No, I am NOT kidding.

Yes, that's right. MORE HAIL. This time, it was only nickel- to quarter-sized, and only lasted a few minutes, so it didn't really do any more damage. I was in my car, however, and it was a little frightening-- I can only imagine what it was like when the golf-ball stuff came down. It just kept exploding on the windshield.

And still, I think Fort Smith was spared the worst of it. Adam and the kiddo went to a minor league baseball game Saturday night and were delayed up there, 1 hour+ north, because of more hail, high winds, and tornadoes. So, yeah, all in all, it's ok. I know this system brought some really devastating tornadoes in Missouri, so my thoughts are certainly with them.

At any rate, not a lot else went on this weekend-- Adam's family came down for dinner Friday night, so I spent that afternoon sprucing up our 3 presentable rooms and the back patio. And we had the most awesome Cajun meal, at one of our favorite restaurants, so all was goo0d there. We bought all the supplies to complete one more section of fencing-- to give the dog a private yard to go to when we have company. This was a fiasco in itself. We tromped all over Lowe's looking for fencing panels, or even just the dog ears to build it from scratch. The garden people said it'd been moved to lumber, the lumber people couldn't be found...the kid who tried to help us in lumber saw us leaving and was able to get us talking to the guy in the store who "knows everything." He was finally able to help us. They'd stacked all the dogears out FRONT on the lumber end of the store. So we wrapped that up and went on our way.

Aaaand. That's about all we did this weekend. We found this cool vase on clearance at TJ Maxx, adn it is perfect for kitchen utensils:


And...um...remember head shops? Remember your college dorm? Remember big pieces of fabric tie-dye and batiks and Indian sari fabrics that worked great for covering walls and ugly recliners that you found on the side of the road, or something. Yeah, full disclosure, I thought that was some hippie dippy shit and not punk rock enough for little old me. But I could appreciate some pretty prints. I was still a little girly, too, after all. Well my sister bought me a beautiful and enormous piece of hand printed Indian fabric for Christmas this year. She just thought it might come in handy what with the new house and everything-- I have to say, that that is some forward thinking for a high school student.

This fabric will be perfect for living room curtains, and there's just enough of it.


The colors and pattern are perfect. I love it!

But I had a sad moment this weekend, too-- I over slept and missed bidding on this, the coolest light in the world.


I could kick myself.

Fixtures fun

We're finally at the point where we can shop for fun stuff like hardware and lighting-- we decided to get rid of most of the ceiling fans (we'll be installing an attic fan soon) so that means buying a lot of new fixtures. I love to shop! This was a great opportunity (read: excuse) to bargain hunt and buy pretty things. I'm finding, however, that in terms of new ceiling lights, we have basically 2 choices at our local big box stores: lights that look like nipples...Or lights that look like we just yanked them out of an outdated apartment complex...


So we could get the inspection out of the way, we went with the latter option. They were $4.97. Also, I am hopelessly immature and I giggle like Beavis and Butthead every time I see one of the boob lights in the store. I was afraid I'd do the same thing at home. And while laughter is the best medicine or whatever, I decided I need to have at least a modicum of control over my giggling.

Anyway, I'm now starting to hit up my internet options...

We do have one original period fixture in the living room:

It's a little (ok, a lot) on the dirty side in this pic, but when clean, it's a yellowy pink and it has grown on me tremendously. I kind of love it.

We've also picked out and purchased a chandelier for the dining room:

The dining room is connected to the living room by a very wide open doorway, adn I wanted the two fixtures to get along, visually speaking. Obviously, they don't really come from the same place, but I think they can live together relatively harmoniously. And it was on clearance.

Now I need to find a fixture for the office and I'll be happy. I can live with what's in the bedrooms and bathroom for the time being-- they're not so much public spaces, so I don't feel the need to have them done first. The office is separated by double French doors, so it's lighting is also visible from the living room, and I'd like these two fixtures to be similarish as well...I'm looking at something like these:












I think the one on the left is maybe too heavy for an office and the one on the right, perhaps a bit too modern-- or too "modern imitating art nouveau"...? Dunno. I feel like I'm getting warmer, anyway. And something like this for the porch...
No need for anything to be matchy-matchy, or so similar that the house becomes Arts & Crafts or Art Deco themed or something. Just not completely out of character.

Time to hit up eBay and see if I can find anything that doesn't look like a boob or cost an arm and a leg!

When was this bathroom's birthday?

Update: At closing, above...And at move-in, below, with the paint color we decided on with the help of this post...

When I showed my friends pictures of the house, a few of them offered their services for pink tile demolition. I was outraged! I would never tear out this gaudy pink tile bathroom, partly because I love it, partly because I think some of the neighbors would lynch me for it, partly because the kiddo loves it, and largely because each individual tile has lasted so long that it seems a shame to destroy them now. Only the built-in tile soap dish has a banged up corner. Otherwise, it's all intact. I know, I know. When we eventually sell this house down the road, with so many updates, a totally retro bathroom isn't exactly going to be a selling point. But I don't care. I love it. (Ok, so I don't love the wall treatment, or the out of place cabinet above the toilet, but those things can be fixed with minimal destruction!)

Anyway, I found a light fixture on ebay that matches my living room light, and it got me to thinking about Art Deco styles and patterns and colors. I had originally thought of pink coupled with a really dark color (black or burgundy) and the strong geometric patterning of our floor tile as Art Deco, at least in spirit. The color in this photo seems a little truer on my screen than the pic above, btw:


There's also a cresting wave trim piece that goes around the bathroom, and behind the door, there's cabinetry, including a built-in hamper, with plastic door pulls-- they're certainly not original, but I wondered if they replaced glass handles that had been there at one time. The door knob is also distinctly Art Deco.

But then the inspector came; he and many other guests have since dated it as circa 1950s. and THEN we established that the tub, toilet and console sink are likely original; a family friend grew up in a bungalow nearby and said that her house had a sink and tub like ours and that they had been original. I picked up the tank lid for the toilet, and it is stamped "NOV25"; this is actually where we get the building date for our house-- HUD claimed it was built in 1940, but the K&T wiring had already suggested otherwise. Knowing what we know about the neighborhood, as well as the architectural style, old phone book listings, and the toilet stamp, we went with 1925 as the likely date. Give or take a few years; there's a listing in the city directory as early as 1922.

Anyway, I guess I'm at a bit of a loss as to the age of our bathroom decor. It doesn't really matter to me much whether it's 1920s, 30s or 50s. I still love it. It's just, as with many other things in this house, it's a total curiosity as to how it got the way it did...Any ideas? Any idea what the hell color I'm supposed to paint the walls? It's looking like white is the only safe bet here. The PO did some kind of textured treatment that looks like she glued paper bags to the wall and ripped them off before they dried.