Sadler House

Sadler House

Rockland, Maine

Vintage

All of the posts under the "Vintage" category.

Free “No Smoking” Printable

As a vacation home owner, you are prepared for a lot. You choose furniture you can bear to part with. You ensure that your linens are replaceable and that nothing in your home is so precious that you will cry if it’s destroyed. Every devoted rental owner has to walk that fine line between providing a wonderful guest experience and acknowledging they have to be tough, because accidents and inconsiderate guests are bound to happen.

Free Printable of No Smoking Sign

For non-smoking families, however, there is really no preparation for how upset you are going to be when a guest breaks your policies and smokes in your home. Beyond the emotional distress of finding your beloved house smelling of of smoke, there are many cleaning tasks that become necessary and which also come at great cost.

Make Your Policy (Politely) Clear

Even though I have always emphatically stated in our listings and in our rental contract that smoking is not allowed, I wanted to find a way to remind our guests of our firm non-smoking policy, even while they are staying at the house. With that said, there’s no reason to settle for a boring “No Smoking” sign when you can make something more entertaining! I had so much fun creating this one that I thought I’d offer it to anyone who wanted to have a similar sign in the beach or coastal (or just New England!) home.

Just click the link at the bottom of the page to download a png of our sign. I created it using a public domain illustration found on vintageprintable.com, which is chock full of fantastic images.

This is designed to print as an 8×10. When you send it to your printer, be sure to select 8×10 as your printing size and make sure the “fit to page” box is NOT checked.

Once the sign prints, you can trim it and frame! Voila.

I hope this entertains you and your guests and that it keeps your home smoke-free for many years to come.

FREE PRINTABLE SIGN

Idea File: Day Out in Lucketts

Old house enthusiasts are a special breed. Nothing seems to please us more than an afternoon of spelunking through a flea market or strolling around a swap meet. It’s not surprising that, for our 10th anniversary (kid-free) date afternoon, Dan and I chose to hit the Virginia wine country, starting with a leisurely stop in the nearby town of Lucketts, which has emerged as a really inspirational place to browse for vintage and antique items of every conceivable type!

Of course, you needn’t even buy anything. Just looking around allows you to leave richer: both in funds and in ideas. One of my favorite parts of the Lucketts stores is that there are so many salvaged doors to gawk at. How amazing would it be to put these on your house somewhere? I’ve thought of them as a wall decoration. Or what about a sliding door on a barn door track inside a room with a soaring ceiling?

Divine.

Old World Doors

Perfect portals!

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Refinishing a Buffet

two buffet doors

Before we even had closed on the house, we had a moment of reckoning at a garage sale around the corner from our home in Virginia.

These people down the street were moving away, and they were desperate to pare down their stuff. There were some rugs, DVDs, clothes, and other items that didn’t matter to me. Behind it all, though, was the buffet.

painted white depression era buffet

This photo doesn’t even show the ham-handedness of the paint job.

I saw it and I was immediately drawn to it. Even as my heart beat faster and I imagined running home to get my husband, I thought “You are a nut job. Where are you going to put this?” Well, DUH. In the house in Maine.

The house we didn’t yet actually own.

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