Farmhouse Renovations 2

Just thought I'd post a few more peeks at the farmhouse before I go on. Then I won't force you to look at any more for a long, long time!

We had SO much fun doing the "Pink" room for my daughter.  She actually did alot of the priming, sanding, and painting by herself - walls and woodwork as well as refinishing and repurposing furniture.  I have to say that she has alot of artistic talent, and when she takes on a task like this I know I am leaving it in good hands.  She is a perfectionist like her mom, and I know that her job will be finished and perfectly accomplished!  And as you can see, she did not disappoint!!!

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We found this old vanity at a garage sale already stripped and sanded for just a few dollars. Princess restored this little baby and added the fountain chair and it turned out beautifully.  She had to take the mirror apart to paint and she also added glass knobs. It's so cute!

(above) This cute little chest was in my husband's family for a long time. Not sure where it came from, but we got it sanded down and painted for the pink room, and added a shutter shelf that I bought from Margo at Margo's Junkin' Journal.  You'll also see one of Miss Sandy's beautiful shoe creations sitting on the shelf! Do you see the candlestick on the left side of the chest?  It was sent to me by Sher at Old Time Artist! If you haven't visited these lovely ladies, YOU REALLY SHOULD!!!

(above) more garage sale finds...

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This beautiful Yellow/Pink/Green Wedding Ring quilt was made by my husband's grandmother. It's gorgeous and barely used. I have secretly coveted it for years and it finally came down to me last year! I'm so happy, I'm thinking of finding a place to hang it on the wall.  It's too lovely to just lay on the foot of the bed!

(above)  A few items on the vanity... old lacy gloves, a fancy floweredy hat on a hat stand, old vintage perfume bottles and little dishes that ladies love.  AND we thought the little Christmas tree was so cute there, we just left it!

A cute wall pocket

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The shelves by the fridge in the kitchen have collected a few more things - cookbooks, bread box, old vintage utensils, a shoe-shine kit...

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This picture and the next are for Vee at A Haven for Vee.  She kinda got me started on this apron on the door thing a couple of years ago.  I didn't know I was going to collect vintage aprons, but I started seeing them at sales and I found a few in my grandmother's and Tony's grandmother's things.  Next thing I know, I've got a dozen or so, and decided to display them on the back of the door. Now, when we have guests and church get-togethers, I have all the ladies that want to don a vintage apron to help with kitchen preparations!  It's fun, and I think they all enjoy it, too!  I make everyone eat on different vintage plates as well. It does make us have to wash dishes but it's so much "cooler" than eating off of styrofoam!!!

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This little shabby bookshelf was also a garage sale find.  It's hard to tell, but it IS pink and it holds some fun things and old books that I've run across.  I've got quite a few vintage books, but I don't buy books that I know nothing about. I like to buy old ones that I've read, or vintage kids' books.

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This beautiful cross stitch came from a garage sale, too.  There was a very old man having the sale at his home. He had this and also some beautiful porcelain birds (which I bought for my sister). I asked him about all the lovely things that he was selling, and he said "well, my wife left me..."

And then he paused, and I was about to say, "oh I'm sorry." 

Then he said, "Yes, she left me to go be with the Lord in heaven and I'm gonna join her someday soon."

He wanted to start getting rid of things and "let somebody else enjoy them". Sweet dear man...

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This beautiful old pie safe was built by Old Great Uncle Claude who built this little farmhouse back in the '30's.  It's all hand done.  I thought about painting it at one time, but I decided that it needed to stay just like it was!

(below) This cute little floor clock in my hallway was a gift that one of my dear friends ran across at Canton.  She HAD to buy it for me!  I absolutely love it!  And it's that beautiful vintage aqua green color!

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A ladder holds a bunch of my vintage linens and you can also see more old family quilts from my husband's grandmothers...

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This super neat old screened window was a purchase from Margo, also. She added shelves and I added a piece of old quilt behind it.  It covers an ugle breaker box on the bedroom wall!

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See this old familiar print? I've run across it a couple of times in my junk shopping. It fits right in with my farmhouse theme. Know where I got it?
From the dumpster at my self-storage office! Yeppers, I'm a dumpster diver - actually a dumpster-reacher-inner - I won't get into the dumpster.  But anything I can reach or fish out with my nifty homemade "hook" is mine for the taking! This print had a banged up frame and it was almost too dirty and dusty to even make out the picture. But after cleaning it off and giving it a barnwood frame, I loved it! (my daughter hates that I get stuff out of the dumpster - she hopes no one ever sees me!)

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BUT>>>>  see the white floor lamp in the living room?  Again, vintage floor lamp in the dumpster! It was already painted white! All I added was a  beaded shade!

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Here's another shot of the living room fireplace and my $4 TV cabinet.  We're looking around my dumpster floor lamp...

And last but certainly not least are the two farm kitties - Alice and Sam - their names have morphed into Ali and Sambo. Ali is a sweet kitty and she will let you know when she wants to be petted.  She's very much a princess diva cat.

Sambo, on the other hand, is all over you all the time.  He's one of those cats you see little kids carrying around all floppy and he could care less what you do to him.  He NEVER gets upset, he never grabs your hand and kicks with his back feet.  He wants to be in your lap at all times.  He walks up your chest and licks your chin and then wants to nibble.  He licks your hands and arms - don't know if he likes the salt or what. He has a very loud "motor" and it runs non-stop! Ali will get into your lap for a few minutes and then she finds something else to do.  We've started calling them "the dogs".  They follow us all over the farm. They both want to be right in the middle of whatever we're doing. So fun to watch! I love cats and it's good to have them again!  Sam likes to squash my potted plants... I guess the dirt is cool... Another month, and then it's off to the vet to get them both "fixed"!

Ok people - that's all the farmhouse renovations. We'll move on to another subject next time! Thanks for taking the time to look - this has been a job and a joy to fix up the farmhouse.  Don't know if I'd do it again - well, maybe ...  Have a wonderful day and go by and visit the ladies I've mentioned today! I'll get by to do some visitin' myself today I hope!

Farmhouse Renovations Revisited

Hello, my dear friends! Since I've got so many new buddies in Blogland, some of you might not know from whence we came to be here on the farm.  Thought I'd update you in the next few posts on what's been going on at Sand Flat Farm. This little farm came to us from my husband's family about 4 years ago. If you'd like to read more of the story, you can go back here ------> "The Beginning". If you keep reading some later posts, you'll find out more.

Anyway, we've been working on this little place for awhile and it's still a work in progress. The house was in terrible repair with rotten woodwork inside and out. Alot had to be replaced.  It was sagging on either side. The electrical was in bad shape - not enough for the house. It had an old propane tank and space heaters, window units for AC, and varmints living under the bathtub.  We had to level the house, redo the electrical and add more, we put in central heat/AC, replaced all the rotten stuff, replaced all the windows with high E double panes, more insulation in the attic, replaced the floors (you could look through the cracks and see the dirt underneath the house - when we pulled up the stinky nasty carpet), had new electric appliances put in (took all propane out) AND had aluminum siding put on the outside.  Completely gutted the bathroom. The walls and floor were complete rotten as well as sheet rock.

AND I personally sanded, kilzed, puttied caulked, grouted, & painted EVERY SINGLE INCH IN THIS HOUSE (with a little help from hubby and princess.) 

I'm going to show you some before and after pictures. This picture below is what it looked like when we got the place and before we started working on it in December '06...

This above is SAND that was under the carpet from the underneath of the house. SAND, people.

This old fireplace is unusable, unfortunately. It had to be bricked up unless we wanted to take the whole house apart.   : (

This atrocious burgundy/dark green combo was in the kitchen - this is looking down the hall towards the front door.

Here is what my kitchen looked like before we started anything.  Now, I like knotty pine, don't get me wrong, but the kitchen was so dark you could barely see your hand in front of your face.

Ugly tiny bathroom.  The people that were renting here had pulled up all the wallpaper and painted the window over the bathtub dark blue - THE GLASS - and kept right on taking showers even tho the sheet rock was wet and it was rotting the wall behind it.  Go figure!

Here is a lovely shot above of the bathroom after it had been gutted. The floors were rotten, the outside wall on the right had to be replaced inside and out. It was only a matter of time before someone put a foot through the floor.

This little laundry room was added onto the house in the back at some point and it was probably the best part of the house - at least it was all paneled and fairly decent & good sized.  We painted all the paneling...

A few shots of us working away!  I'm working on the wall of the living room - I love this room. In winter the sun streams in this window and it feels SOOO good!

Tony is painting "The Pink Room"

Princess is priming the kitchen cabinets to get ready to paint.

Princess is working on "The Blue Room" - master bedroom.  Only the two little bedrooms in the house - small but cozy!

Here's some shots of the farmhouse AFTER the siding was added.  Looks like a totally different house! We also had a new front porch built and new steps.  We still have to get the brick fascia around the bottom of it.

Even the pump house got a new coat of aluminum siding!  We can still use the pump house well water on the yard - not much pressure but it works!  The front porch rails are still under construction in this photo.

Now on to the insides of the house!  I'm going to show you a few shots, then in subsequent posts, I'll go into a little more detail of the rooms!  First is a few scenes of my living room...I did buy a new sofa with yellow/brown ticking.  All furniture/some furnishings are either passed down from family that originally built/owned the farm, from estate/garage sales, or handed down through my family.

Below is my $4 cabinet that I got at a garage sale.  It was Nasty, Dirty, Falling Apart.  But Daddy and I put it back together, cleaned it up, and slapped a coat of yellow paint on it and it now holds my DVD player, movies, and quilts down in the shelves on the bottom!  Quite a bargain! I was so proud of this piece!

OK, GET READY!  HERE'S MY RENOVATED LITTLE COUNTRY FARMHOUSE KITCHEN!

Well?  Whadaya think?  Big improvement over the original, right?  I was so pleased with how it turned out!  I wanted it more open and bright and I think that was accomplished!  I left the cabinet doors off so as to display my many vintage and antique dishes, bowls and pitchers.  We did have to buy a new oven/microwave. Those are definitely not vintage but hey...

I picked up a bunch of old silver plate spoons at Canton and had Dad put those on my cabinets and drawers. I think they are so cute!  And the corner cabinet on the right hand, I velcroed a little sash around the end to hide the paper goods that I keep stored under there - see below. The little ugly brown cabinet here was built by the old man uncle Claude that built this house.  It was a little spice cabinet and I keep aspirin, pens, batteries, you know - the junk drawer stuff - in there.  Uncle Claude also built the pie safe that is also in the kitchen.

Below is my pie safe - it holds vintage tablecloths, napkins, platters and some other family dishes... My sister embroidered that picture - it's a beautiful bird picture. Outside glass-topped table/chairs for the dining area.

Below is a quick shot of the Master bedroom. Garage sale quilt on the bed, White vintage floor lamp from the dumpster at my office, and best of all?  See the old wrought iron fence? I painted it white and my Dad bolted it to the studs in the wall to use for my headboard!

And here we have the finished bathroom!  We re-arranged it a bit, put in a vintage looking sink, new toilet, new corner shower, bead board and voila!

Had a new corner cabinet built with no cabinet doors on the top so I could use an blue/white cutwork tablecloth to make a drape to cover it.  I used another piece of it to use for valance over the window.

Above is just a sneak peek at the Pink Room.  It's so cute and we've updated it even since this pic was taken - will take you back to this room in another post!

Well, friends, this completes our tour for today.  Stay tuned for more exciting episodes of Farmhouse Renovations. Next up - An In depth Look at the Living Space of Sand Flat Farm!  Have a great weekend!