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!