Heating Things Up!

As you may have noticed, we have four very beautifully ornate fireplaces in our home!  They are gorgeous, but none of them work!

                                                Living Room Fireplace Pre-Heater
                                            


 Both the living room and dining room fireplaces had gas lines to them though!  The night of the very, very cold day in our house during the house tour, I went over to our friends house across the street to warm up.  They had just installed an old gas heater that they had had restored and installed a gas line to their fireplace.  I sat next to it and warmed my toes and it felt just like I was sitting next to a crackling fire.  That was all I needed!  The hunt began!

 Luckily, Rodney was even more enthralled with the idea than I was so he was the hunter!  Ebay, Craig's List, stopping at antique stores along the way home from a trip to Louisiana.  One day, while I was out Christmas shopping, he headed over to an antique store in Lewisville, Texas and he found two really great heaters, both perfect for the spaces where we had the gas lines.


                                            Living Room Heater Pre-Restored
                                
                                     
                                           
                                               Dining Room Heater Pre-Restored
                                    

But they needed work both cosmetically and we needed to make sure they were safe. We had a plumber come check the safety of the existing gas lines (they were perfect) and our friends had paved the way and they had a gentleman just a few miles from us that specialized in restoring old gas heaters.  We had to decide what color in a High Heat spray paint (not a ton of choices) we would like the grids on both painted and the base of the rusted out Living Room Heater.  

We dropped them off several weeks ago and yesterday I got a call from Albert, the gentleman, who restored the heaters.  He was done and wanted to know if I would like him to drop them off and hook them up!  Well yes!  Not only would it be a fun surprise for Rodney who was in flight home, but it was getting quite chilly out.

On the Dining Room heater, Albert had polished up the brass, painted the grid metallic silver and had lubed and restored any of the parts that were faulty.  He hooked it up and fire and heat!  Albert told me he had looked it up and that it was a 1930's "Ironton" Heater.
                                  

                                  
                                                    Living Room Heater Post-Restoration
                                                              Grid-Silver
                                                           Base a metallic bronze
                                             

                                             
Enjoying this late February morning in the Family Room with my cup of coffee and my gas heater "heating things up!"  And apparently, tomorrow will go to the 70's, so won't need it then!  Perhaps, in March or perhaps again next fall?  No telling what Texas whether holds!

 

All On My Own!

Some of you know, some of you don't that my daughter Molly was my ghost writer from the inception of the blog.  She was in her senior year at the University of Texas at Austin and was only taking 3 hours and nannying part-time, so she was looking for a project.  She came up with the idea that it would be fun to have a blog about the new house.  I would send her pictures and words with the pictures and she would blog.  Then she graduated and got really busy with WORK!  Before she went back to Houston after Christmas, she uploaded the Home Tour pictures for me.  So this post, will be my feeble attempt to do it on my own!

One of my favorite things about this house is that you can see the kitchen when you walk into the house (that can be good and bad!).

  I loved at Christmas, the Merry Christmas Banner that you could see right when you walked in, but of course, we have to simplify after Christmas!  The tulips below, were purchased for New Year's Eve.  They have been fun to look at as I have gotten used to the cleaner look again.



Alas, as they are about to go in the trash, I am happy to have the ivy topiary and the Blue and White Happiness Pot I purchased at Wisteria outlet over the Holidays.  I always hate to take Christmas down, but love simplifying once I do!





Holiday Home Tour

This year, we had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the 40th Annual Holiday Tour of Homes through Chestnut Square. It was also our first Christmas in our new home. Although a snow and ice storm cut back on part of the tour, I still enjoyed getting to decorate the house for the holidays! I took these pictures on the second morning of the tour, because the first day of the tour, we had no electricity.


It was unexpected to be asked to be a part of the home tour the first year, but it ended up being a lot of fun and got us organized early, which wasn't a bad thing.  Hope you enjoyed the Tour!