Cassie and Junior Buford have been do-it-yourselfers for a long time. However, they got into high gear when their Ocean Springs home sold in 12 days and the house they were building in Vancleave was at the blacked-in stage.
“We moved in with concrete floors and one working bathtub where we did dishes and leaned over it to brush our teeth,” Cassie recalls. “He (Junior) can do everything, and we learned a lot when we fixed and flipped houses after Hurricane Katrina.”
Junior, who works for Cool Sys, says he “just learned to do things” on his own. “Cassie is very handy,” he adds.
For their new home, the couple contracted out the sheetrock hanging, roofing, and brick and Hardie Plank work. Their DIY projects were the cabinets, flooring, tile, tubs, toilets, sinks, painting, trim work, doors and windows, electrical/HVAC and plumbing.
“We wanted a new/old house,” Cassie, a nurse who works from home with Arkansas Urology, says. And that’s what they have, a delightful mix of new, vintage and antique. All walls are painted with Sherwin Williams’ Agreeable Gray and most of the floors are luxury vinyl tile that looks like wood planks. Quartzite is used on kitchen counter tops and venerable wood from a bar tops the island. The pantry is an old distressed door with a glass upper half. Inside a large antique sink and light fixture give this utilitarian space lots of zing.
Elsewhere in the home new doors are left unfinished to give a vintage look. In the living room, pecky cypress boards top cabinets on each side of the flatscreen television. There are framed antique prints along with new artwork. There are also family pieces such as lamps and mirrors from Cassie’s grandmother. It all adds up to a charming home full of warmth.
There are several DIY pieces in the dining room that include a cabinet Cassie rescued from the side of the road and refinished along with old chairs she stripped of their red paint and a sturdy table that she also refinished.
Junior fitted a sink into an antique dresser for the guest bath. The guest bedroom has an old mantle as a headboard. In the master bath, a clawfoot tub is positioned in front of old glass cabinet doors housing a television for ultimate luxury while soaking. An old wooden bar stool with its legs sawed off holds essentials beside the tub. Cassie made the bedside tables in the master suite.
Throughout the home, accessories – some old, some new – add personality. There are baskets, architectural salvage pieces and Cassie’s extensive collection of white stoneware pitchers.
The back porch with its fire pit and mounted television has not been left out and also has its dose of homey charm. Junior’s DIY projects include restoring antique cars and trucks, but he says Cassie has just about taken over the workshop.
The Bufords share their home with Sailor, a Maltese, and Abby, a King Charles Spaniel. Their children, Lacy and Brady, are grown but daughter Lacy will soon be living nearby with one-year-old grandson Andrew.
Follow Cassie Buford on Instagram@southern.and.pine
