A Bathroom Mystery

I suppose, technically, something is not a mystery if you never suspected anything amiss. We had walked through the upstairs master bathroom a dozen times and it never dawned on us that there was something not quite right. 

The first clue is that the upstairs bathroom is stacked exactly on top of the downstairs bathroom. The toilet and the baths are in the same place in both bathrooms, with the exception of the upstairs sink being located on the south wall, instead of the north wall. 

Here's the second clue. This is the downstairs bathroom. 

Any guesses what's missing in the upstairs bathroom? 

Here's another clue...The upstairs shower stall. 

And another clue...The downstairs bathtub. 

Do you see it? 

If not, this is what I was looking at the other morning when I noticed the upstairs window - drawn closed with one of the vinyl shades. Wait, hadn't we removed all of those? 

Then I realized that it is not a shade at all, as that is where the shower surround is located. 

The window had been covered up to allow for a shower surround.

I can't believe we didn't notice this earlier! 

We will uncover the window in the renovation. It changes ALL of my plans for that bathroom but I'm excited to bring more light into that room. 

An Old House Tour

There are several entrances to the house. At the moment, this side entrance is the primary entry we're using while completing renovations before we move in. 

It is a classic old mudroom. 

Here we are in the dining room. The sliding metal door to the left goes to an outdoor patio. 

This will be the living room, which is a wonderful larger room. 

The other side of that same room. 

We'll use the other front room for our office. 

The downstairs bathroom. 

Here's a peak down the center hall. 

I love this little door underneath the stairs. 

Here's the upstairs master bedroom. 

The other side of the master bedroom.  

Off of the master bedroom is the master bath. A second door leads to a hallway and to the other two upstairs rooms. 

I had an amazing ah-ha moment this morning regarding this bathroom - a true old house mystery! I can't wait to share it in a future post. 

Here is the larger of the other two bedrooms. 

And the smaller of the two. 

From the top of the stairs, there's a peek at the front door. 

The kitchen, looking one way... 

And the other. 

The kitchen nook. 

Off of the kitchen is a room we'll use as the family/playroom. 

It has two great big windows. 

The other windows are blocked by a very overgrown rhododendron that we'll be pruning back a bit to allow more light to enter. 

This is the utility/laundry room. 

Laundry area.

The utility room leads to another door. 

That takes you to a very special place...

A place where Grandma (my mom) and other guests will stay when visiting. Lots of work to do before that happens! 

It has two big windows, which brighten the space. 

The door to the left is the bathroom. 

There is a shower on the opposite wall. 

The door to the right goes to a dark but rather spacious area. This space thrills me as it provides extra space for nieces and nephews. I realize that this isn't the most wonderful photo to offer incoming guests but I promise, improvements will be made! 

The barn, which is located beneath the guest quarters. 

So that is our new old house. Built in 1825, it is of Federal-style architecture, with most of the historic features still in tact. For the last 25 years, it has been owned by a wonderful man and his family who used it as a summer home. 

There's plenty of work to do before we move in. We are going to update the kitchen and bathrooms and there will be a lot of paint involved (adding and subtracting). 

I'm excited to share the renovation process with you. 

A New (Old) House

We closed on a new (old) house. It has been a little over a year since we re-located back east and we are very excited to finally have a house to call home. 

It is a fixer upper although not nearly as in depth as our last house. This home needs the most of one simple thing - paint. Inside and out. 

The front of the house has two large rooms which are divided by a center hall. 

One of the first things we did this weekend was remove all of the vinyl shades. 

More photos to follow! 

New Slipcovers - for our car seats!

I am over the moon about our new custom made ORGANIC car seat covers. The wonderful Kate at Sassy Stork (whom I found on Etsy) made these and I am so pleased. 

When we purchased our toddler car seats, I did a lot of research (using the EWG web site) to find the healthiest/safest car seats that we could. We opted for the seats that were ranked the cleanest, but I still always struggled with the possibility of unknown chemicals applied to the fabrics during manufacturing. I also did a search for custom covers at that time, but didn't find any options that were organic (primarily, that used organic batting). 

Now there is an option, which is wonderful! These covers replicate the exact dimensions and fit of the manufacturer's version that we are replacing. 

Sassy Stork uses organic batting (cotton or wool) and organic fabric, for which there are several choices.  

Beautiful. 

The Blueberry

Blueberries are in. We have been bringing home quarts upon quarts of them from our local co-op. These are organic low bush blueberries. The fruit is smaller than the high bush varieties, and (according to the dumplings), "They are so cute!" 

We eat our blueberries with yogurt mostly. And of course, spilled over our favorite french toast or pancake breakfast. 

Happy blueberries to you.