Saturday, March 16, 2013

A sandwich and a song

Tucked in the corner of the kitchen is a charming arched doorway that leads into a cozy little breakfast nook.

And above the chair rail in this little room, hangs this wallpaper with snow white dogwood blossoms, emerald green leaves and the most amazing vivid red birds on it.


















When I was young, we would visit my Grandmother and Uncle Leroy and we would sit in this room and have sandwiches.  And butter brickle ice cream from the deep freeze.

And while we would sit, my Uncle Leroy would whistle, like a songbird, and tell me that the birds on the walls were singing for me.

And, of course, I believed him.

That little room felt like a forest full of birds to a little girl.

And I loved it.

 
I still do.



Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The smallest room in the house - Part 2


Remember what it looked like before we started?












It was a beauty, no?  NO!

We could have slapped on some paint and put in a new potty and called it good, but that's just not how we roll.

We gotta get dirty, man.  And let me tell you, tearing out lathe and plaster is DIRTY work.

YUCK!

We tore out the wall behind the sink.

And the wall behind the toilet.










And the wall behind the tub.   (When we did that we found another access point to the attic, which was nice when we did the electrical and the insulation!)
  








And the floor - which freaked some people out - because you could see through the planks right to the basement!












After the plumbing was done, we put in a cool new window and called the drywall guys and they gave us a blank canvas so we could start over...

And that's when the fun really began.

Friday, March 1, 2013

The smallest room in the house...

One little bathroom.  That's what we have here.

To say that this bathroom is in desperate need of a makeover is an understatement.

It's yellow, which I don't love. 









The "tile" really isn't tile at all.  It's 4x4 plastic-ish squares that look like tile which are stuck to the plaster. Hmmm...

The lathe and plaster walls are blistered and peeling.









It has a tiny little sink that's mounted too low on the wall and a toilet with a cracked tank.











There is one small window.  In the tub.  Which is impractical for a myriad of reasons.












The bathtub itself is awesome, though.  It's a huge cast iron tub that's extra deep and extra long, which will be wonderful to sit and soak in - once we get it cleaned up.

Stay tuned.  You won't believe the transformation...