Monday, July 21, 2014

Furniture refinishing projects I am working on

Picked this 5 piece vintage wrought iron set up for free off of Carleton Place swap shop our local facebook swap shop.  I fell in love with the scroll work.  The table is yellow with a heavy glass top, just needs to be cleaned up and repainted.  The 4 chairs are yellow with a tapestry type of material in amazing condition.  I want to clean them up and repaint them (not sure about recovering will decide later when I figure out where they are going).





Furnishing our Sparta Georgia Home

Being the frugal people we are, my husband and I wanted to furnish our home a little bit at a time, and take advantage of all the wonderful flea markets, antique stores, thrift stores, re-stores (habitat for humanity), local decor stores, to decorate and furnish our new home.  The following are the pieces we purchased, where we purchased them and the cost to us.  It is a work in progress.


The first thing we purchased was a 9 piece living room set off of Craigslist for $700.00 it was a french provincial set consisting of a couch, love seat, chair, 3 side tables, coffee table, telephone table and  display table (behind the couch).  We had spent 2 days sitting on the floor (as we had no furniture) so this seemed the obvious first thing to buy.  Once we got it set up, my husband didn't like it, but we ended up keeping it and moving the couch and chair into our master bedroom, the telephone table into the spare room as a night stand.  I am planning on sanding down the other tables and painting them to match our decor.



The next pieces we bought were a cabinet for the upstairs bathroom and the kitchen.  Since all the trim in our home is green, we were pleasantly surprised when we spotted the bathroom cabinet as the colour matched perfectly.  These were purchased from a wonderful Flea market in Madison, Georgia 1291 Eatonton Road, approx 40 mins away.  The Bathroom cabinet we paid $89.00 for and the kitchen one was $120.00 (it has lights inside).  The flea market was located inside a big red barn, and was amazing I could have spent all day there.


We purchased a set of matching mirrors, to go over mine and Steve's separate sinks, these were purchased at our new neighbour and friend Maria's store in Sparta called RoomsUlove, Maria refurbishes old pieces to look amazing, her husband Bill is a great craftsman and builds beautiful unique pieces for her store as well.  We fell in love and bought these mirrors for $75.00 
These 3 pieces we purchased in Lotcus Grove, Georgia about 1.25 hours away in the Tangers Outlet Mall at Kirklands store.  Steve fell in love with the large cow picture $39.00, and I with the piglets $24.00.  


 The large mirror for the downstairs bathroom was on sale for $29.00 and was the perfect size.  We got a couple of other bargains at the outlet mall, but the rest were clothing related.


Our most fabulous finds were at Glen's Flea market in Sparta.  Glen goes to estate sales during the week and every Saturday and Sunday he opens his doors and sells his amazing finds for amazing prices.  This gorgeous 8 place setting hand painted embossed dish set with matching Canisters we got for $39.00.  
 The gigantic Armour was a steel at $75.00 it has double hidged doors.  We originally bought it for the upstairs spare room, but couldn't get it up the stairs, so my wonderful father made 3 extra adjustable shelves for it and it fit perfect in our kitchen as a large pantry.
 This matching set included a nightstand (which we brought back to Canada) it was $80.00 for the set which will eventually be used in the upstairs landing as a computer center and book shelves once we get a bedroom dresser etc... for our master bedroom.
 Glen graciously donated this couch and chair to us for free as a welcome to Sparta gift from him.  They were perfect for the spare room (may need to recover eventually) but for now they work well.
 We purchased the king sized cannon ball bed from Glen for $299.00 the ironic thing is we have the exact same bed in queen size with matching night stands, dresser, mirror and high boy at home in our spare room in Canada (we may bring some of the pieces down from Canada for this room).  The Mattress we bought at a flea market in Saunderson (1/2 hour away) for $200.00 it was brand new and so comfortable.  We kind of snuck in when the owners were in the store setting up it wasn't open until the next day, they let us browse and sold us the mattress, very nice people.  The box springs were two twins the previous owner left behind.
 Glen sold us this queen sleigh bed with brand new beautyrest box spring and mattress for $199.00, it was perfect for the spare room.
 This I bought off Glen for $12.00 it fits perfect in our living room fireplace all I need are 9 large candles to finish it off.

The following 3 pictures were purchased at the Madison Flea Market on our trip back to Sparta in June the pig picture was $5.00, the poppies $12.00 and the other flower picture was $8.00.
This picture we bought for $8.00 at the Goodwill store in Reynolds plantation (1/2 hour away)

We then visited the Re-Store (Habitat for Humanity) in Reynolds Platation we did a bit of wheeling and dealing, picked up this gorgeous walnut dinning table and 6 chairs for $288.00. My plan is to recover the chairs (depending on how difficult) or I may purchase matching chair covers (although I hate to hide all the beautiful detailing on the chairs).    
2 super large and comfy matching white couches for $400.00.  The tragedy is that on our way home from the store we lost both of the large seat cushions, we went back and found one propped on a stop sign, the other was never found.  So I will have to be creative I have a large couch pad in a different colour so I am hoping to cover both seat cushions in matching material so the couches look good together. 

 Steve feel in love with this dream TV watching chair and ottoman and got them down to $20.00 for the set.
 We also purchased a set of matching end tables for $30.00 to use as night stands in our bedroom.
The stackable washer and dryer we purchased new at Sears in Milledgeville.  We got the set on sale for $1000.00 ($800 off), so we were happy.  Although we had to purchase all the hoses, stack kit, electrical plug, and vent connection for them separately.
 I bought this bench in Walmart it was on clearance for $20.00, and Steve put it together for me.
Found these 2 pictures at Value Village for $3.99 each and thought they fit the farm animal theme in the kitchen.

 We stopped in at the Greenboro Habitat for Humanity store and they had 50% off all their pictures picked up these 3 for $40.00 for all of them.  What we didn't realize at the time (I was a bit distracted by a text I had gotten while we were shopping) and it turned out 2 of the pictures are the same picture in 2 different frames, one had glass, the other plexiglass so I didn't realize right away.


 Of Course we had to stop at our favorite flea Market in Madison where my Husband fell in love with this telescope for $30.00, now if we can figure out how to work it, it will be fun to spy on the neighbours (just kidding) would love to take it out back and check out the stars.
We also picked up this lovely Candle holder (For another one of our fireplaces) for $9.00
and this foldable plant stand (which I will relocate once I find a laundry cabinet that fits here) for $6.50 (it was market down from $60.00).
 Yes a shop vac (with a story of course), We lugged 13 packages of roof shingles to The Home Depot (as the day before they told us they would give us a Store Credit), only to discover they were a special order shingle and they couldn't take them back, so the Manager Lad sold us this Shop Vac for $20.00 was originally $80.00 on sale for $40.00.  The shingles are another story ...

 We of course visited our favorite Habitat for Humanity store in Lake Oconee (Eatondon) and picked up this beautiful "Kathy Ireland" Armoire and dresser for $320.00 to go in our Guest room.

 We also visited Glen's Flea Market in Sparta and got these lovely table lamps for our bedroom for $14.99 for the pair.

 This tallboy dresser we dragged from our home in Canada down to Georgia because it matches our King size Cannon Ball Bed in our Master bedroom.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Have A Look At This Home In Sparta

Our 200 year old Winter Home in Sparta Georgia

Front of the home 

 Back of the home


This is the home we purchased in Sparta Georgia.  It was built in 1820 and is 3100 sq feet with 6 main rooms each approx 20' x 20' kitchen, dining room, living room, main bathroom, master bedroom, spare room, each of these rooms has its own fireplace.  There is also a 1/2 bath downstairs and a walk in closet upstairs.  The ceilings are 12' tall throughout the home.  It has the original plank flooring throughout and plank ceilings as well.  The in the dining room is the original hand painted ceiling.  It sits on 1.4 acres of land.  Following are pictures of the interior before we moved in.
Historical Society description
The Berry House, with construction dating to before 1820, is one of Sparta's earliest houses. Historically known as the Richard Malcolm Johnston-Ann Berry House, the house's design is reminiscent of 19th-century New England homes. Originally built with a detached kitchen, the Berry House is now two rooms wide and one room deep with an el housing the kitchen and a bath.
The woodframe house features two large rooms, each roughly 20' x 20', on either side of the main entrance hall on the lower level and two large bedrooms on the second level. The dining room, with its original fireplace and painted ceiling stencil, flows into a new modern kitchen. Above the kitchen is a large bathroom with a showerstall and separate tub. Original interior features, such as wall planks and wooden mantels, have been well preserved and maintained.
The Berry House is in excellent condition and will require very few repairs and upgrades. Recent work on the house employed energy saving techniques and included system upgrades and the installation of insulation.


This is the floor plan
 2 pictures of the kitchen 
A picture of the dining room
A picture of the living room
 
A picture of the 1/2 bathroom
 2 pictures of the main bathroom
A picture of the master bedroom
A picture of the spare bedroom 
  A picture of the upstairs landing (outside the walk in closet)


I also posted a video of the home taken by a real estate agent prior to us purchasing it in March 2014.