On this episode of Hoarders…

If you remember from this previous post, our dear Grandmom passed away this past October. We lost a lot when we lost Grandmom. The house in which Grandmom lived was designed by Harry Parker for Osborn Feaster in the 1920s, and has been in the family since then. It’s unfortunate that the family must sell it, but not many of us Feasters are in a position to buy a house in that location. For us, it would involve a move to the ‘burbs, adding a car to our family, tripling our commute times, and moving into a house that needs numerous updates…not very convenient or affordable. Although I never met Grandpop (Donald Feaster), he and Charlotte certainly left behind an amazing house full of interesting objects. Going through and cleaning out the house has been hard work for everyone, some people more than others. I personally feel like I know Charlotte, Don, and many other family members a little better after pouring over photos, letters, books, etc.

We’ve slowly been bringing home treasures from Grandmom’s house, but this past Sunday we brought home quite the load plus a new Ikea mattress for Miss E! When we use Philly Car Share and there isn’t a parking spot on our street, we basically have to put on our hazards, unload, dump, and return the car in record time. This is the scene we came home to, and I had to document the chaos!

I thought you might want to take a closer look at just a handful of our favorites that we are looking forward to incorporating into our home. They will serve as daily reminders of Grandpop, Grandmom, and their house.

The following gold framed paintings will go in E’s purple room. She picked out her favorite buttons from Grandmom’s, and put them in an old jar…buttons and stuffed animals, that’s all she wanted.

The little ladies below are portraits of English Duchesses. Hopefully, you’ll be seeing them again once we get to hanging stuff up in E’s room.

Tiny doll and tiny doll cup!

French & Co. train case and framed salmon advertisements. Final locations TBD.

The Chevy glass…there was only one! It’s now the designated Jack & Coke glass.

No home is complete without an old glass bed urinal! Don’t worry, I have no intention of serving anything from it. Just consider it a conversation piece.

That does not even come close to covering all of our newly acquired and much loved heirlooms. Bonus gift…a little vintage Phillies find from Papa & Annie’s garage!

Stephanie

Daddy’s Helper

Estelle was very excited to help us on Sunday. Her interest eventually wore off without any paint disasters, so the girls watched Snow White while David painted in peace.

Sanding

Masks on, or mask packaging…whatever works. Note: this plastic packaging did not pose any suffocation hazard, despite appearances!

We were majorly disturbing Lola with all of the rearranging and drop cloths, so she burrowed.

Sanding is done, next up: PAINT! Glidden Duo, Eggshell (should have gone with flat), Deep Amethyst

That’s purple!

Estelle had the honor of first brush stroke.

Slight skill discrepancy?

Can you even tell there used to be a door here?!

The other side of the project, yet to be completed. Our bedroom needs lots of TLC…new paint, finished trim, window shades, different light fixture, maybe even a new bed! We will keep you posted as we get things done, slowly but surely.

Stephanie

Purple Wall

A quick post to show you the purple wall results. We will be back soon with loads of photos of our little helper and the wall in progress. Besides, Estelle’s room is nowhere near being complete. We still have to paint/touch up white walls and trim, get a new bed and mattress, spray paint photo frames, and create a new gallery wall. There are not enough weekends in the year!

The results: Estelle LOVES the purple wall. David and I like the color, but hate that we picked eggshell paint…such a dark color shows up pretty shiny. It could be a blessing in disguise if Estelle ever takes a crayon to her wall, but we aren’t concerned enough to repaint it within the next couple of years!

Some quickly-posted, unedited photos for your viewing pleasure:

Stephanie

Christmas Fail!

I walked into this scene after work yesterday. I don’t think it was Lola’s doing, probably just a lopsided tree and soft trunk. It’s up and secure now!

The casualties…Santa and the VT ornament.

Wounded, but still in battle…for now. He’s one of my favorites, so we’ll be replacing him if he ends up slicing our fingers in the future.

Stephanie

Jumper Outfit & “JOB”

Two things that Estelle wanted to show off in her room: 1) the fantastic outfit from Aunt Dale, and 2) her “job” (also known as “the door/wall project that dad is slowly undertaking in her bedroom”)…

Indoor Animal Sightings

Our newest addition, a Made in West Germany owl clock we scored at a sidewalk sale for $1! We have absolutely no hope that he will ever work, but he was too cute to pass up.

Meet Granby Bullseye Feaster, I’m a little obsessed (quite obvious since we made a family effort to name him). He is a work in progress, so we’ll really show him off when he has a proper bulb and shade. He’s a mid-20th century original, but apparently we’re on top of the trends here…West Elm just released their very own Horse Head Lamp.

If you were wondering what Estelle’s decorating style is, this frog is all her.

And our dear Lola! Speaking of dear, I forgot to include our cardboard deer head! He is half buried behind clothes at the moment due to our ongoing room rearranging. We’ll have to post an updated house tour when things get settled.

Stephanie

Wood Wall

We have not been doing much to warrant taking pictures these past few days…just a lot of work, cooking, dishes, and wrangling a willful toddler. I’m going back to our April 2011 photo archives for this post. I’ve been wanting to share our wood wall project for awhile, and David’s too modest to boast. This past April, he picked up the power tools again, after a 2 year hiatus.

The location is the wall outside the bathroom, at the top of the stairs.

The old gym flooring came from Provenance, an architectural salvage store in town.

David sanded off paint lines and decades of varnish, arranged and cut pieces to fit, drilled nail holes in the very hard wood, and nailed them in place.

We love the results! It’s not quite finished: nail heads have to be made flush to the wall, and we need a piece of trim where the wood meets the floor. A big thanks to David for his hard work!

Sorry, no cute kid photos this time around. We have exciting baseball plans for Saturday, so expect a new post on Sunday!

Stephanie

This Hardly Counts as a Blog Post

Closer examination of our zoo footage from a couple weeks ago revealed pretty boring videos. I don’t have time to make into something watchable, so we’ll skip that adventure for now.

Estelle attended her first movie in the theatre with a 5 pm Friday night showing of Winnie the Pooh. She did pretty well, but got  a little antsy towards the end. In my opinion, more movies should only be 80 minutes long!

Sixteen-year-old Estelle will probably appreciate the lack of cameras this past weekend, when we celebrated summer birthdays with the Feasters. She was allowed to skinny dip in the 94 degree pool…oh la la. Yes, the water was nearly as hot as the 100 degree air, but it was still a fun swim.

So that leaves us with some pretty dull stuff to report: I ventured into the land of fabric dying, something I’ve done before in school, but never has it been this easy! Joann’s Fabrics, AC Moore, and other crafty type stores now carry no-mess fabric dye that can be used in the washing machine with a cup of salt. It’s called iDye, and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a easy way to add color to your life. We have a pretty colorful rug in our living room, and I was attempting to bring some of those colors to the sofa area. My color of choice was Golden Yellow. It was an online purchase, and a complete gamble…a risk I was willing to take on an old off-white corduroy pillow cover from Ikea (see middle pillow in the before and after photos). It wasn’t love at first sight, but I don’t hate it. We fondly call it our Winnie the Pooh pillow.

Before iDye:

 

After iDye…it looks like Lola died too, but she’s just lounging:

Stephanie

Morning Visitor

I spotted an unusual critter in our bird feeder early this morning, can you spot it?

How about now?

A little mouse!

Hats & a Big Girl Bed

Sampling Mommy’s new hat & her own new Phillie Phanatic hat.  Then showing off her “new” bed — watch out world (or at least watch out Mommy & Daddy, because now more than just Lola will be climbing into bed in the morning)…