Meet Eleanor

Let me introduce you to Mz. Eleanor (with Chi-Chi the Chihuahua)....

You've all heard about Grandma Eleanor and her little cottage house that will be up for sale soon, so I thought I'd show you around their house, where she lives with Peter's mom, Barbara. They've been living together for about 5 years now and they both moved from full houses, where now they are sharing. And that means, all of the stuff that each has accumulated over the years ended up here. They live in a nice new brick ranch garden home in the outskirts of Birmingham. I went up to the attic and took some pics of all the stuff that's stored up there. You've seen the aqua chair, now I'll show you what else is up there. It's a treasure trove.
Pretty little side table, I really like this too.
A few old vintage chairs line one wall.
Original artwork going up the stairs. Eleanor has been an artist all her life and has painted some really pretty things. She has given us a few pieces of her artwork and I have them hung at our house. These are unfortunately wasted in the attic.
More original art. She also has some very nice pieces from her former instructor, who is well known here in Birmingham, from what I understand. That one sitting on the floor was done by him. I have one watercolor painted by him of pears in our kitchen and I love it. Eleanor did the one on top.

An old coat hangs up here and I spy some sort of dresser with mirror way back against the wall in here. I spy her old sewing machine too. You can just see the top of the aqua chair here.
Other side, with a French Provencial dresser and lots of other stuff. So you see, some people really do have treasures in the attic. No one else I know, but definitely Eleanor does. I'd love to really dig through this whole attic and see what else is hiding. We'll go downstairs now and I'll show you some of the pretty things in their house.
This looks to be a Victorian folding screen. Eleanor said her aunt gave it to her. I imagine this is quite old. I love this piece too.
Peter's mom brought this Oriental screen with her. They've both been collectors of antiques for a long time.
As well as this cute pair of chairs by the frontdoor. I of course, love the black and white polkadots on this. I told Barbara I'd love to have these chairs one day. Check out the matching teddy bear. Grandma E also has an obsession with teddy bears and they are all over the house.

Another Eleanor original hangs over the sideboard in the diningroom. I told you Eleanor has a LOT of stuff. Much of it is in the diningroom. Lots of glass and dishes. She doesn't believe in getting rid of anything.
It's sitting on the floor, cause there is no more room to put this stuff away. There is no telling how much valuable stuff she has, as well as a lot of junk.
Every cupboard is stuffed with things. See all the original artwork just leaning on the floor. It's all over the house like that.
Blue and white china and another corner cabinet that is full.
Another screen behind the sofa with yet more leaning artwork. This is Eleanor's art gallery. No more room to hang things on the walls, so it leans....everywhere. And this is ALL original art, not prints.

More art....
Sofa and chair are old Baker pieces that she picked up 2nd hand years ago. Baker is very good stuff. That's a Pembroke table in between.
Another pretty pair of side tables flank the other sofa. Eleanor also loves gardening and is always cutting her roses and bringing them inside.
An old washstand is in the kitchen. So that's a few of the pretties at their house that I thought you might enjoy seeing. My hubby told me his family was colorful when we got married. And boy, he was not kidding?! LOL It's always a circus over there. Our families are polar opposites in every way.
Here she is giving it to Peter about what all she is going to do with HER little house. She wants to go over and spend some time in her little house and she'll decide when to sell it. Yada, yada, yada...you can see he looks really worried about it, ha-ha. Eleanor is very hard of hearing now and wears a hearing aid in one ear, so it's a challenge to communicate with her. She's got a very nice house to live in, so she certainly doesn't need to move over there or stay over there for that matter, but convincing her is useless. Peter's pretty good about keeping her in line though. I'm going to get over there more often now that her car keys have been taken away, to get her out and staying active.

The first time I met Eleanor she told me the funniest story about my husband, Peter. She was keeping him while his parents were out one night. He was 3 years old at the time and she asked him to go and pick up his toys before his parents got home. He looked at her with the defiance of a three year old and said in his little boy voice, "Gammah, I gonna beat yu a$$". Can you imagine...wonder where he heard that one?! I laughed my head off. I can totally see him saying that to her and she has never forgotten it. He still doesn't like to be told what to do.

Like I said, Eleanor is a character.