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.

Furnishing & Decorating The Living Room

 

The theme for the living room is formal black, white and gray with pops of green. With mostly authentic blonde mid-century furniture.  The couch came from Facebook Marketplace for $150. Update: A few months later this couch fell apart and we purchased a mid-century Kroehler couch for $350 from FM.  I have picked up cheap black, white & gray pillows wherever I could find them the last couple months ($2-$5). The large rug came from Habitat Re-Store for $200.  

The mid-century Kroehler green slipper chairs came from Facebook Marketplace at $150 for the pair.  

The triangular glass table came from our local junk store for $27. 

Then counter-clockwise around the room:

The corner desk (love!) came from Hakaar's Bazaar a local (pricey) mid-century shop.  We paid $100 for it and the chair (which I reupholstered.)  The green lamp came from Habitat Restore and was $25.

Blu-tooth repro radio was $45 from Amazon.

The black shelf with hairpin legs was $50 from Facebook Marketplace. The hairpin legs were attached later and were an additional $28 from Etsy.

The small blonde cabinet also came from Hakaar's Bazaar and was $165. 

The artwork is all framed black and white photography.  Most of the photography was taken by my husband or I and is from the conservation area around the Hillside property.

Root Cellar Eyesore Becomes Relaxation Destination

 

Here you can see what the lovely root cellar door used to look like.

The chippy concrete on top of it was just as bad.

But then Stephen took over.

He made a new door that people can't fall through.

And he miraculously fixed the chippy concrete.

I added the orange mid-century glider.

(Maybe someday a pergola!)

Making it the perfect place to view our future four acres of wildflowers

or late-night meteor showers.