Miscellaneous Photos...

Prairie City has many beautiful features. Right across the street from the bank building is a gorgeous green square with a gazebo. The view of that is lovely from the second floor windows. While taking photos of some of the landmarks, I noticed some of the beauty that most would pass by....like an old and gorgeous fireplug, an old lightpost, an old service station across the stree with a great red firetruck parked in front, the grain elevator, and a vintage brick building with a newer SuperValu sign on it. We both love small town Iowa and lived in several growing up. We are so very excited that we will have a beautiful building to work in and a lovely community where it is located.  We are also looking forward to meeting the residents of Prairie City.  We hope you like us.......

This just makes me happy to pull up to the bank building and see THIS!

Second story windows

Gazebo in the green square

I love this lamp post

Beauty everywhere I look

Do you think grain elevators are beautiful?  I do!

I would love to have this fireplug in my garden.........just look at it's great shape.

The local Super Valu......I love that its so close.

A view looking straight up

We worked hard to chip the plaster off of two internal walls and L-O-V-E the way the brick looks.  Of course, an American flag makes it look even better.

This will go on the front door.........a vintage fixture with a letter H, which just happens to be the first initial of the owner's last name.  Lovely...

We Have Lots Of News And Photos To Share....

It may have been quiet on the Blog, but not in the building.  The grant to update the bank building was finally approved.  The contractor was ready to go, and then we had a building permit delay...for three weeks.  In the meantime, we did some demolition work ourselves.  Demolition may sound easy, but not necessarily so.  For the record, what you want to come down, you about have to blow up to remove.  What you want to remain in place comes apart with the slightest of touches. 

Bit by bit, it’s been coming together.  The entire North storefront was torn off, and the joists and floor supporting the storefront was reworked.  The building is not being restored to original, but we are trying to give it some of it’s old glory back.  With our new storefront, the original cast iron columns installed in 1882 will again be exposed.   There are tons of pictures, and we’ll make sure to post the before, during and after snapshots.

What’s great is that we’ve been told the town is a buzz over the building being brought back to life.  The contractor had spectators every day, several stopping to visit with him to get all the details.

Unfortunately, the mason who is scheduled to lay the brick front fell off some scaffolding onto a broken window.  Over 60 stitches later, he’s stuck at home recuperating.  Looks like the brickwork will be on hold for a while.  In the meantime, the electrician should be coming in, followed by the plumber.  When we say the building was stripped of everything, we mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.  Had they been able to yank the vault out, I’m sure it would have been gone, too.

We’ve done some salvaging over the winter.  The back portion of the building will have flooring and baseboards removed from an old Church in Ricketts, Iowa.  We have woodwork for the windows and doors from both Maxwell and Mapleton, Iowa.  On the way back from Ricketts, we saw an old brick building being demolished in Rippey.  Of course we stopped, and found the original tin ceiling in the building being torn down.  They held off demolition for 48 hours, and that tin ceiling is now sitting in the basement vault of our bank building.  The light fixtures we’re using ---- are old schoolhouse fixtures, origination unknown.  So, not only did we save a whole lot of stuff from the landfill, this building will have the bones from many old Iowa buildings.

So, while we wait for the contractors to do their work, it looks like a good time to start stripping all the woodwork and refinishing it for the building. 

 By the way, if you’re ever in town and we’re working in the building, please, stop in and say hi. 

Becky and Linda

Notice the beautiful cast iron columns finally exposed

All boarded up and waiting for the custom windows and door

New windows ~~ and they are actually glass!

New windows and door with the exposed columns.  No ugly shake roof overhang.  Isn't she beautiful?

The Old Girl got a dab of color for Memorial Day.  We hope you all have a lovely weekend

 

A Little Visit To The Second Floor......

The upstairs of the bank building is in pretty good shape.  Work had been done on it and it looks great, but will need a good cleaning.  It's also where our "stuff" is stored.  We had lots of fun getting these things up the long and winding stairs.  Inevitably, we always started to laugh at the most inopportune times.  On one of the days we were hauling furniture up those stairs, my sister had donated blood earlier in the day.  It was a hot day and we were trying to get a large and heavy library table around the turn.  My sister suddenty proclaimed, "I am going to get sick......I've got to sit down for a minute.  Fortunately, that lovely table was wedged tightly in the space so I sat on the stairs with my back against the table until she felt a bit better.  We did get the table up the stairs and around the corner. 

We have talked about renting out some of the space upstairs for groups looking for a great space to meet and work on quilting, scrapbooking or other artistic/crafty projects for a day or a whole weekend.   It would be a great space to teach a class.  I have been making jointed collectible mohair teddy bears for 25 year and would love to teach a class if I could find some interested parties.  There is a lovely tearoom down the street and I'm sure we could get some wonderful meals brought in.  Please keep us in mind.

I hope you enjoy the photos.  We love your feedback.

Welcome to the second floor

At the top of the stairs looking down the long hallway

Some of our inventory stored upstairs

And more stuff......

This is the room we would rent out for classes, meetings or other group functions.  It is nice and bright and has a lovely view on the Prairie City square

The lovely glass shades on the shelves will be on the lights downstairs.

Lots of work being done..........

Photos coming soon on the work that has been done in the building. Becky & I have been busy chipping plaster off walls to expose brick. We went on a 'pick' last week and had to haul all of our treasures into the building. The weather has been so nice that we have actually been able to be in the building, without heat, to work on some things. Contractors are getting closer to coming in to hook up electricity and get it run throughout the building. We have purchased some fabulous chandeliers we are going to paint and embellish. Becky was able to snag some great vintage school house lights to install as well. Also plumbers and masonry contractors will soon be hard at work.

Are these little sweeties serving mud pies with their pots of tea? My sister and I couldn't make enough of them when we were little girls.

Photo of original bank building taken from an antique postcard....beautiful!

There's nothing like shopping for antiques in old buildings; it seems so fitting. Aside from the antiques for sale, I can't help but inspect and admire the architecture, the worn wood floors, the shine of the well-used door hardware, or the elaborate designs of the chipped and painted tin ceiling tiles. That's exactly the kind of building I always hoped I'd have for an antique store, long before my sister, Linda, and I ever shared our dreams about owning an antique shop.

In April of 2010, I went to a personal-property estate auction of a local attorney held in the neighboring town. True to my history, I bought items too large to fit in my car, and called my husband to bring the truck. While waiting for him, I started walking along the downtown buildings doing what I do best: peeking into them, hoping to someday find a FOR SALE sign in one that I love. Guess what -- that's exactly what happened. Not only that, but the owner was at the auction as well, and walked over as I was playing peeping Tom.

Because the building next to hers had some serious structure damage, and the building on the other side was empty, I started checking with those adjacent owners to see what their plans were. The damaged building to the south was under city orders to be immediately repaired or demolished. The empty building to the north was a mystery; what was known is that it had long ago been abandoned. The local City Administrator (they know everything in a small town) thought it was held up in either a sale, or a foreclosure. After some research, I found and talked to the attorney handling the case. I changed gears and began working on owning that property. It was built in 1882 to be a bank, but the building's glory days had passed many, many decades ago. The bank building did, however, still have the bones to have some dignity returned to it. Although Linda and I wanted a shop together, building ownership was up in the air. The decision was made that my husband and I would buy the building. Eight long months later, filled with surprising issues and upsetting twists and turns (which also translates into more expense), we now have a building for our future store. It's a huge leap towards our dream, and we're very excited, but boy do we have a lot of work cut out for us -- as you can see from the photos.

So the story from my husband goes something like this: "Yeah, Becky went to an estate sale to buy some antique stuff and ended up buying an ancient bank building."


"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." -- John Quincy Adams

Photos of the future home of Mud Pies & Sassafras Tea Antiques