weekend in asheville

Brandon and I headed up to Asheville for the weekend to visit his sister and her husband and their new house. We had a great weekend exploring the area. The houses there are all amazing--Victorian, Craftsman, and everything in between. We tried to go to the Grove Park Inn for the antique sale (the conference was a little too serious for us) but we tried to go on Friday, which was a preview day. The sign said $10 for all three shows (antique, new furniture, and books) for all three days, but somehow that only applied to Saturday and Sunday...which, if I count correctly, seems to be just two days. The guy manning the desk didn't seem to understand it, either. To get into the antique sale on Friday was $40 per person, which apparently goes toward some sort of a grant for renovators. A worthy cause, indeed, but too steep for our budget. We decided instead to just hang out at the Grove Park Inn and look like we belonged there (i.e., had paid our way in).

The photo on the top is of the Inn. The photo on the bottom is the two of us at the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site, which has walking trails and a goat barn, as well as a nice gift shop. They also had a cat that looked like Gecko.

More weekend photos are HERE.

Arts & Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn, Asheville

Wow, this sounds like a serious conference for serious Arts & Crafts folks. I never knew that the Grove Park Inn was Arts & Crafts era, just that it was expensive ;) The conference is out of our price range, but it looks like the shows (antiques, books, etc.) are just $10 for a three-day pass. I love this photo I found online, both for the fact that it is "Absolutely Fireproof" as well as the fine print at the bottom that states "We do not entertain conventions. We have found that they disturb the homelike atmosphere of the Inn and interfere with the comfort of guests." Click on the photo to see more of this brochure. Personally, I'm quite grateful to live during a time that one doesn't have to worry about the quality of "plumbing and refrigeration" when choosing a hotel. :)

In another bit of shameless plugging, I just got an email from Crate & Barrel promoting their new Bungalow collection of furniture. It's sort of a Zen Craftsman look...

Brandon's mom also brought us a brochure of Craftsman & Mission style furniture from a furniture maker in Franklin, TN. Apparently there are a lot of Amish/Mennonite furniture makers in that area, the furniture is gorgeous, and the prices are very nice, especially for the quality. Obviously, being Amish or Mennonite, they don't have a website, and I understand that many of them don't even have photos of their work, but if you bring them a photo, they can recreate a piece of furniture from it. I'll try to remember to post the info for this particular furniture maker on the blog soon; I think it's a store that sells the work of Amish craftsman, hence the fact that they have brochures with photos.

outside the lines

Buying an old house also means inheriting a yard that you aren't always quite sure about. You think you know where all the plants are going to pop up, and then one surprises you...in the middle of the yard, perhaps. Brandon made this little brick circle around the area where I planted tulips, crocus, and daylilies. It seems that someone had a similar idea before us, however. Wonder what it'll be?

brandon's new love

I haven't posted in days because I am finally recovering from an awful cold/virus/flu thing. I spent four days at home in bed with a fever and finally dragged myself to an urgent care center on Sunday for antibiotics and hope. Feeling better now, but still coughing a lot. Not sure what this thing was, but Brandon had it, as well as both my parents (think they got it from us--sorry!).

At any rate, Brandon has been keeping himself busy with his latest project--cleaning some old door knobs and door plates that we got from a neighboring house. They are remodeling (i.e., making everything new, not restoring) in order to sell or rent it. It's been sort of a halfway house until recently, so we're hoping that whoever moves in will be an improvement.

Brandon saw some old 5-panel doors on their front porch the other day that looked as if they were being discarded. He left a note for the owners and the next day a lady called and said sure, we could have the doors. Little did we realize that they contained this little treasure--what appears to be original Eastlake style hardware! I think there are 8 plates in all, and six door knobs that match.

The house is older than ours, probably dating back to 1900 or so, and is a different style. The doors are massive compared to ours, so no hope of using them in our house, but Brandon is hoping to be able to use the knobs and plates in some doors we got from another lady in town a few months ago.

Once he gets them all finished, I'll post photos. They are really gorgeous and look to have been copper plated at one time, although most of it has worn off by now. More photos are HERE.

bathroom redo

I've been terribly lax (or just too tired?) in writing about the bathroom updates. Check out the photos link here or on the right side of the page. We've done just about everything except paint the trim, which will be white. I think it's taken us three weeks or more for this "weekend" project.

too cute for his own good

Check out more photos (and a short video!) here.

our neighborhood: apathetic or just sleeping in?

So I woke up around 6:15am this morning, determined to get to the polls early and avoid a long wait. Sleep won over determination, however, and I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30am. I arrived at the library where I'm supposed to vote to find an almost empty parking lot. Inside, there were only three voting machines and only three people ahead of me, one of whom was an older gentleman who was yelling about getting a Democratic ballot when he had clearly checked Republican on his form. I remember waiting for more than an hour to vote in Decatur in 2004. Today I was in and out in less than 15 minutes. The precinct is only 2 minutes from our house, too, so it was nice that I had time to get breakfast and still end up at work early.