Newly refurbished treasures.

Here are some more refurbished and vintage treasures I have found for the new home.

Metal stool I found at thrift store for $5.  It was a grungy cream color.

BEFORE PIC

AFTER PIC- Ben collects Coke memorabilia.  The bright red stool with the white feet will look great with all his Coke goodies.

AFTER

Love the mesh seat and the white feet.

This is a shabby white pine shelf I bought at an auction last week for $35.  I have the option of  repainting it, stressing it more or just leave it the way it is.  I personally like the way it is and we will eventually manage to chip it and stress it further over the years.

The Victorian box and 1930's wool coat and hat were purchased at an auction.

This is a collection of vintage prints.  It has taken me about 3 months to collect them for Stellas wall.  They were all purchased at thrift stores and auctions.  The most I paid was $5 for the large rectangular Dutch print in the middle.

House of Ross Has Come A Long Way in the Past Few Weeks.

Here are some updated pics of the house.  Every Friday I provide lunch for the crew.  It's the least I can do as they are building our families dream home. I've included some shots of the guys, they are a crucial part of this whole adventure and I am super thankful for their hard work in sometimes very cold conditions.  I was able to catch some photos of the interior of the house as well.  Enjoy!

Lunch for the guys.  Stella made the cookies.

This is Mark and Todd, they are cutting wood for the back deck.

This is Justin and Randy.  They are currently building a breeze way from the kitchen door to the work shop.

The builder man, my super talented and cute hubby, David.

The chimney will be finished off with rock work.

This is upon entering the front door.

Looking into our kitchen.

Davids office.

upstairs laundry room.

Master bedroom.

Spare bathroom, kids bathroom.

My most favorite spot in the whole house, the third floor office for Val's Vintage! 

This spare bedroom connects to my office on the third floor.

Mark and Todd on the deck.

Gaudy Gold To Gorgeous!

Building a home has sparked new interest in home design for me.  For quite a while I focused on treasure hunting for items to list in my shoppe and didn't give much thought to my home as I knew one day soon we would build.  Now the creative juices are flowing and I am on a roll.  Now each time I go to the thrift store or auction I scan for shabby furniture, chippy paint, old frames, and anything that would look great with a fresh coat of spray paint, if its old and has a price tag of $20 or less it has gotten my attention. Last Saturday I found not one but three gaudy gold pieces for my home that had "spray paint me!"  written all over them.  Here are the results.

                                                     

This old wooden birdcage was bright gold when I bought it, for $5!  Painted it white and waala!!

Lovely!

This strange and unique handmade wooden magazine rack was also bright metallic gold when I purchased it for, you guessed it, $5 at an auction.  Perfect teenage room decor, my son loves it and has put all his skateboarding magazines in it already.

I found this vintage metal votive candelabra at the thrift store for $7.50.  It too was painted gold, blek!  I painted it a light seafoam green and it turned out great.


So there you have it!  $17.50 in cost plus $9.00 in paint = three gorgeous pieces for $26.50
Fun, fun, fun!!

The Beauty Of Vintage Vinyl

General Electric Record Player By Brooklyn St Vintage on Etsy.com

 I recently came across an array of vinyl 1960's 45 records.  A rare find for a treasure hunter.  Rare because they were in the original record box, still had all the original picture sleeves and were in fantastic condition.  It sparked an interest in vinyl collecting and I came across some great collections I'd like to share. I think I can speak for most vinyl collectors by stating that there is a specific sound on a record player you cannot reproduce on tape cassettes or CD's. Not only are the actual vinyl records a factor in vinyl history and collecting but the metal records racks, the record storage boxes and the record players.  When I was a kid in the late 1970's early 1980's, when records were still alive and well, I had a record box donned with Shaun Cassidy's face.  The transformation from turn of the century wind up gramophone and vitrola  (the two are essentially the same thing)  to electric record players propelled  the record industry into what it became in the mid century.  As we all know cassettes came along and then CD's leaving records to collect dust in thrift stores and attics.  Not the case anymore.  Vinyl is still used, loved and collected by music lovers.  One of my thirteen year old son's favorite Christmas gifts this year was a brass metal record rack and a collection of first press albums by The Beatles, Janis Joplin, Elton John and The Eagles.  Passing down this ultra cool hobby of record collecting to the next generation will hopefully spark not only an interest in early music but an appreciation for the vessel in which we shared and loved this music so greatly.

Gramophone

Early Vitrola

Mid Century Record Rack by Our Modern History on Etsy

Early record collection by Goat Cart Goods on Etsy

 Vinyl Hank Williams Canal Side Studios

This is the box of 45's I recently purchased and sold

Box circa 1950's with red bakelite handle

An example of the records in the box I found

I love the sleeves to these records, perfect example of 1960's popular music

More from the box I discovered

Window Choices ~ Color Or Neutral

Who would have thought window choices would be such a difficult decision in our home building journey.  Well indeed they are.  My husband and I drove around the Asheville area trying to get an idea of what we wanted.  We discovered a beautiful home in the quiet community of Montreat N.C. that donned windows we adored. The windows were red!  Too bold, we asked ourselves?  It came down to color or neutral, safe or risky, bold or boring.  So after flipping a coin, one side for neutral windows the other side of the coin we would put in colored windows. The coin landed on neutrals.  So, forget the coin flipping life is too short for dull colors.  Especially when you survived this hellish recession only to be building your dream home.  So we took our inspiration from the home in Montreat and did it.  Red.

The windows are the crank style.  They open from the sides not up and down.

The window design is staying within the Arts and Crafts style we are going for.

The sitting room windows

View from our sitting room window.

side view of the house.

This is our welcome bird of prey.  David and I have seen her greet us on the property a few times. 

Back of the house

Back of the house