Study Shelves Seemingly Everywhere

You know how the last 10% of any project can be the hardest to get done? We're still working to finish out the Stone House study and a couple of projects in the Stone House kitchen. 

I have an enchanting vision of built-in white bookshelves and a desk surface for the gorgeous dark green study. And the bookshelves are finally getting done! But there's nowhere in the Stone House to paint them, so they're taking up my sitting room for part of the week. 

Bits of Daisy's Room + Cat

We were going for a soft, luxurious, cocooning thing in Daisy's room. Clearly it worked for Sister, at least.

No doubt she appreciated the creative layering of fabrics--crocheted afghans on top of embroidered quilts on top of dust ruffles, and the sheepskin laid over the cotton rag rug.

For Sister, it's a little bit like the Princess and the Pea. For Daisy, it's a perfect retreat. Best part: I didn't buy a single thing (beyond the can of paint), just pulled furniture and goodies in from other parts of the house.

Daisy's New Ice Cream Parlor

Daisy's bedroom has always been known as the Mango Lounge, but Clara and I have been re-doing it in the softest, creamiest pink. It will hereafter be known as the Ice Cream Parlor.

(Benjamin Moore. Walls: Melted Ice Cream in Pearl Finish. Floors: Pure White Latex Floor Enamel)

Scenes from the Stone House

Felix and Molly left the stone house this weekend to get back to real life. I stopped by Sunday afternoon to air things out (they had both had the flu, so sad), collect the linens, and polish things up.

I still don't have Real Pictures of the house but here are a couple of lovely spots. Fireplace above, bedroom dressing table below.

Coffee in the New Almost Kitchen

Clara and I spent much of the day on our hands and knees scrubbing the stone house floors--a sign that most of the major renovating work is done and it's just about time for some furniture.

That's some hard work. 

We took a coffee break in the kitchen which is poised for cabinetry first thing Monday morning. Wednesday it fills up with guests. 

A Line in the Sand

Clara and I have managed to reupholster the couch to this point--it's only lacking the bottom fabric and the fronts of the arms. Meanwhile, I've been making the cover for the seat cushion, but today the sewing machine drew a line in the sand. Stopped me in my tracks. Said it simply wasn't capable of sewing through six layers of upholstery velvet where the piping has a seam and is being sewn to two panels.

I was almost immediately okay with that, and found a shop in town that will finish my cushion cover at a very reasonable price. I got it over there today with a huge feeling of relief. No more green velvet to sew for the forseeable future.

Hey, A Kitchen Floor!

Remember back in August when we had to take the kitchen floors in the stone house all the way back to the joists?

They stayed like that forever while the invisible but important work of plumbing, wiring, and ductwork went on.

Finally we got to close up the space, and the Composer and Nick, our darling carpenter, threw those subfloors down this weekend. Hurray!

Then the tile crew came in this morning and did all this: wow. 

Tomorrow the same thing happens in the two bathrooms!

New Walls in the Stone House

The living room is painted! Still waiting on the new slab of stone that will be the mantel above the gorgeous fireplace.

The small bedroom is painted! All that's left to do is hang some curtains and clean the floor.

The hallway is in the process of becoming Enchanted Forest Green. With lots of white closet doors.

The kitchen still looks like this, sadly, but will receive its subfloors this week. After that, it's full speed ahead with sheetrock repair and tile floors. The cabinets will arrive in mid-November.

And turning back around, here's the view out onto the front porch!

A Palette for the Stone House

Oh, it's fun to see these coming together! From top to bottom (and these are all Benjamin Moore):

Decorator White--for all the trim, and for the kitchen.

Green Tint--for the master bedroom and the hall bathroom.

Gray Cashmere--for the living room.

Wild Aster--for the small bedroom and for the lady's bathroom (clawfoot tub).

Enchanted Forest--for the hallway, which runs from the front door straight back to the kitchen, and the tiny study.

Joys of small-town life--Daisy's piano teacher is doing all the interior painting and acing it!

Before the Reupholstering

The girls and I found this couch a couple of weeks ago (for the stone house, of course). It's very old, dating from the 1920s, and used to be horsehair! It has some very sturdy springs.

I started the reupholstering adventure today by taking the fabric off the bottom and back. Bottle green cotton velvet coming up.

Sea of Chairs

Clara and I have been scouting around your junkier antique stores for affordable furniture for the stone house. A while ago we found a dropleaf dining table and six chairs--all orange wood and terrible fabric on the seats.

It's been a primer-and-three-coats kind of project, but we're to the point where we cover the seats with ticking now. 

The rising tide of furniture here is going to swamp us all if we can't get some of this into the other house soon.

Covering the Seat Cushions

Clara and I are painting two tables and six chairs for the stone house. Sister is in charge of covering the seat cushions.

Before It Gets Better

Everyone knows it gets worse before it gets better. Above, the stone house kitchen with all the fixtures and junk and subfloor plywood pulled out.

Then we went the next step and pulled up the pine (it was just too rough to keep, bummer) and exposed all the joists. Several will need replacing. My workers are my heroes.

We're really glad we didn't try to lay subfloor and then a tile floor on top of that pine, because it was a mess under there. I'd rather shore up the floor now, when it's slightly easier.

A New and Massive Ottoman

I've been on the lookout for furniture for the little stone house, and the girls and I went to a very inexpensive antiques place (the smaller the town, the better the prices) and found a mighty and massive ottoman for $30.

The perfect piece to use for a coffee table and/or extra seating (and of course, if it's a magazine picture, a tray with a coffee press on it). However, this ottoman was covered in foul cranberry floral, and the top cushion was ripped all the way across.

I forgot to take a before picture, but I just cut all the fabric off the top cushion, then laid down a layer of cotton batting. Then Clara and I stapled some fabric (cut from a hardware store drop cloth) over the top cushion, not caring how the staples showed--because next, I made the world's simplest slipcover that just drops over the whole thing. That seam you see is inherent in the drop cloth. It's only on one side of the ottoman and I don't care!! I like it that way :)

Two Sisters

I've started bringing home furnishings that will eventually go in the stone house. I found a very old, heavy mirror I'll use--in the meantime I have to store it here, but I haven't gotten very far with that, and it's currently on the dining table.

where it's being put to good use, all the time, by Sister.

All the Animals of North America, for My Walls

This morning I was thinking about what I want to hang on the walls of my little stone house, and I remembered an amazing thrift store find from several years back.

Everyone's favorite animals of North America, as presented by Mr. Audubon. I think I will be taking this former library book apart and framing these most excellent illustrations.

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A Little More House History

Our new little stone house has yielded up more of its history. In the county library I found (locked in the archives! It was so exciting and it took a key!) a voluminous hand-made scrapbook of all the old houses around town, with their histories researched.

Our realtor had told us that our house dated from 1910 or so, but apparently it was actually built in 1890--a frame structure, not stone. And it was two stories, with a "fancy porch!" Sadly, the second floor and the porch burned up. 

We had already suspected that the rock was added later, by the stonemason who bought the house in the 1940s, and the scrapbook confirmed that. And now we've seen the "original" siding under the stone, when we replaced a door! It's painted soft gray. I'm not sure that this should even count as original, because I suspect the kitchen was added some time after the house was first built. Maybe when indoor plumbing came to town?

Raw Stairs

The last step, if you will, in our toy-room-to-library transformation has been the reclamation of the stairs that go up from the sewing room to the new library. They've always been carpeted, until now.

This summer Clara and I ripped the carpet up, painstakingly removed every staple and nail, then turned them over to the Composer who had the supremely messy job of sanding them with a major sander.

Then we cleaned all that up. They're not quite finished, as I will be painting the risers (not the steps) the Pure White floor paint of the library floor, and the Composer will be cutting out trim to finish off the sides of the stairs. These are probably way too rough-looking for most people, but I love them. They are smooth and soft to the touch, and the staircase itself came from an abandoned hotel across the river. So I'm going to love it.

Ladder Girl

I'm getting too old for this. 

Clara and I have been painting the sewing room this week. Twelve-foot ceilings. Endless walls. Endless windows. She's the ladder girl, and cut in all the high edges perched on a terrifyingly tall stepladder.

We are so close, but won't be able to finish until Sunday afternoon. Oh, to have it behind me!

I Always Wear a Hat When I Am Buying a House

We fell in love a month ago and have bought this little hundred-year old stone cottage.

It needs a lot of work, and a big can of Nandina-Be-Gone spray,

but it is loaded with charming details and has a very sound structure.

A porch with three stone arches, and a free-standing garage with a full apartment above. That will be the Composer's new office and studio space.

In this back view, the garage is on the left. The main house is just one story (that's the kitchen you see there). We'll rent the main house out, and use it as extra family housing when necessary. 

So much work to do! Dead trees came down today, new roof goes on later this week, and the painters are already hard at work on the wooden window trim. 

Inside pictures to come, and lots and lots of before and afters, so stay tuned.