Autumn Wreath

I added some ribbon and corn to an old wreath the previous home owner's left behind. It decorates our front door.

I started with a green sheer ribbon fringed with orange and wrapped it around the wreath. Then I made a bow from this beautiful autumn leaf-decorated orange wired ribbon and attached it to one corner. Then I gathered two pieces of Indian corn and used a wire to hold them in place. They are really heavy and make the wreath sway to the left a little.

New Clothesline

Yesterday we completed setting up the clothesline. This morning I got to use it to dry the puppy's blankets.
Here Lillie chases the blanket blowing in the breeze.
Cole graciously poses for the camera in front of the new clothesline.

Dining Room Chairs

We bought six mahogany T-back chairs for the dining room. They are late-19th/early-20th century reproductions of either Georgian or Queen Anne style. They are simple, but beautiful. Some are a little rickety and all need to be cleaned. I will reupholster them with fabric that matches our decor (black/white/gray).

Bill took some pictures of the chair seats. As you can see below the bottom layer is extremely old, leading me to believe it is the original upholstery. It appears to be white or off white silk.

Since this is Butterfly Farm Manor, I had to throw in the picture of the rescue dog---a Papillon---the couple had that sold us the chairs. From Butterfly Farm Manor

Clothesline & Other Progress

This weekend Bill (and I) put together a post for a clothesline. Bill dug the hole and, with my help, poured cement around the post to hold it in the ground. The next step is to affix the line so I can use it!

Bill has been vigilently working on the floors. He has applied Miniwax Antique finish to the heart of pine floors and it has produced beautiful results. Above are pictures of the finished look and a comparison of the unfinished floor next to the finished floor. They are beautiful!

Also, we completed the hearth pad project. I washed the tiles well and Bill put a stone sealer on. Now we are ready for the wood stove.

More Progress in Living Room

Progress continues in the living room. This past weekend we installed the hearth pad that the wood stove will sit on. To install the pad we screwed a cement board into the floor and put mortar on it to install the slate tiles. There was about a 1-inch gap where the tiles did not cover the cement board, so we had to come up with a creative way to address this. We bought some small tiles of slate and created a border, lining the tiles end to end across the back of the pad. In the pictures below Bill is installing the small tiles. There are also some close-ups of the small tiles.

This is what the pad looked like after all of the tiles were put down.

View with the fireplace to the left.

View with the fireplace to the right.

The next step was to install trim around the pad. We bought a mitre box from Lowes. They do not sell trim to the height we needed, so Bill made a very nice-looking trim by combining two pieces of trim together. He did the following installation. All that is left is to apply a finish to the trim. And, of course, we still need to install the woodstove.

I continued to work on the walls prepping them for painting. There is one plaster wall in really bad shape. It looked like it had measles by the time I finished applying plaster compound. I have almost finished sanding it now that it is dry.

Finally to complete preparation for paint, Bill caulked all of the seams around the windows, doors, and fireplace. It looks substantially better with this small step. Here are pictures of one un-caulked side and a caulked side of the fireplace.

Pre-caulk

Post-caulk