This morning the kids and I took a walk in the woods before we started our day.
The chestnut trees are starting to drop chestnuts.
Acorns 
Hickory Nuts
Mr. Sun was trying to peek through the trees
The neighbors cows
Skyward view
Honey loves going for walks.
We have walnuts all over the place.
Our Leprechaun gives out pots of butternuts not gold
I came home last night from my weekly choir practice to find my 3 year old in a Superman costume fast asleep in this position.
This past Friday my husband and I made the trip across the state of Ohio to attend the Springfield Antique Show and Flea Market and Vintage Marketplace Extravaganza over in Springfield, Ohio located at the Clark County Fairgrounds right off US70.
We left our house at 5 am, I drove on the way there while my husband napped in the car. We had a quick stop at Ihop for some crepes which were sooo tasty I could go for some more right now actually. The traffic wasn’t to bad going through Columbus even during rush hour and a bit of road construction along the way. It was pretty pleasant drive there, while the husband napped I listened to an audio book by Debbie Macomber.
With this trip I was hoping to hit up one vendor that had been at the May show where I found a bounty of vintage items for fab prices, but alas the vendor didn’t make it to this show which was slightly disappointing. However many of the other vendors more than made up for it.
We saw many things and I know we missed a few places since it is a huge show to attend. It is well worth the drive and entrance fee to get in to the show. Per the Springfield antique show and flea market website “the show has become a resource for decorating/design professionals. We can say with confidence that our design customers are constantly amazed by the quantity, quality, variety and PRICING of what our vendors turn up with.” And it is all that and more.
Here are few photographs I managed to snap throughout the day.
Dress made using a dress form, newspaper and twinkle lights.
Isn’t that the truth.
Cutest desk! I tried to convince my husband our 3 year old needs this desk, it was a no go though.
Glassware Galore, if you are a collector of any type of glassware this show has it in spades.
So my skillets, my husband has started collecting skillets for us to use and I love to cook with them.
Do you remember Sleeping Beauty? Aurora (Brier Rose) pricked her finger on a spinning wheel such as this one that put her into a deep sleep.
One of the clothing vendors at the show.
1940’s Hedgehog family made in Germany.
Vintage Home Operators System, so cool.
This was my find of the day Christian Dior Fur Collar which is already SOLD.
I am not sure what the heck this is supposed to be but it was just odd enough that a photograph was needed.
We had so much fun together even though my husband kept wandering off and we met up with some friends for dinner on the way home. Over all it was pleasant day.
Have a good one,
Kristen
Before I started this renovation there had been carpets my husband and a few friends removed from the apartment with the exception of the dining room, living room and staircase. Underneath the fabulous shag carpets in greens and oranges was old carpet padding that had been (GASP) glued to the floors. Why they glued them I have no idea but it is a very awful thing for them to do to these beautiful floors.
As you can seen in these pictures the level of nasty green carpet glue, this is after I have scrapped all of the thick parts off and swept the floors. After asking a few friend for some ideas on how to remove this nastiness, someone suggested a adhesive solvent stripper, I looked around for some and I finally found exactly what I was looking for at Lowes of all place (Who would have thought the hardware store would have?? 😉 ) I bought Crown Solu-Strip Adhesive Stripper for about $27.00 a gallon. Now their suggestion to put a thin coat was not working, so I would put thick layers on a small 5′ by 5′ area and cover with cheap trash bags and let it sit for 20-35 minutes depending on the level of thickness of the glue. I would do other things during those wait times like remove wallpaper, wash walls, paint walls etc.
I applied the solvent with a paintbrush and wore work gloves and eye protection just to be safe since I am accident prone occasionally.
This was what it first looked like when I started, I used cheap trash bags to cover them and a putty knife along with a razor blade scrapper to remove the carpet glue. Sometimes it came up like butter being put on a hot biscuit other times I needed the razor blade to take off a few hard spot.
The difference between the carpet glue and the hardwood floors is amazing.
This shot was taken from the bathroom shooting down the hallway, I have yet to measure the amount of square footage of carpet glue I have actually removed I will get to that one of these days.
Different views of the hallway near the living room and the hallway into the dining room.
This is the floor of my studio the only bedroom where the carpet was not glued down, I recently discovered the living room isn’t glued down either. I was very excited to find that out and will reveal that flooring once I have painted in there. Please don’t mine the mess in the corner my husband was putting plaster up that day.
The stairs leading upstairs to the apartment, they used bunches of carpet staples to hold the carpet down. Once I removed all of the staples I washed the backs of the stairs and used a natural colored wood filler to fill in the holes. I plan on painting the back of the stairs white again and I am leaving the tops as they are.
The view from the living room down the hallway.
The view back towards the living room from the bathroom.
The green bedroom aka the bedroom closest to the living room.
Second bedroom, don’t mind my clothing racks that are just waiting for my studio to be done.
I still have much to do with the floors like sand them and restain them with a traditional cherry stain, I want to keep the integrity of the building.
I currently have close to 30 hours of work on these floors alone and 10 or 12 gallons of adhesive solvent used.
Until next time….
Kristen
When my husband and I first bought this building I had suggested to my husband that we turn the apartment upstairs into a studio for my vintage inventory. He laughed at me and said no, his original plan was to rent the apartment out. It is fairly large with 3 bedrooms, a nice size living room, kitchen and dining room. There is also a laundry room however it doesn’t have any of the hook ups for a washer or dryer so I am not sure what it was used for possibly just a ironing/sewing room.
After a year of letting the upstairs sit empty my husband brought up the idea that I use one of the bedrooms as a studio (he acted like it was his idea, tsk tsk.) I immediately jumped on the idea since my inventory is literally taking over my house which isn’t that big to begin with and started right away. After a few bumps in the road like finding a babysitter to watch my 3 children while I worked was my biggest hurdle but one that I overcame and I found a wonderful babysitter for my kids and she come twice a week so I can go work.
This pink room is my studio, this is a before picture with the exception of the carpet with was already removed by the time my husband gave me the go ahead. As you can see it is a Pepto Bismol Pink even the ceiling, what you don’t see is the 3 or 4 layers of wallpaper underneath that nasty pink paint.
There was serious work to be done, I spent probably 15 hours just scrapping paint and wallpaper off of these walls.
Underneath all of the wallpaper is plaster and sheet rock, as this building is very old. It was originally built in the 1840’s, the exact year is unclear. The building originally was a general store/ funeral home, eventually it was just a funeral home. That was the last business to be in this building until we rented the downstairs space to a computer repair shop called My Local PC Pro.
All of that brown stuff is wallpaper waiting for me to scrap it off. I used a razor blade scrapper to remove it along with a spray bottle of water it came right off without damaging the plaster or sheet rock.
The wall where the closet and door is made of a cardboard like substance perhaps the first kind of drywall? It is very thin and thankfully won’t need much repair before I paint it.
There is still a lot to be done in this room, I finished with the wallpaper and washed all of the walls to get the old glue off. My husband helped me put the first layer of plaster in a particularly large hole.
Kris's Vintage Clothing 