this old house

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Probably the biggest thing that has been consuming our time lately is our little house renovations. We live in a sweet little farmhouse that was built sometime at the early turn of the century. The backyard sports the original cistern & there are odd things throughout the house, such as strange electrical wiring, weird, small rooms added (likely added as the family grew). My bedroom closet, for example is huge & even has windows in it that are painted shut. I suspect at one time the closet may have been a small nursery.

The thing that I love about our house though, is that it has all the charm of an old house. Thick, wide trim work. Original doors that have crystal glass knobs & skeleton keyholes. There are cabinets above several of the doors that serve as additional storage. Both the kitchen and the dining room have built-in corner cabinets, floor-to-ceiling. The walls are so thick that sound is very well contained within each room. No sheetrock, so the walls are sturdy and strong. Did I mention high ceilings, with tall windows?

But it is an old house & throughout the years, its inhabitants have put their own distasteful unique mark in it. The dark paneling in your room was ghastly - as well as the nasty brown carpet. The dining room had some weird wallpapered paneling that I ripped down. I retextured the walls, put in a chair rail, crown moulding, two tones of warm, brown paint, a new ceiling fan with a pretty medallion mount and - voila! - the transformation was beautiful! Add green curtains, and some homely touches & we finally have a sweet dining room to eat in.

I must say, you've been a champ throughout this process! You don't much care for seeing mom on a ladder all the time. Some days you'd see me climb up & you'd start to cry...so, there were days I had to give ourselves a break & devote my day to you. We'll wait a while before starting on the kitchen.

And now, for some before and after pics!

Iris' Bedroom

Before:

After:

Yes, you now sleep in your very own toddler bed!!

The Dining Room

(Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take before pictures of the dining room! But to give you an idea of what the walls & color looked like before, all I had to do was go into the kitchen and take a snapshot. It has the exact same walls, ugh!)

Before:

After:

At first I thought I wanted to go with yellow curtains. But as the project unfolded, green spoke to me & I love how it turned out!

Also, I feel it's important to add here that virtually every decorative item used in this room was from Goodwill! The place mats are from Crate & Barrel that I found for a steal ($2 each!!) at GW, the wall-hanging  plates were about a dollar to 50 cents each, and the beautiful white porcelean centerpiece vase was only two bucks! And check out the crown moulding, baby! Thanks to that stuff, you learned how to curse around momma!

I thought initially I would want a floral pattern curtain, but I got these at Walmart for only $12 per panel because I fell in love with the color! They weren't long enough, so I cut them shorter, added a ribbon & additional fabric (from a sheet!), so that the curtains would fall to the floor. I adore how they turned out! With tall ceilings like this, I would have had to lengthen any store-bought curtains. I just am so tickled with how they look!

My sweet corner china cabinet. I bought all sorts of serving dishes, plates, cups, and green accent pieces at Goodwill. My biggest prize are the green tumbler glasses that I found at Pier 1 on sale for $1.49 each. I think I'm actually ready for a Thanksgiving feast now!

Close-up of my wall-hanging dishes. Note the chair rail, and the wall color. Top color is a darker brown than the bottom. Wall is retextured. Damn, I didn't know I could do all that, whoo-hoo!

Love the hydrangeas & my pretty Goodwill vase!

I love how you look around our house and with your hands in the air, say "Momma's house! Iris' house!" That, and you still get excited each time we pull into the driveway and scream, "Hoooooouuuusssse!!!!!!!"

Our home sweet home, darling.

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