The State of the Dining Room

Here's a secret-
I have a weakness for serving platters... I can't get enough of them! 
So having them at my fingertips and ready to use, gives me a crazy sense of happiness.

This being the case, the Dining Room was the first room we unpacked upon moving in!  (Well, that plus the fact that there were more boxes labelled "Dining Room" than any other room in the house... so it was a good place to start.)
The walls are a light yellow/cream color, which I thought we'd paint right away.  But upon further inspection, was in good shape, so we decided to live with it for now. 

Our dining room set fit perfectly, and even allowed for the addition of the piece of furniture that was given to us as a wedding gift by Mike's parents.            --->

<--- The antique love seat sort of got stuck in here, mostly out of a lack of energy to get it up to the attic... what's the point, when we'll (hopefully soon) be ready to move it back down once the kitchen renovation is complete and this room becomes the living room! 

  



 I had actually been considering waiting  to show the dining room/living room  areas until after the room shuffle we'll do with the kitchen renovation, but since that will likely be next spring, we'll consider these the "before" pictures.

So, here's to hoping that the next post about this room can be titled "The State of the Formal Living Room"

Mom gave me this one.

Here's a few of my favorites...

This one was a wedding shower gift.

Newest in the collection-
for our Asian-themed dinners!

Found at a yardsale!

This one is very small, but so sweet!





Here we go again!

We're reluctantly excited to start the kitchen renovation project. 
Certainly not looking forward to the dust & the inevitable bumps in the road that come along with a construction project, yet we're looking forward to once again having a kitchen that we enjoy cooking in!

Here's the current kitchen... (I left the lemonade in there, as a reference point.) 

This is the "Good" corner of the kitchen.
I like the light fixture and the fact that our corner table/bench set fit so nicely! 

I'm not wild about the wallpaper- it's a bit too country for me... but the kids love pointing out the cows, barns, apples, etc. pictured in the border.


The fridge & a food cabinet are to the left (and not pictured for good reason... both need to be replaced, but at least are functioning!)

And the not so good side...
We already removed the under-cabinet lighting, which hung down and was pretty crusty.
The biggest problem here is that we can't make toast & use the griddle at the same time, or else it trips the circuit breaker.

Please note the nice new dishwasher that we installed in July. We lost some cabinet & drawer space, but it's well worth it for the time & energy saved not having to handwash the dishes!


 And now a big picture for the "Just too much to list" side!


So the plan is...
1-Build two-story addition to back of house. 
First floor will include the kitchen, half bath, and butler's pantry (yay!).
Second floor will include an office and a laundry room.

2-Gut existing kitchen and transform into a dining room.

3-Create a formal living room out of the old dining room.

We've secured the architect, and are on the way to getting the plans drawn up- measurements have been completed, and necessary permits/variences researched.

Our original plan was to start construction in the fall, be enclosed by December, and finished by spring.  But, I think that's going to be rushing it!  We want to do it right, and not be choosing things, just to get it done quickly.  We need more time to work out the details.  So, looks like we'll get the drawings finished in the fall, put it out to bid this winter (while we pick out cabinetry, hardware, flooring, etc.), and begin construction in the spring.

The best part is that this go-round we're adding onto the back of the house, so we won't have to make a temporary kitchen in the dining room during the construction.  This will make that phase a little more bearable!

Much more to come as we embark on this project... Stay tuned!

August Yard Report

We've really been enjoying having a larger yard.  Sure- there's a lot more work to be done out here, but we're taking it a little bit at a time.  We didn't want the whole summer to pass us by!

Here's what's been keeping us busy, with a little bit o' fun mixed in:

We've found several patches of blackberry and raspberry bushes. 
There were a good two weeks where we couldn't pick them fast enough & we made some great smoothies.  Next year I may even get ambitious & make preserves!

We didn't have the time to do a veggie garden this year, so that's on the agenda for next year.  Site survey is underway for where to put it. 

We HAVE selected a spot in the yard to have a "cutting garden" where we can grow flowers for use inside the house (I feel guilty taking them out of the flower beds that Mike works so hard on!)

Pears are ready to be picked. 
We collected 42 of them the other night!  They're quite small & not very pretty looking (they actually look better in this photo than in person!)  But they taste great!   

Perhaps another opportunity to do some canning... but the kids are downing them four at a time, so maybe not!

                                                       

 

Mike made an old-fashioned tire swing. 

Truth be told...

That tire was in the garage when we moved to the Maplewood house 9 years ago!  

Getting rid of old tires is apparently a lot easier said than done!  So, believe it or not, the tire moved with us. (We had just too much else to deal with at the time!) 

And it's a good thing- the boys love that swing just as much as the playset... which cost a heck of a lot more!

So, that covers the fun stuff... but oh, there's SO much more going on out here!

Mike's cleared tons of the brush along the back property line. 

Here's a sample of what he's been dealing with (not to mention the bees, sticker bushes, dead deer carcass, and the summer heat!  Not a pretty combination!)  This level of vegetation was pretty much from the back of the barns to the property line.

Note the big line of dead pine trees sticking into the air- we heard that some kind of bug got them all a few years back. 

Mike went out, got a chainsaw & will be getting to those shortly!

In the meantime, check out the progress so far: 

All those big brown spots on the ground had been covered with brush. 

Slow but steady progress!

Hot Air Balloons

People told us we were moving to "Balloon Country", and we thought 'Yeah, that's nice. Certainly better than the airplanes we had gotten used to!'







Over the horse barn

Little did we know just how much better they would be!

The first time we heard the "whoosh" sound & saw a hot air balloon rise above the tree line, we were in awe.  They were so close!

Just down the street from us, there's a field where they run hot air balloon tours.  They often launch in the evening as we're outside eating dinner.  Sometimes they fly so low that the people yell hello to the kids.

My sister-in-law was visiting and summed it up really well...  "You've seen them in photos & movies, but seeing them in person is really cool!" 

Someday we're going to have to treat ourselves to a ride.  We'd get some awesome aerial shots of the house! 

Speaking of which, check out this framed print that the previous owner left for us (excuse the flash from my camera, I didn't want to take it out of the frame to scan it).  On the back, it's dated 1954.

The big red barn is looking very spiffy!  We have quite a bit of work to do there.  I think I'll start getting together a blog post on the barns- to organize some of our thoughts on those projects.

There appear to be cows in the field, and the little barn on the right looks similar to our goat barn, but it's not the same one.  Our horse barn is not yet there. 

You CAN see the bomb shelter trap door.  I'm dying to know if there are any old tin cans of food or anything else left down there, but alas-

We won't be finding out anytime soon

(in case you can't tell from the small photo, it's completely flooded)

... it'll have to remain locked & holding it's secrets for now.



More Balloon Photos:



A Launch!

   

 





 













All the small things...

Recently, we've been tying up some of the loose ends on projects we've already posted about.

Here's an update!

Family Room

The radiators are now both painted and the canvas prints are on the wall.

(The photos were taken by

 Bonnie Raley Photography!)

Mom bought us a wrought iron candelabra that dates to the time period of our house.  Out in the barn, we found a wrought iron hook and circle to hang it from the ceiling beam.
It looks great all lit up and reflecting in the mirror over the fireplace!





Nautical Kids Room

Offending jungle lamp circled in yellow

Due to the lack of overhead light fixtures, we quickly unpacked every lamp we had. In here, we were making do with the "Jungle Animal" lamp from the nursery decor- but I really wanted something that coordinated with the theme. We found a cute little lamp at the Morrow Memorial Turnover Sale, painted it, and topped with a 3rd nautical lampshade from Dad's childhood bedroom. 

Through most of the house
The door hinges were painted over in white. 
Repainting with flat black really brought up the details & gave a "finished" look.  If/when we dip the doors, then we'll strip the hardware down to remove all the old paint, but this will have to do for now!

Before



After

Basement

The new clothes drier has been installed.  This is definitely the "small thing" that made the biggest difference functionally.  I'll spare you the photos though... it's just SO not fun!

Kids/Guest Bathroom    


Before

After



 There was this awful crack between the moulding & the walls- all the way around the room.  I tried to do the "fill it in with paint" trick when I painted the room, but the space was just too large. 

I found a great tip on the "Young House Love" blog about filling it in with caulking which won't crack when it dries, like spackle does. 

It worked!  I feel so much better now! 

Master Bath      Shhhhh.... I did it!



New hardware

Old hardware

After looking at the old drawer pulls for 2 months, I couldn't stand it anymore.  I saw these at the store & couldn't resist!  Let's see how long it takes for Mike to notice ;o)

 

 




Old shade



New Shade

Another fast fix in this bathroom is the light fixture.  Since we don't yet know what the final layout of this room will be, I didn't want to purchase anything new that needed to be rewired.  So I settled on changing out the shades.  It's a slight improvement!