Snow Storm!

It was nice to be all cuddled up in the new kitchen during the first big snow storm of the year!

Mike plowed the driveway a couple times through the day to keep up with the snow.

Here are some photos of the house & yard after the storm... we got around 30 inches!

The side field

The barn

Behind the barn

The picking garden is totally covered!
(I had taken the fountain in last week)

The goats liked playing in the snow too!

Back Porch Railings

The back porch railings have been completed!

 Just in time, with the snowy weather that was approaching- this makes getting up & down those steps so much easier (since they get pretty slippery when wet or snowy!)

They also finished adding the bead board for the  ceiling of the porch.

The back light had already been installed, but it looks nicer now!

We got out there and hung up our little rooster bell.  

The boys love when we ring it for them to come inside from playing.  We had to decide between this rooster bell, or our other cast iron bell which has a little bird on it. The size of this one seemed better here.  We'll use the other one on either the well house, or maybe one of the barns (we already have a boot door knocker on the workshop!)


Here it is during the blizzard over the weekend! -->

Kitchen Window Trim

The week between Christmas & New Years, the contractor finished the window trim on the back kitchen windows.

We then got to work sanding them down (they were a little rough) and then priming & painting.

Once dry, we put the outlet covers on...

I was looking for white cafe curtains, similar to what we had in the old house kitchen.  Unfortunately, those curtains were too short to re-use (and had already been put up the well house windows- you can sort of see them out there in the pics above!)  I couldn't find similar ones anywhere in a store... I prefer to buy them in person to make sure I like the feel of them!  BUT- I did find these, which I decided to try out and see how we like them.  

There weren't curtain rods that were long enough to run across all 5 windows (we needed it to be over 9 feet!)  And I'm hesitant to drill into the newly finished trim anyways!  But I found these oil rubbed bronze pressure rods, and I got the little rings so that the curtains open & close easily.

I'm pleased with them so far!  I was worried the pattern would be too much, but I think it works brining in more blue to contrast the yellow.

Parlor Photo Wall

We've been working on converting the room that was the old dining room, into a formal parlor.
I wanted to put a bunch of old family photos on the one wall.  I already had the frames from the photo wall in the old house.  I went through and swapped out some photos for ones we liked better, and added a couple of newer ones.

Then I had the kids help me trace & cut out templates so I could figure out placement before putting any holes in the wall.  I left the templates up over night, to make sure I still liked the format in the morning (although some of the painter's tape that I used started to peel up!)

Then I got started hanging the frames...


It took a while, and I still need two 5x7 frames for the top right.  I ran out to the store, but couldn't find any that I really liked.  So, I'm still on the hunt for those!

There are a couple of news articles mixed in that featured great grandparents, grandparents & parents.  Also added is our wedding invitation that a college friend had water color painted and framed as a gift.








I'm really pleased with how it came out.  This room is slowly coming together.

It looks like we're going to be snowed in for a few days here, so I hope to get some photos & posts together!

Bathroom Decor

Here are some extra shots of decorating in the master bathroom...

This little grouping is on top of the antique dresser.  I use the teacup to place my rings in (nice & far from any drains!)  The canister holds cotton balls.  The little white jar is an antique cold cream jar- appropriate for the bathroom!


The white shelf was fun to decorate.  I like how there isn't a back on it, so the purple shows through and the white accessories really pop!

The peacock feathers were given to us by Mike's former co-worker- he raised them and sent over some feathers from his birds!







The Tiffany vase that's holding the feathers was a wedding gift from one of my former co-workers.

The other little jars I bought at various yard sales.  It's fun having little things like that to hunt for!

Finally, here's a close up of the hooks.  These match the TP holder & towel ring.  They're nice & sturdy to hold our robes, plus a towel.

There's still a lot of odds & ends we're wrapping up with the kitchen renovation- we have a list of minor things for the contractor to address (he hasn't been around much lately).  Now that we're both back to work after the holidays, it's a little slower going on the painting & decorating front... We're packing up all the holiday decorations and now trying to decide what to put where for the "usual" decor.  I'll post more pics soon!

Master Bath- Complete!

There are still a few minor things to do, but I'm calling it complete for blog purposes! :)

View from the master bedroom doorway

Reverse, taken from in front of the window

Taken from the corner, where the silver chair is.
Door to the left of the sink is the walk-in closet.
The little marble table came from my parents' house, as did the mirror over the sink.

The soaking tub!

The little shelf was from the house I grew up in.
The chair was in the master bedroom, I just re-covered the seat.

This dresser stores the extra towels, TP, toiletries, etc.
Mike bought it for me when we were just dating!

Still on the to do list...

-Paint the molding 

-Heat does not seem to be working in any of the new upstairs rooms.  It's working in the new downstairs areas though... so not sure what's going on with it.  Sounds like the dreaded plumbers will be back.

-The threshold between the master bedroom & the bathroom isn't finished.  The contractor needs to put in a door saddle or piece of marble.

Attic Hallway

Look at the little landing at the top of the third floor stairs!

View from the stairs

Our contractor still needs to build a step to go up to the storage room door.  In the meantime, I put a little rug up there (which I had from my college dorm room days!)  The table was given to us as a wedding gift by Mike's parents.  It fits perfectly in the little spot!

View from the end of the hallway, near the media room door.

We painted the walls the same gray as the foyer and second floor hallway.  We found all of the door hardware pieces we needed for all of the new doors (the doorknobs and we're swapping out most of the brass hinges for brushed nickel).  I'm in the process of getting stuff up on the walls, and will post about that once the contractor finishes the step and we can call it done!

Dining Room Extras

Happy New Year!  

We're looking forward to getting the rest of the kitchen renovation wrapped up in the beginning of 2016.  Who knows what other projects we'll start on later in the year... we're tossing around ideas for the well house, and the backyard will need quite a bit of work in the spring/summer. I'm sure there will also be some unexpected projects- there always are with an old house!

Below are two Dining Room pics that I forgot to include yesterday.  After I posted, it was pointed out that I wasn't as thorough as usual- haha!


First is the liquor cabinet which we bought last year with plans to use it in the new dining room when finished.  I love how it looks with the brown paint and white board & batten!

Here it is closed up- taken from the doorway that goes into the kitchen/butler's pantry

Here it is looking festive, all opened up...

It fits perfectly on that wall when it is opened!  It took quite a bit of fussing to get it level, since this is the old portion of the house and the floors are so uneven.  Luckily it had those little spinner feet on it that I could adjust while Mike lifted (and even then we had to add some furniture pads underneath one side!)


We put the China Cabinet on the other side of the room, on the wall diagonal from the liquor cabinet...

Taken from the doorway of the parlor
(located to the left of the liquor cabinet in 1st photo above)

Here's a closeup of the inside...

For the holidays, I decorated it by adding some crown ruby that my parents had given us, plus some Lenox Christmas platters.

The layout of the room makes it hard to get a photo that includes all of the furniture.  I took the one below, but it doesn't get the china cabinet in, which is to the right of me.

We plan to buy an area rug for in here, but haven't found the right one yet... so for the time being, we're just enjoying the newly refinished floors!