STILL WAITING

    We are still waiting for the contractor to call for the final inspections on the electric and HVAC so that we can have the CO.  It is so frustrating to not be in control of all this. 

   Not willing to wait, we began moving some larger pieces of furniture in last weekend.  Yesterday I decided to take the fabrics I'm using in the library to Hawthorne Ave. before I took it all to be made into pillows.

                ...I'm just crazy about the bird fabric which will be drapes. 

Playing around with these finishing details helped take my mind off the non-inspection.

BILLYE'S NEW BED

     A few weeks ago Wallace and I took a trip and we bought our daughter a bed at the Covesville antique store.  It needed quite a bit of work.  After a lot of lacquer thinner and steel wool, the bed looked like this...

The foot-board in the foreground has been cleaned up with lacquer thinner and steel wool.

The entire bed was very dry.  When I applied linseed oil, the bed drank it up so eagerly I could almost hear a slurping sound.

The headboard on the left has been oiled.

The oiling is complete.

I've taken advantage of the Labor Day sales and acquired a new mattress and box spring, so after rubbing on an application of paste wax, the refinishing will be complete and Billye will have a new place to dream sweetly.  

FROM MACHINE SHOP TO DINING ROOM

 
     I just adore talented and creative people.  I've encountered a share of such people since embarking on this renovation project.  One of these persons is James.  We stumbled upon James Schmidt's work while searching online for antique farm tables.  Instead of dealing in antique furniture, James works with reclaimed antique wood and creates one-of-a-kind heirlooms.

    Let me take you back to our trip to Chicago, via a variety of salvage spots.  One of the treasures with which we returned was vintage machine shop table legs we discovered in Indiana.

Over 100 pounds of green painted iron used in a factory in the early 1900's.

We thought a wooden table top on this base might make for a unique piece. This is where James comes in.

    As it turns out, JDS Antique Wood is no more than 12 miles down the road from our current home on Warren Road.  We must have past it dozens of times and, though intrigued by the sign, I never had cause or took time to stop.  We arrived at his workshop with an idea, and James turned early 1900 floor joists reclaimed from a former home on route 301, ironically only 2 miles from Hawthorne Avenue, into a wonderful bread board end table top.  

 

We just love it!  Thanks James!

Please take a peak at what James can do.