Office remodel update

make a gif online
Mayday! Mayday! Lady Retro Hath Doth Bitten Off More Than She Can Cheweth. Office remodel is killing her. Has decided to do a Big Reveal, rather than a drip drip drip of what is happening. What is happening now is that she has been painting painting painting painting. Hands all dried out. Shoulders aching. Has lost count of number of trips to Caligari’s (local hardware store), but will get harsh reminder when credit card bills come in. Next few days are critical: Denise coming this morning to help with epic part of project. She is bringing Bug to play with Astro. Will stay a couple of days. Expect blog postings to be erratic and if/when they come, to include miniature schnauzers being uber-cute. Contractor dudes (above) — the awesome Kevin Sullivan (on right) of Colonial Restoration, Dalton, Mass., with sidekick Dave — have been amazing albeit not onto my ways. I lecture them on how to pose for the camera. Arms at side! “Come on, take the picture already,” they say, exasperated, not knowing I’d already taken 12.

DIY midcentury modern mailbox post and address sign — Gabe explains how

midcentury house sign and custom mailboxThe crowning glories of Gabe and Amanda’s 1954 midcentury marvelous house may well be those groovalicious mid mod mailbox, mailbox post and address name sign. Gabe did most of the work on these pieces himself, so I asked him if he could tell us how he made it and he quickly responded:

Gabriel and Amanda’s spectacular 1954 midcentury modern house — 28 photos

“Luckily we didn’t have the money
to do all the renovations we wanted right away,
because we ended up falling in love with many of the
original aspects that we had considered changing.”

midcentury modern kitchen in north carolinagabriel and amanda nickersonGabriel and Amanda own a stunning house, designed by architect John Erwin Ramsay, in North Carolina. “Own” may not be the right word, though: To me, Gabe and Amanda clearly have taken on the role as “caretakers” of this house with so many original features. Above: Holey Jetsons, one of my newest favoritest kitchens ever. Continue on for the story and 27 more photos of this beautiful home.
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271 photos of reader living rooms — Upload your photos

Monday morning update: 271 photos so far in our gallery — wow, this has been EPIC! Hey, readers: Keep getting out the camera, get artsy fartsy with your angles, and let’s see your living room, too! Uploader enabled —>

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Bathroom remodeling — a checklist of 84 costs to consider

bathroom renovation costsBathrooms are the smallest rooms in the house, but they pack a lot of utility into every square inch, so they can be complicated — and expensive to remodel. I thought it would be fun haha to compile a list of every piece of a bathroom remodel that you need to plan, budget and spend. I am going to take a first run at the list based on my experience with several bathroom renovations — but welcome your additions, as I may not have been hit with every possible expense. Here goes:

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Vintage framed poems for Mother

Here is another vintage idea for a Mother’s Day gift: Framed Mother poems from etsy or ebay. The first place I’d start, for overall ease (there’s not that much time left until Mother’s Day May 13) is etsy.com: I found plenty available and put 16 into my Treasury above and here. These lovely, sentimental little works seem to be very widely available at affordable prices and come in a variety of vintage styles — mostly very prewar or early postwar imagery, I’d say.

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4 ideas for Mother’s Day gifts, retro-style

canvas print of anne taintors i dreamed my whole house was clean

It’s just about two weeks until Mother’s Day. I came up with a four ideas. To start: Anne Taintor is now offering 8″x8″ canvas print wall art of three of her sassy sayings, $33.99. Yes, it’s not romantic, but I sure want someone to come and clean my whole house. Link: Canvas print wall art by Anne Taintor.

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11 round sofas in midcentury or postmodern style

I have been continuing my overachiever sofa research. You will recall, I first featured the story, 29 places to buy an affordable midcentury style sofa or couch. Then, I did 29 midcentury style sofa sectionals and modular sofas available today. Now, I am following up with: 12 midcentury or postmodern style round sofas. For this research project, I did not worry about price, although the selection I found comes from the same list where I found “affordable” sofas, so prices should not be in the stratosphere. Heck, I don’t really even know where to buy stuff with prices in the stratosphere. Above: Round sofa from Room Service, with another photo and link below the jump…

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