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.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Merry Christmas

 
 
 
 
 
 
Time for a little blog break. I want to wish everyone a very blessed holiday season.
So I will see everyone after the holidays, where there will be lots of changes going on here.
A kitchen renovation is in the future, exposing more of wood floors, hanging some stained glass
light fixtures are just a few things on my to do list.
Merry Christmas,
Sandy
 
 
 
 
 


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

A Recap Of Christmas 2013


Just a little recap of Christmas 2013.
Hope you enjoy.

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Thanks for visiting.
See you soon,
Sandy
Linking to: Wow Us Wednesday


Monday, December 9, 2013

I Also Just Want Brick


Question, do you ever watch the DIY shows and feel empowered to get your hammer, pry bar and start ripping stuff apart?  I love to watch Nicole Curtis  from the Rehab Addict, start ripping into years of modern additions to the older homes she recues. Do you remember how she always wants brick? Well me to! This is the guest bathroom, now the green carpet is still there, and this is how the fireplace looked until a few weeks ago. Nice and clean, freshly painted and sealed, (the carpet is going to be removed this summer, there is heart pine flooring under it).

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And my first look at the house, this is the way it looked.

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And now. The original wood burning fireplace for this bedroom. I had allot of cleanup to do on this old girl. The bottom of the fireplace was built with concrete, rock I guess just anything they could build it with and since it looked as though the wood had been burned without a grate, I had a mess. I removed all the old concrete, rocks, and pieces of brick, two buckets of sand and wood ashes. After a good cleaning poured concrete then laid pavers for gas logs to sit on. So now she is presentable and after the holidays the bricks will get a coat of sealer, gas will be hooked up and guest will have a very cozy little room!

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The end irons were bought at auction many years ago, got them for  $5.00. That was a Happy Dance!

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Of  course I had to do a little Christmas decorating! I went a little glitzy in the front of the house but for the most part I wanted things simple. The wreath is church yard sale find last summer, I got 12 for .50 each and a bag of garland for .50, which I made garland for five fireplaces. The red ribbon I already had. The mirror in this room I also found at an estate sale many years ago, the lamp belonged to my Great Grandmother.

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I know the garland is not made of several kinds of greenery and all fluffy and full, but this is what I think you may have found in this house 100 years ago. A little simple greenery and a few pinecones.

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Every artist signs their work!

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The brass bed warmer I bought at an estate sale this summer.

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I hope you enjoyed my little rehab attempt. I have to put my hammer away until the holidays are over, but you will be happy to know I found more brick in the kitchen. Yes I did I found the original cook stove chimney. So since we are doing a rehab in the kitchen this year, I get to tear open that as well. To date I have opened all five fireplaces, three of them were coal burners, not as much work as the two bedroom wood fireplaces, just lots of dirt and coal to deal with.
See you soon,
Sandy
Linking to: We Call It Olde
and

Saturday, December 7, 2013

A Little Dinning Room Tour


A little tour of the dinning room all decked out for Christmas. As I said before I have used a fruit theme for the last several years. I just change things up a bit every year. Everything is self explanatory so I'll just let you look at the photos.

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I have a beverage table already set up, with a small natural tree on it.

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The same three I used for my harvest tree, now decorated for Christmas. 

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The tag reads: Heritage Doll
My name is Elizabeth.
Heritage dolls like me were made by grandmothers during the Civil War for little girls.
 
We were also called "Church Dolls". Little girls were allowed to carry up to church and if dropped while playing, we made no noise to distrube the service.
 

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The before of the above fireplace, after many years of being closed. A little wire brush and black paint works wonders.

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Thanks for stopping by.
See you soon,
Sandy
and

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The Living Room Mantle


I am so excited about my living room mantle, not so much for the decorations, but because of my new discovery, which you will see in a bit. After two years I unpacked my nut cracker collection and added it to the living room mantle along with what we call the family tree which consist of years of school, cub scout, girl scout and pre school ornaments. It's just a miracle that all the little paper, play dough and other little hand made treasures have survived our moves. Now see the black cast iron cover over the fireplace! Keep it in your mind.

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 Lots of natural material and a couple little trees in my brass urns.
 
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This was a photo shortly after we moved in, fireplace covered very snuggly with it's cover, Beautiful detail, but I always wondered what was behind it. Now I knew three of the fireplaces in the house were coal fireplaces, so that gave me a good ideal what the opening should look like!


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Here it is all open with a few glowing candles.


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 A little better photo, and as usual in all my excitement I forgot to take a before, but I will be opening the other two, so I promise before photos. Now when I opened this little jewel there was still coal in the grate and a few kindling pieces as well. Who knows how long they have been in here.
 
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Of course lots of cleaning and a little paint and they are beautiful at least in my eyes!

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So stay tuned I have been busy, very busy, other than Christmas decorating. I have more deconstruction from the last sixty years to show. Oh and more Christmas decorating will follow. I know who does demolition as they are decorating for Christmas and before they will have a house full of guest for the town Christmas parade. That would be me!
See you soon,
Sandy
Linking to: Wow Us Wednesday

Monday, December 2, 2013

Keeping It Simple

 I'm back again with one last view of the foyer. I keep the little library table very simple so the focus would be on the tree! I used a few old silver pieces, the same old books I used for my fall decorating, the pampus grass and of course one of my favorite Christmas decorating items, the ice skating boots given to me by a wonderful friend.

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So enough of that for now, time to get back to work. I'll see everyone tomorrow!
Sandy