Hard Work Revisited

I've been thinking a lot about all the renovations

that we have done since moving to the farm

over 2 1/2 years ago.

It seemed like a long time had passed until 

I went back through the photo's

and all the memories came flooding back

as if it was yesterday. 

I was reminded of the 3+ months we

spent sleeping in our camper in the 

back yard as we tore off old baseboards and trim

and sanded horribly rough walls and primed

and primed again then painted...one 

coat after another. 

Each room was a different color.

Emerald green dining room.

Royal Blue guest room.

Blood Red office/craft room.

Muddy Brown living room.

At least the master bedroom was white!

Above is a photo of the dining room...it was

actually darker than what the photo's show

and all the woodwork other than the trim

was stained and varnished.

Once the ceilings and walls and trim

were painted and crown molding was added

then came the job

of sanding and refinishing the floors.

All of them except the kitchen bathroom

and back porch/laundry room.

Below is a photo of this corner of the

finished dining room.

Below is a photo of the guest bedroom

after it was primed and painted.

It had been a dark Royal Blue.

I can't remember how many coats of primer

and paint it took to cover that blue...

but it was a LOT!

You can also see the unfinished floor.

It was almost an orange red

with areas where the stain had

been worn away.

Below is how it looked after hubby sanded

the floors.

What a difference!

We were shocked at how beautiful the wood

was...the grain was amazing.

Turns out the floors are PECAN.

Below is after I applied the last coat of

Waterlox.

It took 4 coats but it was worth the 

effort and the time it took to dry each coat.

It took approximately 7 days 

from applying the first coat to moving the

furniture in and I applied each coat to all

floors each time...no stopping.

Below as the last coat was drying.

I went for the satin finish but since

it was still wet it looks quite shiny.

The finished room

Below is the master bedroom.

I did NOT want this to be our room

as it had pull down stairs to the attic

which was right over the bed!

Plus it only had two windows so

was quite dark.

We took the stair out and filled in 

the hole and since my hubby works 

nights and split sleeps in the morning

and the evening...it works perfectly!

The floor in here is different than the rest of

the house. Most of the room is fir but

one small area in this corner is cedar.

I didn't use the Waterlox in here since it

is a natural finish and I needed something

that would blend the two different colored

floors together. I went with a slightly 

tinted polyurethane. 

You can still see the difference between the 

two woods but not as bad. 

Below is the finished room. 

Well the painting and floor is done

but the decorating is not.

Why is it that our own rooms are always

the last to get any attention?!

Oh...if you go back a couple of photo's you'll 

see the old ceiling fan. That thing was

wired with a typical electric extension

cord hidden in the attic and wired to the wall switch!

Hubby re-wired it and installed a new 

ceiling fan. I'd rather have a pretty light

but with our hot summers the fan

is greatly appreciated. 

The photo below shows the dark stain

and varnish that was on the window trim and doors in our bedroom. Also see that un-primed corner

behind the door? That is where the bare 

metal furnace vent went up through the 

bedroom from the basement to the roof!

Above shows the living room walls after we

took a sander to them. One of the previous owners

had tried their hand at texturing the walls and 

there were GLOBS of this stuff that stuck out

nearly an inch with sharp points. We had to sand 

it all down to where we liked it and then we

primed and painted it. 

Oh...Henrietta and Romeo sneaked in the door

as we were airing out some of the dust.

Above is looking towards that same corner...the floor 

has the last coat of finish that is still wet.

Ceiling walls and trim have been painted.

We replaced the solid door with this single 

French door.

Below is Romeo peaking into the future 

office/craft room.

See how bad the floors were!

You can also see a more true color of the 

walls although

they were darker than the photo shows.

The blue scaffolding above around the corner

was our computer desk for a while

and the cooler was my seat.

Good thing I was only following one blog at the time!

The living room floor before and after applying

the Waterlox. Dining room to the right.

The pecan floors run through both bedrooms and the dining room and living room with no seams at the doorways.

I forgot to mention that when we bought the house

the living room floor was covered with plywood

and then 12 inch white tiles with dark grey grout.

Hubby and his brother scraped the tiles off

and tore up the plywood and I filled all the nail

holes. Also if you look to the right in the above

photo you will notice a patch of light boards.

Once the plywood was torn from the original 

floor we found a huge hole where an 

old in-floor furnace had once been!

When hubby recessed the tiles under

the wood stove he had saved some pecan 

boards. We patched the floor with them.

The finished living room.

Dining room floor below looking towards 

living room.

Finished room below.

Another view of living room floor looking

towards the dining room to the left 

and office/craft room straight ahead.

Below is how the first coat of the Waterlox

changed the color of the pecan wood. 

This is a natural finish. 

If you are thinking of re-finishing your floors yourself

I would advise you to think it over carefully.

Our floors were in really bad shape with lots of 

cuts and gouges to the wood so even after sanding 

they did not turn out perfectly. 

More sanding would have helped but my husbands

bad back and my bad shoulders did not

allow for the amount of sanding needed to achieve 

a really smooth finish. 

If you don't mind imperfections then I say 

GO FOR IT.

Otherwise...bring in a professional. 

We're thrilled with our end results :)

Next to be renovated...kitchen, back porch/laundry.

Eventually ;)

Do I Really want to start?

Country Living

I'm trying psych myself up to start 

painting our kitchen cupboards. 

I really don't want to start but I 

know that once I do ...

I'll be on a 'roll'. 

Before I buy paint I need to 

find a fabric for under the kitchen

sink. 

But that's where I'm having problems.

I need to find the PERFECT patterned fabric

keeping in mind that...

1) It must tie in the colors of the dining room.

2) It needs to have that 'farm cottage' look.

3) It needs to be able to hide dirt from

hubbies...OK.. AND my dirty hands.

4) It needs to be washable.

I haven't found one that jumps

up and says 'pick me!' yet.

But I'm looking.

Decor Pod

Since I'm not going to tear up the 

flooring and we have a grayish

floor

I'm thinking of painting the lower

cabinets a soft blue/gray

and the upper cabinets 

an aged white.

I wished they were as nice as

the cupboards in these photo's!

Harvest Furniture Blog

We will be adding some molding to 

the top and trim to the bottom 

and hopefully some brackets

to give them a custom look similar

to the cupboards below.

I'd also like to add some 'legs'

under the lower cupboards

like the ones in the photo above.

Harvest Furniture Blog

For now our counter tops

will have to stay

but hopefully one day we'll replace 

them...even if it means touching up

what ever we mess up in the process.

Harvest Furniture Blog

I love all the crown molding in the photo below.

Doesn't this kitchen have character!

The Inspired Room

We will be installing bead-board to 

the ceiling and also crown molding

like we did in the rest of the house

including the bathroom.

Romantic Homes

Sure wish we had wood floors 

like the photo below.

But...we're being frugal so unless

hubby or I burn a hole in the flooring...

it stays. 

Eric Roth

So for now I am scouring Ebay for 

the perfect fabric and hopefully one

day soon I'll be pulling out the old

roller and paint brush. 

Until then...I'll keep looking for

fabric and inspiration.

Are you looking to start any 

home projects in the near future?

Maura :)

An Answer, A Hint, And A Winner!

Renee Zellweger as Miss Potter

I haven't posted in a week!

I'm sorry....

this spring seems to be a very

busy one for us.

Between working on the new lawn 

and shade garden, vegetable

garden, strawberry bed, weeding

watering...building a picket fence...

we are tuckered out!

We now have another project on the go

but I'll leave that for a bit later. 

;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many of you have commented

that you like the background 

music on my blog and wondered 

what it was.

Well I finally remembered

to get back to you on that.

It's actually the theme from

the movie

MISS POTTER

staring Renee Zellweger.

I'm sure most of you have already 

seen the movie and know that

 it is about 

Beatrix Potter

the author

of 

Peter Rabbit 

and many

other wonderful

children's stories. 

If by chance you haven't seen 

the movie

please do! 

If you like a good love story,

old English cottages and gardens

AND the English countryside

then this movie is for you.

Here are a couple of photo's of

Hilltop Farm

which was owned by

Miss Potter

and is in the movie.

I'd love to have a little cottage

with vines growing all over it like this one.

Sigh.

~~~~~~~~~~

We've been busy the last couple of days

...and we'll probably be at it

all week!

Can you guess what we're doing?

Here's a 

HINT...

It figures...

now that we finally 

get some warmer temperatures

and need to work outside

the weather decides to

skip spring

 and go right into summer

with a temperature of 

98 F !

Needless to say

we are 

NOT

acclimatized :(

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have a 

WINNER!

The lucky winner of a

beautiful hand crafted

house # of their choice

from 

http://www.ramsign.com/>RAMSIGN 

is....

Oh goodness please don't

look too close...

I grabbed my old gardening hat!

# 19

Ironstone And Pine

(don't you just love that name)

Congratulations Devon!! 

I will send them your information

and they will contact you.

I hope you'll send me a picture

once you receive your new sign.

Thank you to everyone who

entered!

Have a wonderful week.

Maura :)