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The Junk Parlor

House Tour of an Antique Dealer

After sharing a quick tour of some of our home, I received many requests for a full tour. I think everyone is always curious to get a house tour of an antique dealer. Or LITERALLY a tour of anyone’s house!

I know that when I sold real estate for a few years in Kansas City, one of the things I personally loved about the job was getting to go into so many homes. You’d get to see floor plans, see decorating styles, and I loved seeing how people lived!

While I haven’t done a full home tour, I thought it might be a good idea to put together a list of rooms I have done tours of.  Some of these are older and some are newer, but I hope you enjoy a glimpse of my home. For 2022, my goal is to share the whole house with you! So keep checking back to see what I’ve added!

And, I will give you a heads up that I think I keep fewer antiques being a reseller, than I would if I didn’t sell. I think part of that comes with always trying to make money and you can’t make money if you keep the best pieces for yourself! I have been in some of my dealer friends homes and WOW! Their homes look like a store! And completely in a good, great, awesome way, yet I still choose to move my awesome vintage finds to someone else that will love and cherish them!

We moved our house

We live in a craftsman bungalow that has all of the old charm, but with new features.  How did this happen you may ask? Well, we had the Amish move our home down the road a couple miles to land that we purchased off of my parents. Matt and I started our married life and family in Kansas City, Missouri. I taught at Park Hill High School and he taught at Park Hill South High School. We lived in a nice ranch style home. All of the old timers in our neighborhood talked about how this neighborhood, Sherwood Estates used to be where all of the doctors built houses.

By the time we were living in the subdivision, I would say it was more a “normal” person sub division! We did paint walls and kitchen cabinets in that house. With the help of my dad redid the bathrooms with bead board, new sinks, and carpet in the basement. We even did new siding and garage doors. A lot of improvements were made on that home. But then, we decided to move to Iowa.

We looked at a few homes, but didn’t really like any of them. And it never really crossed my mind to build something. So when my neighbor said he was going to bulldoze a house on his property, we thought we might want to take a look. We knew of a family friend who had the Amish move a house for them, so it definitely seemed like a possibility. Matt and I looked at the house and loved it! The next task was finding land to put the house on.

My dad is a farmer. He actually lives in a house my great grandparents lived in. His parents and my moms parents lived in the area most of their lives, so he has accumulated quite a bit of farm land for hay and cattle. Old farmhouses sat in probably 4 or 5 different places on his properties at one time or another. In the end we picked land right across from them. We moved to Iowa to be by family, so getting as close to them as possible seemed logical!

Once we moved the house, we proceeded to gut it.  That means, that I have a new basement, new plumbing, new electric, new duct work, new windows and roof, BUT all the old charm.  Our floors, trim and front door are 100 years old. So, the stuff you “see” looks old, but the stuff behind the walls that you don’t see, is all new. It truly is the best of both worlds! A new house with all of the amenities and the character of an old home.

We also kept the basic floor plan of the home. The wall between the dining room and kitchen was removed to give it more of an open concept. We simply put a header in and made a peninsula. We did wrap the header in drywall, but this was back before exposed beams were even a thing and it NEVER crossed my mind not to cover it. BUT, we totally could have left it uncovered because it was a salvaged board my dad had stored in his barn. My dad used to tear down old barns and houses, and he kept EVERYTHING! So while I can’t remember exactly what we used I’m sure it was awesome and full of character.

The kitchen is really the only room we changed up. The old kitchen also had a short set of stairs going down to a back door and then another set of stairs from there to go to the basement. We had added a “back” door to the side of the house in one of the bedrooms that we turned into a mudroom. Since we didn’t need this door, we closed that off and then moved the stairs so they would take up less room in the kitchen and we could make the kitchen layout more efficient. Next to the kitchen, and actually coming into the kitchen area was a large full PINK bathroom. We turned that bathroom into a half bath giving us more space for the kitchen. Essentially the main floor of the house can be divided into 4 spaces. One corner is the kitchen, one corner the dining room, one corner the living room and one corner the mudroom. But basically the footprint is the same!

We have even had the family visit the house as we remodeled and then once we were done. It was fun hearing them reminisce about sitting in the corner on the wood stove, waiting for the bus, or watching their mom sew in a certain spot. I even have memories of coming to their house when I was a little girl trick or treating.

We made updates

In addition to reworking the kitchen and downsizing the pink bathroom, we did add a dormer upstairs so we could have a bathroom there. Because we used an old bedroom as a mudroom, that left us with 2 bedrooms upstairs and no bathroom. Adding a dormer for headroom and adding a bathroom above the main floor bathroom seemed like the easiest solution. When we first moved in we had a 4 year old and new born. We knew that after we got settled in we would add on a master suite. 

But, the addition came years later. And with that we moved the laundry out of the mudroom and into the addition, along with a master bedroom, bathroom, and walk-in closet. During the addition, we added a back deck and finished the basement under the original house and the addition. That gave us another bathroom, bedroom, storage room, and a ton of open space for kids and or adults to socialize. Living in the Midwest, I knew that the reality is, even with a new basement, that water would get in.  So, we ended up staining the concrete in the basement, and that is our flooring! PS. We have had one flooding in the basement and we were so happy we just had to clean up the concrete!

Laundry Room Tour

Laundry Room Tour – 12/21/2018

Master Bath Tour

Master Bathroom Tour – 1/1/2019

Dining Room Tour

Dining Room Tour – 1/9/2019

Storage Room Tour

Storage Room/Shipping Station Tour – 12/27/2020

I will be sure to update this with new tours!  Honestly, I thought I had shared more of my home on video, but…I guess not!  It is now on the list of things to do!

This post may contain affiliate links for the products I use and recommend. I am not paid to promote these products. If you purchase using my affiliate links, I could make a small commission at no charge to you.

2 thoughts on “House Tour of an Antique Dealer”

  1. Hi Brooke, I too have to use different shape boxes and sizes for the Vintage Items I sell on Etsy. Sometimes, I also have had to build one (which is sometimes a challenge). You have to use what you need too. No issues. Just had an item sell this past Monday, and I had to go to the Co-op I am part of and hope that there was a good box to use and Yahoo, there was.

    Here is a link, in case you might want to check out my shop on Etsy, and if you do, let me know what you think. Thanks, Sherry 🙂 https://www.etsy.com/shop/RosesAndButterflies?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

    PS: I am proof reading your website and sending you an email of any misspelled words…hope it helps.

    1. Hi Sherry! I love your cover photo on etsy! And paper towel rolls! Great idea! I’m so glad I’m not the only one to reuse boxes!

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