Restoring Our Old Farm House - No. 6 The Guest Room

Several people have asked to see the front of our house and since I am looking at the guest room today, it's a perfect time. The guest room is on the front of the house and underwent several major changes during the renovation. Here is the exterior of the guest room today...

 

...and this is how it looked the day we started cleaning out the house...

 You'll notice we had two front doors. One leading into the living room and the other leading into the front room, aka...the guest room, which we removed. The room had no wall space. It had the door leading outside in the middle of one wall, double windows in the middle of two walls and another door in the middle of the fourth wall and no closet.

This is me, 10 years ago, on day one of our house journey...flattering, huh? Funny. We walled in the door behind me and relocated the old front door into my bathroom, leading to the laundry room.

I had a few masked bandits as side kicks! Look at those dirt dabber nests above the door.

Here the room is empty. The door leading into what is now the dining room was right in the middle of the wall. We moved the door to the far left of that wall and added a closet to the room. Old homes are not famous for their closets.

As you look through the doorway today, you see the location where I was picking up trash.

This is the iron bed I slept in while growing up.

I searched and searched until I found a match. It's not exactly the same bed, but pretty close. We don't have overnight guests very often, outside of our son and grandson, but when we need to, we just push the beds together and have an instant king size bed for our guests. I think two twins are much cuter than a big giant king size in a tiny room.

We reused all the original solid wood doors throughout the house and ordered new working hardware that was similar to what was original to the house. All the hardware was rusted to the point of being useless. So we updated, but kept the feel.

Mark used molding to create these crowns for all the doors and windows throughout the house. It was a lot of work, but it's the little touches that make it special.

I hope you are enjoying this tour of our restoration. Only two areas left to share.. the bedroom and bathrooms.

Here's a Heart Rock for our Pocket:
For nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1:37

Wishing you God's best,
Elaine 


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Restoring Our Old Farm House - No. 5 The Sun Room

You know, when it comes to remodeling, great ideas often evolve into something unexpected. Example, the sleeping porch I had always dreamed of adding to our home evolved into additional living space and now holds an extra dining table and seating area, which we call the sun room. We added this room about 5 years after completing our renovations and moving in. This gave us more square footage for family gatherings. When we are all together (parents, siblings, children and grandchildren), we have close to 20 people, give or take a few, depending on how many tag-a-longs show up. Twenty people in an 1100 square foot house, can get crowded really fast. Not that it can't be done, because we did it often, but an additional 200 square feet really helps out. Here is how things progressed through the addition.

This is how the west side of our house looked before we began the renovations in 2004.

 We used the same rafters and braces so that it would blend with the rest of the house and added windows on all three sides.

 We wanted it to look like it had always been there.

From the inside, we added the entrance through what was the dining room windows.

Mark completely built the exterior of the room before we opened the entry from the inside.

We continued the same wooden floors into the space and finished out the windows consistent with the rest of the house. The one thing we did differently was that we DID NOT USE sheet rock. My sheet rock days are over! I love the way they look but it is a nightmare to do. Sheet rock is best left to the professionals. This room had very little wall space and we used wooden slats and painted them. It has ended up being one of our favorite places to have meals and spend time. 

It was a lot of hard work, but most things worth having usually are.

Here's a Heart Rock for your Pocket:
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 
Hebrews 12:1-2

Wishing you God's Best,
Elaine

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Restoring Our Old Farm House No. 4 - Dining Room

This weekend we are taking a look at the before and after of the dining area which is opposite of the kitchen, but in the same room. 

When we first started this project, the kitchen and dining were two separate rooms. The picture below was taken while standing inside the kitchen looking into what is now the dining room. It was nothing short of a total mess!

 

 The first order of business was to clear everything out so I enlisted the help of my family.

This shot shows the small door leading to the living area on the left, which we later enlarged (you saw that last week) and the door leading to our guest room on the right. The guest room door was right in the center of the wall so we relocated it to the far left.

 This construction shot shows the one door enlarged and the other relocated.

The low ceilings were removed and vaulted. 

The sheet rock is up and the ceiling installed. We adapted big galvanized barn lights into drop down lighting by replacing the crooked neck with conduit. 

We spent our first nights in the house sleeping in the dining room while our bedroom was being finished. After 18 months, I was so happy to be sleeping in my own house again.

This is how it looks today. We've added a sun room off the dining area where the windows were located. We'll look at the sun room next time.

Here's a Heart Rock for your Pocket:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

Wishing you God's best,

Elaine 

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