Summer Home Tour

Hello!  Welcome to the While Wearing Heels home tour.   Don't worry, you don't have to wear heels to join the tour.

Step right up and come on in to our 100 year old house!

Don't mind the no soliciting sign on the door. 

Most of the construction dust has settled in our house.  We've changed every room in our house by ourselves and on a budget...and, now that I have seen some of the beautiful homes in the summer home tour, I might have to get out my paint brush and tool belt and start again!

Our dining room, since we moved in, has been transformed twice...darn pinterest! 

No sew black and white curtains, flea market finds and decorative trim make this room special and complete. 

Our living room...

Has beautiful built in bookcases.

Perfect for displaying family pictures

and our favorite flea market finds.

Instead of showing off my bedroom, which has been slightly neglected, I'll share one of my favorite space in our house...My closet.

The custom shoe rack is my favorite.  If you like my closet, you have to check out the before pictures, they are proof ANYONE could have a closet like this.

This isn't the only custom closet in our house, Grace also has a custom closet with her own custom shoe rack.

Grace's room is currently in the transition from going from a little girl room to a big girl room.

Some things will stay, like her Grace quilt, and some will have to be packed up for safe keeping.  

The transition to big girl room starts on Thursday so make sure to come back in a few weeks and see what changes we've made.

Let's heat things up and head to the kitchen.

Our kitchen was gutted down to the lathe boards and built back up. 

And, though I love our kitchen, especially the green house window we added...

I am looking forward to repainting and adding a chandelier (read:  momma isn't going to know what to do with herself when only child goes off to school).  

From the kitchen, you can enter my other my favorite space in our 100 year old house...the pantry, though it looked nothing like this when we moved in. 

Besides for the hand painted stenciled walls, the addition of the library ladder (including its charming hardware) makes me wish it was socially acceptable to entertain in this space.

Our basement has a few special nooks, where my $3.99 Goodwill chair has place of honor.

I also have a craft nook, nestled in between a treadmill and a weight set (hence the TV above the Ana White desk we built).

Though I do have to share this space, I have tried to make my nook my own.  In addition to my LOVE sign, I also have a custom While Wearing Heels sign the talented Holly at Full Circle Creations made me. 

 

Lastly, come on out to onto our back deck.  We finally got around to decorating and updating it this summer.

We hung some curtains, added some barn wood foxes and made cushions for the chairs we found on the side of the road.

But the most impressive While Wearing Heels house, is Grace's handmade dollhouse, which includes a custom replica of the nursery we brought her home too.

Thanks for visiting!

Don’t miss the other bloggers on the tour this week.  There homes are beautiful and impressive.  Here’s the full schedule.

Monday, July 22
Atta Girl Says
The Happier Homemaker
Rain on a Tin Roof
Better with Age
Top This Top That

Tuesday, July 23
Mom 4 Real
Cedar HIll Ranch
Practically Functional
While Wearing Heels
French Country Cottage

Wednesday, July 24
The Lily Pad Cottage
Marty’s Musings
Confessions of a Plate Addict
Town and Country Living
Adventures in Decorating

Thursday, July 25
Good Life Of Design
A Stroll Thru Life
Worthing Court
Back Porch Musings
The Rustic Pig

Friday, July 26
Our Southern Home
StoneGable
The Everyday Home
Recreate and Decorate
Sophia’s
Vignette Design

100 Year Old House - Back Deck

In preparation for the 'Summer Showcase of Homes', it seem only fitting I try and wrap up the tour of our 100 year old home.

One of the reasons we decide to buy our home was the screened in cedar back deck.

Ironically, though, for the past 6 years, we've barely used our back deck.   Distracted with renovations on the inside of our house, the deck was ignored...until this year.

This year, we invested in a new door.

And, we replaced the white ceiling fans with 2 new ceiling fans.

Before you start thinking we've gotten all fancy on you, what with buying things like ceiling fans and new doors, we still have plenty of thrifted, free, flea markets and even roadside rescue items.

Remember the chairs my husband found on the side of the road (read roadside rescue).

We used them on our back deck.

And, we (as in me) made some custom cushions for those chairs.

As well as a few pillows.

We added some flea market finds.

We hung some pictures and planted some flowers.

And, we hung some curtains in the 4 corners of the deck.

The curtains provided a coziness to the deck and also helped define the space. 

And here is the view from the other side of the deck.

Including some more whimsical decor like a bull dog bottle cap opener and some of the woodaholic's wood creations (shameless plug...similar wood creations for sale in the While Wearing Heels Etsy Shop).

And now, the back deck is no longer ignored, it's become our favorite place to spend our days and our nights.

Library ladder - Make It Work

There were a lot of good guesses about what we failed to consider in our library ladder install.  Though, they were all good guess, only one person came close to our technical issue...which made me feel so much better since it didn't even cross my mind.

We knew our 12 foot library ladder would need to be cut down by 4 feet.

We brought in the big guns to help with this, father of while wearing heels...my dad.

Of course, as soon as my dad saw the ladder, he mentioned there would be an issue with the angle of the steps. 

Our ladder would need to come out approximately 5 feet, at the bottom, to have the steps level. 

Where most ladders have rungs, the angle of a ladder isn't important.  When a ladder has steps, the angle of the ladder is apparently incredibly important.

My dad suggested we make a new ladder...um, no. 

We decided, we had to make do, we had to try and get the most angle possible from our narrow pantry and 'make it work' {yes another Tim Gunn moment for sure}

And, make it work is what we did.

BUT before I invite you into my new pantry.  Before you can appreciate how lovely it now is. 

You have to see what it looked like when we bought our house.

Tomorrow, I'll dazzle you with the pantry transformation....unless I run into other technical difficulties :)

The Library Ladder Challenge

Installing a library ladder seems straightforward enough, after all, this isn't our first home improvement project.

You order the supplies...

You install those supplies

You clean up the mess your husband leaves behind from installing those supplies.

You admire the beautifully restored ladder that is about to be installed. 

Life is good until you realize there is one thing you didn't take into consideration.

Besides for the obvious, that this very tall and beautiful ladder needed to be cut down, to fit into our pantry {which will be revealed behind that French door soon enough}

What could we possibly failed to have considered?

Give me your best guess.