Hi everyone. It’s been a little while since I last posted. We’ve been out of town visiting family in two different states and so things have been coming along, but a bit slowly. Now we’re back on track and I do have a few interesting things to show! And oh yes, I’ll update the front profile pic to show spring time for the house very soon. 😉

As you might remember, the entry way was being stripped of all of the pink painted wall paper and Paul was building wainscoting to go up about half way all the way around. I showed you earlier the pic of the wainscoting but had not yet been stained.

Below are some more pics of the beautiful work he did and how it looks now. He built the wainscoting and I stained it. The baseboard is original and we merely stripped the old white paint and stained it with the rest of the wood.

I also have been continuing to repair the plaster where needed and applied 2 skim coats on the walls, so that we have smooth surfaces now.

Our plan is to place the wainscoting all through the entry way, up along side the stairs and onto the second floor landing, as well as continuing on the first floor back hallway next to the kitchen. Here are some updated pictures of our work.

And as you can see, we are stripping the paint along the frame of the door, so by the time it is done, the door and door frame will also be wood. Paul will build a coat rack on the right wall behind the staircase (by the cellar door entrance).

Here’s the wall paper we’ve selected to go in the entry way. A quick note: we thought about whether to paint or use wallpaper but since this home is mostly Victorian, we decided to try to use Victorian elements where we could. With that said, we are more in the category of subtle in our tastes vs some Victorian styles which reflect bold colors and patterns. What do you think?

As for the kitchen, well, let’s just say it’s been a bit more involved. lol.

Where we last left off…we had been knocking out the wall between the utility room and the kitchen as well as the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen. Below are some shots of the bathroom wall coming down finally. Yay!

We’ve met with a structural engineer and he helped confirm which walls were load bearing and how to proceed, as well as unfortunately discovering how much of the exterior kitchen wall was rotten.

You see, as we worked on the exterior wall and the utility room wall tear down, once the cabinets were removed, we found ourselves seeing daylight at one of the wall seams. This is the same wall where the cabinets were and where the original pipe burst (the one that started the whole kitchen demo project).

No wonder we were feeling a draft under there and the pipes became too cold. Not only that but the beams outside themselves were rotten at the bottom and not touching the foundation. It was basically the sheathing which was holding up the side kitchen wall. I can see why that winter morning when we had other plans, the house pretty much said “no, please do this first.” lol.

See below for a bit of the work we’ve had to do replacing studs. As always, Paul did the bulk of it but wow, it’s coming together.

We’ve now replaced the siding (again using what was salvageable from this wall and our “inventory” in the garage of other siding pieces. The wall has been sanded, caulked, primed and painted and trim work added. Paul has one more piece of trim to add before he wants me to take a picture. Ever the perfectionist. 😉 You’ll see it soon it but trust me, it looks soooo good; just like our test wall.

One wall, one section, one room at a time, the house will come back.

And on a quick side note, we had warm weather this week which was wonderful! We couldn’t help ourselves but get started on the yard. We hired an excavator crew to come haul away sawed up logs and clear brush from the far back of the yard. What would have taken us days of work they did in 5 minutes. The yard looks so much cleaner now.

And as for landscaping, the yard was already starting that by itself (again, the house WANTS to come back :-). This past fall, after we had the stumps removed and poison ivy vines pulled away, everything trenched into dirt. What began happening about 2 weeks ago were that flower buds began coming up all over. And we didn’t plant them!

While digging into what was left behind in the house several months back, I had found three large boxes of photos from the previous owners. Several of the photos showed the lady of the home and her flower beds. Below is only one of many, but she had flowers upon flowers all throughout the yard and by the garage and all so well manicured. My guess is that these are some of those buds, still alive, after all these years! Check out this image I found in an old box of photos in the house, dates from 1963.

There are buds coming up all over this section of the yard now (this previously was a large living mass of poison ivy – seriously – the largest I’d ever seen.) I think these are tulips so we’ll see what the buds turn become.

Below are some shots of the excavators and the new growth of flower buds coming up literally ALL over the yard. How wonderful to see new life again at the old girl!

I think those are daffodils?