Galveston Victorian House, Part Deux

A few days ago I took you on a tour of my friends beautiful home in Galveston. I'm back with myore pictures of James and Jody's house and other pretty homes on their street. The picture below is a framed poster showing the front of their home, advertising a Historic Home Tour several years ago. This beauty is the home across the street. As you can see the tree on the far left is dead. Here in Houston/Galveston we still have MANY green leaves on our trees this time of year. This tree died because Hurricane Ike brought SO MUCH Sea water onto the island that many of the old oaks, pecans, pines, etc died. There are red "X's" all over the island on trees that are being marked for removal by the city.

Step into the big, beautiful kitchen. The ceilings are really tall (don't know the exact height). Check out the cabinets....they are original

This is a small 1/2 bath off the kitchen. The stained glasses is original to the house...in person, its a vibrant purple, green and gold! Check out the deep, crackled sink....

I love the fun little touches. Check out the "girl" in the corner of the stair landing. And check out the winding, beauty of the stairs.

And more stained glass on the next stair landing, heading to the third floor! This place is HUGE!

Thank goodness the big oak tree you see out of this stained glass survived and will NOT be cut down! YEAH!!

On to the backyard.....a Carriage House that is tiny but cute. A Houstonian leases the place and comes down on the weekends.

This is me and my long time friend James. He's one of the owners of the home and has absolutely wonderful taste and can do much of the work himself. What a skill, huh?

Here's another view of the back yard. Most of the plants had to be replaced and the soil amended because of sea water. Check out the cool walkways he and Jody created out of the old bricks they found through out the property. I'm always amazed at their ingenuity! THEY ROCK!

Since I figured you might want to see more of their neighborhood, I took some pictures on my way out. Get ready to ooooohhhhh and awwwwwww.....they are stunning. Galveston has come a long way since Ike but there are still tarps on roofs, trees needing to be cut down, etc., but "they've come a long way baby". Looking good!!!!

Thanks for coming along with me to Galveston....next time I go I'll take more pictures. :)

Visiting a Galveston Victorian

Last weekend I went to a visit some dear friends in Galveston, TX. They actually live down the street from me in Houston, but bought an old 100+ year old Victorian about 5 years ago and have been working hard on re-furbishing it. They did such an awesome job that their fantastic house was on the Galveston Historic Home tour back in May 2006. They have a frame picture of the tour poster in their kitchen.

Isn't this a pretty front entrance. All the leaded glass and stained glass are original to the house. Not one piece has broken during any of the major hurricanes. The only damage they got during Ike was the water came in and was up to the bottom baseboards. It ruined the electrical outlets and the baseboards needed refinishing but that was about all the damage to the house.

This pretty little sitting area is in the foyer. Both homeowners have a great eye for the fun and unusual pieces. The tropical looking artwork behind the chairs is actually an old screen door that my friend had ogled for years as he drove through a ritzy part of Houston, River Oaks. As any good "junker" he noticed the house was for sale, knocked on the door and cut a deal right then! I think it's a wonderful and unusual piece, don't you?

This is a short of the front living room. Most of the fireplaces were boarded up and had been unused for years, but James and Jody (Homeowners) were successful in making this look like it would have been in days gone by. Also, check out the cool curved walls and high ceilings.

Here's a cute little window looking out onto the front yard. I'll post more on the yard, but it's obvious that they have a green thumb too!

The reason we all got together was a Wildtree Party. Have you heard of it????http://www.wildtreeherbs.com/Products/AboutProducts.aspx My friend Rebecca has become a distributor for Wildtree Products which includes a wide array of very tasty, organic and natural seasonings, oils, mixes, etc. This is a sampling of the products we got to taste And check out the HUGE gourd used as a centerpiece.

This is one of the four bedrooms in the house. I love the beachy, cool colors they have used in the house.

When they bought the house, it was pretty much FULL of stuff from the previous owner. Isn't that cool....very "IF WALLS COULD TALK", right? All these little clocks were found in the house to create a really great collection.

And how about this for a great way to display old post cards?

At one time this house was subdivided into several small apartments. This would have been my favorite. It's a bright sunny space at the front of the house. A little bedroom was off to the left, along with a good sized bath. There was a large community kitchen, but they all has small hotplates in their room too.

This is another one of the re-worked fireplaces (In the dining room).

And another sitting area, right off the dining room and looking out the beautiful big front windows.

Sorry, these pics are out of order...but here's a shot of another pretty blue bedroom. Isn't that a relaxing color.

One more view............I'll be back in a few days for more of this beautiful house and some pictures of the kitchen, yard and carriage house.