Happy Customer!

A customer of mine recently blogged about her purchase from Haus Proud.  I love this kind of feedback!  It makes all the hours of digging though junk for the diamonds worth it!

HousePet: it's 70 degrees in my kitchen: A little more than two years ago I made my first vintage item purchase on Etsy. Sure I had bought some art prints and other handmade go...

A Peek Inside Haus Proud HQ

Last week when I was staging I realized the only thing that would work in this one nook was a mirror that was back at Haus Proud headquarters. I dragged my client back to see if there was anything we wanted to pilfer from the shop. She took a good long look around and said "boy, I would love to organize all this stuff". Not exactly the image I was hoping to portray. But to be fair, I usually conduct my business online. Anyway, it spurred a cleaning jag. I've only tackled a small corner, but thought I would share some photos.

I have always wondered how other vintage sellers keep their merchandise and would love a peek into their worlds. Figured I would be brave and share mine. You can see more pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57321574@N08/sets/72157627465391720/

And, yes, most of the stuff is not yet listed! If anyone wants to come and babysit the girls, I will get right on listing new items in the shop.

Haus Proud Does Haus Staging

About a month ago I got a call from a friend of mine, Lauren. She was just at a mutual friends house and loved the styling I had done for her. She is a realtor and was looking to have a house staged for a client. She already had a lot of the bigger pieces, but needed small stuff to fill in. Since I could probably fill several small houses with the amount of stuff I have floating around here, I said yes! Combining my first love of interior design with great vintage goodness with a splash of real estate? Yeah, kinda up my alley. It was a crazy long day, but the results were well worth it.

It certainly didn't hurt that the homeowners did a fantastic remodel. I am wild about that blue painted concrete floor!

Why I Love Vintage

A quick peek in my house would tell you that I love vintage. I would say that close to 80% of the furniture in my home is 50-100 years old. I realized long ago, that besides character, vintage furniture represents a wonderful bargain. Many of the items from yesteryear were made by different standards than the stuff today. It was built to last. Not to say that there aren't high end furniture manufacturers out there today. I can't tell you how many times I have drooled over the pieces in the Baker showroom. But I can't afford Baker. At least not new. A few years ago I picked up a 1950's table from their New World collection for $50 at the thrift store. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of furniture I have ever seen. The wood grain, the construction, the hardware, the detailing... exquisite. I have found that buying vintage has afforded me quality furniture on a shoestring budget. Viva la vintage!

I've Got the Bug

And no, I am not referring to the case of strep throat running rampant in my house (though I have that too). I've got the vintage trailer bug. If you read my last post, you know I purchased a late 50's Traveleze trailer. Well, in true "Alex" fashion, I bought another trailer, two days later. Yes, two trailers in the span of three days. That's how I roll.

In my defense, I realized once I got the Traveleze home that she needed more work than I was able to give her with the two little ones being so, well, little. I bought a mid sixties BeeLine that needs much less work and am eagerly awaiting her arrival tomorrow.

Okay, but here is where I get really sick. I spent all morning scouring Craigslist for vintage trailers. No joke. I even found two I am pretty sure I can not possibly live without.

I have been bitten by the vintage trailer bug for which there is no cure. And so I will remain happily afflicted.

An Epic Journey or My Trip to La Puente

So for the last year or so I have been lusting after vintage travel trailers. I've been out to see a few but they were always out of my budget, or needed so much work that I panicked and couldn't take the plunge.

Yesterday I found an ad on Craigslist with pictures of a derelict trailer. It didn't even say what kind it was, just that it was old. And it was priced to sell! I ran out to our pool house / Ryan's office and asked where La Puente was. The office assistant announced that it was near West Covina, to which Ryan replied, "oh cool. But where is West Covina?". Yeah, my sentiments exactly. Turns out, it's about 40 minutes away and they had someone else coming to look at the trailer at 3:30 so I had better get on the road if I wanted to beat out the competition.

You ever get outside of LA and feel like you have traveled much, much further? Life seemed very different out there. First I had to go and pick up the mom of the person selling the trailer so that she could show me how to get to the house where the trailer was located. Her perfume and mascara were both liberally applied but she was kind. We drove over to the lawn where the trailer is parked, where her son had been living for two years. IN the trailer. She said he was finally going to rent a room since it had been a little small in the trailer. Moving up in the world!

After a short drive, we arrived and I got a glimpse of the trailer from the outside and fell in love with the front bank of windows and aluminum siding. Inside was a different story, with very little charm remaining. The formerly pink stove had been painted black, cabinet drawers were missing, as was the dinette. The bathroom seems to sag a little in the back and the birch veneer has been painted and is curling up in many spots. One cabinet front had a hole in it and "mom" told me her son must have punched it in recently and that he had anger issues. Right on cue, "son" or "guero" as mom called him arrived "home". I could see where he got the nickname as he was about five shades lighter than mom! We did some negotiating and settled on a price.

I gave them 2/3 of the payment and agreed that they would get the rest when I took possession.

I instantly worried that I would never see them or that money again.

Panic settled it. WHAT HAD I JUST DONE? Was I out of my mind? I just bought a rolling pile of dog poop! And speaking of rolling? How was I supposed to roll it back to my house? I called the hubby for reassurance and was met with more worry. Where was it going to go? He was not pleased as I had hoped he would be.

We decided that they would try to find someone to tow it over for an additional charge and that I would see about outfitting my car with a tow hitch in case we couldn't find anyone.

So here I am. Slightly less panicked as I scoured tons of blogs of people that had done this before me. Slightly more panicked as I realize that this is the 24 foot model and it is way bigger than I had realized. Still unsure of how I am going to get it home. Not certain that it will even be there when I go back to get it. What have I done?

Funny

Once upon a time, I held down a rather corporate, 9-5 kinda job. I was really good at it but I wasn't happy. I would fantasize about getting pregnant so I could realize my dream of being a stay at home mom. I was determined to keep popping them out to secure my place at home forever.

And then it happened. The work vacay I had been dreaming of! I was pregnant! I worked until two weeks before my due date / Christmas. (Yes, I was due on Christmas. Lamest due date ever.) Boom, kid born, let's get to vacation time. And I loved it. It was everything I had hoped it would be.

I have always been a thrift store / estate sale / garage sale / vintage shopper. Adelaide would accompany me on my many trips to the local thrift stores. I would often find amazing things and would limit myself for fear of becoming a hoarder. One day there was a desk for sale. It was beautiful. Finished on both sides with little shelves for display on the back side. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It wouldn't work for my office, but I didn't care. It was coming home with me. I cleaned it up and sold it on Craigslist the next day. I made a little bit of pocket money on my find and the girl who bought it from me was ecstatic about her new desk. Haus Proud was born. My sister turned me on to Etsy and I knew it was a fit. I started listing stuff and sold a tea set in the first half hour as a shop.

Things have come a long way from that first desk. I even popped out another kid! I was thinking about how hectic my life is and wishing I had more time to devote to Haus Proud (and my poor, neglected blog), and it dawned on me. I now have a job that I love. I love it so much that I try to fit in time to work in my already overstuffed days. I photograph during nap time and try to list new items after the kids go to sleep. As always, I drag the kids on shopping excursions. It's been tough to balance it all, but so worth it. Go figure.