Historic Houses on Harvard!

 As an antique dealer, one of the best parts of my job is going to estate sales.  They are often held in old houses, for which I have a penchant, and sometimes those old houses are even in lovely old neighborhoods, as was the case last week.

This sale happened to be on Harvard Ave, a neighborhood on the east hillside above Salt Lake City.  Its very sought after real estate, and after seeing these pictures I am sure you will see why.  These homes were built in the 20's and 30's.

 The first three homes are Tudor style, with half timbering... I love them all, so charming.

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 This one is my favorite, so eclectic  ... so much charm ....

 This stuccoed cottage, has the most amazing roof I have ever seen.

Because the neighborhood is so sought after, many of the smaller homes have been replaced by houses built to fit into the fine vintage scene. They are mostly obvious, because they tend to be huge, going from one side of the property to the other, and they have built in garages.  The next two photos represent two houses that I think did a good job of fitting in.    I also think its interesting to see how many of the new houses have the turreted towers, but then again 3 of the 5 old houses I like, and shared pictures of, also have turreted towers. All in all both of the newer houses are nice, but I think they lack the personality that the older home exhibit. I think they look sort of homogenized.  What do you think? 

The garage on this one is not as obvious, its tucked behind and to the side.

Antique Valentines and Paper Weights

How fun it is to look through a stack of vintage Valentines, and wonder about the original givers and receivers.  I always think of the decorated shoe boxes we made to receive our stashes of valentines from school friends.  The Valentines made in the 30's are always my favorites, I think they are so cheerful ... and they are often heart shaped which makes them perfect for placing in heart shaped glass paper weights.  Though since I have no desire to  cut up Valentines from my collection, I have found that its easy to find the type of old Valentines that I like on Graphics Fairy, which also makes it easy to print them off in the sizes I need.

Above are three paper weights with reprints of vintage Valentines.  I just use clear Tacky Glue, as glue goes on the face of each valentine to adhere it to the glass paper weights.

 

 The honey comb Valentines are earlier, dating to the turn of the last century... 

 

... and all this vintage Valentine goodness tucked away in a corner of my parlor just makes me smile!! Happy Valentines friends!

Loving Memory Portraits

As Valentines approaches I am inclined to think of favorite love stories ... and of course my very favorite love story is that of my parents ... they met at a dance when she was 16 and he was 24, in the middle of the depression.  He had just decorated the hall for the dance, when she and a school mate snuck away from a night of studying to check out the local dance hall.  When my Dad and his friend saw the girls, my dad said "I'll want the one with the skinny ankles."  The rest of course, is history, family history, that is.

 

They didn't marry for another 3 years.  With money being tight they spent their first married years living with his parents, whom he supported...   Anyway, I thought it would be lovely to capture their love story in an unusual way ... these are the elements of the finiahed portraits shown above.  The larger frames have photo copies of a page each from a letter written from one to the other during WWII when they were separated for most of four years.  The pictures were of them as youth, both taken before they actually met.  The bracelet  was sent from my Dad to my Mom from Hawaii while he was stationed there.

 I made the name plaques using this graphic from Graphics Fairy.  I erased the interior (in paint) and saved it, then took it to word where I stretched it to the shape I wanted, before taking it back to Paint, where I added their names, as shown below.

 I wanted to use the charm bracelet, partly because I love charm bracelets, and partly because it makes me think of my Dad, lonely and missing his little family wandering around shops looking for something my Mom, a young pregnant mother with a two year old, would enjoy.

 

To assemble them, I glued the small frames,  with their pictures, to the glass of the large frames with E6000, then I set the small name plaques on tiny blocks to make them stand out and give them added dimension. I hammered tiny nails into the corners of the small frames before gluing them to the larger frames to hold the bracelet.

 

 I love how they turned out ... so fun to see their handwriting with their photos, and phases like "dear one",  and "my loved one"  and from my mother's letter, "I said, 'Do you love Daddy?' (to my 2 year old brother) He put his face down on the paper, so lovingly as if to say, 'I do love Daddy."  and even the mention by my mother of her "two lovely blisters" makes me smile.

Thanks for coming along and sharing my parents love story during this season of love ... 

Historic House Sheds Awful Window!

Thrifty Thursday ... The least expensive improvements can cost nothing but elbow grease, like undoing someone else's 'remuddling'.  We bought our old house in 1997.  The people we bought it from had owned it for more than 30's years.  When they bought it, it had been a home for wayward boys for ten years .... I can't even begin to imagine what the condition was ... but I do know the price was very, very low.

This is what the windows in the house looked like when they bought it.  Charming, if chippy, wood trim surrounded each window.

I don't want to judge, because I know that utilities come in killer sizes when you live in a big old house,  but my next door neighbor says she was aghast at the site of the shiny new aluminum windows and the red aluminum trim....

So last Saturday, while I was at work at the antique mall, my husband spent a huge chunk of his day removing the aluminum windows and red flashing.  He texted me to say he had a big happy surprise for me.  And YES I WAS THRILLED!  The secondary aluminum windows had trapped dirt between them and the original windows, so that  none of the windows in the house looked clean, ever.  The kitchen was the worst, because I wanted the light in there.  That was the window he improved!!  Of course we will have to add weather stripping, and paint the wood, but since the aluminum windows did little to keep out the cool winter breeze, we think we will be ahead of the game.  I love this wonderful old wood trim, and cannot imagine who would have thought it was a good idea to cover it.

Above is my dining room window ... could it be next?  Thanks for coming along on this thrifty adventure.