Open House/Show and Tell/Show me Yours

I seem to have lost my ablity to write a decent post lately. Or maybe it's the lack of time to write a good post. It just seems so much easier to put some pictures up and call it good. This is a post I've been working on for a week now, but it seems that everytime I get a spare block of time to work on it, usually Anthony is napping (like now) and he will inevitably wake up before I manage to finish, (probably will happen this time too). Rachael and CM both did a post about open house/favorite things and I sort of liked the idea, so I am copying it. I of course had to wait till my housekeeper came before I could take the pictures, which is another reason this post has taken so long. There are actually lots of things I love about my house, but here are just a few of them.


My hardwood floors.

This is a before picture of our floors. They are very old and covered in dust and dirt, I was so surprised to see them refinished, I had no idea what was under all that dirt and grime.

I think they turned out great, they are a bit squeaky in spots, but other than that, I love them. According to the guys who refinished them, some people pay a lot of money to have new wood floors that look like old wood floors.

Here is another picture with a few of my favorite things, first of all I really like this chair, it is one of my favorite place to sit, it is big enough for me, Anthony and Brewster to sit in together and watch TV. Todd and I picked out the furniture together and then I went back the next day with my sister Francie to buy it. Todd didn't want me to get the ottoman, he thought it was too big for the room. Truthfully it is, but Francie talked me into buying it anyway, insisting that not only could we make it fit in the room, but that a comfy chair is so much comfyier if you can put your feet up. She was right about both. Todd wasn't too happy with me when they delivered the furniture a few months later. Oops, somehow I had forgotten to mention to him that I had added on the ottoman to the order.

The mirror behind the chair was an impulse buy, with no place in my house to put it in mind when I bought it, but I really like the look of it in the living room. As an added bonus it is a skinny mirror, you know the kind that makes you look 10 pounds less than you really are.

The curtians you see are another of my favorite things in my house, actually I love all the curtians in my house, they were custom made by my mom. She made them all without patterns too, I just showed her a picture of what I wanted, she took a few measurements, we went to the fabric store and she went home with a lot of work to do. The next time she came for a visit, she brought all the curtians with her ready to hang.

My stove is another favorite, I really enjoy cooking on it. It is also great for canning because the canner pot is so big and heavy, it's nice to not have to worry about breaking the stove top. I wish I did more of both, cooking and canning. Unfortunately, I don't have much counter space, so when Rachael and I make our spagetti sauce in the summer we do it at her house because she has the bigger kitchen, but her stove is a smooth glass top and I always worry that the heavy canner is going to break it. So far it hasn't (knocking on wood).

This piece of furniture used to be a room divider in the house between the kitchen and the dining room that you could access from both sides. It went from floor to ceiling so the top had to be cut off to move it. It was removed during the remodel to open up the living space a bit, but I wanted to save it and use it somehow. It works great in our office. You can stuff a lot of junk in those cupboards and drawers. One side had solid doors, and the other side had glass doors, I liked the look of the glass doors better, but that would not allow me to use the cabinet as planned. (to stuff junk in it) I wish I could take the credit for refinishing it myself. I tried, and gave up, it was too big a job for me, so I had it refinished by a professional. It turned out great.
This is what it looked like before it was refinished. We used the top part that was cut off too but it goes with a picture of some of the things I don't like about my house so I am not showing it. It sits below the TV that is mounted on the wall and the wires hang down and show. Todd has yet to hide them in the wall. If we ever get them tucked away I will show a picture.

Now it's your turn, show me some pictures of some of your favorites in your house. Don't forget to leave me a comment so I can go read your post.