We Have Somewhere to Sit!

We had to get rid of the old couch and chairs. Look what we found on Kijiji! Yay for Kijiji! We live in an area where one cannot find a great variety of furniture. I was surprised when I saw this furniture advertised for sale. It is circa-1910, so it fits perfectly in the Victorian house. And now we have somewhere to sit in the parlour, so everybody is happy. :)

Chair and Sofa

The furniture was originally from Boston. It was recovered at some point, but it's in amazing shape. Its two previous homes included a formal living room and a bedroom, so it has been well cared for.

Notice the wrinkles in our wallpaper. We are afraid to remove it, for fear of what is behind it! I mean, we can't afford to remove it at this point. I think we will have to wait until we are at the stage of exploring what is in the walls, and then insulating them and really renovating the house. The previous owner of the Little Blue House told me that it was likely insulated with sawdust! Can you imagine this, in a climate with very cold winters?

Sofa, in its New Home!

I think this is a beautiful spot to sit. I wish to spend some time here, but work keeps getting in the way! That is how it goes. I hope that my family will be able to spend lots of time in this house. It feels like it needs to be lived in.

Our children are fascinated by the doorbell. You can see it on the door, in the above photo. This is the original front door - there is a little crank on the outside of the door, and when you turn it, the bell rings. It's a perfect, mechanical doorbell. I also love how small the doors are, and how the doorknobs are kind of low down. People were smaller back in 1898!

Wingback Chair

Here is the lovely wingback chair. It's really comfortable, and the kids look adorable curled up in it. We put a rug down on the linoleum floor, since there are lots of rough spots where it's joined together. You can see some of the metal bands in the above photo, that were used to join the pieces of lino together when the floor was laid. There are places where the metal bands are pulling up, and due to previous water damage, some of the metal has rusty patches. Repairing the lino, and/or pulling it up to refinish the wood floor underneath, is on "The List."

I read recently that old homes are best restored from the outside-in, and bottom-up. That is probably good advice. For now, until we can afford a restoration, I think we will keep it dry and look after it as best we can. We shall explore nooks and crannies as we gather up the courage, right?

Well, I would love to go on, and describe some of the history of the Little Blue House, because from what we've learned so far, it's very much worth telling, but that will have to wait. It is past my bedtime!