Have I told you I LOVE old houses?!?!?

When I went with Ryan to check out the demo going on at the South Montclair house, look what I found laying on the floor.

While the workers were taking out the old kitchen cabinets this beautiful key fell out of one of the drawers. The house has original door hardware on the interior doors but it's not the type with key holes, so I figured it was just a random old key.


Believe it or not it actually went to the back door. I was amazed that they still had the original hardware on the door and it still worked (not all that well but it did)! I highly doubt they still used this key, but still very neat. As you can see there were a number of other locks that had been added over the years.

 

Unfortunately we aren't going to be able to save this door but we are planning on replacing it with something that looks very similar and functions properly.

 I always think how neat it would have been to live during a time when this was the key to your house. Can you imagine carrying keys around like this in your purse or pocket?

 Ryan pointed out that if we lived during that time you probably didn't lock your doors and they probably rarely used this key at all. This made me start thinking.... 


My first thoughts were of Fulton, Kentucky, the small town where my parents grew up and where I was born and lived for a short while. Some of my favorite memories are of the times I spent there as a child with family and friends. It is a small town where everybody knows everybody, the houses are old and beautiful, and people still rarely lock their doors. 


I have always slightly longed for a life a like that. I do feel I got a taste of it since we spent so much time there, even after we moved. I feel that this is where my love of old houses started. Houses that were built when craftsmanship was still important. When subdivisions weren't just thrown up so quickly and everyone of them looked the same. 


That's why the work that Ryan and I are doing is so important to us. We want to restore these older houses to their former beauty and retain the character of the old while having the amentities of the new. We want families to come live in these houses and love them like all of their former owners have.

This is a picture of Ryan and me in front of  my great grandparents house in Fulton. Bubba and Dandy, (what we called my great grandparents) built this house in the early 1940's. Some family friends now own this home and I am so glad that another wonderful family gets to enjoy this home as much as my family did. A wedding shower was thrown for us at this house and it was so special to me.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the key but I am going to find a special place for it.

New Project on Montclair

Well we're finally starting on our next project!!  

This is another house in the High Point Terrace neighborhood in Memphis and is located on S. Montclair. We are buying it from the original owners! This is a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house that is very outdated but has been well taken care of and is structurally sound.

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves in this post.

The washer and dryer are in the kitchen which is something we are definitely going to change.

Here is another view of the kitchen from the hallway. Obviously we are going to rip everything out and completely renovate it!!

 This is the bathroom in its current state and is actually a good size. The only thing that will remain after demo is the tub. I have a lot of ideas of what I want to be done in this room.  

This is a picture of the dining room. I actually love the vintage feel of the chandelier but Ryan says it has to go. Now the geometric shelves are another story; they definitely are out. All of the rooms have carpet in them but they do have hardwoods underneath that I am sure are going to shine up beautifully. 

Check back soon for updates as the project moves forward.

Our Master Bathroom

Now that you have seen the original bathroom in our house (check it out in my last post) and what style we were trying to match, here is a picture of our new master bathroom.

Do you think this bathroom could have been built at the same time as our original????

This bathroom is a really good size and there are often times I feel very spoiled for this to be my bathroom.....

I would like to say that it is not always this clean!

I already mentioned that black and white basket weave tile is my favorite, but I didn't want the bathrooms to have the same exact tile. We chose a black and white pinwheel tile on the floors, which we think turned out really well.

In the shower we used a great black and white check tile for the shower floor, then we used regular white subway tile for the walls and ceiling of the shower. We also have an accent border at eye level that matches the shower floor. The shower head is to the left of the door and we also have two shelves built into the wall on the right hand side where we keep all of our shower stuff. 

In the last house we renovated I chose a dark grout color, but in ours I chose a white tone. I really like the look of both but I do think the dark grout would be easier to keep clean!

Here you can see our sinks and our water closet. My sink is the one on the right...it has more counter space and more storage underneath!!! These are custom made cabinets in a dark mocha color. We used carrerra marble countertops, which is another one of my personal favs!!

The light sconces, towel bar, paper holder, and towel ring are all from Pottery Barn's Sussex Line. You may notice on their website Pottery Barn shows the sconces pointing downward, but I liked the look of them pointing upwards so that is how I had the electricians hang them.

All of the hardware in this room is polished chrome. The sink, bathtub, and shower fixtures are from Home Depot.

The chandelier is a simple pink color with three lights. We bought this from Graham's Lighting in Memphis.

The curtains were made by my grandmother and me. I do not have a lot of sewing skills but she does and she was nice enough to basically make them while I watched. I wanted blinds/curtains that would open up all of the windows and let a lot of light in, so I went with this type of valance and a simple roll up shade that can be cut to size at any local hardware store, such as Home Depot or Lowes. 

Ryan built the bench seat you see under the towel bar and is a great place for extra storage. The cushion I had made from L & H Upholstery here in Memphis. If you live nearby you should definitely check them out.

We also used bead board in this room just like in the other bathroom to carry the design theme in both.

I hope I have covered everything, if I didn't mention something leave me a comment and I will try to answer your question. If I don't know the answer, I'll just ask Ryan, he usually knows all, (brownie points).

Totally off subject but here is a picture of me when I was taking pictures of the bathroom. We just purchased this camera, which is a Canon Rebel T3i, and I am slightly obsessed with it! I am definitely an ameture and don't know what half of the stuff does, but I have been playing around with it and am learning fast (you can see Stella's tail behind me, she follows me around at all times!!).

Our Original Bathroom

I still want to do a post on our new master bathroom, but first I want to show you our original bathroom. When we bought our house it only had one bathroom and when we added on we wanted our new bathroom to look like it was/could have been built at the same time as the original 1947 bathroom. 

What the bathroom looked like before we bought the house.

This is how the previous owners had the bathroom looking. It really wasn't that bad just not really our taste. We love the original black and white basket weave tile (a personal fav of mine) and original bathtub. We were glad the original sink had been replaced with a nice sized vanity with lots of storage and we also liked the bead board that had been added. We weren't crazy about the wallpaper, wooden non-working blinds, or the gold fixtures. And we definitely are not a fan of sliding shower doors!!

This is a picture of the bathroom after we took down the old wooden blinds and the shower door. That is just a simple white shower curtain from Pottery Barn with green embroidery on it.


Now the wallpaper is something that has made this one of my favorite rooms. I bought the wallpaper here in Memphis at Seabrook and the brand is Thibaut. My Mom bought us this wallpaper as a housewarming gift (Thanks Mom, I still love it).

We replaced the gold light fixture, cabinet knobs, faucet, paper holder, and towel bar with brushed nickel pieces. All of these except the faucet and knobs were from Pottery Barn, but they don't make this line of fixtures since we did this four years ago. We also put up nice venetian blinds that actually work.

This is a picture of the bathroom in its current state. We no longer use this bathroom as much but I still love it!



Our new master bath will be the subject of my next post, so this will let you see how we integrated the new design with the original style of the house.

Until next time,
Carrie

Carrie's First Post

Hello Blog World! I've never been mistaken for a writer or poet, so since this is my first blog post, please bear with me!!

Obviously my husband, Ryan, is the construction guy. My involvement in his projects usually includes finish selections and other interior design decisions. Luckily we have very similar taste and usually agree...I said usually.

See how handy he can be!!

Since I pick everything out I'll show you a few of my favorite things. Sometimes its the little things in life that make me the happiest!


Obviously I am grateful to have my new master bedroom, bathroom, and den, but one of the little things that makes it perfect is our door hardware.

I love old houses and all of the character that comes along with them. And I especially love old door hardware. Our goal with our addition was to make it appear that there never was an addition. This meant the hardwood floors had to match the old, our doors/door hardware had to match, and our bathroom had to look original (I will do a separate bathroom post later).


We searched multiple salvage places in Memphis for our knobs and plates and finally found a match at Market Central here in Memphis, which also happens to be one of my favorite antique markets!


Ryan then had to take our purchased hardware to Memphis Plating Works on Madison. There they re-plated all of the hardware to match the original finish. He then adapted the plate and knob to a new latch mechanism.

 No, these do not lock, even though they do have the cute little key hole, but this doesn't bother me. Besides the bathroom door, who really uses their bedroom locks anyway?? Yes, it was more difficult than driving to the local Home Depot, and yes it cost a little more but it was worth it. Every time I put my hand on those shiny antique knobs it makes my heart happy.


Now with all that being said, when we moved in our house all of our original knobs had been painted over. Some look like they have a lovely spray painted gold tone and others have just been painted over completely to match the door. Our original intent was to have them all re-plated at the same time. Well that didn't happen. It is one of those things I am so used to by now so I don't really think about it. But I would LOVE to have the old ones re-done, (hint, hint..... Ryan).

Lovely Gold Ones

Who does this?

Here are my cute puppies, Addie on the left and Stella on the right, looking at me while I was taking pictures of the knobs. I love this metal screen in the door, necessary in a time that air conditioning wasn't an available luxury. Another example of character and charm of an old home!









In other news, Ryan has been busy. He has passed his real estate exam and will soon be a practicing agent!!!! Our next project is coming...we promise. Things are about to get even busier. We are starting our next High Point house this week and another even bigger project will be starting the first of October.

Until next time,
Carrie

Past Projects

 I should be starting my latest project next week, but for now I thought I would share some photos of changes we've made to our own home. Hope you enjoy!

Family room addition with new entry and mud room to the right.

 

Master addition adjacent to family room.

Reclaimed bricks used for the fireplace hearth are surrounded by a custom mantel.

Master bath with a drop in tub and stand-alone shower. The antique chandelier and subway tile help give this room an original appeal.

Carrera marble top, custom vanity, and wall sconces complete the room.

All new doors were outfitted with salvaged hardware that matches the original hardware on the house. The pieces had to be stripped and refinished before being retrofitted onto a modern latch mechanism. Well worth the work in my opinion.

Updates in the kitchen were limited, but new tile, appliances, and countertops gave a much needed face lift.

Master bedroom addition

Coming Soon

I know you're all having withdrawals from my exceptional blogging abilities, so I wanted to let everyone know that we have a couple projects in the works and will be posting updates very soon. In the meantime we'll be posting some pics of past projects. So check back soon!