It's been a crazy summer with our BIG move from Kansas to Oregon, but now we are (finally!) settled in and starting to think about the upcoming school year. First, a little about our new (old) house.

I knew from the start that I wanted house from the 1950s, with as many original features as possible (tricky, since we're renting now). Since I'm obsessed with all things vintage, my goal was to find a house where my various collections would fit in nicely.

Prior to our move, I spent months studying every single post at Retro Renovation, pouring over images on Flickr (and yes, even Ugly House Photos), and collecting decorating books from the 1950s and 60s. I also sold or gave away nearly every piece of furniture that we had so that we could make a fresh start.

And then finally, we found our house - a charming, spacious 5-bedroom 1958 [semi] ranch-style home in gorgeous Lake Oswego, Oregon. The number one selling point? The original pink American Standard bathroom (see: Save the Pink Bathrooms). I also adored its massive kitchen, numerous large windows (including two with tiled window seats, perfect for reading!), the woodsy backyard, and yes, even the original wood paneling in the family room. After jumping through numerous hoops, the house was ours and we commenced our move.


Now, as I've said, we're mostly settled in and loving our new home. There are a few "issues" here - the internet doesn't work well in the downstairs bedrooms, no matter what we do (and we've tried everything!), our lovely pink bathroom isn't exactly pink after all, but more of a peach-pink (very hard to color match, though Land's End does make towels in a very similar shade!)...also, the toilet is missing its matching pink seat, but just today I found a replacement solution here. Oh, and our yard is so shaded that I'm afraid I'll have little luck with roses here (I'm dearly missing the 50+ rose bushes I left behind in Kansas!).


Nevertheless, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It blows my mind just how beautiful it is here! We're still working on new (old) furniture, but the kids' bedrooms are done, thanks to Ikea, and the family room/school room is mostly finished as well. We found a great Danish modern dining table that will seat up to twelve people (!) - and are now waiting on a set of chairs to materialize. Sadly it does not match my very traditional-looking china hutch, but Danish modern is the look I was orginally after, so that's what we got. I've been scouring thrift stores and vintage stores almost daily to find the perfect furnishings, plus all of the little extras (like pinch pleat drapes for all our windows) and that has been both thrilling and frustrating. Fortunately, the house has tons of storage space (closets everywhere!) and for the first time ever, we all "fit" without being crowded for space.