Wondering where I've been? (And project #7 )

Well, this should give you a clue as to why I haven't been posting (or finishing projects) like I should:

Still haven't guessed, let's try it from this angle:

Yep, I'm pregnant. Hard to believe from my HUGE stomach, but I am a mere 4 months along. But that means that the last few months I have been sick as a dog. Actually, I've never seen a dog as sick as I was. I was SICK!

On top of that, we are moving out of state! So, in between my trips to the bathroom to puke, I have been frantically packing boxes and getting my house ready to sell. It hasn't been the most enjoyable time of my life.

I am proud to say that in the midst of all this chaos- I did finish up some huge projects.
I think you should see some before pictures:

This beauty was part of an estate sale. Not an auction- a family member was storing everything in a big building and selling things off via Craig's List and word of mouth. They called this the "Ice Cream Parlor" because it had originally been behind the counter of an ice cream bar. It was HUGE! It was in 2 pieces. The bottom part that you can see above was six cabinets and 6 drawers (can we say "yeah for storage!") and the top part was a beautifully framed mirror that reminded me of an antique mantle. It had obviously been in storage for years, as it was covered with dust, but I had a pretty good imagination and thought it could look wonderful!
But... they wanted $1,000.00 for it.
So, I waited a year. Yep, a whole year. I was pretty confident that not a lot of other people would be interested in such a big piece (It is 10 feet long and over 8 feet high), so I waited. A year later they were only asking $400. Still, I wasn't sure, because I was trying to be more realistic about undertaking so many projects- and this would be a huge one.
So one night in February, my husband and I went shopping for a dresser for our son, who, at age 10, has clothes that are too big to fit the dresser we painted for him when I was pregnant with him. We looked at every furniture store in town (we have about 6).
We couldn't find anything under $500, and nothing that was solid wood, and well made. In fact, I couldn't even find one where all the drawers opened and closed like they should! (We came up with a super fun solution to his dresser problem, but it's not finished yet, so I will wait to post about it!)
When we finally went to dinner, I told my husband, "Well, one thing's for sure, after looking at what there is in new furniture, I am totally convinced that I want to buy that ice cream parlor thing!"
He just smiled and said, "Happy Valentine's Day" He'd already called the guy and was picking it up that weekend.

In spite of some cracked and missing molding (which we could not match- they don't make it the same anymore, so we had to buy new) there was some beautiful details.

Like this:

which has a place to put a light fixture, if I could just figure out what would look right there.
And these hand carved drawer pulls:

We also added beaded board (Cause it's my fave!) to the inside of the doors:
The real drama was that I didn't measure right. I thought it was 7 feet. It was 8 feet, 2 inches. Our ceilings are 8 feet.
After much heated debate- my husband wanted to cut 3 inches off the top, which I was sure would throw off the proportions of the mantle thing around the mirror, I wanted to cut it off the bottom.
I was definitely right.
While I wished I could have left the substantial looking 6 inch baseboards, I wasn't gonna mess around with that gorgeous mirror.
Here is it again: (sigh)
And while it's NOT included with the house, we think it will still wow potential buyers (if we could just get them through the door...)
And I can't tell you how happy I am to have it done, and with how it turned out!

(Later this week, I will show the before and after pictures of the desk in front of it!)

Linked to:
Mustard Seed Creations