Yes, I know it's Fall, but!!

I am so happy that Fall is upon us BUT I am still holding on to summer flowers! Just a small post of one of my favorite flowers Streptocarpela, commonly called False Violet. You don't see a whole lot of greenhouses fooling with this flower as it needs to be pinched back about 5 times during the winter growing season which takes time. It gets leggy like a petunia if you don't and you don't get this huge mound like in the picture. This beauty can be pinched back and stuck in the loose potting soil and will root. Easy to do and these plants can be held over for next year or you can pinch shoots off and start all new plants for the next Spring. Love it!!

Yes, our house has orange brick! The brick needs a lot of pointing and it WILL be painted when we can afford it! LOTS of outside projects but that will come later!

The Yellow Room - another guest room on the third floor

This is another bedroom, a guest room, on the third floor which was the original servant's quarters in our home. They must have had quite a few servants as there are four bedrooms up there! I have had contact with several relatives of the original family that built the house about 1900 and also the family members of the couple that bought the house in about 1917. The house remained in the possession of the second owner until 1982.

Actually the second owner, Nannie Campbell was in a nursing home for twenty years prior to the 1980's and the house sat empty all those years! Amazingly, the house was never vandalized all that time! My next door neighbor was born and raised in Piedmont and he was a teen during that time and he told me that everyone was afraid of the house! It's very tall, large and imposing and on a hill and the caretaker would come sometimes at night and have a light on and the kids around here were frightened! Guess that was a blessing as the house suffered no damage during those years other than weather related issues.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates is a well known author, literary critic, documentary filmmaker and geneologist to people like Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, Yo Yo Ma and many others spoke in his book 'Colored People A Memoir' about this house and Mrs. Campbell. He grew up here in Piedmont and it was a house that everyone spoke of as 'The Campbell Mansion'. Dr. Gates spoke of it in the 1960's as 'needing a complete renovation.' The inside is in much better condition needing only cosmetic fixes, the outside is another story but that's another post or two! Actually the house owned by that neighbor next door to me was purchased  by them from Dr. Gates' parents, it was their last family home here in Piedmont.

Getting back to the Yellow Room, of course named so because of the wall color. Clever huh? ;) A very simple pair of items spawned the choice of the yellow wall color. I went to an auction and found the pair of lamps discarded by a buyer that didn't want them. I loved the shape of the lamps and the chenille shades in a soft yellow color! They were in great condition and free! I painted the lamps white and kept the shades as they were. At another auction I bought three identical quilts, new! for $23.00. I only needed two but the third one gave me extra fabric to make the matching shams since they didn't come with shams. I covered the chair seat too.

The beds and mattresses I had bought the year before to sell in a shop I had before moving and when I did move, I closed the shop as it was 100 miles away. I purchased the two sets at an auction for $60.00 for everything! The nightstands were made from a vintage vanity that the previous owner of the house left here so they were free! Just the cost of the paint!

I used the shape of the headboard and footboard for the window valance bottom. When the bed was apart I actually traced the design onto the fabric laying the bed down into the fabric, it was the easiest way to get that exact shape! The battenburg back was the one I had left over from the Turret room. I quilted some 2" squares together together to form the shape above and sewed them on the yellow fabric. The bottom edge binding was one of the fabrics in the squares.

The adorable little stand was another piece of furniture that was left in the house by a previous owner, it has lovely detailing! I have elephant planters there as one of my grandsons loves elephants and when I saw one at an auction, I bought it. I painted this floor in a 16" yellow and white checkerboard and then painted the center of each square with a 2" square in the opposing color. The checkerboard is done on the diagonal.

I bought the luggage rack for a dollar at an auction (I go to a lot of auctions!) and made the top from a piece of vintage fabric and some vintage crocheted trim that I already had. I wish the floral bouquet was centered more but I had to use what I had and it had to work out like that. The print over the luggage rack is adorable! It's a Buzza Motto print from the 1920's and again, a dollar find at an auction. When I bought it the frame that came with it was broken so I used a frame that I had and used a piece of the curtain fabric for a mat. The saying is hilarious! Just love it!

We found the light on the wall above in the basement, it makes a sweet night light! I need to make a more decorative switch plate, the white ones are so boring and drab!

Several years ago I bought a darling book from the 20's I believe (could have been earlier) for about $5.00 and if I'm not mistaken, it was a Hans Christian Anderson's children's story book. Not positive about that, I think it's still in a box upstairs but the memory does fail occasionally! Anyway, it was full of these gorgeous old children's prints! I bought inexpensive frames with mats and the prints fit perfectly. Total cost for everything, about $21.00.

The Turret Room on the third floor

The third floor of our stately Queen Anne Victorian originally was the servant's quarters. There are four bedrooms there which are our guest rooms and a large room that you enter when you come into when you walk up the stairs. Funny there's a toilet and sink that are very old on one side of that room, open to all! Guess they didn't need any privacy! There's no bath or shower either. We hope to enclose and enlarge the bathroom for guests and to be a full bath.

In the front of the house on the third floor is the turret room. Aptly named as it is the turret on the front of the house. When you enter the room you have to duck and the ceiling line of the turret is there. It's kinda neat and feels like a secret room almost! Here's shot of what you see when you enter the room.

The hanging piece on the wall was purchased for about $35.00 many years ago and I painted it white (it was an unappealing color) and put hooks on it. It was once the back of a cabinet or set of drawers. It's great for guests to hang whatever they need to!

There are 5 identical windows in this room.This room is very high up (practically nose bleed height! ;) I wanted to make window treatments to accent the shape of the turret ceiling when you enter the room so that's why they are V shaped. I made a ruffle to trim out the V and used a white battenburg curtain that I cut in 2 (found at Walmart for about $8.00) so one curtain made 2 valances. The bottom half of the windows is a gathered sheer. I bought 2 very long sheers and cut them to make all the curtains at the bottom for a cost of less than $15.00 at a local discount store.

The ceilings are the lowest in the house at under 8 feet but it makes the rooms quite cozy! The turn of the century bed in here is tall and yes, I painted it white! Here's some more pics of the room.

I made all of the pillows here with old chenille from vintage bedspreads, even the fringe and vintage crocheted lace from rescued vintage linens. I made lots of yo-yos and attached them to the fronts and the backs. The spread is a Laura Ashley comforter I've had for several years. I had extra cases etc. so I could use them for fabric.

I painted the floor in a giant checkerboard taping it off with painter's tape. The walls are a bit more yellow green than the blue green floor for accent. Where the taping meets I painted a tiny pink square. I left the baseboard the original dark oak but I decided to paint the window trims white because they were nasty and needed something done to them. The white blends into the background unlike the dark that would pull your eye to the trim and not to the curtains. I like the combination. I LOVE white trim but after having one Victorian before with ALL white trim, I found it got dirty looking in a short time so we are leaving the original dark oak trim as is, just sprucing up the wood with conditioners as it is old and dry.

I reupholstered this stool with the pink fabric and made yo-yos to cover the three nails holding the end pieces on and added vintage buttons to the centers. They were hot glued on.

I bought this dresser for $100.00, yes, at an auction and at another auction the mirror for $35.00. The mirror is wider than the dresser so I decided to hang it on the wall just a bit higher. The floor lamp was a $17.00 steal, love the jadeite accent! I covered the shade with a pink & white toile. I hate that the cord shows under the dresser! Got that from my Mom, I remember her getting out her twisty ties to keep her cords up out the way so you didn't seem them. Darn, I sure do miss her!

     

This lovely girl is my one and only child on her wedding day. Love of my life, mother of my three grandsons.

In this photo of the house circa 1900, I've highlighted where the turret room is from the outside.

Here again after a very long absence!

 Sorry but I haven't posted anything for a very long time! Life! As I had mentioned earlier, my husband has been out of work for a very long time and I have been the major bread winner. He couldn't work in his field as there was no work in the land survey industry anywhere around here and he couldn't work in any other field because he is a Canadian, here on a work permit which was no longer valid. In order to work in the land survey industry, he had to have a company sponsor him and if there's no work for these companies and they are laying off or cutting back on their employees they already have, they sure aren't going to pay for sponsorship of a new employee!

The good news is that I was able to sponsor him to get his green card and now he can work anywhere! A huge hurdle over with! The bad news? He hasn't been able to get more than a part time job as we live in a rather remote area and he is no spring chicken either and has over 30 years work in one area. BUT! God is God and we know that He is still in control and we asked Him to take over our lives many years ago so we are waiting for out breakthrough!

Ok, nuff's enough on that! I want to show some of the rooms that we have done in this house so far. Being out of work and having little to work with is not a deterrent but is a challenge to be creative and search out those EXTREMELY cheap bargains! ;) God seems to lead me to them and the creative juices flow as often as the time will allow. Coming up....the Turret Room.