Tuesday, December 17, 2013

tis the season...

with the permission of the current owner, steve bracklein, the former antler's hotel hosted victor, colorado's 4th annual elf emporium this past weekend.  the facade of the building is graced with one of several city murals painted by local artist, noel wallace.  after suffering a devasting fire several years ago that destroyed the second floor of the historical hotel, it is now beginning to come to life again! 


several local vendors as well as vendors from neighboring communites displayed their hand made wares and home made Christmas baked goods.  many thanks to all who participated!


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

more sisters on the fly...

hey, i wasn't done.  something fishy going on with my computer!

even the rain couldn't keep this wild and crazy group of gals down.  the tarps went up, lights were strung and fire pits lit.  in addition to the several planned events, just sitting under the canopies listening to it rain and watching 'the long long trailer' with lucy and desi were enjoyed by all.





great pizza and fun at the headframe tavern!





let's do it again next year!

sisters on the fly roll into town...


despite heavy rains and flooding in colorado, nearly half of the registered sisters on the fly braved the trek up the mountain to the historic mining town of victor, co to attend the first annual 'motherlode glampout'.  below are a few pictures of some of the attending campers and activities.

jan wasson SOTF #3851


roberta walstrom SOTF #3412

vicki magisano SOTF #1343


a few of the event hilights included fishing at beautiful bison lake, operating gold mine tour, historical sunnyside cemetery, and tour of victor ag museum.








Tuesday, July 9, 2013

vintage camper mania...

a 1970 mitchell class c rv is what started it all.  aptly named "twister sisters" for my sis and i since we're ks born and bred.  she's painted by a local artist, noel wallace, who has graced the town of victor co with several outstanding murals.

an inside shot of what a little paint, antique bead board, vintage mexican flour sack curtains can do.  she's almost completed except to lay brick paneling on the floor and coat with several layers of polyurethane.  just when i thought there could never be another...

...along comes a 1965 road runner.  this one will be semi gutted and become 'junk on the run'...a rolling collection of the best junk on wheels!  good thing i didn't promise two were enough, because...

...a real beauty caught my attention!  she's a 1948 kit companion, completely original inside.  birch cabinets, brown, western looking seat covers, working stove and fridge...even wire racks in the cupboards.  i hate to choose favorites, but i'm leaning heavily towards this one.  the shape reminds me of a picture of a sod house i saw, so i'm thinking she'll be painting to look like an old soddy and i'll call her "sodbuster".  i'm trying really, really hard not to look at old campers parked in fields, but it sure is hard!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

camera magic...

now why can't i take pictures like this?  i don't know how she does it, but one of my favorite customers, sarah evans, took this picture of the junk posse front window and out came the most beautiful historic looking, period style photo.  the tones are amazing.

when we started taking off the 'man cave' dark green wallpaper that was put on sometime in the 30's, we discovered 2 layers of beautiful victorian wallpaper underneath.  we left several areas intact as a reminder of when the building was home to a dry goods store and barber shop in the early 1900's.  the following photo of the wallpaper was also snapped by sarah. 

what a beautiful rendering.   thank you, sarah, for allowing me to share these on my blog!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

what "Move in Ready" really means...

after living in the old hotel we purchased and renovated for 6 months, what seemed like a fun idea quckly turned into reality of what it was really like for the old miners who lived in small rooms and shared one bath at the end of the hall.  so i frantically started searching craigslist for available properties in victor.  this time it had to be a house that didn't need ceilings torn out, walls moved, foundations repaired, in order to sell my husband on the idea of moving again.  joyously i found a candidate and made an appt. to look at it.  all i could see was space, space and more space, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a rarity for victor properties.  i think the way i put it to him was "i want it, and i want it now".  desperate people do desperate things, but to me it looked perfect...move in ready...well almost.

i didn't get a before picture of the kitchen, because basically there was none.  just a sink and stove that faced each other, and in between was a door to the bathroom with a perfect view of the porcelain throne.  i can tolerate alot of things, but not that.  with all the doors and windows in the kitchen there weren't many options without completely tearing out the floor and replumbing the whole thing.  and after all..it WAS move in ready.  so i had to keep my requests to a minimum.  even though there's still not alot of cabinets, its way better than before.  and with the help of a couple of antique pieces for a kitchen island and bake center, it's plenty big for someone who doesn't cook much.

i've always wanted to do a kitchen with just freestanding antique kitchen pieces and that's pretty much how this one turned out.

and now instead of looking into the bathroom, after closing the door on the kitchen side we left it in place on the bathroom side, added shelves and have what is probably the biggest medicine cabinet in colorado!

and then there was the little matter of painting...the entire interior.  upon closer inspection, someone in the past had painted with a combinatation of semi gloss in some places and eggshell in others...on the same wall.  we figured the time to do it was before everything was moved in, so we had a painting marathon and got it done in 2 days. 

love, love, love this cast iron stairway to the upstairs.  but it's sure not mover friendly with needing to take beds and dressers up.  thankfully, there's an exterior door to the upstairs, but no steps leading up to it.  another minor detail i missed.  no worries, hubby constructed a temporary ramp and everything got moved in just fine.  a new upper deck is on the 'to do' list for this summer.

so, "move in ready" is the new catch phrase with my friends when they refer to me and my house hunting escapades.  our plans to renovate and move into an 1896 log boarding house have been put on hold because we like it here so well.  but if the time comes that we get it done and get the itch to move again, it's gonna be Two Men and a Truck instead of  One Man and a Woman with a pickup.  This last move about killed us both.