Post #4
It's been a week since I last posted. Things have been crazy around here. We're having a big sale tomorrow and the house has been temporarily turned into an antique shop. It's a good thing I started this blog when I did.
So come in and sit a while. I have a lot more to tell you about my house.
You enter the living room to the left of the door. Once there were oak pocket doors, but the last doctor (number three) took them out in an effort to modernize. I've always mourned the loss of those doors.
Doctor number two had an oak grandfather clock built into the wall -- who knows why. His son, a doctor also, remembers it being installed but did not know the reasoning behind it. Maybe for stability,because his 5 children were known to be wild. All became doctors, nurses, and/or married doctors.
Doctor number one's youngest daughter, Hilda, was born in this house. She wrote a book about the house when she was in her eighties. I corresponded with her a few times and through a series of events received a copy of her book. It tells about each room, whose bedroom was whose, and even where furniture was placed. Her mother used to sit in this corner in 1907 and look out at the hummingbirds in her trumpet vine while she quilted. I used to host a quilting bee and many times we would sit in this room while we worked.
Hilda wrote about the fact that she had to take piano lessons and the piano sat on this wall, the very same place where I had placed mine. She remembers being the first house in town to get electricity and tells what that was like when the workers removed the gas chandeliers.
Looking into the dining room, you can see my husband's Victrola. He has several throughout the house. Some we will sell, but we are keeping this one.
The doll on the lid was my grandmother's. I had new hair and eyes put on her and then I made her dress and bonnet, much of it stitched by hand. I was younger then and had more patience.
We also have a lot of things from the Orient, as we used to say. We lived in Taiwan for two years when he was in the Navy and I was a new bride. I've always loved the mixture of Oriental and Victorian antiques.
This antique Queen Victorian chair was in a house my parents bought when I was 12. No one wanted it, it was just an old chair to them. But I loved antiques even then. I had it in my bedroom and used to read in it and dream about my future husband and what my life would be like.
As I look at these pictures, I can see we have been over the top with our collections; plates, vases, music boxes, eggs, geisha girl, blue willow, cobalt glass, canes, books, perfume bottles, Victrolas, eye wash cups (yes, Duane loves the colored glass ones) watering cans, etc. etc. It really is time to part with some of it.
In the cupboard, you can see some depression glass, mostly ruby and lots of Bavarian dishes, as well as my smoke blue crystal glasses I bought in Taiwan.
The hutch, for the most part, houses my good china. The plates and black vase on top were Duane's grandmother's. She got them as wedding gifts in 1910.
THe red vase as well as the one on the buffet were gifts from my daughter. She brought them back from one of her trips to Romania. We took the large one to Antiques Roadshow this summer when it was in Grand Rapids! So now it has a claim to fame.
We found the picture in an antique shop about 15 years ago. It literally stopped us in our tracks because it looks like Duane when he was a child. It was odd placing him in that era, so we had to have it. People that we know will look at it and at first say, Is that Duane? No it can't be!
The plate rail is a little bowed but it's still holding. These are not real old houses. I painted them myself in the 80s when apparently my eyesight was exceptional. Now I look at them and wonder how I ever did it.
A stained glass window we bought at a flea market for dirt cheap! We brought it home and popped it in. Just like it was made for that window. The clock was in one of our antique shops. No one wanted it so I brought it home. I did that a lot which is probably why the shop never made any money :) It also was a perfect fit for this spot and the dark wood matched the dining room set.
This stained glass was made by the same lady who made the insert on my piano. When I was giving lessons to adults as well as children, we struck a barter deal. We figured out labor hours only, I paid for the glass, and then I gave her lessons to equal the same number of hours she put in on the window. I will not part with this either.
Is your tea getting cold? Need a refresher? Oh, I'm so sorry you have to go. Come again soon so we can see more of Happenstance House. Maybe next time I'll tell you how she got her name.
