Parlor Facelift

 We only went out to the Farmhouse for one night this weekend. My goal was to get the parlor in shape. After painting the bedroom wood paneling last weekend, I'm on a paint and cover the wood paneling kick. We went with white, as I thought the wains coating was also white. I'm sure at some point it was, but it will now need to be retouched to the same white. We hope to have fun funky colorful art in here to brighten up the room. Even after just changing the room from brown to white it really does lighten it up and make it appear bigger.

We didn't paint the one wall as that will be removed shortly to open up the rooms 

And here is a picture of what the room looked like before...

Cory's Stool

We were out on a walk a few months ago and Cory saw an old tattered leather stool. He picked it up and I thought he was nuts. He removed the legs and then built a new bottom for it, and the idea grew on me. So after sitting in our basement for a few months, I finally bought some foam, batting and some fabric that I liked to cover it. Overall it looks pretty good. I'm still struggling with the sides, so it will probably take a little more tweaking before I'm okay with it. I bought some extra material so that I can make some pillows for the couches to match.

Stool with the foam on top

my friend the staple gun

finished

Cork Board

had to have some wine for this project

Since Cory moved to DC 5 plus years ago, we have been collecting wine corks from bottles that we've shared 366 to be exact. I found a cheap 20/24 frame at a thrift store for two dollars and we set out to make a cork board for the farmhouse.We painted the frame white and decided on a cork pattern. Then with a glue gun we attached each cork to the board. 

Cory classified the corks so that we would not have an over representation of a certain wine in one area...He also had to cut a few corks to make our pattern work with the size.

We like the finished product so much that we hung it in our kitchen....hopefully, it will make it's way out to the farmhouse.

2 Months In...

We realized this weekend that we have owned the farmhouse for two months. We feel like progress is being made, considering that we really only have 2 to 3 hours each day (when L is sleeping), I think we are doing okay. Maybe by 2015 we will have furniture and the place looking like we want it to... 

This weekend we hired a lawn guy. Might seem pretty basic, but when the grass was over 2 ft high something needed to happen... 

mowed lawn

view of the road from our yard

the geese were thrilled that the yard was mowed 

We have some beautiful peonies coming up in several places on the property

love how green it is right now

view of the side property

 We have a lot of large trees on the property. Here is a shot of them...

We shifted gears and feel like we made progress on one of the bedrooms. We painted the wood paneling, a light grey and the closet white. We used spray paint for the closet and other than needing to keep L away due to the fumes,  it worked well to spray paint the closet doors, although it did take 5 cans of spray paint. We used Valspar paint and primer and am happy with the product and results.

closet

 We pulled up this nasty old carpet to find an even older rug. The floors in this room are my favorite so far. They in great shape and the wide wood paneling. Can't wait to get these refinished, but for now this random old rug that was under the carpet will serve a purpose...

Here is a picture of what the room looked like before! We still need to do some touching up and paint the molding, but progress has been had to room #3.

Before

The bathroom wallpaper removal is also coming along.