we purchased the house.

With the addition of a sidewalk, it looks very intentional and welcoming.

Of course it meant a little more landscaping, 

to match what we had done on the right side of the door.

Mostly I planted more brown-eyed susans,

 It looks so manicured now!

Mid-Century Makeover For The Mailbox

 

I don't have a true "before" pic, because this is after we cleared out the weeds under the mailbox and planted irises from our favorite iris sellers.  

Then Kevin scraped off all the peely numbers and spraypainted the box black.  Huge improvement.  This is the first thing that guests will see, so it is important.  (We actually don't receive mail here, so it isn't important for that reason).

Then I ordered these cool mid-century modern looking house numbers from Etsy.  (They had a huge assortment of colors, but black and white is our theme here.) One set for each side = $20. Guests will know that they are at the right place.

Furnishing & Decorating The Kitchen

 

My husband enjoys painting signs that look like they have some age on them.

Old Home is the bread I grew up with.  I had him tweak the colors to match the kitchen.

It sits proudly above the dinnerware shelves.

All of the dinnerware is modern, but with a mid-century flair.

Full view of the right side of the sink.

Left side of the sink.

Moving counter clockwise around the kitchen...

these signs are from a real mid-century diner.

The coffee nook is my favorite part of the kitchen,

and I don't even drink coffee!

This formica table has stayed in my family since it was purchased in the 1950s.

Just a few steps outside to the deck to sip your morning coffee.

Mid-Century Bike Landscaping "Sculpture"

 

We love vintage bikes.  The look, the nostalgia, the design.  As an antique dealer, I have sold a fleet of them in my time. Many of them mid-century.  My husband has laid claim to two of them.  

(One of these I sold because someone offered me a great price, and my husband made me go get it back from them.) So when I asked him to give up one of them for the new house, it was dicey.  Especially when I said I wanted to paint it.....

He said I could have it if he did the painting.  Deal.  (Really, am I going to argue if someone wants to do some of the work for me?)  I would have painted it completely black, but he had other ideas.  His colors still tied in nicely with the black trim that I have planned for the whole house.  I knew that I wanted to set it in the neglected west flowerbed in front of the house...instead of flowers.  More like sculpture.

Real estate photo.

Kevin curved the white rock to mirror the sidewalk on the east side of the porch.  The rock for landscaping is never cheap ... but we did save some money by reusing the scalloped concrete flower borders that were already on the property.  Add a couple of shepherd hooks to keep it upright, boom.  Done. 

Deck Makeover By Stephen

 

Hiring Stephen put the back deck on the front burner. 

 We had barely hired him and he had bleached the siding ("before" on right.)

He repaired the stairs and the stair rails to the deck. 

They need to age a bit before we stain them.

He cleaneded and stained the deck. We chose a gray "pewter" stain from home depot for all the horizontal surfaces.  

The table $15, four chairs $60 and umbrella $45 all came from Habitat Restore.  

Outdoor rug came from Kohl's, 5x8 about $65.

Solar string lights, $30 from Amazon.

Update: they never worked.  Had to get two sets to replace them.  Frustrating.

Metal Art came from my thrift store, $7.

  And yes, it got some tweaking with spraypaint.