Powder Room

Our little half on the first floor is tucked under the staircase.  It has the original hand sink and a cute window.  The wallpaper will probably be replaced eventually but I don’t hate it so it can stay for now.  Youngest daughter decorated this room with little felt flowers we had made for our banister at the old house several years ago.  She has a good eye and they were just right for this little space.

The sunroom has the same tile floor as the front porch, two beautiful leaded glass window walls, a cathedral style glass door leading to the dining room, leaded glass French doors leading to the music room, a leaded glass door heading to the front of the house (now rusted shut!) an unusual lattice ceiling that is rumored to be original and the confessional window.  I hate the color and the horrible ceiling fan but do love the room.

There currently is no heat in the sunroom and since it is on the north side of the house and it is December, there isn’t much sun either.  When we moved this was the first room I set up.  It was small and manageable.  There wasn’t any construction happening in here.  (Eventually the mess from the music room spilled into the space but initially it was very nice.)   I enjoyed sitting here and having coffee in the morning and getting a feel for the neighborhood as people walked past the windows.  For example, there is a very elderly man who lives in the apartment across the street.  He leaves every morning just a bit before 10 am, wearing an overcoat and hat and carrying a cane and briefcase.  He returns about an hour later.  He does this every day without fail, regardless of the weather.  I am curious about where he goes and why he carries the briefcase.

The sunroom was a ton of fun to do.  There is a hook on the ceiling for hanging plants so I put my upside down Christmas tree up there.

There currently is no heat in the sunroom and since it is on the north side of the house and it is December, there isn’t much sun either.  When we moved this was the first room I set up.  It was small and manageable.  There wasn’t any construction happening in here.  (Eventually the mess from the music room spilled into the space but initially it was very nice.)   I enjoyed sitting here and having coffee in the morning and getting a feel for the neighborhood as people walked past the windows.  For example, there is a very elderly man who lives in the apartment across the street.  He leaves every morning just a bit before 10 am, wearing an overcoat and hat and carrying a cane and briefcase.  He returns about an hour later.  He does this every day without fail, regardless of the weather.  I am curious about where he goes and why he carries the briefcase.

A friend got me a sign several years ago that says “Tangled tinsel Christmas tree farm.” Ever since, we have had a lot of fun adding tinsel to our Christmas decorating.  This year the sunroom was transformed into the tangled tinsel Christmas tree farm.

There is the slight problem with this room that I haven’t solved yet.  I opened the windows when we moved in and have since discovered that they are in worst shape than I had suspected and I can’t get them closed again.  It wasn’t a problem during the summer but if we ever get a long cold stretch or snow I may have some trouble.

The Maids Pantry.

The cabinets here are the same original oak as in the butlers pantry. I love having the glass doors.  It makes it simple to find things and since they are wide and not deep I am not stocking new things in front and having unused canned goods lost at the back.

When we had our tour guide training the week before the tours, I had not decorated the pantry.  Hadn’t even put it on my list to decorate.  So I added some lights and garland with lights and gingerbread ornaments , a tiny tree with miniature  glass candy and glass candy cane ornaments and called it decorated.  It actually looks very cute!

The butler’s pantry is one of my favorite features.  Who would have thought you NEED a butler’s pantry when there is no butler in residence?  Ours has beautiful tiger oak cabinets with huge linen drawers, glass front cabinets on top with a neat adjustable shelf system, and space to lay put platters.  The opposite wall has the original marble sink with eight faucets that are still a bit of a mystery.  It is believed they were for hot and cold city water and hot and cold softened water to each side of the sink.  There is an original butlers ice box.  Heaven forbid he would need to go through the kitchen to the ice box ROOM to get your creamer!  The pantry also is home to a large silver safe behind a set of oak doors.  The silver safe is a Toledo product manufactured by the Pixley safe and lock company.  The lock has been disabled but we have the combination and may have it be a working safe again.  Above the cabinets are window wells that allow natural light into the servants staircase.

My nutcracker collection seemed to be the perfect addition to this room’s holiday décor.

On Sunday the Women of the Old West End had their big fundraiser, a holiday tour of neighborhood homes.  I am still not entirely certain how we decided to participate but we included our home on the tour.  Besides trying to replace plumbing, get heat to the house and patching plaster we had to decorate our home for Christmas in preparation of 1000 people or more to visit.  It was a little overwhelming to say the least.  Oldest daughter’s Christmas date dance was the evening before and the preview tour for all the house captains and other home owners.  I agreed to have 20 juniors here for pictures and dinner.  I am certainly out of my mind. When a local television station wanted to broadcast live from our home the morning of the tour, it nearly pushed me over the edge.

When it was all said and done, the house looked great (I think) the high school kids had a great time and a lot of people came to the tours because this house was included.  I had to have all my decorating completed before Thanksgiving.  I usually don’t start until the Monday after Thanksgiving!  I didn’t want to post any pictures before the tour so I will do my version of the 12 days of Christmas and put up a different room each day.

First day, the dining room.  It was the first one I decorated.  I was asked to have the table set for a holiday meal as part of the decorations,  Since my china is ivory and gold this seemed like the right room to put my Lenox snowflake ornaments on the tree.  I also wanted to put our rather extensive Nativity set on display and the buffet offered the perfect place.  Mary and Joseph are traveling along the plate rail a little closer each day to Bethlehem.

Background info on the dining room:

The dining room is twenty five feet long and features carved wormy chestnut woodwork, an elaborate built-in two tier sideboard with Rondel leaded glass windows.  The original hand carved Della-Robia chandelier hangs over the table.  There is a cathedral style leaded glass door that leads to the sunroom and a pass through window to the butlers pantry.  The pass-through was added by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate when the house was their residence.  There was once a large dinner bell that hung over the pass-through to call the priests to meals.  They also had a large dining room table made from the same chestnut as the rest of the room.  It had legs that matched the columns on the side-board and the edge of the table was carved to match the chandelier.  It had remained in the room until the owners we bought the house from removed it.  We attempted to get it back but to no avail.  So sad that someone who claimed to love this house would remove such a big part of its history.