Arrrr, I'm a Pirate!

Well, I not the kind with the eye patch but I do love to hunt for treasure.   When I was little, I remember going to antiques sales and flea markets (among other things) with my dad.  I was completely embarrassed and hated it looking at other peoples junk.  Now I love sifting through stuff in hopes of a good find.  I guess it's the polish girl in me, thanks to my Grandma Sylvia.

Here are my latest two finds.

I found this piece at the Habitat for Humanity store.  I have the perfect spot for it at the top of my stairs.  I'm planning on painting it to help the details stand out.   If you have any ideas or pictures for painting this piece please share them with me.  I will show the finished piece later.  It may take a few months, but I will get there.

Next is this tray.

 This may be hard to see, but this vintage tin tray has a hand painted picture of a horse race at Churchill Downs with the famous Twin Spires in the background.   I found it at the Crescent Hill Trading Company on Frankfort Ave.  It's a perfect addition to my collection of Kentucky and Louisville trays.

I found this first tray about 9 years ago.  It has a map of St. Matthews including the street where our first home was located and now our 3rd home.

A few years later I found this red tray with the Belle of Louisville.  There is a paragraph on the back with information about the Belle.   Liberty National Bank would give out these commemorative trays.  I think it is an interesting piece.

Kentucky State Tray

This one was a birthday give from my friend Denise.

It has spots to serves Sweet Tea to guests.

Proudly displayed on my dining room wall.

Note to self...change that pain color!

The Snowball Effect

It all started with a door hinge...Our daughter, Sophie's door fell off the hinge, literally!  The whole darn door. The screws striped right out of the door casing.  A few trips to home depot, 3 packs of screws, each one larger than the previous one and none of them worked.  So, Sophie had a curtain on her door for a few weeks.

We dedcided we would get all of the doors working in the house.  Two of the closet doors stuck, our bedroom door didn't lock (thank goodness for flip locks) and when you closed the bathroom door, you had a 50/50 chance of being locked inside.  

Once the doors were taken down and all the old trim & casing removed we started installing the new doors.  Unfortunately, they didn't fit in THIS old house.  So we special ordered new doors and waited 3 weeks.  My stress level was high with the race that weekend, no doors and out of town company arriving in 4 days!  Tom called it the Open-Air floor plan.

When the casing came down, so did part of the wall around the doors.  Patch and new gray paint.  We used Tern Grey (1/2 strength) from Porter Paints. While we waited on the doors, we added some detail trim work going up the stairs.  I also painted the railing with a fresh coat of black paint.

Since we needed to fix the plaster around each door, including the bathroom.  I thought I would take down the nasty salmon colored tile in the bathroom.  So 3 swings of a sledge hammer tuned into a few weeks of "oh shit, what have I done?"  We gutted the bathroom!

This is the bathroom where the sliding barn door is going. 

Sliding Barn Door

I'm sure you have all seen these wonderful sliding barn doors.We have two spaces in our home where a pocket door would have been a great idea, but due to the plumbing a pocket door just wouldn't work.  As I search for a solutions, I came across these wonderful options.

Not only will this help with the door opening into the small bathroom, but it will be such a focal point at the top of the stairs.  We are adding the first one to the kids bathroom at the top of the landing.

I talked with our handyman who has been switching out the doors to the bedrooms and he just wasn't interested in building it for me.  That hasn't stopped me, I have wanted this door for three years.

I drew up a plan and bought the wood.  I will start building this door next week.  I have been researching the sliding barn door harware on line.  I will share my project and links on where to find the hardware.  More to come on this...