Welcome

Welcome to our old farmhouse. Over the past year I have learned so much history of this house and the people who lived here. Ninety six years of love, loss, hopes and dreams. Preservation continues and there is always a repair to be done. We are trying to be purest in our preservation as much as we possibly can. I hope you follow along and each week I will try to give you a little history of the house as well as the first owners of the house. I've been lucky enough to find a journal from a Granddaughter who talks about the house as well as her Grandparents. So come follow along and learn about this old house as well as the occupants, old and new.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Changes In The Entry

Ready for some change in the entry, foyer, center hall, receiving room, ha ha. You would really have to know me to understand how funny I think this is, I am one of the most down to earth people you will ever meet, one of the what you see is what you get people. So onto the changes. Dark I know, SORRY! Just two urns I already had that were a beach scène, The Master of the house, that's another ha ha, loves the water so we have lots of this. I wanted a little more fall feeling in the room so I simply tied burlap around the base and it worked well with the grasses.
  





Completely changed the library table, adding more fall colors and of course the brass lamp. I'm one of those people who never got rid of the brass. It just always worked well with my antiques.


  

A little estate sale pitcher filled with feathers that I collected and then attached them to floral picks.







A couple of different pillows for the chairs. I'm really happy with my changes 99% of my changes were things I already had in other rooms of the house. It was fun shopping the house.

 
Now for one little new change. A new old fashioned door bell. The door had the original key turn doorbell when we moved in but part of it was gone and the parts that were left we painted over. We ordered this brass one from Signature Hardware and I love it. Had the Master of the house take the
electric one off, not that anyone that visits me knows what the little key is for.


 

Here is the key to ring the bell, sounds like an old very loud bicycle bell. I love it!!!
 

 
Thanks for visiting.
See Ya,
Sandy
 
 
 
 


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Doors, Doors and More Doors

 
Most of you know old houses have lots of doors. This one is no exception. The house still has part of the original center hall and on the right side there are four doors, three going into bedrooms and the mystery door I will show you today. This is the first door when you come in the back door.
 
  
Opens to this guest room, which I have posted several times. The bathroom I posted, last week is accessed through this room.
 

Moving down the hall....
 


Another small bedroom



And now for the mystery door..  Don't try to open that pretty glass door knob because it doesn't work anymore. But why?


Because of this little hidden room. A tiny little dressing room tucked between the master bedroom and bath.
 
 
  A huge floor to ceiling mirror has been placed over the door. It could be easily removed and the door reopened if needed. I added the chandelier to the room and I have to say it is the brightest room in this old house. I also hung antique hats, scarves and purses on the sides, not allot of room for artwork as you can see. You can see the entrance to the walk in closet and yes even in this small space there are four doors. The walk in closet was originally the door to the middle bedroom.
 

A little bench, if you need to sit for a minute or two.
 


Antique hat boxes.




This my friends is the original bath, small but functional, and I guess 100 years ago this tiny little space would have been very much a luxury. You can see it has been updated, but the original bead board was left as well as all the molding around the window.
 


This was found after the 1950's blue ceramic tile was removed. Amazing it survived.


 
OK, I hoped you enjoyed the tour of the mystery room. What the room was before is still a mystery. Maybe a small hallway to the bath or even a child's nursery. Thanks for stopping by.
Sandy
Linking to Wow Us Wednesday
and
Amaze Me Monday
 
 
 


Monday, August 26, 2013

Yes, That's Mustard

 
 
No, your eyes don't deceive you, that is mustard yellow on the little drop leaf table. I bought the table and four chairs in the spring. After visiting a good friend and seeing what she did with an antiques hutch, I decided to go for it. Yellow is by no means my favorite color, but I do like it on this piece and it really stands out against the mahogany board and baton. Right now I am using it to store some extra wine and glasses as well as my silver chest but if the need arises I have enough room in the dining room to extend the leaves and seat extra guest.
 

I did a little distressing on both the table and four chairs, just enough to make it appear used over the years. The top chest is great for holding my stash of candles.
 




 
 
A little vignette beside the fireplace



So what do you think? You may like it, you may not like it but I had to take the chance. Then there is one thing you can say for me, I'm not afraid of bold colors!
 

I did use the four chairs (and yes they are mustard) around my round oak table, I'll show that next week. Sorry the pictures are so bad, but I have never gotten a good picture in that room. I think it's all the dark wood and lack of natural light.

 
So let me know what you think! I'm anxious to hear your thoughts.
Sandy
Linking to: Inspire Me Tuesday and


Sunday, August 25, 2013

On The Move Again


You may remember my outdoor fireplace mantle I had on the back porch. It used to look like this. Well it has moved again!!!
The third and final time I hope, remember I had it a our rental!
 

At our rental.



Now in it's new home. The reason for the move, so it could be secured to the wall. On the porch it would have been much harder to secure to the outside wall. We had a  terrible winds last winter and it did blow over.
 
 
I used burlap to cover the opening and the whole thing will change in the next couple of weeks, when I start decorating for fall.
 
 
Our little outdoor kitchen area that we are in the process of making. The sink has yet to be installed but we do have a refrigerator and prep table as well as the grill and a nice place to sit and eat. I hope to have the ceiling fan over the table installed this fall. The fence you see leads to an enclosed court yard. I also have a small table out there a beautiful place in the morning to have coffee or even breakfast.
 
 
A little plant stand with a hanging lantern in place of the plant hanging. I sat a pot of confederate jasmine in the bottom and I think it like it's new home.
 
 
Hope you enjoyed the saga of the traveling fireplace mantle.
Sandy
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Making A Bathroom Work

 
 
This old place is finally feeling like home. For the past year I have moved furniture from room to room and probably will continue to do. Why does it take so long after a move to feel settled in? When we left our house in WV I felt, I had just gotten things placed and settled felt and that everything had its place. Then onto the rental and now here. A little hard to go from this.....
 

To this and make things work.
 

 
Now onto my post. I have been working in the guest bath a little, trying of course to squeeze a little more furniture in there that I'm not sure where else it might fit. A little history of this bath, it was added from half of the back porch. This is a picture taken before we moved in . You can see the bathroom on the right. Before the bathroom was put in there were two doors going into the house the one on the left that you see going into the kitchen ( back portion of the center hall at that time) and one on the right that would have gone straight into the bedroom. There were sinks in each of the bedrooms as well as doors leading from one room to another.
 
 
A view into the bath from the guest room. It works really well for anyone visiting because they have their privacy when needing to use the bath. This is very unusual feature of a house of this time frame, but I think the previous owners did a beautiful job of incorporating it into the house and making feel as though it's always been here.
 
 
The walls have a lime wash on them, which I love! I know allot of you don't like the brass and gold fixtures, but I do and I think they fit well with the rest of the brass and copper found in the house.
 

 
The window you see from the porch.
 


 
And one of the oldest bathtubs in town. This baby was moved here on the back of a rollback!
 








Notice the great molding they added.
 

 
You can see the shower on the right and I have an antique wardrobe for storage of towels and toiletries.



 
So enough history for today.
Thanks for visiting.
Sandy
Linking to: Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday
and
The Everyday Home for Home(Work) Wednesday