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Rue of Rue's Peanut Butter and Jelly Life shares with us her home renovations and what 'living Vintage' means to she and her family. After reading go to the forum page HERE to discuss with all of us.	LIVING IN THE PRESENT WHILE CHANNELING THE PAST I was born in 1969, but I have always felt like I was born in the wrong era. I’m also lucky enough to be married to a man that feels the same way. We live with our children in a 101-year-old home, I listen to music from the 1940s and 50s most of the time, I cook meals from scratch and I have a traditional life in the fact that my husband works and I take care of the home. Basically I’m a woman that is considered to be a bit odd in this day and age, which is okay by me, because it makes me happy to do what I do. Yes, there are days when I’m tired or sick or just plain don’t want to do any of the daily chores that come with this life that I’ve chosen, but those days are rare. Most of the time I love doing even the smallest of tasks, as they are part of the bigger picture, which is a well-run happy family home. Living this life is all I ever wanted. Now that you know a little bit about me I wanted to tell you more about the home we’ve chosen to live in. We found this piece of history after a yearlong search and have lived here for a little over a year now. During that time we’ve been trying to take the home back to its past after it was remodeled to a more modern look. There have been challenges and it’s a work in progress to this day, but as we’ve ‘listened’ to what the house wants, we feel that we’re getting close to accomplishing what we’ve set out to do. Let me share some pictures with you… This is the house as it was when we found it and although it wasn’t a hit with me on the outside, my husband knew better and so did I once we walked inside. Here’s the progress of ripping of the awful siding about 6 months later… And here’s what it looks like today… It needs the rest of the siding taken off, a porch put back on and a dormer reattached. We actually started working on it the minute we had the keys though, as you can see here with my husband ripping out the carpet on the stairs…. And eventually ripping out the new wood that was hiding the original wood floors…. Here is the kitchen when we looked at the house..... and here it is now, only $1800 dollars later.…. We did all the work ourselves, but it also helped that I found this 1951 sink for only $53 on ebay. The kitchen was designed around the concept that it had been added to over the years and through different periods, which is why there’s a mix of different styles and not a true period kitchen. I absolutely love cooking in here. Our latest accomplishment is the breakfast room. It used to be the butlers pantry, but almost everything was ripped out years ago. We left it that way for now because it wasn’t cost friendly to put it all the cabinets back, but we hope to make it a combination of the two again someday. For now though, we just did the best with what we had. Before… During…. And after… As I hope you can see, we’re trying to make it look as original as possible. It’s a true labor of love. So, yes although we live in the year 2010 and no one would know any different by looking at us on the street, we’re actually quite different from the everyday family in the fact that we don’t live in the average model home and that we have chosen to live by the values of a different era. Believe it or not, we happen to be very very happy the way we live and I can’t imagine our life any other way. Discuss and thank Rue HERE on the forum topic.
Rue's Darling Dogs.	Rue's New Clothesline. We are having a fun discussion HERE about clotheslines and you can read my POST about them.

Rue of Rue's Peanut Butter and Jelly Life shares with us her home renovations and what 'living Vintage' means to she and her family.

After reading go to the forum page HERE to discuss with all of us.

LIVING IN THE PRESENT WHILE CHANNELING THE PAST

I was born in 1969, but I have always felt like I was born in the wrong era. I’m also lucky enough to be married to a man that feels the same way. We live with our children in a 101-year-old home, I listen to music from the 1940s and 50s most of the time, I cook meals from scratch and I have a traditional life in the fact that my husband works and I take care of the home. Basically I’m a woman that is considered to be a bit odd in this day and age, which is okay by me, because it makes me happy to do what I do. Yes, there are days when I’m tired or sick or just plain don’t want to do any of the daily chores that come with this life that I’ve chosen, but those days are rare. Most of the time I love doing even the smallest of tasks, as they are part of the bigger picture, which is a well-run happy family home. Living this life is all I ever wanted.

Now that you know a little bit about me I wanted to tell you more about the home we’ve chosen to live in. We found this piece of history after a yearlong search and have lived here for a little over a year now. During that time we’ve been trying to take the home back to its past after it was remodeled to a more modern look. There have been challenges and it’s a work in progress to this day, but as we’ve ‘listened’ to what the house wants, we feel that we’re getting close to accomplishing what we’ve set out to do.

Let me share some pictures with you…

This is the house as it was when we found it and although it wasn’t a hit with me on the outside, my husband knew better and so did I once we walked inside.

Here’s the progress of ripping of the awful siding about 6 months later…

And here’s what it looks like today…

It needs the rest of the siding taken off, a porch put back on and a dormer reattached.

We actually started working on it the minute we had the keys though, as you can see here with my husband ripping out the carpet on the stairs….

And eventually ripping out the new wood that was hiding the original wood floors….

Here is the kitchen when we looked at the house.....

and here it is now, only $1800 dollars later.….

We did all the work ourselves, but it also helped that I found this 1951 sink for only $53 on ebay.

The kitchen was designed around the concept that it had been added to over the years and through different periods, which is why there’s a mix of different styles and not a true period kitchen. I absolutely love cooking in here.

Our latest accomplishment is the breakfast room. It used to be the butlers pantry, but almost everything was ripped out years ago. We left it that way for now because it wasn’t cost friendly to put it all the cabinets back, but we hope to make it a combination of the two again someday. For now though, we just did the best with what we had.

Before…

During….

And after…

As I hope you can see, we’re trying to make it look as original as possible. It’s a true labor of love.

So, yes although we live in the year 2010 and no one would know any different by looking at us on the street, we’re actually quite different from the everyday family in the fact that we don’t live in the average model home and that we have chosen to live by the values of a different era. Believe it or not, we happen to be very very happy the way we live and I can’t imagine our life any other way.

Discuss and thank Rue HERE on the forum topic.

Rue's Darling Dogs.

Rue's New Clothesline. We are having a fun discussion HERE about clotheslines and you can read my POST about them.