Tag: Before and After

Before and After – Upstairs bedroom No. 1

 We started with this… both the upstairs front bedrooms originally had fireplaces. Two kids – not happen’n.
and this bathroom used to be where the front hallway is now restored.
So this….
is now this.
Old wallpaper.. it was actually quite pretty at one time..
Yellow is her favorite color…
She actually keeps her room this organized, always.  When I was her age, well…no need to go there.
She makes me proud.
 

                                                                  Ben is not impressed.

  Totally unrelated, if you’re looking for a great and easy summer recipe to use up those excess tomatoes from the garden, my friend Joey just posted two easy and delicious recipes… see for yourself at
Catch Joy As It Flies By.     I’m drooling over here!…..

Enter Mancave at your own risk

Because it’s sacred ground….  apparently.  Worshipped here are the Gods of the Cowboys, Patriots and the Yankees.  Women and small children generally not allowed, no unnecessary roughness, nail polish or idle chatter.  Exceptions are made for those serving beverages and pigs-in-a- blanket.  Oddly… pole dancing is not prohibited.

 The Mancave is located under the pool table/bar in the loft, and behind the family room fireplace, with a fireplace of it’s own.  As you walk in the side entrance to the house, there is a hallway that leads from the mudroom and downstairs bath to the kitchen on left, mancave and family room on right.  The built-in bookcases are along the wall behind the mancave and running into the family room.

Once upon a time, we went to Disney!  And we fell in love with  rhino and elephant carvings ($800.!??!) at Animal Kingdom.  We had them shipped home, because they were too large to take on the plane.  When they arrived, they were SPLIT… right down the centers of their bodies.  To Disney’s credit they reimbursed us once we shipped them back.  I found this guy months later for $25.  Thankfully sometimes you do get a do-over.
These bookcases line the back wall of the mancave, which is really the hallway into the family room.
My favorite Ikea pillows..they take a beating and wash well.
This chair was in the Staten Island apartment of an ecentric Aunt.  In  her eighties she dressed to the nines, usually played nine holes of golf on weekends, and traveled to the city in heels and furs! ..but no one had been in her apartment since her husband passed away.  She never cooked, NEVER CLEANED.. but kept a neat apartment. She didn’t use a vacuum cleaner for fear of sucking up what was left of the carpet. There was literally a trail from the door past the kitchen into the bedrooms..a trail where traffic blew the dust and shredding carpet to the side. The ceiling in the kitchen had water damage from the apartment above, and buckled to within inches of the top of the refrigerator. 
When she passed away, family entered the apartment and were aghast at the findings.  There were, however, beautiful antiques. This chair was among them. She embroidered the seat herself. 
The CHAIR.
 And that’s all I’m gonna say about THAT.

Before and After – Front Door, Hall & Stairway

   Originally the house had a center hall staircase with three surrounding fireplaces, the rear being the “keeping room”.  If you are facing the stairs, which are immediately inside the front door, to the right was the dining room and the left was a study.  About 50 years ago the owner of This Old House ripped out the stairs and installed a micro-mini bathroom in it’s place.   There was a narrow stairway up to the second floor dividing the kitchen cooking area from the rest of the keeping room. We took that out and put the kitchen island there instead.  Jeff and Mike came up with a plan to restore the old staircase design in the front hall and re-open the keeping room area.

Before – I loved this door, but sadly the wood was too rotted and not salvageable.

After… I love bullseye glass and it used to be very popular , fitting the time period of the house. They are a treasured antique now, but were once considered scrap.

  ” Until modern techniques were developed, one way of making window glass was to spin a blob of molten glass at the end of a tool called a pontil. Centrifugal force flattened the glass into a sheet, and when the tool was pulled away it left a characteristic bull’s eye mark.  The relatively flat glass on the perimeter of this glass pancake was carefully cut into pieces and sold to the high-brows who could actually afford windows.  What was left, the stuff with the bull’s eyes, went into lesser locations, like barns and sheds. “

Once inside the door… before the re-do, it looked like this…
 In this picture you can see the hallway to the left with the mirrored bathroom door open.
(Now the refurbished staircase)
Now that the frame has been put back up and center chimney installed, Mike, Dominic (electrician) and Jeff (old home restoration expert) discuss logistics for refurbishing original style staircase…
That’s my office to the left..notice Ben’s “baby gate”.
Upstairs hall..kid’s door entryways on either side…
looking down…
We used old hardware when possible, this on the cellar door just beneath the stairs…my favorite. How many hands gripped the handle, thumbs in the imprint there to open that door over the past 200 years..
These are my $5. fleamarket pillows, a small red and white check.

Master Bedroom

 This bedroom is the new kid on the block, not part of an old structure, but we incorporated post and beam construction and those large beams you see in the ceiling are from an old Pennsylvania barn.  They are beautiful, one of my favorite features of the house.  They’re also infested with bugs!  Actually, ALL the beams in the house have microscopic bugs.   I had no idea.   Apparently it comes with the territory, centuries old beams & bugs. 
We have beam bugs, people.

Start to finish…
bedroom addition to the left…
 This is the Paula Deen Savannah bed I found online.. assembly required… yeah that was fun.  It comes in either an off-white or tobacco finish. I love this shade, very warm and I wanted to bring in some contrast.
I’m trying to figure out what would look good on either side of the photo above the headboard. It’s a matted picture I photoshopped into a watercolor of one of our old cats lying under a barrel filled with geraniums.
This area needs help.
An old chair from my office in the previous house.. very comfortable and worn in.
 But this area needs something too. 
One thing I always splurge on is good quality sheets.  My mother would probably iron these after each washing because the trim would look so much better.  The apple rolled way down the hill from that tree…..
 Pillows-Pier One Imports, duvet below – Pottery Barn…
Not sure where to hang this Robin… an art quilt by artist Vivika Denegre (see blog roll, beautiful work)
The white kitten is a ceramic figure I made for my grandmother 35 years ago. She always kept it on the floor of her bedroom, using it as a doorstop.  When she moved to Florida it took up the same space at her condo.   When Nana passed away I brought the kitten home and it sits on my dresser so it doesn’t get trampled by the zoo.  
Last night with slumber fast approaching,  I gazed dreamily into those
1,000 lb. beams and asked the obvious question…
“There’s no chance those things would ever, like, fall down  on us or anything, would they? “
And in a drowsy haze and heavy sigh,  the answer came soft and simple. 
“If they did? ..you’de never know.”
Ok then.

Master Bath

 Moving along… the master bathroom is unpacked and decorated with things from our previous house…..  I’m not showing you the toilet,   (it’s now stuck in that little cubby hole on the left next to the shower)    because it’s just a toilet and I haven’t found the right “stuff” to put over it or on it or even near it besides the toilet paper, and that’s just tacky…SO..

The cabinet to the left  in the picture below and the vanity cabinet under the mirrors were made by a local man with a great talent for making furniture out of old barn wood and material taken from houses, hotels, barns, etc.   His son  works mostly with new cabinetry, but Art adds the whimsy with layers of paint, old beadboard, knobs, hardware, etc…   For those of you who are local, you will recognize his pieces in my shop. You could say his furniture is “green”, or eco-friendly because it is recycled material.
It’s hard to tell from these photos, but there are several layers of paint, several colors intertwined.. a green/grey moss color as well as a deep maroon,  more obvious in person.  The cabinet doors are old windows.
We live about five miles from the shoreline, but one of my great loves is the seashore. I always do some decorating with shells, even in this old farm house.   Someday if I find just the right really cheap fixer upper beach cottage….
I found this glass bowl at Homegoods… and even though I’m practically chanting “less is more” lately….  I couldn’t walk away from it,  it was just $12!
Shower with pebbles… it’s like your feet are getting a massage every morning….

Before and After – Family Room

 In truth there is no “before” because this is the Chester House frame and I have no idea what it looked like before. We only got to know it dismantled in a trailer. But I can show you start to finish… and so here we go…

Chester house as Jeff’s crew reassembles it attached to This Old House….

Family room window framed….
Wayne walking the walk….
My son’s rock-climbing wall  Fireplace in family room almost to the roof….
Lived in… and I have to admit… I wanted bold colors in this room because there is an awful lot of grey, brown, earth tones. So I picked bold colors for the fabrics in this furniture.. (note the RED! I kept my word)  It’s taking some getting used to… the gold hues in these chairs.. but they are awesomely comfortable, so … yeah…there’s that.  
Found this rug at Homegoods for a great low price… love when that happens.
One of my favorite features in the room is the moss that remains on the rocks of the fireplace…
Needs a grate and screen….I’m hoping to find an old set in the near future…remember the owls with the glowing eyes?…
I bet some of you have a few of these ducks…
A few birds landed in here too….

This mirror is one of my favorite pieces of furniture.. made by a company called Sticks . Their pieces are fun, whimsical, inspirational and usually too expensive for my purse. This one was on sale half price years ago and so I splurged. 
The photo over the corner table is of This Old House in the beginning…
Butter Churner in the hall between the family room and Mancave…
 My books….this bookcase is tucked under the loft sortof  between the family room and Mancave…
The rest of the house is still alittle jumbled, and this room isn’t finished yet… needs “stuff”, but I’ll get to it. maybe when it’s on sale half price.  And there’s that thing I was preaching….
less is more  … or something like that.

Before and After – Barn/Garage

  There were several brown outbuildings where the new garage stands… The largest consisted of a dog kennel on the far end, a sculpting studio, an apartment and a two car garage. Next to that stood a  chicken coup and another two car garage. There was alot of wood rot and no historical significance, as the building was constructed approximately 40-50 years go, and the decision was made to take it down instead of trying to patch it up. We didn’t need that kind of extra space, either… (less is more! )

 What we have now is similar in look and in the same place as the old brown barn building, consisting of a small gym at the back, workshop for Mike’s “stuff” in the middle (this workshop has a rear entrance from the road)  and three bay garage at the front, entered from the main driveway.

 It was a cluster of buildings originally…

 Pared down to just one…
 

Before and After – About her face

  When we bought This Old House, we had to go before the Historical Preservation Committee in our town. They were a newly formed and wet-behind-the-ears group and we were their first case.  FUN!  One of their concerns was that the old house would still have the same “face” when she was rebuilt.  A prominent committee member actually requested that we don’t change a thing.  The building inspector was quick to reply that the house would not pass inspection or meet today’s codes with everything exactly as it was, and therefore some changes were necessary.   In the end we kept as much of the historical integrity of the house as possible, with a few additions.

This photo shows the house before it was taken down, sitting 40 feet closer to the road.  The foundation was moved back 40 feet when the frame was put back together.   The photo also shows the old barn and outbuildings.

This is how it looks now from almost the same angle.
Just before the take-down…
Frame reset on it’s new foundation…
Building her back up again…
Mission accomplished.
  

Before and After – Out back

  The inside of the house is not ready for her close-up yet, we’ve only got about 2,832 boxes left to  chuck in the dumpster  unpack so I’ll start with an outside before and after. 

 Unrelated  (well not really) …If ever you need a strong reminder that you have indeed reached middle age, may I suggest you pack up your house and move.  Every muscle in my body is talking to me tonight as I sit to type this post and I  won’t tell you what they’re saying.    That whole “less is more” concept I blabbed about earlier?   Yeah.. it’s a really really good idea and I’m gonna try my damndest to stick to it from here on out.  Remind me of this if ever I start to veer off course..

These were taken a year ago, just as the dismantle process began. Amazing what was accomplished in a year… a HUGE testament to the abilities of the men who came together to take down the house and raise her up again. 

Winter 09
Spring 09
Summer 2010
 The old dogleg off the back of the house was not historically significant. The space was needed, however, so another 1800’s house that Jeff had dismantled and stored in a trailer was resurrected where the old addition had been . In this picture you can see its outline clearly. When we sit in the family room with the cathedral into the loft, we’re in the “Chester” house.

   Tonight’s sky… we still have not received the rain that was promised, and oh, do we need it.