The Queen of Vintage Sews

Starting in 2024 (or earlier depending on how much life is lifing), I’ll be combining the Queen of Vintage site/blog with this one since I don’t have the time to manage multiple iterations of the same thing. I hope you enjoy the content 🙂

Or what to do with the bathroom? This is the imminent problem. I’ve been researching 1920s bathrooms and from what I can see, our house is fairly “unique”. Most 1920s home designs place the bathroom in the center of the home. Ours is at the end of the hallway and backs up to the kitchen. I know the rationale: save money on plumbing.

It also slightly narrower than average coming in at 5’4″ wide. This is making finding a vintage bathtub slightly difficult. I had a lead on a cast iron clawfoot tub for under $250 and it was 3″ too long. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

From my research, I know that colored bathrooms were also a thing in the 1920s, so I’m confident my color scheme of turquoise, white, and gold will be appropriate in the space. Adding elements of grey and bamboo for a more modern feel will keep it from feeling dated.

As you can see mint green tile was installed sometime after the house was built. The only way I know this is by looking at where the wood framing in the shower enclosure meets the tile. It is definitely not original to the house. We painted roughly 20 years ago and it did not hold up well. This is easily the worst room in the house due to moisture build-up and lack of an exhaust fan. This will be rectified when we redo the bathroom as we’re seeing evidence of mold in the bathroom cupboard.

Some time in the late 1950s/early 1960s, the previous owners’ children had flooded the bathroom necessitating the floor being rebuilt. As the story goes, they repeatedly overflowed the bathtub and eventually the floor rotted away. The repair that was done included a steel beam being installed under the house (that must have been a BAD flood) and new flooring being laid. Right now, the linoleum flooring is starting to lift around the edges due to the whatever-it-is underneath starting to swell. It looks like some kind of fiberboard that was laid down and then sheet lino put on top. As you can guess, the bathroom reno just rocketed to the top of our list of priorities.

We are budgeting about $10,000 for this renovation and I think that’s a conservative estimate. We have the following items that need attention:

Rip out the entire bathroom to the studs on the shower wall and replace the lathe/plaster with waterproof hardiboard.

And much like giving a mouse a cookie that means that next would be replacing ALL the tile in the bathroom.

When that tile comes down off the back wall of the shower enclosure, I KNOW that there will be damage inside the walls there, too. Yay for more hardiboard. And the window glass needs replacing due to damage from hard water.

Beyond that, the tub has to be replaced. It’s been reglazed once and that didn’t last more than 5 or so years before chipping off again. That also means new fixtures to replace the broken ones from the mid-century.

And then a new sink because the pedestal we have, while serviceable, half covers the lone air vent. If I have to replace the sink I want a vintage style sink with chrome legs to support it because small bathroom can’t have a cabinet style and it can’t just hang off the wall. I know THAT is going to cost me, too.

Since we’re ripping things out, why not replace the toilet with a Toto washlet? We’re basically starting over, so we might as well.

Washlets need power, and the sole outlet in the bathroom is at floor level. In the bathroom. Where water gets splashed around. So THAT means new electric. And since I already know what’s inside the walls, I know that is going to cost me, too. So electric will need to be brought up to code.

While we’re doing electrics, might as well add a light with exhaust fan so we don’t continue to have a mold/mildew problem.

Speaking of mold/mildew, the “linen cupboard” will have to be ripped out as well because it’s pretty useless and has a mildew issue on the bottom. You see what I mean about giving a mouse a cookie? It never ends.

Essentially the entire bathroom needs to be rebuilt. And while I love a good bargain, there are two things I don’t DIY: plumbing and electrical. And since this is our only bathroom, I can’t afford for it to be down for multiple days or weeks while being renovated. Allons-y!

If you give a house a reno, you’ll find yourself going down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass. Because renovating a bathroom often can lead to renovating a kitchen. And wasn’t I going to wait on this until I built a shiny NEW house next door? MUAHAHAHAHAH Well played, Universe, well played.

I woke up this morning pondering what a 1925 kitchen would look like and, as one does, I headed to the internet to find out. What I saw were multiple photographs of massive (by my standards) kitchens with room for multiple people to move around without it feeling like a mosh pit. One article that I now can’t remember where I read it stated that a kitchen of 10 by 12 feet should be “adequate”. Which of course meant I had to jump right up and measure my kitchen. A paltry 9′ by 11′ 6″. As I was looking around the room and taking in original 1925 details, I was wondering just how the Chapman family, especially Annie Chapman, dealt with feeding 7 people from this tiny space.

Based on the capped-off gas line behind my stove, I know where the stove was placed in the room. The sink wall is the same as it would’ve been in 1925 albeit with garbage 1980s countertops over 1960s low budget cabinets. There’s precious little cabinet space, unlike the glorious images from 1925. No room at all for a Hoosier cabinet if an icebox were installed. And no breakfast nook. It does, however, have a half-baked pantry that makes no sense. I know it’s original to the house because the millwork around the doors is the same throughout the house.

In my wanderings through the world wide web, I came across this amazing Crane kitchen advertisement from 1925:

This is the stuff of dreams right here.

When we laid laminate floor down a million years ago, we found some kind of deep red linoleum tile in disrepair under the sheet of lino that had been laid down sometime after the 60s. I just can’t imagine this tiny room with a blood red tile. What color was the kitchen? What did the appliances look like? How on earth did they manage in that tiny space? We will probably never know.

So what’s next for the kitchen? Taking a page from the 1920s and their love of color, It will be completely redone in white and turquoise with a tile floor to match. White appliances will replace the black ones and a slimmer fridge will replace the behemoth that currently reside there. I will be studying the principles in this 1921 book for inspiration as well. Once the new house is built, our two oldest kids will take up residence here and they won’t need a ginormous fridge. Which is mostly wasted space anyways. And that is another rant for another day!

My dad has a long standing joke about buying “banjo lures” off of QVC which meant buying a new tacklebox, which meant buying a new boat, which meant buying a new garage, which meant buying a new house. It’s like a demented version of “If you give a mouse a cookie”.

Water leaks in the bathroom are kind of like that. See, we started with an errant shower mixer, which led to a water leak which led to some tiles falling off the shower enclosure, which led to me doing research into 1920s bathrooms so we could effect repairs, which led to me researching 1920s bungalows, which led me to finding out what house plans were used, which led me to who built the house and exactly when.

Down the rabbit hole I went. I learned that our home was built in 1925, not 1921 as was previously assumed. Thanks to the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps on file at University of Florida, we found that our house didn’t exist in 1922, although the street existed.

I’d previously checked the Property Appraiser and Tax Assesor’s records, but there’s no details about previous owners since the house is so old. Speaking of previous owners, we’re the third owners of the home since it was built!

In my research, I came across the coolest resource ever, Antique Home Style. From there, I learned that our house is actually a Craftsman-style Bungalow. This is a great starting point for bathroom renovation! You know what’s even better? Pictures of the home when it was first built. What’s the best way to get pictures of the home when it was first built? Find the original owners! And what’s the best way to do that? If you’re an amateur geneologist, you go to Ancestry.

Using my membership at Ancestry and cross referencing the information I already had, I knew that my best chance of finding the original owners was the US Census from 1930. Our area was annexed into the city limits in 1921 or so and since our town is small today, I knew the records 80 or 90 years ago would be not large, it was a simple task to browse through 200 pages of handwritten census records. About 30 minutes into my deep dive (told you it’s a small town!), I found not only who built the house and when, but also some cool stories about the people who lived here thanks to the geneology project of the son who was born and grew up in our house!

I learned that the family were farmers from Alabama who came here to farm celery after cotton had been not so great. I learned that our house was home to seven members of the Chapman Family (and one bathroom!): William P, Sr. (dad), Annie (mom), and kids: Helen, Mabel, Olive, Virginia and William P, Jr. All 5 of the kids went to the same high school my kids attended.

The family were members of the Methodist church (and I’m willing to bet that the pictures came from the church directory because that’s how they rolled back then) that my nana attended while she was alive. In fact, it’s highly likely that my nana knew at least one of the Chapman daughters since they were of an age and at least one lived in Sanford until her death. Sadly, all of the Chapman kids have passed away, so I’m pursuing contact with their relatives to try and track down photos of the family home via other avenues. The Chapmans sold the home in the 1950s to the Owens Family. We purchased the home in 2000 from the Owens family heirs.

I will be spending some time at our local city museum looking over records to find out more, but I was able to get quite a lot of information just from my geneology resources. If I’m able to get more information, I’ll share it in a “part two”.

Did I actually find what I wanted for the bathroom? Not yet. That’s next.

Cast your memory back to December of 2020 and now feast your eyes upon the gloriousness that is the Front Hall! I’ve been semi-live blogging over on my personal instagram the process of redoing the front hall. Enjoy these selected images from the project up to now and pay NO attention whatsoever to the ginromous compressor hanging out. I was still using it to nail things down when these pictures were made.

We made more trips to Lowe’s in September than in the entire 21 years and 4 months I’ve lived in this house. It’s like the death of a thousand cuts. We purchased some new tools to replace ones that were stolen a decade and a half ago, but I’m not including the cost of those in this breakdown since we’ll have them for a long time to come.

I promised in an IG post that I’d break down what I spent to redo the front hall, so here we go. Bear in mind that I’ve been purchasing a little here and a little there since early 2018 so we didn’t bear this entire cost all at once. Picking up things when they went on sale or when we had a coupon/discount code made this a LOT more affordable than if we’d tried to do the whole thing all at once. This space is just under 8 feet wide and 9 feet long, so it’s not a huge space.

New floors from LL Flooring: $300
This included underlayment and an extra box of flooring to make sure the chevron pattern was just right. We may return the extra box. The flooring was just under $2/sf and each box is about 23 sf.

2023 Update: we did NOT in fact return the box. It’s still sitting on the back porch.

Paint from Lowe’s: approx $50.
It could’ve been more but definitely less than $60 for the white trim (1 qt) and yellow (1 gal). I’m not counting the cost of brushes/rollers in this because those are general supplies that we already had on hand although some needed to be replaced.

Baseboard shoe moulding: 5 pcs at $6 each.
This was used to finish off the baseboards, make two thresholds AND create a frame for the over-door overlay.

Miscellaneous Paint/Finish Supplies:
Small can of polyurethane to seal the shoe moulding: under $10
Special brush for the poly: $5
Mineral Spirits: $7
CitriStrip: $13
Frog Tape: $10
Chip Brush for the CitriStrip: $1.25
Wire Brads for the overlay install: $1.91 (with tax)
Screws with a star head that won’t easily strip: $10

Wallpaper from Target: approx $80 for two packs of the cream/gold and one pack of border.
I only needed 1.5 packs of the cream/gold but here we are.

New lighting fixture from World Market: under $65.
I had a birthday coupon for 15% off so that was a nice incentive. I wouldn’t have purchased a new lamp except that the existing one disintegrated in my hands while cleaning it. The original was only $15 from Amazon purchased September 1st 2016, so I think I got my $3/year out of it.

Curtains from Target: approx $40 for the pair

Curtain rod from Amazon: $25
5% cash back for this purchase PLUS a donation was made to our favorite charity so it’s a win.

Storage ottoman from Target: approx $100
It’s been so long since we bought it that Target no longer sells it. Plus we got 5% off anything at Target with the RedCard, so for a lot of the items we basically ended up not paying sales tax.

Hairpin leg table (again) from Target: $90 (plus red card discount)

IKEA Kallax 4×2 ($79) with Lekman drawers ($11.99×8) modified with spray paint ($6×2) and legs (Amazon, $35) and base (Lowe’s, $8).
I spraypainted the Lekman drawer fronts with special paint designed for plastic so they’d match the vibe. I created a riser out of a premade shelf from Lowe’s and screwed some MCM legs from Amazon into it, used some spare anti-skid shelf liner between the shelf and the Kallax and BAM! Got your MCM shoe cabinet RIGHT HERE, baby!

Over-door Overlay by O’verlays: $29.95
The space it was covering was NOT in square (by a lot) so I knew it was going to need a frame. No big. A little shoe moulding, caulk and some tape and I’m good to go.

Shoji paper and double sided tape from eShoji: $24.95 + $3.99
This was for a totally different project that never materialized, but may happen eventually. I only needed a small amount of the 23 foot roll, so I still have enough for that when/if it happens.

New door pulls from Amazon: $30
I’ll use two on the studio door and 2 on the hairpin table when I make drop-down fronts for the openings. It will be glorious. I’m just waiting for them too arrive.

Retail value of everything purchased: $1160 +/- ($16/sf)

Sweat equity: PRICELESS.

Also priceless? My middle kid telling me I did “such a great job” on the MCM reno that I should carry it through the rest of the house. And then telling me which color I should do the living room. #AsYouWish

all around the town…

This (2023 Update: would have been) the first house that I’ve lived in with an actual staircase. I’ve always heard that houses with stairs are “too much work” and “you’re always going up and down stairs”. However, since the upstairs will be 100% for work only, I’m positive this will not be an issue for us.

The house plans we will be using have some understair storage, however, I’m not a fan of “conventional” understairs closets because they never seem to hold quite enough stuff. Plus the space in the risers is being wasted.

As you may remember, in 2019, we traveled to Japan and our final stay was in an Air BnB-type place. It was an actual home in the 3 LDK style with a bonus room on the ground floor. There was storage in the stairwell walls and landings and the use of otherwise “wasted” space was insane.

This type of storage staircase is called “kaidan dansu” or storage step. There’s an excellent example at dwell.com.

While I used 1920s architecture as inspiration for the interior, it would have been a fusion of Japanese architectural elements with traditional Craftsman style. I know it sounds weird, but trust me on this. It will look cool when it’s finished.

2023 Update: This probably isn’t happening any time soon. The (waves hands at the world) that has been going on has killed new construction and the OG House is in need of serious repairs so before building new, it looks like the old will be prioritized.

When the house was built in the 1920s, this area was originally a front porch. Sometime in the 50s or 60s it was converted into a TV room and when we bought the house in April of 2000, one of the first things we did was to divide the room into a front entry and home office space.

To give you a little perspective on the size of the office, it’s roughly 8′ by 9′, so when you see just how much was crammed into this space, it’s no wonder it felt claustrophobic.

Originally we hung curtains because we were broke and they were cheap. Eventually they were replaced with a bifold door with latch to keep the kids OUT. We don’t speak of the Sharpie or Scissor Incidents.

This was “my” space on the other side of the room where I would sew (machine is inside the cupboard). Remember when I said this room was SMALL? Yeah… This behemoth took up most of the room.

The most “redecorated” room in the house is this 72 square foot space. It’s seen SO many incarnations. It is currently my studio space where I run three businesses and multiple YT channels and do most of my filming. I’m so grateful to have it, but I’m very much looking forward to the MUCH bigger studio space that will be mine in the NHOTB.

I can tell by looking at the pictures that this somewhere in 2004/2005, so this room had already seen two do-overs already!

2023 Update: this room has been renovated YET AGAIN into my personal sleep sanctuary and my studio is now The Bora Room.

If your eyes aren’t bleeding from the BRIGHT Chinese Red color, I applaud you. This was originally supposed to have a gold glaze over it to help make it not quite so eye-searingly bright. Alas, we never did get around to it.

Fast forward almost 2 decades and the front hall now looks (mostly) like this:

The floors are the same $1/square foot sticky tiles we originally installed in 2000 when we were broke and that was the only option. I have a new curtain rod ready to replace the one in the pictures. I will say that the existing one has stood the test of time even if it was a Big Lots bargain.

Left to finish in this area is the wallpaper accent on the Living Room wall and the border which has since been discontinued. It’s the same gold color and is about 6″ wide. It will go just under the crown mouldings that are just out of frame.

Before I can do that, however, I have to install the crown moulding for the left wall to match the existing mouldings. I also purchased a wooden accent grille from O’verlays to go over the office door which I’ll share in another post on the office.

The final project in this area will be new flooring which is still under consideration.

I’m a huge fan and follower of MCM kitchens/bathrooms/architecture and nothing says MCM more than Formica countertops. The OG House has them in the kitchen and they’ve taken a beating since the 60s and are still going strong.

I’m not a huge fan of the whole granite countertop fad. It’s far too trendy to go into a classic home and since I have zero plans on ever selling my home and it’s my house, not someone else’s, I’m going with countertops that spark joy for me.

Because my kitchen appliances are mint/aqua/turquoise, I had very specific color requirements for my kitchen. I love the look of terrazzo and the MCM dinette sets with sparkly tops. This surface is perfection in that regard. Additionally, the fact that it is renewable and patchable should damage occur makes it even more desirable.

While the kitchen is pretty much set in stone (hur hur), the bathrooms are not. We will keep an open mind about what color schemes will go into them when we get closer to build time. The nice thing about Formica is that they offer free samples and free shipping, so I’ve taken advantage of this offer with some contenders for bathrooms as well as to have an actual sample of what I want for the kitchen.

2023 Update: I may install this in the OG House. I’ve recently purchased new appliances and I’m in the process of renovating the kitchen so….