Oh, get your mind out of the gutter...I know what you're thinking!
So, hellooooo! Is there anybody out there? It's been so long since I've posted anything I'd be shocked if I still had readers! It's no excuse, but I've been busy producing my very own version of Extreme Makeover, the Kim & Dwayne Edition the past few weeks and, in between vacuuming up drywall dust, rolling miles and miles of paint onto thirsty walls, pushing furniture around, restoring old furniture and you know, traveling, putting the garden in, etc., etc., etc., well, it's been a busy summer so far.
So what led to this sudden desire to re-do the old farmhouse? Well...On a dark and stormy night way back last April, our roof blew off the house. Okay, it didn't exactly fly off the house, but suffice it to say enough of the roof blew off that we ended up replacing the entire thing, tar-paper, shingles and all. It just made sense given the interior damage caused by the rain that fell into our attic and onto our upstairs hallway ceiling.
There's no worse enemy to a house than water. Take my word for it. The havoc it can wreak - it's ugly.
The resulting repairs took 8 weeks, not because roofers are in such short supply here on the sandbar. Nope. Our roof was repaired within mere days of it blowing away. No, it took 8 weeks because our handy-dandy, insurance company recommended drywall installer could not manage to schedule the repair to our upstairs ceiling for 6 weeks...despite my almost daily phone calls to remind him that the work was yet to be completed. I know what my next career is going to be, if this whole teaching thing doesn't work out, is all I'm saying.
Anyway, we went away at the end of May with the hopes and dreams that when we came back the interior work would magically be done and we could move forward with the next phase of the project which involved painting the entire rest of the house. You read that correctly. The. Entire. Rest. Of. The. House. 90% by myself...but with exceptional taping produced by Buzz - he's an artist with a roll of green painter's tape, believe me!
So while it's kept me from posting here on any kind of regular basis, I have to say...it was well worth it because now...now...I have a house that after living in for almost 3 years I finally LOVE! It's a thing of beauty. I know I'm biased...but really, take a look...
Isn't it purdy?
So when the upstair ceiling got replaced and painted the resulting paint job was "cut" into the hallway walls. And you know how old farmhouses are built? One hallway leads to another and before you know it, painting one hallway leads to the livingroom, leads to the nook, leads to the mudroom and so on.
We selected a lovely, buttery, creamy shade of "rattan" and let me tell you, does it ever warm up our home.
We moved furniture about from the nook to the kitchen and from the basement to the nook thereby adding about 200 sq ft of space to our living-room that until now has been un-usable...
Added some framed photographs of island scenes I've taken during our time here...
And shabby-chic'd out one antique buffet for the mud-room I found for a steal...
And suddenly, this old house feels like something fresh and new...and lovely!
