House Hunting Tour :: 1920s Cottage Bungalow

We're still working on our home's staging to do list,
so we can right size our home which is 3300 sq. ft.
and we'd like to diminish it by half.

But in the meantime, we are still looking for the "One".

A downtown historical cottage we all can agree on. 

For Mark, the hubby: 
it has to have new wiring/roofing/plumbing and a good foundation,

3 Beds/2 Baths (or at least two toilets and two bathroom sinks),

near downtown with bike riding trails and lanes.

For me, the home maker: 
it has to have all the old charming details in an antique house:

wide molding, picture molding, 75 fire places, hardwoods, old doors with glass knobs,

creaking floors, a porch to sit and have coffee, tons of built-ins, and wonky details.

(Oh! And a kitchen big enough to fit all our friends!)

For our daughters, Miss S who is 22 and Miss A who is 18 and are still schooling:
a room to live until they leave the nest/come back to visit that isn't "creepy". 

What's important to all of us is a safe, quiet neighborhood.

Too much to ask?

Not here in Greenville, SC, actually.

We have found some quite charming and liveable homes,

it's just that all of our criteria hasn't fit into one house yet.

A few of them have been super-close!

We will keep looking!

This past rainy weekend, with the blessings of my Face Book friends,

we toured this lovely cottage.

Let me show you!
(I am sorry if some of the pictures are dark, it was a cloudy, cloudy day.
Also, the small pictures were taken with my iPhone, 
while Miss S took real pictures with the Canon.)

We liked the color yellow, we liked the black shutters, 

but the fact that they were vinyl was a turn-off.

But the mailbox is charming, and so are the concrete planters.

This wall thrills my organizer self!

The front door opening location does not thrill me, ha!
Yes, the floor leans to one side.

Each room still has its picture molding and the original hardwood floors.

The door on the left below leads to Bedroom #2, which we'll come back to

once we circle around inside the house clock-wise.

If you stand with your back to the fireplace, 

this is the other side of the room.

And this is me, arguing with the Realtor about the age of the house.

He says it was built in 1964.

Not.

He also says the records don't go back any further than 1964.

I disagree. The old documents are probably gone.

I have been in an antique home a time or a bunch and have researched them HERE.

And this home has the 4-over-1 windows, plaster walls, and floorplan

(no hallways) to prove my point.

Sure, some things were added later, probably in the 60s.

Like some of the doors, bathtub, and top green kitchen cabinets which you'll also see

once I stop talking long enough to take you in there.

This is the nook I was looking into in the arguing picture above.

This space would be perfect for a desk or music/sitting area.

The wide molding and floor outlets?

1920s.

Turn around with your back to this nook above and this is what you'll see.

The gray living room, aqua dining room, and on through to the green kitchen/laundry closet.

Looking back toward the front of the house and nook.

That door to the left leads to the attic.

So turn back around and let's go to the back of the house and the kitchen.

The cabinetry is decent, I'm diggin' the marble counter tops, and all the appliances are new,

including a French-door refrigerator.

But I think my favorite things would have to be the window over the sink 

and the rolling butcher block island.

(I asked, and it does come with the house.)

These cabinets to each side of the sink

(which were likely hung in 1964 *wink) would have to go.

I'd replace them with open shelving like our basement cafe has.

The French door below leads to the deck.

And across from the fridge is the washer/dryer closet.

I could fold laundry on the rolling island!

A fun thing in this kitchen that I would leave

is the tiny spice closet below, directly behind my new rolling laundry table.

I'm thinking (based on observing dozens of other homes built in this era: 1920s),

that its original content was a fold-down ironing board.

The closet to the left is a perfect space for a pantry,

which didn't come with many antique homes.

If you walk to the closet/pantry and turn left, you enter this room,

Bedroom #1.

Aren't all the plantation shutters charming?

We'll probably add these to the home we finally decide on.

This wall closet was awesome!

Wish I'd thought to open the doors and show you inside.

It houses layers and layers of delicious shelving!

The next room is this cute, one and only bathroom.

Original 1920s medicine cabinet.

1964 bathtub.

It may be doable, but there isn't much storage at the moment, is there?

But the details are sweet.

Facing back toward bedroom #1, we have now entered Bedroom #2.

It features this glorious walk-in closet on the left

(which one of my FB ladies said would make an excellent crafting room, too).

The door in the middle leads to the living room once more, 

and the door on the right is a weird, tiny closet. 

What a light, bright space!

Cabinets and shelving and rods, oh my!

Yum.

Is this a 1964 doorknob?

Methinks not, either.

As I mentioned, there was a door to the attic off the dining room.

And once you've opened the door, this is what you'll see.

I envisioned this upstairs space as a retreat/bedroom area for my girls.

It creeped them out.

I wonder if you'd agree?

After you've come up the stairs, turn round, and this is the wall you'll see.

I love the wainscoting and the door,

and somewhere under the layer of paint are hardwoods.

The other side of the room has this odd, er, um, table. Thing.

But if the table were removed, the room insulated,

and the floors either painted over in white or stenciled,

it would make a darling bedroom!

(I think.)

This fireplace was across from the table thing.

And I like it.

Old doors and doorknobs make my heart go pitter patter.

Okay, my heart also does so when someone else pays for dinner.

This corridor is to the right of the attic entrance door.

The ceiling is actually high enough that even a tall human could walk down it.

This other side of this attic could be another bedroom or sitting space.
This area, as I was informed by my offspring, held the maximum creep factor.

I love the light in here and the "window box".

No clue what's in the box. It had no lid.

Also creepy, I was told.

The backyard of this quiet neighborhood filled with other Craftsman and bungalow homes.

All we heard were birds chirping. It was divine.

This house had been reduced to $209,900.

However, our Realtor also told us that it had been under contract

the week before, until the inspector came and decided that it needed

$14,000 worth of electrical upgrades.

The buyer backed out and so the house came on the market again.

What I was trying to figure out is, why they are still showing it if it needs repair?

Any thoughts on that?

This concludes our tour of this lovely,

perfect-for-someone-other-than-us historical home.

What did you think of it?

My "Future Craftsman Bungalow" board is on Pinterest HERE.
Other cottages we've already seen are HERE.

P.S. I still love our Realtor.

Sunday Serenity :: A Never Again Reminder

Each Sunday, I will feature a picture taken by one of my daughters, 

and some words of faith, hope, and love given by our Father:

God continued, 

“This is the sign of the covenant I am making 

between me and you and everything living around you 

and everyone living after you:

I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, 

a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. 

From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth 

and the rainbow appears in the cloud, 

I’ll remember my covenant between me and you 

and everything living, 

that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. 

When the rainbow appears in the cloud, 

I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between 

God and everything living, 

every last living creature on Earth.”

Genesis 9:11-13 {The Message}

A Blast from the Past :: House Tour from 10 Years Ago

Disclaimer: this post will give you picture overload.

It will also give you a French Country overdose.

I'm sorry for both.

As I was looking through the picture folders on our computer,

I came across the pictures that I'd taken shortly after we moved in this house.

I thought that you might get a kick out of them!

It's strange how our tastes change in one way,

but remain constant in another.

Let me explain as we go down memory lane.

I still love the combo of a white house with black shutters.
And I love to garden, but no longer like morning glories
growing like a jungle over the front of our house.
The door is no longer red, either.

I saw a tutorial on trimming evergreens (arborvitae)
into spiral topiaries on Martha Stewart
and spent 5 hours on each of these trees doing just that.
I loved them and still do, although they've filled in and are no longer as spiral-y.

I fell in love with this red and white toile wallpaper I found on eBay,

so I wallpapered the whole foyer in it.

I still love it, too, but it is getting papered over soon as part of this house's staging

so we can move to an Historical home downtown.

Remember when tassles on lamps were "in"?
I kept the lamps, but lost the shades.
This antique dresser is still here in the foyer and it is over 200 years old,
a gift from my mother-in-love.
We probably will keep it.

This is actually the foyer 12 (not 10) years ago after adding wainscoting and yellow paint.

I still have the candelabra on the dresser and the antique needlepoint chair.

Another shot of the foyer right after wallpapering.

The framed florals wrapping the angled foyer are still here with us, too.

This is 12 years ago also.

The piano is played often by Miss S, my older daughter,

and it will be with us until she gets a home of her own.

The only item I still decorate with in this picture is the square birdcage.

The rest has been eBay-ed or sold.

Then, after a couple years, I found this checkered fabric 

and some antique swing-arm curtain rods on eBay,

and the Music Room and Dining Room were redesigned 

and stayed this way until last year.

Everything except the piano and white chairs is gone.

Below: What the space above looked like a few weeks after we moved in, in 2000.

Ten years ago till last year.

12 years ago. Notice the original brass chandelier and the teacup shades
I made by drilling holes through the cups and saucers
with a 1 1/2" ceramic drill bit. These were cool!
We still have this mirror and this 100-year-old Duncan Phyfe table.

After painting the dining room cobalt blue (to match my willoware) right after we moved in,

we went with Cornmeal yellow by Martha Stewart.

Still have this hutch/buffet, the silver pieces, and the crystal, but everything else is gone.

(The vintage Haviland china was my grandmother's,

and is packed and waiting for my girls to take with them someday.)

Although you probably can't see it, the ceiling was glazed, 

anaglypta wallper was added below the chair rail,

and molding frames got added to the window, mirror, and hutch walls.

These elements are still in the room.

(I loved the red transferware and the toile coverlet used as the tablecloth,

but these are gone, now, too.)

The lamps were the ones in the foyer a few years earlier.

And the side table is now upstairs in the landing.

I kept the clock and the cloches, too.

I decided that I am typically drawn to classics such as
white ironstone, crystal and glass, silver, and wicker.

I carried the red out into the kitchen.
I've kept the big things: picnic baskets, framed memo center, rolling island, and chairs,
but all the littles have evaporated somewhere.
By the way, I sewed the scalloped valances
from Waverly check and loved those for a long while, too.

I saw the grapevine covered with white lights and ivy in someone's kitchen
on Rate My Space (anyone remember that site?)
and must have decided it was beautiful, so I copied it.
It really was pretty in the evenings; the kitchen felt like an outdoor cafe.
But we gave the kitchen a makeover, and it's much different in here now.



Oh! This little half bath was really dark and really red.
I once had a visitor remark that there were more decor items in this half bath
than there were in his whole house.
As I look back at the pictures, I believe that he was correct!

Every single thing in here is now gone.

Even the faucet is new.

Into the living room we go.

These red chairs made me smile when I looked at them!

The lamps on either side of the fireplace were perfect for reading in the chairs.

And the curtains' trim is the same Waverly check as the valances in the kitchen.

The sofa, leather cigar chair, pair of red chairs and coffee table
were purchased together with our tax refund in 2003.
We sold the red chairs last year to make way for this zebra chair,
but the other pieces are still in the house.
I like vintage picnic baskets, and so those simply got moved to the kitchen.

Wow! This entertainment center was a beast,
but it had a lot of great space for organizing stuff.
It got sold on Craigslist and replaced with this armoire office.
Again, all the "littles" are no longer with us, but we kept
the yard-long bird print. It's in this room.

I really liked this side of the room!
I've kept the white ironstone,
but all the blue willoware got sold on eBay,
as did the cafe prints on either side of the cabinet.
The cabinet is now upstairs in our small office holding baskets and gadgets.

The lower landing on the stairs to the second floor.

Kept the mirror, lost the other things.

The upper landing between four bedrooms, a bathroom, and the laundry room.

There isn't actually a window here.

I hung a pair of shutters and this curtain and rod to give interest to this spot.

Everything in this picture is gone except the 1860s jeweler's chest/dresser.

Through the years, I've begun to gravitate towards antiques.

This is my girls' bathroom.

It was certainly pink.

And the toilet's seat is certainly up.

Must be waiting for someone to come clean it.

This was the bedroom of Miss A, my younger daughter.

The only three things left from this space are the dresser, chair, and lamp.

This was a happy space, and Miss A loved it.

It's now our office.

Aren't the clouds cute?

They had to be sanded smooth before we painted over them. Sigh.

This is the room of Miss S, the older daughter.

The only thing left from the redesign of this room is the vintage chenille bedspread.

Oh! And some of Miss S's classic literature.

The Master Bedroom.

I was trying to recreate a getaway to Jamaica where Mark and I honeymooned.

Does it look island-y?

The bed, mirror, and bedspread are the only things that were spared in this room.

Here is our bedroom now.

The Master Bathroom.

It's blue, all right.

The vanity stool is all that remains.

And last, but not least, was another blue room, our office.
The desk, bookcase, and file cabinet/book case were purchased
with the $600 tax credit/refund that George Bush "gave" us.
Do you remember that?

Everything in here is gone, too.

Well, how do I wrap this post up, except to say how blessed I am

that we are able to have so many choices available to us?

And to say that I really loved bright paint colors?

And lots of tchotchkes.

Thank you for taking a walk with me down memory lane.

Any thoughts about our home from 10 years ago?