New Floors in the Mudroom

The old pea green linoleum has been covered up, at last. 

We chose to use some pine boards for this space as it was cost effective and of course, we love the warmth of wood. We will leave them raw and let them age as they wish. 

I will have a large seagrass rug in here, under the bench where we'll take shoes on and off. 

Mike still has the laundry room and office to do (the two small rooms off to the right) and then our old washer and dryer can be installed. 

This is wonderful progress! 

The New Beekman Boys Book

My friend Lisa recently came across our former home (A Country Farmhouse) in the Beekman Boys' latest book, Beekman Style 1802, The Attraction of Opposites. 

The guest house, kitchen (both shown above), and master bedroom are included in the book. Looking at this photo of the kitchen, I realize how many things I have not seen since we moved east - nearly everything on those shelves are in a box somewhere in our storage unit. 

The guest house and master bath were also featured in another recent book, Country Living American Style.

Looking back at these photographs reminds me of something we were absolutely sure of when we set off to buy our next home. It was, without a doubt, to never again purchase a home that needed so much work. In fact, some of the houses we looked at when we first moved back east were dismissed because of this one undeniable necessity. 

But, in the end, we once again stumbled upon a home that we could not walk away from. And so we've repeated the whole process, in varying degrees, with varying projects, in a different place, situated in a different part of this beautiful world. 

The only thing I can say is that I am not so sure people necessarily choose the homes they buy. For in both our cases, I feel as if our homes chose us. 

Sauna in Disrepair Turned Fitness Studio - Final Look

This little outbuilding used to be an old sauna. It was not functional when we bought the property. Rumor had it that it had almost burnt down several years back, and the makeshift stove, water heater and plumbing could only by described as 'a little scary' to borrow a sentiment from our home inspector. 

Below are the before photos of the interior after an initial clean. 

Classic varnished wood paneling.

Concrete floor. 

Hollow core veneer door. 

The back room had a nice tall vaulted ceiling. 

It also had a big concrete block with an old oil barrel turned wood stove in it, and the aforementioned plumbing, all of which Mike removed. 

We transformed the interior in a few phases over the years, but first we painted the pine paneling with Simply White by Benjamin Moore. We had some left over flooring from the wraparound porch that we used to install fir floors, which we recently painted platinum grey by Benjamin Moore. 

The blinds were also a recent addition. 

Mike used the old steam room benches to make shelves in the front room. 

He also insulated the ceiling in the vaulted room and added bead board over it. 

It's not pictured here, but the light in this room was rewired to go overhead with a small schoolhouse fixture. 

Our one and only TV, on which we play DVDs. 

The new Simpson door adds a lot of charm to the building. 

It goes nicely with the original six pane casement window. 

You can see my previous posts on the old sauna here and here. 

This post shows our last update last year. 

Guest House: After Photos

Honestly, I feel as if I've talked your ears off on this little guest house renovation of ours so I'll keep my comments brief! 

The electric fireplace makes the kitchen feel like a whole new space. 

The heat is wonderful of course, but the coziness of sitting in front of a fireplace... there's something about a mantle and a hearth that just feels good. 

The pedestal table was an Amazon purchase. Of course, I wanted to find an antique table, but the criteria for the qualities that this antique table would have to possess made the task quite impossible... a pedestal, warm wood color, 42" diameter, affordable... This table was actually unfinished so we played around with several stain/seal products on the underside until we found the right hue.  

The IKEA arm chairs came from our house. They actually don't make them anymore, which is something I discovered when Country Living asked me to source them. 

As always, there's art in the kitchen. It's such a treat. These oil paintings are by artists Cathleen Rehfeld and Eric Jacobsen. 

The oak butcher block counters are from IKEA. The pulls and cabinet hinges transformed the original 1960s cabinet into the style of a yet older cabinet, from the 1930s. 

The logs and light show up much better in person that in this sun lit image. It's obvious that it's not a real fire, but still offers a coziness that's a wink and a nod to the real thing. 

The Louis Phillipe-style mirror is one I bought for $35. I have so many mirrors, (and I'm quoting my husband there) it's hard to believe that I can still find ones to buy. But this just seemed like the perfect mirror for over the mantle. 

Here is a close-up of the inside of the fireplace. 

Covered with an antique fireplace screen, it looks a bit more realistic. 

I still need to buy a rug for the bedroom. The rug that was featured in the Country Living shoot was borrowed from Crate and Barrel. 

The IKEA bed was the result of a panic that I had late one night (a few days before the shoot) when I realized that things weren't coming together quite as hoped (I intended on using an old wood bed, but the hue was too dark). I had shopped for upholstered beds at Ballard's months earlier but ended up passing on them because they were beyond our budget. The IKEA bed was a good compromise. 

This night stand is one I found last summer for $30. I liked it because of the warm wood tone, and knew that I was going to try to use pieces with a similar feel throughout the space. 

I didn't have two matching alabaster lamps, but I used two that are pretty similar in height. I married them with matching linen lamp shades, using appropriate hoops and spacers to make them the same height. 

The Chippendale reproduction mirror came from my mirror collection. I must have paid about twenty dollars for this one.

Here's a sneak peak inside the linen shelf closet. 

And here's the hanging closet. 

I found this plant stand for $20. It's the perfect size for the tiny little bathroom. 

We tiled the bathroom floors and created this enclosed shower years ago. I wish I had taken a picture of the original bathroom. It was horrible. When we lived in the guest house during our first several months on the property (as we completed the first wave of renovation to the main house), I wouldn't shower without wearing flip flops. It was that bad. 

For those who inquired into that gorgeous couch that was shown in the Country Living feature - it's not here anymore. It was brought in on loan from Rejuvenation as my Grandmother's antique federal couch that I intended to use wasn't going to be ready in time. In fact, it's still in storage in our barn as I haven't been able to shop for or decide on a fabric to reupholster it with. 

Technically, I have one more post to do - the exterior. But I'll take a break from this project of ours (for your sake) and perhaps take some exterior photos when the snow melts in a few weeks. 

In case you missed them, here are links to the behind the scenes details: 

Kitchen and Fireplace 

Ceiling and Floors

Windows 

Guest House: Kitchen & Fireplace

The old kitchen cabinet was a rectangular wood cabinet topped with peeling yellow Formica. To save money and resources, we decided to adapt the cabinet to a new farmhouse sink, install a wood counter, and add an under-counter refrigerator. 

This farmhouse sink is actually the second one we bought. The first one was too small and modern. So we opted to use one from the same company that had we used in our main house. 

You can see how the cabinet is slowly being adapted to the new sink. 

You can also see that I originally intended to use an antique French dish rack (which I LOVE) over the counter, but in the end it just didn't work. Due to the slope of the ceiling, the dish rack came out too far and interfered with the use of the refrigerator and counter. 

I am the kind of renovator that cannot move forward confidently without a lot of visual mock ups. Here, Mike created a fake counter so that I could get an idea of how the kitchen would look with a new ell. Also, he cut out a piece of fiberboard to mimic the size of the table we were thinking of using. 

The mock up also allowed us to determine where the new pendant light would go. This new light would replace the light over the sink which was removed when the new window was installed. 

Here, the new Ikea counters are in and the cabinet for the refrigerator has been built. We had to find just the right size of refrigerator (width, height and depth) to be able to run the cabinet surround evenly across from above the adjacent drawer. We wanted the refrigerator to look as built-in  as possible, so this detail was important to us. 

Once the cabinet was painted, it all started coming together. Here, the cabinet drawers and doors were removed so that we could fill old holes, paint and adhere new nickel-plated hinges. 

The last project on the 'to do' list was to build the electric fireplace. The depth and width was dictated by the size of the electric log heater, while not having the fireplace protrude into the room too much. Mike then built from there. 

He used our fireplace in the main house to determine a lot of the detail, although we decided to make it a much more simple design. 

When we were at Home Depot getting some supplies, I came across these shower tiles. They came in square packs and looked like small bricks. I thought it would be a good way to simulate a hearth. I suggested just throwing them down (I'm not the handy one in this house) but Mike gave me a look that said, "it might be a bit more involved than that." He gives me that look a lot. 

He did take a few short cuts just due to the nature of the installation (glued the tiles directly to the floor for instance) which did make it less involved than a proper tile installation. 

We bought a large sheet of faux brick paneling at Lowe's (it was a classic 60's-style red) that Mike cut down to fit in the firebox. After he spray painted it black, he came to me and said, "this is too black, don't you think?" 

I had to laugh because that was something usually I would say. I agreed of course, and so he repainted it in a grey black (you can see the difference between the two colors above). 

The opening has been cut out at this point, with the trim pieces installed. The hearth is nearly complete, with just the faux-brick installation remaining. 

I'll post after photos next! I thought I'd share the renovation phase first for those who are interested in the process of it all. 

Country Living AFTER photos. 

Guest House: Ceiling & Floors

In this post, I'm going to provide a little bit of the detail behind the changes to the ceiling and floors.

Here are the ceiling and floors before we started last spring. When we bought the property six years ago, the floors were covered with burnt orange carpet, and the walls were varnished pine planks. We had previously picked up the carpet and painted the walls and ceiling back in 2006. 

Here is Mike is holding up a 2 x 4 so that I can get an idea of what my idea would look like! 

This is Mike talking out the details of the ceiling with the contractor we hired to help with the carpentry. We used 4 x 8 panels of wainscot paneling and at every eight foot seam, put a 2 x 4 to simulate an exposed rafter. We added an additional 2 x4 between so that the simulated rafters are every four feet. 

I believe my brother was to arrive in less than two weeks when this photo was taken. 

I couldn't figure out why this photo looked so strange but then realized that Mike took it, so it's from a TALL perspective. It made me wonder how different everything looks to him. 

Mike took this as well. You can see that we started the beams at the wall and then went every four feet from there, to the other wall. 

Here's the end run of the beams, which ends at the wall. 

I have to say that when I walked in at this point, I had a little panic attack. It felt very busy and claustrophobic, and I started to question my entire plan! This was also three days before my brother and his family were to arrive for their July vacation.

But the white paint made everything blend and the finished project much less busy, adding just the right architectural detail to the white palette. 

A little later in the summer, Mike rented a floor sander and sanded down the floors before painting them. He's very thorough in his projects and although I argued that just a light sanding would be fine, he disagreed. And he was right. It took a little longer but the paint adhered as it should and will last a long time. 

Mr. Handy

AFTER photos from the Country Living shoot.

I will post more after photos soon.