We are dealing with settling my MIL Jane's estate as she transitions into full time elder care. She has had dementia for over ten years. She still recognizes family but her level of care has moved into 24 hour need status after repeated falls and memory issues leading to confusion and full blown paranoia at times.
To finance this and my SIL's move to be with her new husband in the American Redoubt where Jane has joined her, my MIL's home has been cleared and is pending sale contingent on the buyer's sale of their current home. The family hired Bluebird Estate Sales in Jefferson, GA, and our experience was not positive at all. I suspect the estate agent's antiques booth and eBay store benefited more from our losses. What should have been items passed along to family were lost, split up, and sold on to strangers.
From Jane's estate I acquired new set on glassware, though incomplete. A dozen Mikasa Park Lane iced tea glasses replaced my 1950s Big Top Peanut Butter tea glasses. The 12 ounce size is nearly twice that of the old set. My only complaint is that these glasses pool condensation at the base due to the ascending shape and grooves. With these tea glasses were two compote dishes which Peter has discovered are perfect for ice cream floats. I use them more traditionally for fresh fruit.
The matching dozen champagne coupes forced a change in the kitchen layout. Shrinking with age, I'm forced to ask my six foot+ family to remove barware from high shelves. These new coupes made me rethink the kitchen setting. I cleared the top shelves of my tiny secretary desk, which had been relegated to a small corner of the dining room. I rid myself of the few champagne flutes I had left and was dismayed to discover my eight basic wine glasses were now seven. Two lone martini glasses stayed. Five Indiana Glass Company Diamond Point tumblers found their way from Jane's into my barware collection. I'll use these as rocks, lowball, and old fashioned glasses. Yes, only five...blame the estate sale lady.
The upper shelves held overflow art books and more blue and white.
Rearranging meant each piece found a new home elsewhere in our home.As the weeks passed I realized that I wanted to add puck lights. This was not to be. We had to return the affordable ones to the store because they did not work consistently. At last I settled on lining the back of the shelves with a paper I had used behind my kitchen sink making this a zero cost project. I would have preferred a marbled blue paper but none of the papers I found were the correct width and all came with seam lines.
My search for Italian Marbled Paper turned up too few genuine pieces at affordable prices. Instead, I was shown cheap granite marble look alike vinyl wallpapers as an option. I was frustrated by the time I settled on this liner (below). Not ideal, but it's a refreshing change that brings light into the space. As I wrote this I realized I have a few maps in storage that might make a great liner for cabinet and may better work with the curtains currently hanging.
We had a more extensive collection of barware
before my husband stopped drinking 22 years ago.
The dining room has two complete walls, one with a bank of windows. The other two sides open up onto the kitchen and the living room, the dining room in the crook between the L-shape space. I guess you'd call it open concept, which I hate as a design plan. Yet the layout allows a separation which does not allow the kitchen to be seen from the living room or the front entry. I am lucky to have public and private space in my home's design. How people live with their kitchen open for all visitors in bizarre. I would never ever! cook if I thought someone could pop over anytime and see a meal-in-progress.
Opposite the secretary, with the dining table between, sits my bar, nestled in a corner next to my china hutch. I have been adding drinks of late and my decanters had been displaced. Moving the barware into the dining room meant rethinking the decanters as well. They now rest atop the secretary. I am a decanters-for-design-not-for-use person, so having them up high means they remain on display as intended. The
bar rests in a corner next to my dining hutch / bookshelf.
Eventually I would like to expand my bar upwards perhaps with shelves above the mirror. Maybe I'll add a second shelf on top of the table at the back? But right now I am enjoying the Cosmopolitans I have been drinking from my new coupe glasses.
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