Lovely Zippy! You need to post the girls' room - I LOVE their room.

I also love those chairs in the living room. You need some great pillows in the red color (or a print with red/green/black) for the chairs. They are soooo cool!

I noticed your crock - I have a couple of my grandmother's and her old crock churn. I think most of hers have the indian head emblem, but I have a couple that have the crown emblem.

Love your home and can't wait to see how the annabelles turn out!

tina

Looks really, really great! Photos like this makes me wish we would've bought an older home and fixed it up. I love the character and how warm and cozy it looks.

Very inspiring zipdee--thanks for sharing!

I gasped! Lovely. My house is very similar, so I do love a Craftman/bungalow. I adore old houses.

I love your house! Aren't you glad you did the chairs in the black/white/green? They look fabulous. Great job with your color transition from the hall to the living room.

Can't wait to see more.

Thank you so much! I love the green walls you have. I'm one of those that hates green walls, but your's is more of the "pastelish" green I like. lol.

It reminds me of the home I grew up in. They just don't make them that way anymore, do they?

What about your kitchen? Do you decorte that in vintage? Do you collect anything?

Sigh....

Again, if only Cottage Living were still around yours would be another contender for it's pages.

I love your home too, that wide center hall with the view right to the back, the moldings and trim. And you have really enhanced it with your choice of such beautiful colors.

Thank you for taking the time to treat us to a tour.

It looks fabulous, I'm about the colour of your hallway from looking at it :-)

But here's my question: WHERE IS YOUR STUFF?? We live in a similar house (though about half the width and not as finished, but funnily with the same colour paint in the hallway - on the ceiling), and my hallway is overflowing with shoes, coats, receipts, bags, and what have you.

Give me a straw to grasp on to here to continue to believe that someday my house can look a bit like this... !

Karin

Thanks so much everyone for the lovely comments! I always hesitate to post big pics like this ( unless we are doing a project ) because the house is only about half done. I really enjoy the process of collecting stuff though, so each new piece I find to the 'puzzle' is a joy to me. :)

I am totally thrilled with my polka dot chairs, people come in the front door look that way and smile. I've had so many positive comments on them.

Tina .. I love the old salt glazed crocks, I'd love to see pics of yours! That one is holding a bunch of magazines at the moment. I'm looking for something else to go by the bench, once I find it that crock goes back in by the orange chair.

Here's a pic of the fireplace in the family room right after we re-did that room. Put in new bookshelves, marble subway surround, beadboard ceiling, etc.

How it looks with the other things in the room :

Kitchen pics, you;ve seen a bunch I think .. These are all as the room was redone, it's basically the same, with a few more trinkets here and there.

This is a fun one .. in progress *LOL* What a mess!

{{gwi:1590067}}

{{gwi:1588068}}

On the other side of the sink run is the eating area, which is two booths and a table, all off of craigslist. I'm looking for a 10' table to place back there, then the booths will back the sink run as a banquette and there will be chairs on the door side.

There is also a little nook right as you walk down the hall into the eating area on the right side, that's my buffet which is three vintage steel medical cabinets that have been repainted to match the room.

I'm going to try and do the girls room now if I can find the pics quick, but if I disappear, I'm on car pool this week. I'll be back later after I've picked up the kids from school and I'll post then. :)

Hey, I saw the questions and I will be back to answer them soon! :)

The girls have the whole upstairs, it's a large dorm like room. Approximately a little less than a 1000 sq ft, 16 foot in the center, we have a hip roof. Most of their furniture is from yard sales or auctions or CL and has been reworked to fit the room.

Sleeping area:
{{gwi:1543015}}

Vanity :

TV area with vintage chairs :

A better look at chairs and art table :

{{gwi:1590075}}

Art table, table found on the side of road and repainted .. chairs are vintage school chairs.

{{gwi:1543019}}

Video game area and toy bin storage :

{{gwi:1590078}}

Bookcase that you see in the previous pic, backs the nooks behind the girls beds :

{{gwi:1590079}}

I'm running our of time .. I'll be back to answer the questions and put up their bathroom and other bedroom pics in a bit. Sorry it's taking so long guys, thanks for sticking with me. :)

You simply have the most charming way of decorating and when I read your descriptions I am sure I can hear your voice...what a treat . It would be so fun to walk through one day with you. c

Oakleyoak .. I do collect vintage glassware, I have some jadeite, some vintage cake holders, vintage cookie jars, some fireking stuff .. things like that. My collection isn't all that large though, I buy stuff as I find it at a good price, mostly at estate auctions. Most of what I collect at the moment is vintage furniture though. :)

Karin .. oh the stuff is there! :D I try to channel the kids things up stairs, they have a coat rack for their coats and drawers their shoes are kept in. Their bookbags go up to the art table, they do homework there or at the kitchen table most nights. When the girls have friends over that carpet is full of shoes and the bench full of coats though. :) My stuff, I try to channel to my closet .. I leave what ever bag I'm using on the bench though.

More of the girl's room:

{{gwi:1590080}}

{{gwi:1590081}}

And the girl's bathroom, which is tucked in a dormer. It has a sky light in it and the room has two sky lights to bring in a lot of natural light.

Ignore the shower curtain, this was a temp. until I could make them the one shown below.

Vanity made out of vintage dresser from CL, painted with new glass hardware. Lights are old pressed glass lamps that we hard wired it, I collected them off of e-bay .. shades I made.

That's it except for the master bedroom and bath, which are currently in the works to be redone, I can't wait. My clawfoot tub can finally come inside out of the cottage!!

Here's the cottage .. road view this last fall :

{{gwi:1590085}}

Around the side for the Chicken Coop/Potting Shed view this last fall :

Again, thanks for looking guys and all of the nice comments, I've enjoyed sharing with you.

Too bad Cottage Living folded before they could do a story on your home. It's just darling. I like the Jadite green in the kitchen and would suggest you buy all you can find (Martha Stewart's daughter owns a huge amount of the stuff.)

I'd like to see a family photo/portrait collection above your church pew. If there was a wall that cried out for such, it's that one.

Hey Zipdee, I didn't read all the posts or even look at all the pics, but when I saw your entry mirror, I thought it was screaming for a vintage umbrella holder with some cool umbrellas in it (to sit underneath it) -- just thought I'd toss that idea out there for you!

LOVE your house!

Your house is beautiful!
I love the potting shed/chicken coop.
Do you have any pics of the inside of the chicken coop area?

That's so funny .. I recognized many of the photos but never realized they belonged to the same house. I need to look at names more, I guess.

That looks like one happy house! You must smile all the time, because that's what I would do. :-)

"That looks like one happy house! You must smile all the time, because that's what I would do..."

PERFECT- I totally agree!

Thank you everyone again taking the time to look at the pics and your kind comments! Boy, I sure miss Cottage Living! I was sorting through my magazines the other day and I just can't part with all my Cottage Living mags. I have the last past two years before the end and they are very well thumbed through!

Caroline .. My old house friend :) I'd love to have you visit, what a good time we'd have talking about our older homes and their past and present history, over a good cup of coffee and home baked cookies.

Ideefix .. I totally snap up jadeite when I see it at the auctions for a good price. It can fetch some serious money depending on who's there, but when I can find good deals, I'm on it :)

Hoosiergirl, love the vintage ( maybe metal with tole ? ) umbrella stand idea. Put in some wonderful umbrella with wood and bamboo handles and some walking sticks too.

Lsst .. I do have pics of the inside of the coop and potting shed and I'll put them below for you. They are as we were building the run ( screened part ) and re-purposing that part of the cottage, so they aren't in finished state .. but it gives you the idea. I still have more work to do in the potting shed come Spring. I'm going on to phase two of my 'big plan' this year and I'm excited. Phase one was to get my hens settled in, fresh organic eggs going .. get my potting shed up and going, build a new composting bin set up and start composting all the chicken and bunny dropping/shaving with the grass clipping and the rest of the household stuff .. having enough compost to go on to phase two. Phase two is sectioning off the back half of the yard, which is a nice big sunny area and starting a large square foot organic garden this year. Phase three which will probably be next year is a greenhouse between the front and back half of the yard that will hopefully abut my potting shed. Phase four .. if I ever get there .. it to build a wood fired pizza/bread oven in my garden. I'm sure there will be a phase five, I just don't know what it is yet! :D

Segbrown .. I don't think I've ever did a post like this, I just post as we complete stuff, and that just every so often. So I'm not surprised at all that you didn't know the pics were from the same house. :)

Loribee .. I'm glad our homes comes across as a happy place to live. :) I'm a SAHM that handles the paper work part of our business from here, so I spend a lot of time here. I wanted it to be a warm/happy place for our family. A place that a big gaggle of kids were always welcome to play here and couldn't hurt a thing.

Okay, the need for a hen house come about from these little girls. Which we raised in a large cardboard 'brooder' upstairs in the girls room until they were big enough to go in their new 'digs'.

Clover says what? You've never seen a half grown chick in the middle of the 'uglies' stand on an art table before :) We were so ready for them to go out of the house by this point, the brooder had to be covered because they love to test out their new feather and fly!

So we started with this little shed addition on the cottage, cleaned it out and made it look a little more homey for the girls.

Sprucing up what's already there with some leftovers we had around. I also cut out a place for a little brick paver walk in front which you see in the above, done shot .. used leftover bricks from the front walk.

Added the 'screened porch' which is the hens run, it's roofed so they stay dry and it keeps cats and predatory birds out. The little fence keep the dogs from being too nosey and well every little cottage needs a picket fence. ;)

You walk in through the double doors into the potting shed portion. The industrial cereal bins are to store feed, grit, bunny food and corn. The chalk board door goes into the rest of the cottage. I have since put down an inexpensive outdoor rug in this section to cover the plywood floor. I just take it out and hose it off as needed. :)

Turn toward your right through the salvaged french door and you go into the hens coop, the hutch above is for the bunny we have. They share the run during the day and he goes into his hutch at night, the girls into their coop. They get along great. This is as I was painting wood work, so some of it looks a bit rough.

Looking straight through the coop, into their run. I let them eat all the grass off the run, it's now all wood shavings out there. I put a wheelbarrow in front of the door to shovel it all out on cleaning days, then it all goes into the compost bins. Also now that they are adults, we have a hanging system for the food and water .. it keeps everything much cleaner and the shavings out of the water.

Looking left, you see the potting shed portion. My salvaged sink, which is hooked up now. It's great for potting and washing food containers. I had my DH build me shelves, things get stored up there in old mason jars or neat container. That green board is the start of a fresh eggs sign, that I'm still working on .. this Spring, yes this Spring. ;) The wood chest is another found/salvaged find .. most of my potting shed is other people's thrown away 'junk'. *LOL* It houses my Stall Dry and Bedding/Shavings.

My potting table. Again this is made from salvaged stuff. The top old cherry flooring and the bottom was post and wood from and old fence I think. I painted it with some leftover black paint I had and distressed it.

The outside right after we finished and put up window boxes. I just planted them, I put in fresh herbs with a few geraniums mixed in. I wish I had taken a picture later in the year, they looked so nice, all my herbs went nuts and I had thyme way over hanging each box.

First planted :

Our hens all grown up, Olive is the dark one and the lead hen, take charge and bossy as you can see in the pic. :D Clover is the red one and a spastic maniac .. she's sweet and lovable, but still a nut!

Hazel is biggest and a very laid back, mellow girl .. loves to get pet and loved on.

They started laying their first eggs in fall. They are Easter Eggers and each lay a different color green egg, which I think are beautiful! I love collecting their eggs and they make beautiful gifts. I like to make up quart jar of homemade pancake mix, add in a quart of in season berries and a dozen fresh eggs from the girls .. put it all in a wood crate lined with vintage cloth checkered napkins and topped with some raffia .. so pretty and fun to give!

First egg in nest :

First three eggs together :

Plus fresh eggs make the best omelets .. seriously, stop by a farmers market if you get a chance and grab some fresh eggs, you all will be in love. :)

And, yes .. I obviously love my chickens! *LOL* I always wanted some, I'm so, so glad we finally have a place for them here. :)

Zipdee,
Thank you so much for posting the photos of the coop and shed!

Always a joy and an inspiration to see your house pics. I find myself thinking of you when I see jadeite or just vintage kitchen items in that color- that they would look great in your kitchen!

Thanks so much for the tour! :)

I'm another person who has seen your pics over time, but never really connected them as being the same house.

I love your cute house exterior (mine is yellow as well), and your kitchen has always reminded me of my paternal grandmothers (albeit much more stylish).

But more than anything else, I have to say, your three girls are so lucky to have such a beautiful, fun, creative space to live in. Your hard work putting it together really shows. You chose such pretty colors and great vintage pieces. I love it!

:) Jen

Greetings Zipdee....So happy you posted all these wonderful photos. I'd love to be one of your lucky girls living in that happy bedroom, and even your chickens are living the good life! This thread was tonight's entertainment for me, much better than television....

Zipdee - Your home is fantastic! I love everything about it. Great job on the girls' room. Also, love the potting shed.

Wow! Inside and out, your home is just so beautiful!

Zipdee, you have a perfectly lovely home. It does look like it's loved and happy. There are too many individual things that I love, for me to comment on each one. What a comfortable space to spend your life and raise your family. Congrats on a fabulous job!
~Missy

Zipdee,
Again, I love everything about your house. I especially love your girls room. If you saw my post on my small nursery to decorate yesterday, that is exactly the feeling I would love to incorporate in my grandchilds nursery.
I wish I had your imagination.

Zip:

Simply ADORE your whole home! Fun, zesty, fresh and so welcoming! Thanks so much for sharing -- honestly it should be in a magazine! :)

Yep, the chickens are adorable! LOVE the bunny too!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

Zipdee, Absolutely gorgeous. You have very good vision and imagination. Congratulations for building up such a beautiful nest for you and your family and ofcourse for the birds!

I agree, this could be a photoshoot for Cottage Living! Wow. I love everything. I have a similar hoosier cabinet, LOL.

The chickens seem like real characters! I had a former co-worker who used to bring me fresh eggs from her neighbor. They really were the best eggs I'd ever had. So fluffy.

What a gorgeous house zip! It looks so inviting, inside AND out!

I have 'cottage envy'. ;o)

What a delight to see your pictures. The girl's bedroom suite is just cute as can be...you have done a fabulous job there.

Lucky chicks and bunnies...they are in a 5-star pet hotel...LOL.

Love the green in your entry way, I have similar in my guest bungalow...that color adds great energy to a space. I collect jadite too and your hoosier cabinet looks nice painted like that. You have a wonderful decorating style and do a great job of blending vintage with kitsch.

I agree...your place would make a great magazine spread. :-)

Zipdee, I've said this before, but your house is really beautiful! I love all of the cool things you've done and the way you have it decorated! Would you mind emailing me at kgwhouse@gmail.com I have a question for you.

Thanks!

Kat :)