The Old Girl Can See...

Saturday morning..here we go! This old porch was probably added around the 1950's, probably for heat as this side of the house faces due west. The addition of the second story would have kept a lot of sun out of the upstairs master bedroom and hallway. We found this summer that the addition of attic ventilation probably did way more than this porch ever could have done for air quality and heat control...but that is beside the point. What we are most glad for is that the decorative pieces on the top level are original to the house and will be saved and put back down below where they started. We are going to save the posts as they appear to be the original as well. I also want to save the rails. In a 1950's pic we have on the house, they appear to, at one point have been on the bottom and they looked kind of cute!

By Saturday evening, the first corner was down. This job is proving harder than one might think. The original soffits and facia boards are under this newer porch and we really want to save them as replacement would be quite costly.

Up they go again on Sunday morning...

Charles was feeling his age by the end of the day on Sunday after about 50 trips up and down the scaffolding! In this pic, you can see that another section is down.

And another...with shadows lengthening...

It is down! I swear I can almost hear the old girl saying I can see! Doesn't she look good? There is a lot of work left to be done. The front soffit has come loose from the weight of the porch and we are hoping to just put that up into place. The short piece of the soffit and facia board are destroyed by bugs (wasps or something that made tunnels) and water damage. All the nail holes need to be filled and the entire piece of the decorative edge is gone (kind of like crown molding on the edge up there) and needs to be replaced. Then paint. The lower porch will not come all the way down. Rather, the posts will be put into the right places and the rotten posts will be removed. The tongue in groove will be replaced by roof plywood and then covered with tar paper....it is a long list, but the old girl is ready.

Take a quick look at the before and after...wow! What a change for a weekend!

It Took Some Green to Start to Level Out This Yard...

Here is the view towards the parlor before we started working. You can see the overgrown dirt pile and the weeds in front of the parlor window.

I started messing with this tree stump and realized it was quite loose. Seth got involved after we had gotten it loose all around the base and pushed it out!

As you can see, he was quite proud of the size of the stump.

Here's the green-John Deere Green, not money! We love the Kemner's, not just for this kind of stuff, but they sure are willing to help out whenever they can. Bailey and Teddy took turns riding in the tractor while they worked.

You can just barely see Teddy sitting in the jump seat here. He loves the tractors!

Here the after shot. We cleared out all the bushes in front of the window and Bill knocked down all the dirt. There are tons of broken pieces of plates and-you will never guess-broken pieces of bricks everywhere in the dirt. We will pick up pieces of stuff for a while while we do the detail leveling, but it looks so much better!

Here is the dining room side dirt pile before.

During...

Woops...A little out of order...but Teddy and Bailey in front of the parlor window...

Here is an after shot of the dining room pile all gone! We finished up with a dinner of chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad, fresh tomatoes...yummy!

Pretty Powder Room

Bailey loves the purple bathroom. Next to pink, purple is her favorite color! The previous owner really loved the floor in the bathroom, but the wood was kind of warped and not in good shape and with the amount of use this bathroom was going to get, we decided to honor the idea of the floor that was here and go with the harlequin tan and white pattern, but we are going to do the pattern with 8 x 8 porcelin tiles. The result is really quite wonderful!

Yet another skill added for Seth and Ben-tiling a floor! Charles was on cutting detail outside with the tile saw while Seth and Ben took turns laying tiles and running marked pieces out to Charles.

Here Ben is working the tile floor...

Here it is grouted! Doesn't it look awesome! We really like our little powder room and it is the most complete room in the house! (If only I could find the back toilet tank lid...)

Vanity is in place. This vanity lived a former life as a dresser with a wishbone framed mirror. We don't have the original mirror that went with this piece, but did use another antique mirror to go in back of it and left the old wishbone frame in place. The sink is a vessel sink with a throughly modern handle. The outlet and lightswitch covers have an antique scrollwork pattern...It really is quite the little powder room.