The 1965 Simmons Hide-A-Bed

I've been a lover of all things mid-century for many years, probably because I grew up in a home filled with sturdy, modest mid-century furnishings, and was raised by parents with solid mid-century lives.  It all just sort of rubbed off on me.  I also have several friends who have purchased mid-century homes, which I drool over when I visit, dreaming of the decorating, landscaping and entertaining possibilities.  Martinis and jazz, anyone?

So, when I discover mid-century pieces at local thrift stores, I have an instinct to purchase whatever it is for myself, or to photograph and text my friends to come purchase for themselves.  Which brings me to the mid-century Hide-A-Bed that I found at the local Goodwill three years ago.   It was a dusty, tired mess, but solid and heavy as a rock.  A quick search on Google revealed that it was a 1965 Simmons Hide-A-Bed Tuxedo.  Everything was original, right down to the upholstery, the small arm pillows AND mattress (frightening, I know).  And it was $65.  I convinced Eric that it was the perfect piece for The Bungalow office/guest room, that I would pay to have it re-upholstered myself, and that we would all three live happily ever after.  And one day I expect that he will stop taking my phone calls.

Three hours later, after the Simmons Hide-A-Bed gouged our wooden floor, scraped two of our door frames and drawn blood from the movers (my forgiving husband and my truck-owning friend), I made the decision that I would teach myself how to re-upholster the sofa myself because it was NEVER leaving the house again.  And really, how hard would it be to re-upholster a sofa...

With new mattress purchased, I began to research DIY re-upholstery and discovered a blog post by Abby Metz at DIY Design.  Abby’s determination, resourcefulness (reusing tackstrips and such) and attention to detail resonated with me.  The only thing missing from her post was how to recover the cushions, but that was something I was able to figure out on my own by taking apart the cushion covers myself (labeling and numbering and reusing the original zippers).  Abby’s blog post was perfect.  I read and reread it for probably a full year before I finally pulled the trigger on my own project. And it only took me two years to complete!  Seriously, it didn’t take that long...I just worked on it in two phases because, you know, life.  I tackled the cushions last summer, then upholstered the body this past January.  It is Booker’s favorite sofa to sleep on, which freaks me out because it’s like he knows all the work I put into it and he tries to psych me out by kicking off all the pillows and burrowing frantically under the pet cover we keep on it to protect it.  Many a night Eric and I will search for the dog only to discover him hidden under that cover, laughing at us.  

Fresh from the Goodwill!

Taking apart the cushion cover.

Cushions complete.

Pre-upholstered body.

 

Removing the back panel.

 

Removing the arm upholstery.

Removing old batting.

 

Fitting the new arm piece.

Cutting the front kick panel.

Pulling the front back off.

Going off script for the back.

After two days and sixty adjustments.

Done.

Where's Booker?

Right here.

Waking up.

Still waking up. Or he's laughing at us.  I don't know which.

 

2016 Christmas Letter

At Christmas, I like to send a yearly recap to all of my friends and relatives who are now scattered in the different places that life has landed them.  And with life being what it is (life), some years are filled with more milestones than others.  2016 has been one of those years.

Holiday Greetings!
Since I have no idea where to begin this 2016 recap, I’ll start with the passing of my daddy.   He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last November after becoming ill with a multitude of symptoms (almost all of which he kept to himself).  Because of his age and overall health, surgery was not an option.  And knowing that the devastating side effects of chemo and radiation would only hasten the inevitable, dad chose to be cared for at home.   The man who throughout the years taught me important things like how to connect with people through conversation (he never met a stranger), how to rake and burn a big pile of leaves without catching the neighborhood on fire, and how to back up a 24 foot U-Haul truck with a car hitch attached to the back without running someone over, also taught me about how to listen to and take care of someone I love who I know is dying.  Until his last breath in the very early hours of the morning on June 8^th, I learned from him how to be a better person.  Lordy, but I loved having him in my life…

 On the Work Front

We finally developed our GPL Park!  We’ve only been dreaming about it since 2008.  But after a series of successful grants and increased public interest this past year, we were able to get a sidewalk, security lighting, sod, raised planting beds, benches and a gazebo.  I had trees and shrubs delivered this morning…

 Our library hosted the annual state library convention in April.  This was a noteworthy achievement for the GPL considering Gadsden doesn’t have a convention center.  We were only able to pull the whole thing off with the help of every single GPL staff member working their fingers to the bone, and almost every local downtown partner loaning us space for events and breakout sessions.  400+ librarians, vendors and authors converged on Gadsden for three days.  We survived.  It was marvelous.

We are about to join forces with friend and educator Chip Rowan to bring his Beautiful Rainbow Catering Company & Garden into the library as a permanent partner in our cafe.  Chip works with young adults with cognitive disabilities, teaching culinary and business skills for future employment.  He is currently working through the Gadsden City School system, but hopes to one day become an independent employer of some of his graduates.  We are renovating our existing café to hold an educational kitchen, a dining area for guests, a classroom/boardroom for additional learning, and an office for the day-to-day transactions of running a café/catering company.  Because Chip and his guys currently grow much of the food they use in their catering jobs, we have agreed to turn over all eight of our raised planting beds that are located in our GPL Park to the Company.  These young chefs-in-training have catered several events for us this year.  They are excited about the amazing food that they create, and are just as excited about sharing it with our community.  I am looking forward to spending my lunch time in their café come January of 2017!

 The final event in our Gadsden Reads is this Tuesday.   With the help of attorney Bryan Stevenson and his Equal Justice Initiative of Montgomery, we are dedicating a memorial to Bunk Richardson, a man wrongly lynched here in 1906.  This all came about through our choosing of Stevenson’s book Just Mercy for our 2016 reading initiative which set into motion a community-wide discussion of the justice system as it pertains to ethnicity, mental health, socioeconomics, gender, and age. We are now openly talking about our local history of marginalizing certain groups within our community.  It has not been an easy series of programs.  Some folks are happy to finally be heard.  Others question why we’re “stirring things up.”  It’s just shameful and wrong to keep sweeping these things under the rug.

 On the Home Front

2016 was another DIY year for us.  I spent a great deal of time staining and painting the rafters and ceiling of the patio Eric built back in 2015.  We ripped out the dropped ceiling of laundry room to expose the old beadboard that was hidden underneath.  Eric built a sliding barn door to close off the laundry from the kitchen should we ever need to.  We added buried electrical out to the garage for a security system.  And after a lifetime of using ice cube trays, I have an icemaker in my fridge.  Eric installed it I’m sure because of some deep desire to provide ice cubes for his wife and dog.   As much as I am enjoying the ice, it still seems unnatural to have so much at my disposal.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday and much love,
c

Retaining The Bungalow's Backyard

We are one step closer to having our patio off the back of the Bungalow.  This, after three hard weeks of moving a bunch of dirt, setting temporary block steps, building a retaining wall with 6'x6' posts, moving more dirt to allow us to put in two drainage systems (one along the front of the wall, one to take down-spout runoff under the patio, both spilling into the dry creek bed), moving even more dirt back to approximately its original spot, and then praying for everything to work during our first rain storm, which happened last night.

We used about thirty eight-foot 6'x6's, a gazillion two-foot pieces of rebar, three long pieces of perforated/corrugated pipe, three sections of PVC, elbows and connectors and endcaps (oh, my), a fortune's worth of deck screws, and sacks and sacks of drainage rock (which pained us both greatly...store bought rock *sigh*).

Thankfully, on the first day of groundbreaking we had some friends stop by to dig some and help set/level the first course of the wall (which was very helpful since I discovered during our first purchase trip that I couldn't comfortably lift a 6x6.).  We were thankful for the help.  From that point on, we tried to work some on the wall each night after work and each weekend.  For three weeks.  Now, we will have a concrete patio poured on top.  But only after we get a few more estimates.  And then we'll build the tin roof (...rusted! Guess the name of the song!).  And maybe in the fall we'll start on the second, lower level of patio, which is part of the Liz Wood/Finlayson Landscaping Design master plan for our backyard.  Liz knows us well and designed our yard with DIY over a couple of years in mind.  We love her for that.

Jeremy Jackson and Eric, digging.

Dave Hyatt, Jeremy & Eric, leveling.

Booker and the dead men.

 















 

Booker, Eric & the steps.

I may have strained my biscuit a few times during the project.  Eric had never heard that saying, which prompted me to look it up. As it appears to not exist anywhere in normal English language, it must be a phrase my mother or sister coined during the late 70s, early 80s, a phrase that has stuck with me all my life and represents the vague act of pulling generally everything in one's body.  Usually, straining one's biscuit and then sitting for a spell result in a person finding themselves stove up...It's a Southern thing, I'm sure.  Or maybe it is a Roark thing.

This retaining wall was paid for almost in full with gifts/gift cards saved from our engagement party back in October of last year.  So, it is a wedding gift to us from some wonderful friends and family.  We look forward to sharing it with them soon.

In case you forgot what the backyard looked like, here is a before and after: