One More Pink Bathroom Saved!

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Betty Crafter

Last June the Crafter family was fortunate enough to score the most amazing time capsule mid century ranch in all the land.  We’re totally crackers for this house.  It was like it was made for us!  It has everything we ever said we wanted in a house – a fireplace, original kitchen and baths, a huge lot, outbuildings, a creek – and add onto that the fact that the original kitchen is TURQUOISE for the love of all things and the baths were one green and one pink!  For a few years before buying this house I had recurring dreams about a house with a pink and a green bathroom, so I guess this really is the house of my dreams!  The one fly in the ointment was the pink bathroom.  Although the original tile (pink with blue trim) was in great shape, the sink was horrendous – an 80′s wood vanity with faux-marble sink top, and the toilet had a wood seat.  Here is the listing picture from when we bought the house:

To my eye these “updates” just ruined the magic of the pink bathroom.  So I set out to restore this little gem back to its glory days.  It wasn’t expensive or difficult.  One pink toilet seat from amazon and a $5 pink sink from craigslist and ta-da!  Here we are!

We were lucky that the pink sink and toilet seat matched pretty well, and that the tile behind and under the old vanity wasn’t damaged.  I do have a little grout cleaning still to do on the floor under the sink, but that’s totally do-able.  In all, our mini bathroom restoration project was cheap, easy, and hugely satisfying.  Our bathroom is now the magical pink palace it was meant to be.  *sniff*

Posted in Bathroom, Home Restoration, Our House | 4 Comments

Playhouse Renovations

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Betty Crafter

Little Betty’s playhouse is getting a little renovation too!  The cracks in the walls and floors let in a lot of dirt and bugs, and even though I tried caulking the cracks, the caulk washed away pretty much after the first rain.  So…after seeing Miss Birdie Blue Sky’s awe-inspiring playhouse, I decided to completely steal her idea take some inspiration from it for Little Betty’s playhouse to solve our problem!  We had some leftover green VCT tile from our kitchen, living, and dining room, so all we needed was some wainscoting and crown molding and here we are!

Now with the smooth clean floors and walls it’s looking bare to me so you know what that means – more accessories STAT!  And its clear I can no longer put off making curtains.  I’m thinking some yellow polka dots or calico.  I’d also like to find some sort of cabinet to store dishes and other goodies.  Next I plan to hit up Grandad to build a loft.  Poor Little Betty.  She doesn’t have any good toys :)

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Shiny Floors = Awesomer floors

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Betty Crafter

Recently over on No Pattern Required Sara talked about the importance of sealing your VCT floors and NOT using the consumer quality sealer available at big box stores.  Which we totally did after we had our VCT installed.  It didn’t give us the shine we were hoping for and scuffed up pretty easily.  When our contractor came to begin some other renovations on the house he suggested we let him wax and buff our VCT while he was there.  Let me tell you – it was SO worth the money!  Here’s a picture of our floors after installation:

And here’s a floor after a couple coats of wax and a buff! (Please excuse the less than amazing night time picture – the weather here has been lousy and our house is crazy with workmen during the day)

It’s so smooth and shiny now and doesn’t scuff up anymore.  I highly recommend to anyone with VCT a professional wax and buff, not just for aesthetics, but apparently this will help maintain them better as well.  Our contractor says after this we can just have it buffed once a year.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but don’t worry – I’ll be posting plenty soon about more changes around here like our pink bathroom restoration, some playhouse fixing up, and the exciting barn renovations!

Posted in Home Restoration, Our House | 11 Comments

Happy Chickens Make Tasty Eggs

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Betty Crafter

I haven’t talked much about our chickens here on the blog.  When Little Betty was about a year old (so 2 years ago) I decided it would be a nice childhood memory for her to have backyard chickens – collecting eggs, feeding, playing with them.  So we got 4 one day old chicks and never looked back.  They are Enid, Gladys, Vera, and Lucille.  They are lovely and sweet and a real joy to watch.  But these poor ladies have been living in a coop that they had long since outgrown.

It was time to move on up!  Y’all, I am head over heels IN LOVE with our new setup:

It was built by the same gentleman who built Little Betty’s playhouse.  Doesn’t he do lovely work?  And it was pretty comparable in price to other chicken coops we looked at that were WAY less awesome.  Our girls are absolutely in heaven!  They immediately got busy scratching the new dirt and clearing out any greens they could find.  And there were dirt baths a plenty!

Here they are all bedded down for the night in their new home:

Would you believe all 4 chickens are in this picture?  They sleep like puppies.  I’m sure they were not amused by my taking flash pictures at bedtime.

Little Betty is thrilled too.  I can hardly keep her out of it!  She keeps saying “I’m a farmer!”  Money well spent on all accounts I say.

Posted in Our House | 11 Comments

Changes are afoot at Casa Crafter!

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Betty Crafter

This coming week brings some exciting new changes to our house!  We’re getting a few things done around here, like a fancy new chicken coop, some renovations to Little Betty’s playhouse, and restorations to our pink bathroom.  But most exciting, I think, is that we are finally beginning the renovations to make the first floor of our “barn” into an office for Mr. Crafter.  Here’s what it looks like right now:

Our design goal is mid century gas station office.  Or,  more specifically, the office Don Draper might have if he were a petroleum mogul.  We scored the ultimate executive steel tanker desk this week, as well as some great vintage chairs and an end table, and Mr. Crafter can’t wait to decorate with all the eclectic odds and ends he loves.  So stay tuned to see what kind of difference some paint and freshly sealed concrete floors can make!

Posted in Our House | 6 Comments

The playhouse of my dreams

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Betty Crafter

I do love Little Betty’s playhouse.  You may remember it from my past post here.  It’s super adorable and we have so much fun having tea parties in it and decorating it.  I thought it just might be the sweetest playhouse in all the world until I peeped the playhouse to shame all playhouses on my recent road trip out to West Texas.  First of all, it resides behind what is likely the most charming home I’ve ever seen:

Then nestled behind this little slice of heaven is any little girl’s dream playhouse:

Gah!!!  Could you just DIE??  Two stories!  A tulip picket fence!  A wrap around porch and real, miniature front door!  Windows with shutters and flower boxes! What you can’t see in the pictures are sweet little curtains in all the windows and hints of precious decor.  I think I could live here.  I really wanted to knock on the door and ask to go inside, but I’m not nearly courageous enough for that.  I bet the interior does not disappoint.  Someone put a lot of talent and love into creating this for a very special and lucky little girl.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Can I do this?

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Betty Crafter

I need your design permission, dear ones with incredible taste.  Here’s the situation. Mister Crafter and I were in dire need of new dining room chairs.  Every time we had people over, we had to make sure no one sat in any of the “bad” ones lest they fall through the chair.  Seriously.  It was embarrassing.  But danish modern dining chairs without a table are not the easiest thing to find.  And I shop for a living!  But I did have 3 killer mid century chairs waiting in queue to go into the shop.  One thing led to another…and now we have this.

This blonde-ish/teak-ish chair with molded seat and reeded back.  Maker unknown.  Awesomeness and comfort certified.

A Chromcraft smoked Lucite and chrome dinette chair with original green upholstery.

Our desire to find an excuse to keep this chair may have sparked the whole mismatched dining chairs idea in the first place.  We think it’s an authentic Eames dining chair that suffered a repair in the form of those screws and that nick that I’m going to try to fix.  If it’s not authentic, it’s a dang good knock off.  We compared it closely with our real Eames molded plywood lounge chair (not vintage – a Design Within Reach splurge) and we can’t find anything to tell us this one is fake.  We also ran it by a friend who is a bit of an Eames expert and he agrees.  Real or fake, I don’t really care.  It’s beautiful, even with the screws.

Can I do this?  Does it look good, or too hodge-podge?  I’m all about mix and match – all my glasses and plates are – but this leaves me a little unsure.  My gut says it’s awesome, but I’d like some feedback.  So what do you think?

Posted in Our House, Vintage Design | 28 Comments

Dreamy Desert Solitude

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Betty Crafter

I wanted to tell you a little about the great trip Mr. Crafter and I just took to Marfa, TX.  If you’ve never heard of Marfa, it’s a tiny town out in the desert well known to hipsters as being an artistic haven.  It’s like Austin’s Palm Springs.  We stayed at El Cosmico, where you can stay in a vintage trailer, a teepee, a yurt, or a safari tent.  Rad, right?  We chose to stay in a trailer.  Since there’s not a whole lot to do in Marfa and not much cell reception or wifi, we spent our time reading, listening to records, riding bikes around town, and checking out the exceptional art this little town has to offer.   Perfection.  We also came to the conclusion that an outdoor shower is definitely in our future here at Casa Crafter.  Here’s a snippet of our getaway in pictures:

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Under Pressure

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Betty Crafter

I have spent the last few weeks knitting so furiously to finish my cowichan in time for my desert getaway with Mr. Crafter.  Well, folks, against all odds, I can say I met my goal!  Never mind the fact I knitted the belt in the car on the way, and there are STILL no belt loops to be seen on the sweater, or that I desperately tried to dry it in front of the space heater the first night since after 3 days it was still damp from blocking.  Here’s Mr. Crafter graciously playing records for me while my poor sweater dries next to the heater:

And here she is!

I do love it so.

It’s SO warm – it’s basically a coat.  Yes, friends, I knitted myself a coat.  Crazy.  Anyway, I’m in love with the colors, and the style is so wearable.  It’s definitely a new favorite.

More pictures of my dreamy desert vacation soon…

Posted in Cowichans, Crafting | 11 Comments

More finds!

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Betty Crafter

We’ve been busy shopping this week for the store and you know what that means – a few things that just might be too good to let go of!  Wanna see?

Christmas blow molds!

I scored an adorable nutcraker and a huge, weird Mrs. Claus with crazy eyes.  Yes, she has a small hole.  Whatever.  Those creepy, pleading eyes won me over.

Don’t worry, these are definitely staying with me.  And I promise to put away my outdoor Christmas decorations today.

I’m on a bit of a cuckoo clock tear these days.

Isn’t it cute??  I want to do a few repairs and clean it up before I put it in the shop.  It appears to have all the pieces to function so I want to do a little research and see how I can get it running.  Also, the accordion player needs repair.

Any ideas or advice on how to get him on his feet again?

Mister Crafter of course found a few things that are right up his alley.  For example, this killer microscope set:

Lastly, a set of nodding fawn salt and pepper shakers have likely found a new home in my collection:

The base has been repaired but I absolutely could not leave it behind.  Last year at the Warrenton Antique Fair Shortie and I saw a nodding skulls salt and pepper set, but at $75 it was pretty easy to pass it up.  Even with a repair, $8 seemed like a score!  How do you all feel about vintage items that are less than mint?  Will you bring home things that have chips or tears or other imperfections that can’t be fixed?

Posted in Finds | 8 Comments