Welcome to the final post in my weekly Wednesday tour of our own home. By popular demand, if you can count about five people as ‘popular demand’, today I’m sharing Mr. Q’s home office space despite the fact that it is not terribly picturesque.
I have to admit, while I was in there taking these photos I realized that there are a few more Q touches in the room than I thought.
One of my favorite things is the framed trio of old plat maps that are hanging on the wall.
I found the frames at a garage sale and they just happened to be exactly the right size for the maps. The maps came from an old Washington Co plat book that Mr. Q’s dad had for some reason. When he died, we inherited the book.
I framed the three that I thought would have the most meaning for Mr. Q. Lake Elmo, since he worked in the park there at the time. Marine on the St. Croix, since he was born and grew up there. And Stillwater, where he now works and spends a lot of time at his favorite coffee shop, The Daily Grind.
Another of my favorite things in the room is the union jack desk.
This was one of my earlier painted pieces from long before I had a blog. And this was the 2nd time I painted it. I originally painted it in a pretty aqua blue. At that time this piece was in our guest room. I probably wouldn’t have chosen to stage it with a yoda mug and an orange disc golf can cozy, but hey, you guys wanted to see this stuff! Or at least five of you did.
Comically enough, the union jack desk is only one of three desks in the room. I guess you could say Mr. Q likes desks. He also has a library table style desk opposite the union jack desk that is devoted to setting up his various games.
This desk was a hand me down from my friend Terri. I think it would look amazing painted, but when I suggested that to Mr. Q I believe his response was something along the lines of “it’s fine like it is”. In other words, Mr. Q really only cares about function and couldn’t care less about form. Lucky he’s married to me, right? Otherwise our house would still have all of its original wallpaper in country blues and mustard yellow. And he’d also still be wearing the same jeans he had in 1989.
Here’s the game that he’s playing at the moment.
Yep, I have no idea what that is or how to play it. But if you really want to know, leave a comment and I’m sure that Mr. Q will be happy to enlighten you.
The third desk in the room is a fabulous secretary desk that we purchased while picking up a mid-mod set of bedroom furniture. The sellers were an older couple that were moving out of their home of 40 years and into senior housing. We were there for the mid-mod set, but they mentioned that they were also selling this antique desk. I jumped at it because I knew it would look amazing painted, and I love painting empire style pieces. If I remember right it ended up taking us three trips to get all of the furniture back to our place.
But as you can see, this desk never made it to my workshop either. Mr. Q commandeered it for his office to hold his massive computer screen. The library chair is another piece that I purchased to paint, but never got there.
The real pièce de résistance in the room is the recliner.
I’m sorry. There just isn’t any way to make this chair any prettier. Although I have to admit it isn’t quite as bad as Frasier’s dad’s recliner (does anyone else remember that show?)
There is a back story to this chair too. It originally belonged to my husband’s grandparents, Bud & Mickey. Mickey died when she was 98, and Bud almost made it to 101. Mr. Q was very close with both of them. When they moved to some senior housing near his work in their early 90’s, he made it a habit to have lunch with them every day. And he continued that right up until Bud died.
Bud and Mickey were quite honestly two of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Mr. Q inherited many of Bud’s best qualities including his gift of the gab.
Anyway, when they started getting more frail they purchased this recliner. It’s actually one of those lift chairs. Press a button and the thing will lift you right out of it. Although they paid a lot of money for the chair, neither one of them ever really liked it and they rarely sat in it. But Mr. Q loved it. He insists that it’s one of the most comfortable chairs he’s ever sat in. He would always sit in it when he spent time with them. So Bud & Mickey insisted that when they were gone they wanted Mr. Q to have the chair.
Well, I guess you just can’t say no to that, can you?
But you can insist that it go upstairs in Mr. Q’s office 😉
Well, this concludes the updated tour of our house. I hope you enjoyed it. I wasn’t sure I would make it all the way through. It seemed like an awfully big task, but like so many things, if you just take one step at a time the next thing you know you’ve got ‘er done.
If you missed any of the posts, here are the links back to all of them.
the world’s smallest bathroom.
Be sure to check back on Friday, I have the most adorable trio of painted chairs to share with you guys! See you then.
q is for quandie 
Boy Linda, you have one cool place! I would take your home over all the new fancy ones on the other blogs! Not only is your house wonderful, but your carriage house and photo cottage is as well! I think your pantry is one of my favorite spots in your home, but it all is just dreamy! Bravo!!! Thank you Mr. Q for the tour! I thought the Yoda cup was a funny staging piece, it made me laugh, and wonder if it was specifically put there for staging for the photo or if it is just it’s regular home. Lol You did a great job prepping it for us to see.
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The Yoda cup was a Xmas gift from Q’s sister, Deb. Now that I’m old, I can do a pretty good Yoda voice. I used to have a GPS with Yoda’s voice. It was very reassuring when I was lost. So it feels good to have Yoda watching o’er me.
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Love your whole house. Each room has its own story. All are interesting. I really love hearing about the “hows ans whys” for why people have certain items in their homes. Love Mike’s big heart…it matches yours. And love his room…you can tell he loves it too. Which is the great part of owning your own home.
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Awww, thanks Terri!
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Although it looks like a collection of flotsam and jetsam, almost everything I have in there has a story, something that justifies it’s presence. I’m sure that’s true for most folks. I won’t blanket people with endless prattle, but if anything strikes your curiosity I’ll be more than happy to share why it’s in the room.
Oh, and among my wargaming buddies, my den is quite the envy.
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Well now I don’t feel so bad about my husbands stuff. I have a big chair and a half in my living room that I would like to say adios to. But it’s super comfy and my husband reads there I have resigned to incorporating his things too. His response to redecorating is “why? everyone loves this house “ Mr Q s maps are fabulous.
Oh by the way, have a big roll of Duct tape if you need any Fraser repairs on the recliner.
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LOL, yep, you remember that chair from Frasier 😉 Let’s hope we don’t need the duct tape any time soon!
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I love furniture with a story! Thank you for sharing. (I especially loved the recliner’s sentimental story).
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Most of us have family heirlooms like jewelry or silver, but nope, we have a recliner 🙂
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I think I love this room the most! It’s home to a lovely caring person. (Although I would love to see what Ms Q could have done with some of those pieces😂😂). I have enjoyed the whole home tour immensely. It’s warm and collected and so gorgeous. But most of all, it’s real. Real people actually live there. Not like so many of the homes we see on social media. I mean I love eye candy too but some of it is so staged. This is a place with heart where you could laugh and enjoy the blessing of life!
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Thanks so much Sheri!
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Thanks for showing us Mr. Q’s space. I have the same desk chair in my husband’s home office. They were really well built pieces to last so many years and are expectedly comfortable. Love the plat map story and how the frames happen ti fit. Best of all the story of him having lunch everyday with his grandparents. What a lovely thing to do.
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Yep, that desk chair is practically indestructible. And the fact that Mr. Q was so kind and loving with his grandparents says a lot about him I think. He’s pretty sweet 😉
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Loved the tour your house has so much character! Thanks to Mr Q for the tour of his space as well.
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Thank you Laura!
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I loved your house tour and your house!
I had several good belly laughs in today’s post and shed a few tears too!!
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I’m glad you enjoyed the tour Debbie!
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Love the whole tour…especially the pantry and it’s story . We’ll be moving into a 1928 house with a basement, but its the pre basement storage with all the non-collections that make it the best . Showing it to the contractor for inspiration ….and I didn’t even notice orange holder or Yoda until you mentioned it…because uh there is so much “stuff” in my own life it just doesn’t matter right?? and when you attach a story to owning it it’s just part of life’s bigger story . Thanks for sharing
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I really love having that pantry, it makes a huge impact when you factor in the cool vintage door and the light it lets in. For such a small space, it adds a ton of character to the kitchen 🙂
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Thank you for your lovely blog. I just finished reading another one where there were 55 comments about what they wished was done differently for a contest, and it reminds me how I love that you buy the furniture, paint the furniture, write the blog about the furniture, period. No games, no gimmicks, just nice reading. Appreciate it and the time you take to share it all, no strings attached.
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That’s my goal, no strings attached!
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I loved the whole tour including Mr. Q’s office. The memories and meaning are far more beautiful than the latest decorating fad.
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Truer words were never said Lori!
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A lovely home indeed! Thank you for sharing.
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Thanks so much Lee!
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I love how thick the table is in the dining room and the fact it’s not quite a smooth table (I could see the various pieces that were assembled)…I like this imperfection…it gives it charm and makes it more interesting than the regular dining table.
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