I've been getting quite a few requests to show more pics of the progress on our house, so here goes!
Today I'll show the progress on the parlor.
I love that I get to live in an old house that has a "parlor."
Early in the wee hours one morning a while back, my husband and I were awakened by a crash, but we couldn't tell where it had come from. I said it was probably just Ray, knocking over some books or something. Paul went to investigate. He came back a few minutes later and sleepily climbed back into bed.
I asked, "Was it Ray?"
He replied, "It was Ray." Before I could ask where, he mumbled, "In the parlor."
And after a short pause he added, "With the candlestick." I laughed and laughed.
Those of you who have ever played the game Clue will get the joke.
Anyway, on with the photos:
Here's a before pic, showing the water damage and mold due to rain coming in, due to big holes in the roof. Last summer we put on an all new roof, so no more rain in the house! This room and the room directly above, which is now my studio/office were where we had the most damage.
Here, one of our hardworking carpenters, Winslow, is removing the damaged sheetrock. Right above his head you can see some red peeking through. That, we discovered, was the original 1872 ceiling.
Here you can see the original ceiling was eventually covered with cheesecloth and paper. Then sheetrock. But as you can see, the ceiling was originally beadboard, painted barn red. A red ceiling! Those zany Victorians. When we saw this, we decided to put new sheetrock only on the walls and keep this original ceiling just like it is, in all its worn and scratched 137-year-old glory. How This-Old-House of us.
Basically, the house is built entirely of cypress, which termites don't particularly care for. And it's still solid as a rock.
Here's a close-up of the antique chandelier, which we removed to have it refurbished and the wiring updated. And the mud dauber nest removed. As you'll see in the following photos, we put another, less chic, less interesting fixture in its place temporarily.
I don't know how this happened, but in the weeks after the new sheetrock was put up and before the walls were primed, this pile of books and junk somehow mysteriously found its way into the room. Get a load of that old TV down front. We found that on the sleeping porch upstairs, under a huge pile of junk.
Talk about a blast from the past.
This pic and the one below show the walls all primed and ready for a fashionable coat of "Venetian Dew" by Pittsburgh Paints.
Oooo. Aaahhh. Here's the room all painted, with furniture and what not. Really this table and chairs will eventually go in the dining room and this room will have a piano and refurbished comfy sofa and chairs. And coffee table. And side tables with lamps. Plus we still have to paint the trim and re-finish the floor. And get curtains. And a probably a rug. And hang pictures on the walls. But for now this is it. Plain and simple.
I think these old glass door knobs are so cool.
I put 2 photos side by side to show a more sweeping view of the room. To the right is the bay window which looks out to the front. Too bad we don't have a view of an actual bay. We do have the river, though, which is pretty cool.
This is an antique steam radiator (we have them all over the house ... when the propane heat was added, I guess they just left these because they're unbelievably heavy.) And paperwhites and yellow daffodils from the yard in an art glass vase my sister found out in the garage!! when she and her family were here over Christmas. The antique rocking horse ... well, it's actually a gliding horse ... belonged to the little boy of the family who lived here in the 1890's.
At first I wasn't too sure about this color for the walls, but now I love it. Sometimes it looks more green and sometimes it looks more blue. Here you can see the white crown moulding and the red ceiling with the wall color. The trim and the doors will eventually be white or white-washed.
Here's a close-up view of that antique red ceiling.
We found this table at a neat place here in town called The North Market. It's made out of salvaged 100-year-old tin ceiling tiles and 100-year-old boards that Annette, owner of The North Market, salvaged from a home place that was being torn down. She commissions a husband and wife team in east Texas to make this furniture, and as soon as we saw it we thought it would be perfect for our house. We're going to have a piece of glass cut for the top, then use it in the dining room or upstairs on the sleeping-porch-turned-garden-porch. We also got a matching coffee table that's now out on the sunporch. (You can see that in the last photo in this post, below.)
The door on the right opens into the actual dining room (not ready to be shown yet!) and the one on the left opens out into the hall.
Here's the fireplace, which will have gas (propane) logs. All seven (yeah, 7!) fireplaces in the house have had propane heaters in them as long as I've known, and I don't know if they were ever real woodburning fireplaces.
Looking toward the hall door from the sunporch. The walls of the hall aren't nearly as blue as they look in this photo. You'll see when I post those pics.
Here are some framed vintage callligraphy pieces. Nehemiah 8:10 and St. Francis' Prayer for Peace.
And here's Ray, checking out the new arrangement out on the sunporch. The coffee table also came from The North Market and matches the table in the parlor. There are three different sets of wicker furniture which were scattered throughout the house and attic, most of it painted pink. I think I'm going to paint it antique white. And we'll have to get new cushions all around, and re-upholster the back of the settee and the chairs that have upholstered backs.
And that's the parlor and sunporch so far. Whew! I'll keep you updated ...
