Slowly But Surely She Begins to Shine

So far 2020 can be summed up in two words:  Crazy times.  January we rushed to complete everything we needed to get our Certificate of Occupancy to move into the farm.  Our finances were finally dwindling to the point that we had to accept where we were in the beautification of Penny process, and finish the rest while we live here.  In early February I spent every waking hour packing and painting - getting our old house ready to put on the market.  I was so tired by the middle of the month that I couldn't articulate a full thought.  The house went on the market February 19th and received multiple offers.  It's officially set to close April 17th.  The end of February through the second week of March I became an expert at driving at 24' box truck.  Bill's rigging experience helped immensely as the two of us moved our belongings by ourselves.  Today, Bill continues knocking out projects daily, while my job is emptying boxes and adding the touches that make a house a home.  We've got a long way yet to go, but here's more of our progress...

Bill and I didn't want box vanities, so I spent 2018 looking for old chest of drawers that spoke to me,  Two of the ones we chose had hideous pink marble tops.  Bill built new tops for them out of wood we reclaimed from Penny's old walls.  The spare/guest bathroom we decided to keep simple with white bowl and bronze fixtures to match the gorgeous old pulls on the drawers.  The mirror we had over our foyer table at our old house but decided that it really fit here... as you'll see later we didn't have a shortage of antique mirrors.

I should mention here that the drawers have all been cut for the plumbing.  It's a detail that the average person doesn't think about.  Most just think "cut a hole for the bowl and we're done"...  Plumbing goes down about the depth of two drawers.  He made two small drawers from each large one with a space hollowed out in between for the fixture.  The storage area in the spare bathroom vanity isn't a whole lot, but with the kids coming and going, it's just the two of us and only really needs to hold toilet paper.

For both of our master bathroom vanities we chose Mexican Talavera  pottery sinks that we bought online at La Fuente Imports (www.lafuente.com).  Took a minute to get both but we love the look.  We also chose two chests that had mirrors attached.  Bill's (above) has plenty of storage below for larger bathroom items (iron, cleaners, etc), and mine has plenty of drawers for everything a woman might need in toiletries.  The only thing I think I want to add to my area is a lighted magnified mirror on a swivel arm...

If I'm going to show the vanities, I guess I should show you the before and current look of the master bathroom.  We still have a bit more to do ~ bead board, crown molding and the window... but it's beginning to look like we dreamed it would and more.  From an adjoining bedroom to a master bathroom... the hardwood floors were carefully removed and used to replace the damage flooring in the kitchen.  Grey tiles found on clearance at Lowes were used on the floor.  See the "Tale of Three Mantles" blog to learn more about the hearth tile and mantle.  Pictures have been hung and the antique gas stove is in the corner with little lights in the firebox to provide ambiance through the mica windows.

On the other side of the room we removed the two closets.  Opened up the wall on the right to the master bedroom closet/electrical box and made the area for the shower.  An antique chandelier (similar to the chandelier that used to hang in the living room but the previous owner took with her), hangs above my dream claw-foot tub.  Once the windows are done, we will hang a large stained glass window in front of the bathroom window, and change the temporary curtain for something more appropriate.

Are you ready for the living room progress?  This here makes me sooo happy.  I get a cup of coffee and sit in my new old favorite chair (that gets refurbished in July)... between the fireplace, the wall of mirrors, the wall trim, and the trunk with mica lamp... I'm as happy as a pig wallowing in muck.  This is everything that makes us just sit back, relax and smile with pride in everything we've accomplished.

There's more, but I need to move more boxes before I take pictures that are blog worthy.  Perhaps I'll do a blog on the victory garden we're currently planting.  What's happening today in the world is so bloody terrifying.  It makes both of us grateful that we moved to the country.  I fear for us, for our family and for our friends around the world.  Please be safe.... social distance yourself from others.  My thoughts and prayers are with everyone reading this blog.  Stay safe.  God bless you all.

The Tale of Three Mantles

Y'all, can we talk?  Before you decide to take on a fixer upper, make sure you have 1) vision and 2) someone that can understand and implement that vision.  Bill and I discovered we excelled in that type of teamwork when we were up-cycling for our antique booth.  When we first walked through Penny... to say she was "rough" would be an understatement...  she was like a poor little girl who was given layers and layers of a bigger sisters hand me downs that never fit her....but we immediately felt the peace we could have with her.... she felt like home.  We both saw her potential and decided to make her be the beauty she was supposed to be.

Pinterest Idea

Before Living Room

Don't get me wrong now... I actually liked some of the concepts the previous owner had... it was the execution of those concepts that had us both scratching our heads.  The paneling in the living room wasn't horrid, it was just too dark for that small room and the 80's waterbed headboard on top of the fireplace just screamed Marge Simpson's hair-do.  I thought the fireplace was lost in that room.  It needed to be a focal point instead.  We removed the bad hair-do and the fake bricks then sat back and waited for the answer to what to do to come to us.

Living Room Today

Between junking at Antiques Unlimited, my favorite antique store in San Carlos, California , and Pinterest an idea started to formulate.  Through Facebook Marketplace we found a mantle similar to the one in Penny's master bedroom.  The original idea was to remove the mirror in the mantle and have Bill frame out one of the two German carved door panels I'd brought home from one of many shopping sprees with my mother...  Let's just say the guy at Antiques Unlimited instantly lights up when we walk in.  We rarely walk out empty handed.  But I digress...  When we started working on this project Bill was brainstorming how to frame the panel, and I walked up to the mantle and asked if we couldn't just attach the panel to the mirror and treat the mirror as matting.  One of the few times these past two years where I made his life easier...  Except he doesn't make it easier on himself... he didn't just clean the mantle up... he took it apart, sanded, stained and put it back together even stronger than it was before.  While he did that, I took the antique English and French transfer-ware tiles mom bought for Penny and tiled around the hearth (Bill gets credit for the floor of the hearth tiles)...  The final look with the antique sconces I purchased from an antique store in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is so much better than the Marge-esque 80's look before.

Which lead us to what to do with the master bedroom and the other German panel... I loved this original mantle, which is why we went looking for the other.  This baby technically only needed a cleaning.... but Bill, being the perfectionist he is, again, took it apart, sanded, stained and made it stronger.  What was left of the antique transfer-ware tiles I used on this hearth too...  keeping the flow consistent in this small house.  Today, the final mantle was put in place.

Bedroom After

The master bathroom originally was a bedroom with a small white mantle.  Neighbors have told us they didn't know that there was a fireplace in this room because a bed was placed against the mantle as a headboard.  It wasn't substantial enough to attempt to keep for the house.  We found another mantle on Facebook Marketplace.  Bill took it apart, cut out the excess wood to give it better curves, then gave it a grey wash.  The hearth was covered by me with tiles I found at Habitat Restore for $20 a box of 10.  All in all, these fireplaces look so much better than they did two years ago when Penny became ours.

The next step for the three fireplaces is to put a trim around the hearth floor.  When we have some money again (Phase III) we'll start adding inserts to these fireplaces so we can use them.  Currently they are only ornamental.  We were quoted $10-15k per fireplace to fix the flues...  Inserts can be done for a third of the price.   When we get to Phase III we'll decide whether we want wood, electric or gas inserts.  There are pros and cons for all three.

Now one last thought before I end this blog... you might have noticed the painting of San Francisco above the living room mantle.  I found this beauty in Aptos, California, on another junking trip with my mother.  I removed the ugly brass frame and haven't had it re-framed for the five plus years I've owned it.  Bill is going to make a frame for it out of the scraps of wood we have from Penny's remodel.  It'll look like a transom over the fireplace.  I was staring at the space above the master bedroom fireplace today and decided that we need to honor Bill's Richmond, Virginia roots... We need an old print or painting of Richmond to go above this fireplace....   Richmond family... if you've got an answer to this, please let us know... otherwise I see us coming up soon after the old house sells to see if we can find the perfect piece.