The makeover task was to turn this into the1920s.

Here’s what was added:

• Period ceiling fixture
• Mahogany icebox
• Cast iron cooktop
• Faucet (there was none)
• Mouse and kitty are friends at cream dish
• Basket of eggs
• Ice
• Cookbook with real recipes inside
• Sunhat
• Basket
• Fruit bowl
• Candle lantern
• Polished copper cook ware
• Pie
• Stool
• Tea towel at sink

I kept coming back to women getting the vote in 1920. I added a voting cockade made from paper to the sunhat and a suffrage celebration poster. It’s an exact replica of the one that women put in their windows. It says, a woman here is registered to vote. I didn’t even know that!

So this story is about a period of great change in Geneva. Women’s skirts rose, they cut their hair and they voted. Guess what also happened in 1920? Prohibition. (So, I hid a bottle of booze in the cupboard.)

Here, the lady of the house has proudly added a vote cockade to her hat in the suffrage colors (it says vote but it’s so tiny you need a microscope). She’s going out to attend an election event, and will bring the cake and pie that she just baked. I think this Geneva woman went on to become an active founder of the local League of Women Voters and a real Geneva matriarch.

This room is a study in hope. It is echoed in the girl’s room literally above the kitchen where I made a tiny green ERA Now button to match the one I had in high school (and still have). Women’s status in society has changed a lot in 100 years but there’s still a wage gap and miles to go for full equality. But, we fight on.

I also added a washing basin, ice cream maker on the floor, tiny box of Geneva Bennett Mill flour, a black water pump on the sink, and big bags of flour next to the breakfront.