Tag: Victorian House

Let’s Be Realistic, Here

I’m finding myself fighting scope creep. The new sconces are here (I ordered the Thurman sconce in unlacquered polished brass with clamshell shades), and I went ahead and bought a new faucet and toilet seat too. The bathroom is cute already, and with just these few changes, it’s going to be that much cuter.

But. Then I went and did this little collection, and thought it wouldn’t be that hard to do in the bathroom. Right?

I mean, it just means pulling out the beadboard (walls only? ceiling too?) and the tile in the shower/tub area, putting up new green board everywhere, maybe putting in a plywood subfloor for tile or repainting the existing floor, the tile itself, grout, and wallpaper. Bathtub too? It’s probably fine with new fixtures, but maybe a new toilet, and oh, perhaps the sink too. Ah, but then I don’t need a centerset faucet — I could get a much better looking widespread set! So then, keep the dresser? It’s not in great shape — maybe rebuilding the drawers would help. Or replace it. The pink towels can stay, but new hardware and new hooks, too. Easy peasy! It’s not like I’ve got a kitchen to plan and save for or anything.

If this were our main bathroom, I’d be all over the extra changes. It isn’t though, and we have other rooms to concentrate on. I’m going to do the faucet, the sconces, and the toilet seat this weekend, and we’ll see where that puts us.

September 10, 2015
A Post-Summer Perk Up

This post is brought to you by Target Style.
Shop the new Home collection in stores and online.

Everything has kind of been up in the air, house-wise, waiting for the rewiring work to be done. There are some holes in walls waiting to be patched, and some pretty terrible patchwork waiting to be fixed up. (The electricians are fine electricians, but not so fine at plaster repair. We told them we’d handle that part after seeing how they did it.) I have all of these ideas swirling around for things I want to do in the house, but I have to wait. Gah.

Target asked if I wanted to take on a little post-summer perk up, and I was definitely on board. A quick and easy decorating project was sounding pretty good right about now! The rewiring on the top floor is done, so I gave the bathroom a good cleaning (plaster dust was everywhere) and went out in search of a new shower curtain. This city sketch print was cute, but I chose coral pink because of course I did. We may be transitioning from summer to fall, but I’m always in favor of bringing in more pink all year long.

Since I was changing out the shower curtain, I picked up new brass shower curtain hooks to replace the plastic white ones that were there. It’s easy to find silvery finishes for bathrooms (chrome, nickel), and oil-rubbed bronze is all over the place too, but I was looking specifically for brass and I was glad to see a couple of options for the bathroom at Target without having to order from a more expensive source.

There’s a pink hand towel on the pirate ship hook (why not, right?), and matching bath towels. I hung a couple from the hooks on the back of the door for a picture, but they would normally be tucked away below the sink, in the bottom drawer.

(And I feel like I should point out that the mirror’s dark spots are the result of aged mirror glass. It’s clean — promise.)

I picked up a little red accent rug too. It isn’t a bathmat but it is cotton, and I think it will work well in that spot.

Our routines are about to shift once school starts again. Obviously the kids will be going back, but I might be going back too (depends on whether enough students sign up for the new course I’m supposed to teach). I love that I was able to knock out an update while our days are still relatively calm by just picking up a few new things in a favorite color.

August 18, 2015
Thoughts on Replacing our Antique Stove
Thank you for all of your opinions and feedback. I had been pursuing more general sponsored opportunities lately, which is where my budget for the kitchen is coming from (plus I can’t pay my mortgage in fridges and faucets). Responses to last week’s post varied, as I knew they would, but I was surprised by the overall support in favor of integrating sponsored product.

I was going to hold off on introducing the kitchen redo until plans were more firmly in place, but it could be interesting to take you along for the full ride, yes? I have a tendency to waffle (um, not that you’ve noticed I’m sure) and so I was going to try to hold off on talking about all of this until I was further past the wishy-washy making up my mind stage. But let’s dive in!

First, some context.

We redid the kitchen in our last house for $11,000. That was in 2007, so prices would be a little higher today ($12,660 according to an inflation calculator), but that total covered IKEA cabinets ($1700), quartz counters ($2300), a 30″ stove ($2000) and a 36″ fridge ($1200), a dishwasher ($700), sink (free with the countertop), faucet ($700), lighting ($350), tile ($100), hardware, paint, fabric, and the labor we had to hire for electrical work. People sometimes see a price tag, like $700 alone on a faucet, and get scared off but the overall price for the kitchen was completely reasonable. I remember seeing a $44K makeover on HGTV and feeling pretty good about having pulled off a very similar design for 1/4 the cost.

Five years later, I painted the walls and trim white for an updated look and I fell for the kitchen all over again.

And then we get here, and hello, antique stove! It was a little intimidating, and it took a lot of getting used to. The pilot light is always on, half of it is unusable because it is wood-burning and not vented, there are four gas burners in a 17″ wide space, and the oven is a tiny 18″ wide by 11″ tall with an open flame at the bottom, a hot-to-the-touch oven door, and no temperature regulation. It’s not something I would have ever chosen. But it’s almost a hundred years old, it works the way it’s supposed to and it is definitely unique.

Our 1918 Cast Iron Wood-Burning and Gas Stove from Nicole Balch on Vimeo.

Now that I’ve totally sold you on the wonders of this beauty, who wants to buy it? Anyone? ;)

Yeah. I had wanted a colorful appliance for years — it just worked out a little differently than I thought it would. And I’m the one that has been holding out on replacing it! The stove’s quirk charmed me, but Brandon was down to get rid of the stove from day one. He likes to cook, I like to bake. We can’t do either with the ease we were used to, and simple tasks like boiling water take forever. Eleanor is showing a lot of interest in baking lately, and I would love to be able to do that with her — safely and reliably — in something from this century. Replacing it with a stove like the one we put in our old house (which we were happy with) would seem out of place here, but it is time to find something that will work for us.

We did our last kitchen for $11,000, and there are ranges out there that would eat up that entire budget. We should have at least $10K for this kitchen, maybe as much as $15K, but we need to finish up the electrical work in the house and see where our budget is at. I’ll also be looking to partner with brands on certain aspects of the kitchen, but I’m not sure if the range will be one of them or not. Because of the blog, I have been offered full suites of appliances in the past from more than one brand, but they either came at a time when I wasn’t ready to work on the kitchen, or they weren’t a good fit, like the 50s-inspired line that was very cute but not right for this house. (I wanted to give them away and work them into a kitchen for someone else, but they were only available in exchange for placement in my own home.) So I’m looking at the decision here assuming we are paying for appliances, and if that changes then we’ll have more room in the budget to put toward other things.

Some thoughts on what we are (and are not) looking for…
- Probably 36-44″ wide. This automatically puts it at a higher price point, but we aren’t changing the layout of the kitchen, and that is the space we’re working with. A smaller range would be out of proportion. There is another option, which would be choosing a standard 30″ stove and then replacing the 32″ fridge with a wider model or adding a very narrow cabinet or cart, but do we want to do that? I don’t think so, but I can’t say with 100% certainty yet. We’re not in love with the fridge and replacing it is tempting, but the focus and pressing need here is on the stove.
- Old stoves by Chambers or O’Keefe and Merritt are fabulous workhorses that can still be found relatively affordably. They cook well and look great. After two years on an antique stove though, I’m not looking for something vintage.
- I’m not looking for a reproduction antique or vintage style either, but I am drawn to European ranges. Aga, La Cornue and CornuFé, Lacanche, Bertazonni Heritage, Ilve, Molteni… they’re all beautiful. Some are completely out of reach, but not all of them. I also like that they often come in 40-44″ widths (our antique stove is 44″ wide), and have multiple ovens. I complain about the size of ours, but if we had more than one it wouldn’t be such an issue.
- A professional-style range could be great too though! Stainless steel, modern commercial looks with a big oven and big, beefy knobs (red or otherwise), and powerful burners. Old kitchens with new ranges are appealing, and I hear they come with fancy features like a light in the oven and a self-cleaning mode. Imagine that! Modern times, friends.
- Gas burners or an induction cooktop. No strong preference on the oven. Given the choice, I’d go with electric, but in the past we have had gas, electric, and convection and been fine with all of them.
- Five or six burners, including one that does not take 30 minutes to bring a pot of water to boil (which sadly, is what we’re dealing with). Should be fairly easy to find in the widths we’re looking at.
- Not from 1918.
August 4, 2015
Finding the Balance Between Sponsored and Not

I had something else planned to share today, but in light of recent comments (which were polite and respectful, thank you), I want to let you in on my thought process with a big upcoming project. And I would love your feedback.

Our home had more pressing issues to tend to before we got to the kitchen. We addressed the heating system, remodeled the second floor and turned a superfluous kitchen into a bedroom (Calvin’s nursery), consolidated the multiple gas lines and accounts into one and did the same with our electrical service (in addition to rewiring everything).

There is a room off the back of the kitchen, a former sleeping porch, that would be wonderful to open up and incorporate. Direct access to the yard! Breakfast for the kids in an eat-in kitchen! The ability to not have our stove right next to the fridge! It requires opening a load-bearing wall though, and new flooring, new cabinetry, the works. It’s a maybe someday type of project, and it’s not something that we’re looking to do right now. The kitchen works well for us overall as it is — we have plenty of storage, the cabinets have some quirks but they’re fine, and we do at least have the modern convenience of a dishwasher.

That antique gas/wood-burning stove, though! I’ve been hesitant to get rid of the it because I have a love/hate thing going on, but it’s time. We’re a family of five now, we cook dinner every night, and the stove makes it harder than it needs to be. We’ll be selling it eventually and I’m sure it will have many more useful years ahead of it, but we’re ready for something else.

We’ve also had some electrical problems that are driving a redo. There is a sconce, a ceiling fan, and three pendant lights in the kitchen. The light above the stove sparked and burned a light bulb in Brandon’s hand as he was changing it out one day, which was more than a little scary. In an unrelated event (I think), we mysteriously lost power to a portion of the second floor. While our electricians were fixing that problem, they found active knob and tube that was missed during our initial house inspection, and thus began the rewiring of the entire place. The bulk of the job is done now, but it was suggested that we wait to finish the rest when we didn’t have a newborn. We agreed and then we were waiting until after we hosted my sister’s bridal shower in the house (which I will share next week), and now we’ll be able to get back to it as soon as we can get back on the electricians’ schedule. A ceiling is coming down, walls are being opened, and the house is going to be in a state of chaos for a while, but I’m looking forward to getting this work done because it has been holding other projects back.

In the meantime, we had the faulty kitchen pendant rewired and thought all was well, but then I was changing a bulb recently in the pendant above the sink and the same thing happened. The sparks were pretty spectacular! So now we aren’t sure if the problem lies in the house’s wiring (the kitchen has not been done yet), the vintage lighting fixtures, or both. The problem will be investigated, and I’m hoping it can be fixed without destroying the tin ceiling.

So. New stove. Rewiring or replacing the lights. While we’re at it, I would also like to put in new counters, swap out the sink and faucet, remove the wallpaper, paint or put up new paper, and add ventilation with a range hood. Maybe paint the cabinets, bring in some tile, and revamp or replace the kitchen island too. I’m in the early stages of planning everything right now, but the crazy thing is that (to be perfectly honest) the blog puts me in a position to do much of the room for free.

The business of blogging is always changing and those of us that have been doing this for a long time are always adapting, and I’ve addressed the topic of sponsorship before. I teach, I write elsewhere, and I cobble together a living from other opportunities, but the primary source of my income is sponsor-driven and has been for many years. I’m not sure what our budget for the kitchen will be yet, but let’s say I can set aside $10,000. We will likely hire someone to put in the ventilation and there will be some repairs needed after the electricians do their thing (the extent of which will determine whether we DIY or hire out), so those costs are somewhat fixed. With the rest of our budget, I could buy a mid-priced range, save money by painting instead of adding tile or wallpaper, rewire and keep our existing lighting (assuming it can be deemed safe), reuse the sink and faucet that we took out from the kitchen on the second floor, and watch our pennies with all the rest.

Bloggers hold influence, and therefore companies are often eager to get product into our hands in exchange for coverage. Any goods that I accept, either those that have been proactively offered or that I seek out with proposals, would effectively increase our overall budget and allow us to allocate our cash differently. It could mean the difference in my design between a standard 30″ stove and a higher-end 36″ range (the added six inches comes with a huge price jump), or it could mean more beautiful lighting and a new sink. I wouldn’t accept something just because the (free) price is right, but if it was something I would have purchased anyway, I simply look at it as another form of income — one that allows us to accomplish more than we would have been able to do otherwise.

There are a couple of remodels going on in the blog world right now that will be incorporating gifted items, some of which have been more clearly disclosed than others. The ongoing One Room Challenge series, is fun to follow, provides a ton of inspiration, and it is made possible in large part by sponsorships. Knowing this doesn’t diminish my interest as a reader, but perhaps my perception is different because I am on both sides of the issue.

Accepting sponsorships or free goods allows me to create a more beautiful finished product (I’m happy), offers coverage for the brands I partner with (they’re happy), and produces more original content for the blog (I want you to be happy, too). I get that it’s not easy to relate to a kitchen done entirely with free goods, but I think there is a balance to be struck and I can’t make the call in a vacuum or an echo-chamber. I can discuss these things with friends, family, and fellow bloggers, but then sometimes I’ll make a decision and it prompts a completely unexpected reaction. So let’s talk. Would you prefer to see a modest kitchen redone without the help of free goods? Or a more involved design with higher-end finishes and details that were made possible (either in part or entirely) by seeking out partnerships? Do you draw a distinction between accepting individual components (appliances, tile, etc.) or an overall sponsorship (brought to you by _____)?

I’ve always aimed to be transparent in these matters, so you tell me. What would you (ideally) like to see? I’m listening.

July 30, 2015
Swing!

Last summer, I was thinking about adding a porch swing out front. I searched out my favorites and was getting ready to make a purchase, but added expenses with our second floor remodel put decorating on hold. It got pushed back a year, but we’ve got a swing chair now, and it is wonderful.

There was a new model out this year that I preferred the look of, but the one I chose was more comfortable. The seat is deeper, and there are cup holders and pockets along the sides for magazines.

When I was pregnant, I would imagine how nice it would be to swing gently on the porch, baby in my arms. The reality surpasses the expectation.

We could have found a stud in the porch ceiling, but with the added height, the swing would have had room to bang into the house or the railing. The kids and their friends spend a lot of time playing on our front porch, and that seemed like an inevitable cause of injury, damage to the house, or both! I bought the matching stand so that the pivot point would be lowered, and the swing didn’t have as far to move. It gives us added flexibility too, so if we want to rearrange the porch or move the swing somewhere else (like the backyard), we could.

July 17, 2015
Decorating and Perfectionism

I can already hear the snickering at that title (ha, she thinks what she has done is perfect!?), but stick with me.

I’m slowly working toward my overall vision for the house. Certain things (like wallpaper) are on hold until the rewiring of the house has been finished, and the rewiring is on hold until at least after we host a bridal shower here next month. Holes in the walls and ceiling are so distracting at parties, you know?

Because our plan is to be here for a long time, I find myself obsessively fixating on getting things just right. I finally ordered the Dawson pedestal table that I’d had my eye on for over a year. The upside to fixating on certain pieces and keeping track of them is that you’re aware of when they go on sale, so I was able to grab the table at 30% off. I’m kind of kicking myself though for not having bought a pair of Deeda chairs when the pink ones went on clearance a while back. They can still be ordered in that fabric (farrow-strawberry linen), but I didn’t buy them when they were $500 instead of $1500 because I didn’t have the cash on hand at the time, and I’m not going into debt over a couple of chairs.

I borrowed one in the stock fabric so that I could check the scale and photograph it (because hi, I’m a blogger and my job is weird). Through the magic of Photoshop, I turned it into a pair.

Is it really everything I’ve imagined for the past year? Yes and no.

I love the table. I love the chairs with the table, and that farrow-strawberry fabric would be the most beautiful shade of pink for our library. But the chairs are tall, and the pair of Lincoln armchairs in the adjacent room look bitty when viewed together. So, go for the chairs I’d wanted all along, and sell and replace the floor model chairs in the living room? The house has already been photographed for publication — why not switch things up? Or stick with the ones I got, find something else to work with the table in the library, and stop spending so much damn money in pursuit of some silly inflexible vision? The room would still look good. It would still work. It just wouldn’t match what has been in my head.

I’ve been working toward this arbitrary idea of what our home should look like, without taking time to stop and reassess. What has changed? What can I move forward with, and what can I let go?

I’ve been here before. I included these phrases in a post from seven years ago, and they still apply now.

A good idea today is better than a perfect idea tomorrow.

Don’t let best get in the way of better.

Done is better than perfect.

I think that with the first house, there was less pressure. I always knew in the back of my mind that we would move on some day. Instead of ‘perfect’ I would go for the ‘good’ and the ‘done’ with the idea that it might be replaced eventually. It came together over time, and I loved it every step along the way.

And if we were still in that house, no doubt it would already look different.

I’m always aware of what is available and what’s coming on the market, so I’m constantly finding myself drawn to new! next! now! I could create an entire room design around the latest whatever because it’s far easier to pull a room together all at once, but how many of us can realistically do so? Most of us, myself included, are decorating over time, which means that your vision has time to grow and change. We create cohesion and a home that reflects our style while leaving room for things that may not even exist yet. In theory, each new piece for your home should bring you closer to the finish line, but in practice, that line is always moving.

We’ve lived here for almost two years. That’s crazy to me! The time has gone by so quickly. I’m coming out of the fog of caring for an infant as the baby gets a little older (and a little easier), and I’m excited that I’ve got this big old lovely house here just waiting for me to go nuts with it. Time to revisit my initial vision for the home, reassess, and move forward. Even if it isn’t perfect, it can still be pretty damn good.

June 25, 2015