Put to Good Use

This trip I was able to unpack and put some of my finds to good use.

Here I used the antique silver tray and one of the blue vases we found at Savers for a little bathroom aroma therapy.

What do you think? Do you like it? Do ya? Do ya? Huh? I do!

I did discover that the little claw feet make dark marks on the sink top.

What to do?

They're too small to stick little felt pieces to them so I just put a dab of hot glue on the bottom and flattened them right away. Worked out great and no more dark marks!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

This Weeks Find

I went into the store with the thought; Hey, I'll just take pictures of what I see...I will still have the thrill of the find, but won't have to worry about where to put it or reselling it.

Looks like someone got rid of their "funny sayings" statues

 

Gave me a giggle or two.

Repeated my mantra - I 'm not going to buy anything.

Saw a bowl like this (but totally tarnished)

photo source 

Turned it over and it had a stamp on the bottom" WM Rogers, 427". They wanted $29.90 for it. Did a quick google search and found a few just like it and it was priced about right. But it wasn't anything that I might find a use for and, to me, it wasn't unique enough to make me feel I should splurge and buy it....like I did with the decanter.

So proud, "I 'm not going to buy anything."

Then I saw this one

Nice shape, love the little feet...I could see this sitting on the sink in the bathroom with some doo dads.....It was in bad shape, but I thought if I can't get it clean I could maybe spray paint it....

uh oh, I'm thinking about what I could do with it...

You guessed it, I bought something.

When I got it home I wrapped it in paper towels soaked with Tarn-ex and let it sit for a bit. Then I polished it with my dremel stuff. Turned out pretty nice

I am really amazed how the inside turned out. The surface was  all roughed up and I though it was ruined. Guess I thought wrong. 

I looked up the company, San Giovanni, and it seems they mainly made real silver items, because I didn't find anything silver plated. So maybe this is a rare, unique find?

Judging by the shape and style it could be from the late 30's or 40's. At $4.99 it was a good deal.

Love the light reflections and am sure it will add a touch of somethin-somethin to our bathroom.

So this is my find, what's yours?

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Product Review - Swanstone Contour Sink

This is the sink I fell in love with and choose for our bathroom. I loved the lines and ample counter space.

Now that we were at the house I was able to look at and live with it for a bit I've discovered it's kind of like an internet romance after the first meeting gone bad.

"Baby, in the pictures you sent me you looked great, but you're not livin' up to them."

It looks nice and shiny, doesn't it? It isn't. The surface is totally mat and every time hubby washed his hands, after being in the yard, the entire sink and counter top surface was dirty. Yeah, he's a splasher, but the water that was in the sink should run down and not just cling to the sink (my MIL suggested I put towels down on either side to catch Hubby's splashes - she knows her boy :o) ).

See how it sucks up all the light? Mat, mat, mat...Nothing like the shine in the pic above.

ANYway I polished it with turtle wax, in the hope the water, at least in the basin part, would run down. But the mat surface was like a sponge and sucked it up in a day. Not to mention the slight green hue the turtle wax left behind. Do I want to wax and polish the sink every day? Not really.

Oh yeah, one other thing. I don't know where it came from but there is a glass pin head sized orange stain near the faucet and two black scratches in the countertop to the left. I couldn't beach it out, couldn't polish it out. Stubborn.

I did reach out to Swanstone, the company that makes the sink, admitting that it was my misfortune/fault....not looking at it in real life before purchasing, but asking them what I could do about the issues. I remember writing them before about counter tops and never heard back. This time if they don't respond I will pick up the phone and give them a call.

Don't get me wrong, I do love the bathroom and how it turned out and am happy with my choices and can live with cleaning it...just wish I didn't have to. All of this brings us full circle to the look before you buy episode with the fridge. Will I ever learn?

So my review is more like a warning to anyone that might be interested in this sink. Please be aware that the surface is mat, you will have to clean a lot and it stains and scratches easily.

For now I am eagerly waiting for a response, I'll keep you posted.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Bathroom Revisited

Before you go on, let me refresh your memory. This is what the bathroom looked like before.

While we were there I did some painting. Number one on my list  was the bathroom. After looking at the swatches for a few days we agreed on a lighter blue.

This is how it turned out.

This one is a little brighter

Love the way the white built in pops off the wall.

Since this was a small room and there were lots of things to tape off - it was a bit of a PITA, but I love the way it turned out and I KNOW that it will stay blue for a long, long time...lol

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Aloha a Hui Hou!

Antiquing

On our trip we did a bit of "antiquing". Nothing big, just a few small items to give our house a home-ie feel.

Let's start with the small Kraft American crate we found in a little antique shop in Caldwell. I have a crate here in Hawaii for our condiments, but it is new, made to look old. I like this MUCH better.

We had been shopping around for a spoon rest and just couldn't find something we liked - Till I saw this baby at a thrift store. In Germany it's called milk glass, unsure if that its what it is called here. On the inside it has fruit embossed on it and on the out side there are flowers. Easy to clean and dish washer safe! Just the way I like it.

The "green" collection

Currently I don't have room to store any vases, let alone have any flowers in the yard that I could put in one...so I don't really have any (I'm cheap, Ok? I don't want to PAY for flowers...lol). But at the house I will have tulips, lilacs, iris, roses and and and, so I'll be needing vases. We stopped at a local thrift shop and I became obsessed with green glass. It's all older glass and I was able to make a killing. I got it all for under $15....cool, Huh?

Vintage Mason Jars

For months I've been ogling the canning jar soap pumps that Post Road Vintage has been offering on Etsy. I planned to order 2 before we flew, but just didn't get around to it.

In the first antique shop we found a quart size jar and I thought "wait a minute! I could make that!"  Taking another look at the jar I came to realize that a quart size jar would be a bit too big to fit on the ledge of the kitchen sink.

So we kept looking. We got lucky at the thrift store and found 2 pints, two more quart size jars (that I could always use as vases) AND I found two soap dispensers with metal pumps. I was in business!

Our neighbor was so kind to drill a hole in the lids and with a glue gun I was able to secure the pumps in the lids. I love making/creating things for the house that will get some use.

The bedroom doors had the original brass door knobs, but they had seen better days. At one of the other antique stores in Caldwell we were able to get two beautiful glass door knobs.

I put them on the doors and they feel great in the hand.

The door to the wood room is still the original wood and looks great. The doors to the light room and the bathroom are painted. I hope to strip them and find that they are as beautiful as the other door.

Can't wait to get back and find some more treasures!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

First Coat

Roger got to thinking, and said that when we get to the house and we want to take a shower, it might cause problems with the unprotected dry wall. It might take in the moisture and would be trapped in there when we painted.

So we asked Lisa and David to prime the walls for us and what a difference just a little bit of white paint makes!

Another big step in the right direction!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

The Missing Piece

Today they put in the shower surround!

Hope to get pics that show the whole thing using a wide angle lens on our next visit!

Another thing that can be checked off the to do list! Lovin' it!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Heard it Through the Grapevine

I wrote Lisa, Lisa called Atkinson's  and they told her to tell me that they will be coming over on Thursday to put in the shower surround!

Can you gimme a W00t W00t! ?

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Rainbow

So I am really exited to choose which color to paint the bathroom. I'm so excited that I had to play around with the room using photoshop and came up with these versions of the paint color.

1) this is one of the version that I like...

2

3) and this one

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

This was a quick play with color and there are a ton of different shades of blue and green, but so far I think I'm leaning towards blue again! What do you think? Which is your favorite? 

Aloha Hui hou!