This old house

As I guess I may have mentioned, I'm renovating an old house I bought in December and moved into in, uh, March? We got in pretty livable before we had to move in but it stills needs tons of work. The problem was, is, that it didn't look too bad when we bought it but every time we attempted to right one wrong, another even worse made an appearance. This house is very old. Which I love, it just desperately needs some TLC. It was built in 1900 as part of a housing development for workers along the Allegheny River. Since the corporation built it itself, there is no deed information on it that far back but I'm really interested in finding more on the history of this house.

It was eventually converted to tenement living for poor people during the Great Depression. It got a little updated. No more gas lighting! The grandfather of the man I bought it from acquired it in the 40s. His son, the owner living there until he , well, died, moved into the two room attic when he got married and had a little apartment there. When they had a son, the heir from whom I bought the place, they made a room for him in the kitchen and built an addition to the house to make a new kitchen. This spare bedroom still has a vintage sink in it. The incredible thing about this house is that it doesn't and never had a Pittsburgh Toilet. Look it up if you don't know what that is.

Anyway, i love this house and it's many old details. I love that it has updated plumbing and electrical most of all. But I have been very lazy the last few months about fixing her up. But ever since I saw the old interiors in Public Enemies last weekend, I've kinda gotten a second wind and I really want to get back to work and make this place a real home.

So here are some pictures of the living room. The most finished room in the house I guess, though it still has a way to go.



This is the only "before" picture I have after work had already started. Butas you can see it was dark and dirty and yucky.



This is the front window with my 1960s sofa. I have a tapestry from Urban Outfitters thrown over it because it could use a reupholstering. It's a bit sloppy because the cat sleeps there and jumps up and down to the window. I still haven't even bothered to a hang a curtain rod and curtains. But you can't really see in from the street. I hope.



This is my mantle. You may remember it from my flapper post. I actually just cropped myself out of it for this post. The workings have been removed and capped off but I could return it to its former state if I felt like it. The poppies oil painting was done by my teenage sister in law. I can't decide if I should hang it or let it just rest where it is.



This is an old Ikea shelf with a collection of mostly color coordinated items both old and new. I plan to add some stuff, take some stuff away but in the meantime it's a nice colorful place to display my finds.



This is something else you might recognize from one of my daily wear posts. These striped walls are my favorite part of this room! Not wallpaper. I painted this and I'm very proud of myself since I'm so unartistic. This is where I play my David Bowie and Blondie records.



These are my 1950s chairs that I got from the vintage shop I work at sometimes. I get the most amazing things there. My house is almost entirely decorated with vintage from work and Ikea. Yard sales and thrift stores make up the rest. So I guess I need to get back to work so I can have some more rooms to show off a little. I'm running out of good places to take pictures and I wouldn't mind having people over more often. I'm determined to make good use of this weekend! I'll keep you updated on my progress.