Front of House

BE SURE TO CLICK THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE. If you want to see the "before" photos before the "after" pictures, use the archive menu on the left instead of scrolling down.

The main focus of the following posts is what I did on the inside of the house, however I thought an outside photo would give a bit of interest.

The front porch floor and some vertical supports are rotted and it will need to be rebuilt. The huge bush is a camellia and I'm debating whether to remove it and replace with a Japanese red maple. The only problem with that is that I might not live long enough to see it get to a decent size. Maybe I should just do some judicious pruning of the camellia so it doesn't hide the front so much.

The neighbor who has been mowing the yard has unknowingly been mowing down Mondo Grass, which is growing over much of the front yard. I've now told him to let it grow and fill in.

Office After Photos

I had picked a paint color in Florida for the office, but after seeing it on the walls, it was too orange. Fortunately, this second color appealed to me - a match for Benjamin Moore's Honeymoon.

I'm not sure why I decided to go with wood tone blinds in this room. It just felt right and I do like them. They are a nice tie-in to the color of the bookcases, though I'm sure white would have worked well too.

My desk and chair were bargains beyond belief. I found the chair for $16 at a second-hand furniture store and the desk for $65 at Salvation Army. I marveled at the fact that I was able to find a gold chair and a desk with gold leather inserts when I had gold walls.

Besides the gold leather insets in the top, the desk is all solid wood and in fabulous condition with only the tiniest of nicks here and there. I suspect it is cherry, with the interior of the drawers solid oak.

I had already purchased on sale a cottage style cheapo desk at Office Depot - it was cute, but today's cheap construction. When I found this, it was much less expensive and much higher quality so I returned the other. Normally I wouldn't buy a piece of this style, but it was too good to pass up and in the end, I love it.

The day I found the desk, I was making a quick see-if-there-is-anything-new run through the Salvation Army that is about 2 miles from the house. I spotted the desk, but found no price. I immediately made physical contact with it to establish squatter's rights. A man came by who was obviously interested also and politely asked how much. I said, "no price." He offered to go up to the cashier and ask, whereupon a supervisor appeared, opened drawers, doors and did a general survey. $65! To which I immediately said "sold!" The helpful man flashed a smile and clicked his fingers in a "darn, I lost out" motion.

I got the brand new 5x8 gold rag rug on ebay for $40.

My first-ever recliner is by Lane and was found at Habitat for $150. It's in excellent condition and no cracks in the leather. I plan to add a floor lamp next to the leather recliner. The kilm throw pillow I've had for years.

See the little shaded night light? I picked up 5 of them in new condition and various colors at an auction for $12.50. So far I've already used 3.

The elegant looking valances were picked up for about $18 at Walmart!

These are the two bookcases that came with the living room armoire. In the photo, they are not yet pushed against the wall since the painter still had to do some things there. I loved that there are lights in the top. I hope to find a storage piece to put between them.

Hmmm, I wish I would have hung those valances so the window frame showed at the top. It would have meant hanging them below the level of the blinds because of the valance header. Is it worth making new holes that have to be filled? Next question, there are matching cafe curtains. Should I or shouldn't I?

The mantel is still in a state of development. The silk orchid was from a thrift store for $4, the clock (a pitted, old-looking, rusty metal) was $10 at Ross, the candle holders were from my garage and the turned wooden decorations were $3-6 a piece on sale at Hobby Lobby. A mirror I've had for years, but is not being used will go over the mantel, but it will have to wait until my next trip since it wouldn't fit in the van.

Office Before Photos

This room was originally used as a living room. I decided to use it as my office. The house is L shaped and this room is the short leg of the L. It also gets the most light, which I like for working during the day.

This room is the only one that has 3 windows, two facing the street and one facing the side of the property.

Another "stunning" gas stove. This one is totally non-functional. And, of course, the usual vinyl floor.

This is the door from the office to the kitchen. Not seen just beyond the refrigerator to the left is the door to the living room. Directly behind the refrigerator is the kitchen back door. On the wall to the left of this photo is a door to the front porch - one of 3 front entries.

Bedroom After Photos

I know some would have issues with a red bedroom, but I love it and the crisp look against the Benjamin Moore Ivory Tusk trim. It's not true red, of course. The walls are actually Behr's Roasted Pepper. What a yummy name for a paint.

This antique iron bed had been hanging out in my garage for about 10 years. When I sold my 1927 house in the late 90's, I had no place for it in my new home. I almost sold it once and now I'm glad the person did not buy it.

I was thrilled with my paisley bedding find. The 100% cotton quilt and matching pieces all came from Marshalls. I don't remember all the individual prices, but the quilt was $40, the bedskirt $20, the European shams $13 each. What a steal. I took the color of the rooms from the off-red in the quilt. My color-savvy friend Penny actually picked the Roasted Pepper color from the color chips I had.

In this closeup, you can see the sheets that are like a soft gabardine and found at Target. I was so lucky in finding things that just went with each other!

The silk striped down-filled pillows were from Marshalls. I see I need some brushing up on my bed-making skills - the stripes are not going the same way and one of the tags is still attached.

I picked up the ceiling fixture at Habitat for Humanity for about $30. All I had to do was spray paint it. The glass shades are not actually yellow, it's just how it photographed.

Here's a better photo of the chandelier. I thought it felt right for a bedroom with the leaves. The metal piece holding the leaves are rope-like. I'm undecided, but I thought about putting a light green wash on the leaves and a slight gold metallic wash on the rope-like parts holding the leaves.
The dresser was already in the house and "stuff" is just there and not arranged for the moment. Someday I will refinish it, but there's enough other work for now. The tv will go in the white armoire. The lamp is meant for the other side of the bed, but on this trip I only had room in my van for one of the bedside tables that you'll see below. I got the bed reading light on ebay.

The throw rugs are from Linens & Things. I thought they had an appropriate homespun cottage look. Again needing privacy, I added the white wooden blinds, bought from Lowe's.

This table isn't in it's final resting place, but the painter was storing all his cans and work materials in the corner to the right. I originally bought this thinking I would use it as a temporary eating table in the kitchen. It didn't stay there long since I found that wonderful antique table for the kitchen. I must admit that I was feeling cramped on this table anyway. One of the old kitchen chairs found under the house, painted ivory and reupholstered will likely go next to this table.

The white armoire was not something I had planned on buying, but it is made by Stanley Furniture (quality) and was about 1/4 the original price. Though I'm not normally big on very romantic decor, I must admit I fell in love with this piece. It's actually part of their Young America line and sells in perfect condition for around $1,200. The flaw is part of the upper molding is missing - but, it faces the wall and is hidden. Perhaps someday I will get it fixed.

The bedroom mantel in a state of disarray. This is the only fireplace that has the original cast iron insert. It would be nice to be able to restore all of them, but the effort to locate the inserts and then to open up the fireplaces may be more than I want to tackle. My cousin Sara gave me the little mirror. I picked up the vase for $4 at Beall's Outlet.

I bought the vintage Trailways ad on ebay. I plan to put it together in a frame with a photo of my aunt who worked for them for so many years.

Bedroom Before Photos

This is the room I decided to have as my bedroom.

This is the only fireplace that is still original. It's not very deep in the burning section, so I'm not sure how it functioned - if it was wood burning or coal burning as some have said. Once I take out the old gas stoves that are in the other three rooms, it would be wonderful to find replacement iron inserts like this one, but I may be dreaming.

This room was the most used in latter years and this picture gives a pretty good idea of the floor cleaning challenge I faced. This window faces the back yard. In the future, I might bring a deck across the back and make this a French door.

This is the only other window in the room and it faces the side yard.

Living Room After Photos

All the rooms have pretty awful multiple layers of vinyl or linoleum floors that will eventually be replaced with wood. Actually, I'm in a quandry whether to go down to the original heart pine floors and refinish or just put down new. I know purists will all chime to go to the heart pine. But, I could spend hundreds of hours getting there only to find that they are not in decent enough shape to refinish. Also, between the crawl space and the heart pine floors, there is nothing - no subfloor, no insulation. A decision for another day. In the meantime, I will just pretend the ugly floors don't exist. Despite my dislike for them, they desparately needed clearning and I can't tell you how many hours I spent with a scrub brush and my Floormate cleaning those awful floors.

Would you believe this is the same place? I love this paint color - Behr's Winter Garden. When the painter first put it up, he claimed it was gold, but once the room was done, anyone could see it distinctly leaned towards the green. I should have photographed a closeup of the sofa fabric where you would see the seersucker fabric is stripes of ivory, tan, a soft yellowish green and a thin stripes of red.

Needing privacy, I added white wooden blinds and love them! The rocker was already in the house.

My Florida friend and neighbor Debra did a wonderful job of putting together those leaf throw pillows for me. I bought the fabric just because. I fell in love with it at Calico Corners, but refused to pay $100 a yard for a fabric. In the end, when this fabric was erroneously sent to a customer, I got it for $50 a yard. Thank goodness I didn't need a lot of it.

The coffee table arrangement at 50% off at Hobby Lobby. I bought it with the idea that I might end up returning it since I wasn't sure where I'd use it. In the end, this seemed to be the perfect place.

The coffee table was $15 at Salvation Army.

I wasn't sure what color to paint the inside of the fireplace. At first I thought of black, but decided it was too harsh. Then I considered a brown. In the end, I hit on the idea of using the wall color and that's what I did in all rooms. I'm so happy I made that choice.

Barely visible is a limey green vase that belonged to my great-aunt - she and her husband were the original owners. Her picture with her husband are in the photo.

The wreath came from my garage in Florida. The double-beveled mirror came from a thrift store. To the right of the mantel is the door to that "only" closet.

The two oil reproductions over the sofa were a steal at Michael's marked down to $15 each. However, they were hung off-center (not by me) and too high and need to be corrected.

Oops, haven't taken the cover off the lampshade yet. Photos are of my cousins and prior owners of the house after their parents passed away. The table came from TJMaxx.

The lamp is an antique bought on ebay. I love that it has a night light in the base. It's by the Aladdin company and is milk glass called Alacite. I found this description on the web: Alacite glass was the creation of Henry Hellmers and in his words was described as, "an ivory opal glass." It was described in Aladdin advertising material as, "A startlingly beautiful lamp base, and pedestal material, which resembles many of the semiprecious mineralites in texture, and has much of the softness and tone of tusk (genuine ivory)-the only color in which it is available."

I bought a bunch of these cottage-style frames years ago at Target, but never found the right place for them until now. The carved bears from Germany have been in use in my Florida house for years and I love them! The thrift store crocheted coasters were also bought years ago.

I picked up two of these sconces for a song at Ross Dress for Less. I did not know where I would use these at the time, but I knew their brown/red/green scheme would fit somewhere. In the end, either side of the living room windows seemed a good place - or should I have put them either side of the pictures over the sofa? The unusual striped candles came from a Florida dollar store. Happily, I bought all they had and I ended up needing them.

I'm an advocate of tvs being hidden, so when I ran across this armoire at Salvation Army along with two matching side pieces that are in my office, it was a sale! To the left are a series of photos of my ancestors. The fireplace mantel is on the wall of the left of this.

Closeup of of ancestor photos; it was fun putting this together. I started on the top left with the oldest ancestor, my great-great-great-great-grandmother and ended on the lower right with my parents. Except my parents and grandparents, all the rest of the photos were the result of my genealogy research and visiting relatives over the last 3 years.

The door just to the right of the armoire is the bathroom. Just beyond is the kitchen. That's my free mailbox on the floor awaiting installation.

Living Room Before Photos

Immediately to the left you can see part of what I've decided is the "front door" and the room it enters into is the "living room." Because this house was built by a mill company for their employees, it was apparently set up for multiple families and actually has 3 front doors - another one can be seen through the doorway.

Privacy was virtually non-existent amongst the poor in those days. It was not uncommon for children to have to walk through their parents bedroom to get to the bathroom.

Anyway, this door on the left is in the center of the porch and so it seemed most logical to choose it as the front door. Upon entering, on the immediate right is the doorway to the room I've chosen to use as my bedroom.

From more of a distance, you can again see the "front door" and door to the bedroom with it's exterior exit door. I can't wait to get rid of the awful, bulky old gas heaters. I wasn't able to get this one working until about a week before I left. When it was finally on, it smelled so awful I turned it off.

Again, the "front door," this time showing two windows that face the street and the only windows in the room. Because of the front porch, this room doesn't get much light.

Kitchen After Photos

It took 3 coats and in some cases 4 coats of paint after priming to cover the kitchen walls. They were dirty beyond belief. Only one other room was as bad as the kitchen. After the 2nd coat of the original yellow, I knew I had chosen a yellow that was too bright despite buying a test quart and painting a good size patch. I'm happier with this softer yellow, a Behr color called Pismo Dunes from Home Depot. Hmmm, I just looked at that color on their web site and it looks gold instead of yellow. I will confirm by getting a real paint chip.

Painting the soffitt above the cabinets the same color as the walls really opened up the room.

Back door above; just outside, there is a small porch that will eventually be enclosed and become the laundry room. This window will later become a French door out to a deck. I wish I'd take a closeup photo of the advertising repro clock I picked up at Ross for about $4. The blue spots on the door trim are masking tape to tell the painter where attention is needed.

The twig table came from a thrift store for $20 - its location is just temporary. Most likely I will later move a free-standing bathroom cabinet I bought for the bathroom to this spot. The size is just right and the color is perfect for the kitchen and it has beadboard doors.

Closeup of twig table.

Corner of back wall; eventually the floor will be replaced and the old washing machine hookups removed. (I hope to find some kind of antique cabinet to go in that spot). There never was a dryer. Clothes were either dried out on the line or on a small wooden folding clothes rack. I may do the same until such time as I have a laundry room.

I originally was going to paint the kitchen a tomato soup red, but once I got to the house, I knew it had to be yellow.

I found this solid wood antique table at a thrift store for $65; then spent $25 to reinforce all the legs. I love the rough farm look and I was pleased that my thrifty metal folding chairs I bought in Florida went so well with everything. Eventually I will put cushions on them.

It's too bad the chandelier did not photograph better. I bought that 2nd hand and it is a yellow-gold color with terra cotta and soft green accents. I couldn't take the bare light bulb look any longer.

I was lucky to find a yellow coffeemaker and microwave - and at a cheap price. It's a discontinued color by J. C. Penney's, but I was able to find them on ebay.

The curtains were bought at 40% off at J. C. Penney's and are Waverly's Pantry Plaid. I also bought a swags for the windows, but in the end, decided to not use them in order to increase the light in a kitchen that never gets direct sun. The bottom curtains provide enough privacy at night.

I've had that "chippy paint" vase for years, but wasn't sure where I would use it. Close to the end of my stay, I picked up the silk flowers at 50% off and they, along with the vase, added a final touch I was seeking. I wanted something with a loose wildflower look.

On the stove, you can see a pot that is part of my Napastyle set. I was thrilled to find cookware in a yellow-gold and terra cotta. In the end, I couldn't handle the horrible state of the stove hood, so it was removed and I'm left with a hanging wire for now.

If you enlarge the photo, you can see a picture with chickens. It's a giclee that one of my artists gave me and I think it works great in the kitchen.

This is the refrigerator side of the kitchen, which is still a work-in-progress. The refrigerator needs to be spray painted yet. It has wire shelves and small water bottles (and I'm sure other bottles of similar size) don't stay standing. I almost bought a fairly nice one for $100 at auction that was definitely newer and nicer, but decided to pass for now. I'm told that this auction has refrigerators and washer/dryer sets in almost new condition on a fairly regular basis.

In the box is a new retro kitchen chair waiting to be put together.

The doorway to the left leads to my office and the one to the right to the living room.

I spent hours and hours scrubbing and scrubbing the grease and filth both inside and outside cabinets and am still not done. I used the scrubbie on the back side of a sponge. I then progessed to using a stiff scrub brush. Finally, I used a stiff deck brush. I tried various products. In the end, Simple Green cut my cleaning time in about 1/4. In some cases, I had to scrub so much that I went down to bare wood. No problem. In the end, I can put on a coat or two of Miniwax's Antique Oil finish. A favorite of mine for refinishing furniture and it easily blends places with finish and those without.

The cabinets are the same color stain inside, so to brighten things up a bit, I decided to use ivory shelf liner - also only partially completed.

I put a sink rug down only briefly when I first arrived, realizing that with the painting going on it would quickly get dirty. Here I've put down one choice for a front-of-sink rug. The throw rugs in the bedroom also look good here.

Here I tried the woven rugs that a friend gave me. I think they go well, only I don't know how practical they are with the chairs being moved in and out.

Kitchen Before Photos

The kitchen had a "modern" update -I believe some time in the 80's. These were typical maple cabinets used at that time. I'm not crazy about them, but they'll do for now. The plus is that they are all wood - well some maple plywood.

The fan and light in the hood above the stove was virtually non-functional and in awful condition - not worthy of restoration. After much contemplation, I decided to remove it.

I found a date on the stove of 1995, but despite such a recent date, some of the chrome handles are rusted. I got the model number off the stove and called the manufacturer to see how much for replacement handles. About $180 - no way! And, the replacement knobs where the writing has worn off were $40 each. According to the company, the stove is now considered "vintage."

Replacing a wide stove like that in the future would run around $1,200! And, there's one option - white. Going to a smaller stove means finding a way to compensate for the now open space and replacing the countertops.

I was excited when I discovered a flourescent bulb that was not working under a metal hood at the top of the stove. I bought a new bulb - it still did not work! :(

In the photo above, to the right is the back door and beyond the frig is the door into the living room. In the living room is the only closet in the house, which you can see in the distance. The beadboard lining the closet is what is beneath all the awful "modern" paneling.

Though not very visible, there were 3 of the red-seated chairs in the crawl space under the house. No doubt the original kitchen chairs. Too bad there were not 4. I plan to paint them and recover the seats and use them around the house, but not in the kitchen.

This little gas heater was my only source of heat for most of the time I was there. Eventually I bought a couple of cheap oil radiator heaters, one for the living room and one for my bedroom. They helped, but did not really make the rooms very warm. I realized I have to get central as soon as possible since this relic puts out a sooty film on things. Hopefully by next cold weather it will be gone. For now, it is turned off for the season.