Our Life On The Hill

My vintage metal gliders, chairs and benches are getting a new look

I am so excited about finally finding someone to sandblast my vintage metal chairs, gliders and benches.  I'm in love with this kind of furniture and have been keeping my eye out for quite some time now.  I have 3 gliders/benches and 14 chairs.  I had 15, but one broke at a family function when the person sitting in it was rocking and it wasn't a rocker.  There was a weak spot on the frame that we didn't know about and the chair broke.  :(  It was a clamshell and I just love that pattern.  I'm going to see if we can get it repaired somehow, but I don't know if we can.  

Here are some pictures of my furniture on our new wrap around porch!  We put it on last spring.  We have to finish it, but it's usable which is awesome!  We love sitting out there.  I hope we can finish it this summer.  

 

I was given the number of a man that does sandblasting on the side, from a friend of mine.  She also loves all things vintage, especially the metal chairs and gliders.  She has 49 pieces I think!  This guy came and picked up the first batch of chairs from me.  He took 5 chairs and a bench.  It took him only a week and he only charged $100!  I couldn't believe it!  Here a few befores of a few of the chairs. 

Here they are back from sandblasting.  

This chair mostly primed.  

Here is a close up of one of the pie crust chairs primed. You can see the area that is freshly sandblasted that isn't primed yet.  They are going to look great painted!

The pin dot chair nice and primed. 

Jerry busy priming

 

I can't wait to color on them.  I started painting the pin dot chairs an orange.  I think it's going to look great when I'm finished!  I'll be sure to share pictures when I'm done. 

My sweet little stool

My parents had this adorable, vintage, heart shaped stool when I was a kid.  I remember it being in the garage.  I just acquired it from my dad and decided it needed to come live in my house.   I took it apart and started sanding it and then was able to prime and paint it.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I left the original rubber feet on the legs.  They add charm to it I think.  

Here she is before:

 

During:

 

The finished product:

  

I just love her!     

My latest project

You all know that I'm obsessed and in love with the vintage metal lawn and porch furniture.  I have quite a few and I'm so excited about starting their makeovers.  

I scored this vintage metal chair in the pie crust pattern and I was so thrilled!  I am a CVT (certified veterinary technician) and I just started working part time with a house call vet that moved to our town.  I went on a house call with her and the patient (dog)  was in this back shed.  I was thinking that I might spot something good in her shed and in the back of this dark and dingy garden shed, I spotted it!  I was so giddy!  We finished our work on her dog and I worked up the courage to ask her if she would be interested in selling the chair to me.  She said I could have it!!  I couldn't believe my luck!  I was ecstatic! 

I grabbed it and we fit it into the back of the vet's SUV.  

 

I started the stripping and sanding process.  Here are a couple of "progress" photos.

    

I'm crushing hard

I'm in love with vintage metal porch and lawn furniture.  I love the different patterns, the looks of the furniture, and I love that each piece has so much history.  I want to know who the family was that enjoyed sitting on their porch on these chairs and gliders, sipping their lemonade and enjoying a sunny afternoon. 

Here is my new glider that my dad found on a front porch.  He went to the door and asked if the man wanted to sell it and he did.  

I would love to find out what the name of this pattern is.  I've searched the internet and can't find anything.  I found one site where they called it wagon wheel, but I don't think that's right.  It doesn't fit with the retro look and the leaves.  I found one on another site and it's named after the paint color that they had painted it.   I can't find any books on only vintage metal porch/lawn furniture.  If anyone knows of any, I would appreciate the info.  

Here is my basket weave rocker

My pinhole matching chairs

Now I just have to decide what colors I'll use on all of them.      

A wonderful Labor Day weekend

On Saturday, Hadleigh went to a friend's house for a playdate.  Jerry had to work his side job and so I took Ashton and Sawyer to the party at our friend's cabin.  They have this beautiful piece of property in the woods, and there is a little cabin and plenty of stuff for the kids to do.  There is a river, although it's more like a creek, nearby and it has smaller branches off of it, so the kids definitely need to wear play clothes to this party.  They all get muddy, but they have so much fun doing it.  They have a pinata and treasure hunts for the kids.  They really go all out and bury clues and treasure and the older kids' hunt is fun because they use a metal detector.  The adults have drinks and volleyball, bean bags, and horse shoes to play.  There is plenty of food and a bonfire to sit around.  The only drawback is that you have to use an outhouse, they don't have plumbing out there.  It's a really neat place though, and it's about 45 minutes south of where we and they live, so it's like a little getaway. 

Here they are getting their instructions for the treasure hunt.  Sawyer is on the steps and Ashton is to the left in the yellow shirt.

Sawyer and his best bud having fun on the swing.  You can see how dirty they are, especially their faces.  Although, this is nothing compared to what they looked like later in the day.

I took a different route home and went through Indiana.  There is a wind farm along that route, and the kids love seeing the gigantic wind turbines.  As we came into this little town, we passed an antique shop with vintage metal chairs sitting outside.  I turned around and was so happy that they were still open.  It was almost 7:00.  They also had a vintage metal bench, although I'm not sure if it was once a glider?  I LOVE those chairs and we only had three at the time.  My dad bought these 3 gorgeous chairs at an auction a few weeks ago, and he has them at our house right now until we get ready to sandblast the whole lot.  They all need to be redone.   I came home and looked up the glider/bench and was happy to see that what they were asking was very reasonable.  I wanted to go down there with Jerry on Sunday. 

Jerry ended up having to work again at his side job, so the kids and I made our way down to this town in Indiana.  I threw in McDonald's and they were happy campers.  Ashton and I had a fun time trying to get the 3rd row seat out of our Suburban.  We did it with a little help from my brother.  Then, we were on our way.  I was so nervous that someone else may have already snatched them up, but they were still there.  He took what I offered him on all 3 and I even added in a metal typing table and it came to less than what he was asking for the 2 chairs and bench.  It was a great day! 

Here are my new pieces that I bought on Sunday.

The 3 we already had

These are the neatest chairs I've ever seen!  They belong to my mom and dad.  They are going to look so good after we finish redoing them.  The fun part is going to be figuring out colors. 

That night, we had a party to go to.  It's a big party and they have it every year.  There are so many people and TONS of food.  The kids have a blast because they get rides in golf carts and Gators.  Their school bus driver is always there and he usually drives one of the Gators.  It's a lot of fun!  Hadleigh was at her friend Grace's house on Saturday for a playdate and Grace's older sister and her friend taught the girls a dance complete with some cheerleading lifts.  It was so cute, so they practiced and practiced and they performed it for us at the party on Sunday night.  They were so funny.  Another huge hit of that party is the hayride that goes on "Haunted Road" which is where they set a few old run down tractors and combines for this event.  I didn't take my camera, so I didn't get any photos at this party. 

On Monday, I mowed our lawn and it really needed it. I bumped this little watermelon as I was mowing the perimeter of the garden and it came off of it's vine.  It wasn't quite done, but it was still really sweet. 

We had fun sitting on our new vintage bench and eating watermelon with a spoon.

On Tuesday, we saw the Good Year blimp fly over.  I had to take a picture of it.  It was pretty low and you could hear it.  It was so hazy out, so it's not the best picture.  We had wondered where it was going, but I have Oprah on right now as I'm typing this and I just saw the blimp on her show. She filmed her opening in Chicago on Tuesday.