Lull time...

Sorry to report, there's nothing to report. Well, almost nothing. We have ordered appliances....a stove and a fridge. I'm not much of a stainless steel person, and I wasn't convinced it would look all that good in a old farmhouse.....so we ordered white appliances.

The kitchen is no where near ready for appliances, however Sears had 35% off on all appliances, and as eventually we will need appliances, we opted to pay less now and hold on to them until they find their permanent home in our new kitchen.

Kitchen appliances aren't really all that exciting to me.  This sign really describes me perfectly.

I don't cook....much,  Plus, it's not like you can really do any decorating to appliances, and I like pondering differing decorating prospects.  Appliances....you just kinda push them into their spots between well thought out cabinet choices, and there you go.

At any rate, here's a picture of the stove and refrigerator we opted for.  I do like the freezer at the bottom fridges.  We also chose not to go with an icemaker.  We wouldn't have used the icemaker, and it gives us more room in the freezer.



Still more decisions.

I'm trying to decide whether to use a satin nickel kitchen faucet......

or an oil rubbed bronze kitchen faucet.....



Overstock.com has either one available, and for a decent price. 

This is a picture of what I want for the kitchen base cabinet, which Jim is going to build to fit the new (old )sink. I like it's rustic primitive look.

However, the sink will sit directly on top of the base, like this....

Comments and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

My SINK!!!!

You know that antique old sink I mentioned wanting...WANTING...in an earlier blog post?  Look what Wonderful Jim found for sale on Craigslist this morning!!!

1946 Kohler cast iron!

Today, (after a 7-hour road trip) it is no longer for sale and is sitting in our garage!!!!  It needs some TLC but it's actually in very good condition for a 65-year old sink.  I haven't done any work on it as yet, but when I do I'll let you know how those stains clean up.

Gosh! I would never have thought when I woke up this morning I would be taking a trip to North Carolina, much less becoming the proud owner of this 150-pound nice old kitchen sink! I'm a happy lady.

Another thing to check off my list of wants :)

Kitchen Work Continues...

Today was another work day at Sunnybrook. Sheetrock/wallboard/drywall (whatever) is now gone from the kitchen ceiling. As suspected, there was a beadboard ceiling underneath, and also as suspected, it was a mess and will have to be re-beadboarded. There was old wallpaper on that ceiling underneath the sheetrock!!! (I forgot my camera so I didn't get a picture).

There is SO much work to do....What where we thinking!? Still, it is going to be so nice....someday.

Other than getting the sheetrock tore down and cleaning up the pile of wood that was left on the porch from tearing the walls out, we didn't get much more done today; however, that's two things that we can mark off the "To Do List".





At least it ain't this bad....



....'couse it ain't this good either!!







Kitchen....

The kitchen is staying put! We're going down tomorrow to Sunnybrook to take down the kitchen ceiling and clean up some of the kitchen mess. There's drywall up over the original beadboard ceiling, but we almost know we won't be able to salvage it.  We plan to put up another beadboard ceiling though...ummm....and bead board on the walls too.....running horizontally instead of vertically.

Jim is going to be starting on what he calls the stove "conglomeration" in the very near future. That's the cabinets surrounding the stove with the tin backsplash.  I posted a picture of that before....here it is again.



I'd love to find a picture of it without that big 'ole yellow island in front of it, but I guess we'll all just have to use our imaginations as to what the entire finished piece will look like. We can see the right side of it, and the left is exactly the same!  You can barely see it in this picture, but the sides have a decorative corbel (is that the word?) that sort of visually "connects" the top and bottom cabinets together....kinda like on this hutch.....

Speaking of hutches, I'd still like to be able to fit something like a hutch or armoire on the opposite side of the kitchen from the stove "conglomeration".   I like these three....



But, I probably need more of an armoir to store pots and pans, like one of these two....

   Either choice would be painted....some  color....which is yet to be determined.

I love red, but I have red in my kitchen now, so I'm not sure about using it again. I like blue, but I know I'm not using that color for the kitchen.  Suggestions?



Demolition, Destruction and Devastation!

Thought you might want to see what Jim got accomplished at Sunnybrook today. Compare the pictures of the kitchen before to the kitchen (?) now.  This may not look like an improvement to you, but it sure does to me! I'm pretty sure I'm glad I wasn't there. It seems there was proof that some sort of critters lived in them thare walls at one time or another....NO THANK YOU!

Just starting.

 More 2x4's will have to be nailed in between the existing ones.



A work in progress!



Yuck.

Decisions, Decisions!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are considering creating a whole new kitchen in a whole new space.   The dining room is flanked by two rooms, with the present kitchen on one side and a room on the other side that I think was used as a bedroom at some point in time. You have to actually walk through that bedroom to gain access to the laundry room, so it would be better suited for a kitchen; however, if we decide to keep the kitchen where it is now that room still won't be used as a bedroom....maybe a "gathering room"?  If we do move the kitchen from its present location, that space will become the gathering room instead (Shew! Did you follow all of that?)  Gathering room....I like that term so much more than "family room" or "den", don't you?  Saying, "Let's go sit in the gathering room" just sounds so much more cozy and inviting than saying, "Let's go sit in the den"! 

I wish I'd taken more pictures of that room so I'd have more to post! I do have a couple though....I think.  I'll post those so you can at least get an idea of what the room looks like now.

There are certainly pros to having the kitchen in either of these rooms, as both would be a good location for a kitchen. Hey, two kitchens, now there's an idea! (Just kidding, Jim!)

This is the room that's in the running to be the kitchen.  The door leads out into the hallway. If you look at the front right of this picture you can barely see the edge of the doorway into the dining room. 

I have NO idea what they were thinking with that tile!  I do know (according to the realtor) the previous owners used this room for their tanning bed, hence, that big 'ole electrical wire lying there on the floor!   The cut out in the wall is an access panel for plumbing to the bathroom on the other side of the wall.



There's an outside door on this wall. I'm perfectly OK with that door being there, but look at it!....it doesn't have a door frame on one side and I'm not in love with that! I wouldn't mind it at all if that whole wall would disappear, however I'm told that's only going to happen IF this room becomes the kitchen.









First project: The kitchen

Yesterday was our first real "planning" visit to Sunnybrook. See the "before" (as is (are)) pictures.  It's not a huge kitchen...only 13.6 x 13.3.  The doorway directly in front of you as you come through the kitchen door from the side porch will no longer be there in the "after" pictures, which I will post as soon as there are "after" pictures to post.

As you see, there is a fireplace in the kitchen! It will be converted (for safety reasons) from a woodburning fireplace to a gas fireplace; however, all the character, though tweaked, will hopefully be left in place.  Along with that reinvented fireplace you'll also be eyeing a bead-board ceiling, refinished hardwood flooring, a finished pantry (complete with a red screen door), an old white enameled kitchen table, and....well, who knows what else!  I've had tons of ideas running through my head and searched too-numerous-to-count websites looking for  inspirational kitchen pictures.   Oh, the possibilities!

I never knew the picture in my head of the perfect farmhouse kitchen had a style name, but it does indeed...it's an "unfitted" kitchen. Who knew? Well, I'm sure you may have known, but I never knew.  An unfitted kitchen is "the" thing in European kitchens.  Seems when the Europeans move, they tend to take their kitchens with them. Novel idea.  This type of kitchen has furniture pieces for storage as opposed to lined up, "fitted" together, screwed-to-the wall type of cabinets.  The unfitted kitchen has the look that it has developed over time....my idea of a perfect kitchen.  I know I'm going to be searching the antique stores and flea markets looking for the odd shelf, quirky cabinet and big armoire to use as storage in the kitchen, but I'm still mulling over what colors to use, and where to use them.

OK, so take a look at the before pictures I took yesterday (as promised). 

The picture above is just the tip front of the fireplace.  I took a picture of the complete front, but as you can see the fireplace surround (which is ugly and is being removed) has a mirror, and all you could see in that particular picture was a white blob. The glass door you see is in the dining room, and hopefully will someday be transformed into a double French door.

I took the above picture so you could see the doorway that leads from the kitchen into the living room.  This doorway will be closed off to give us a tad bit more wall space in the kitchen.  The French door from the hallway into the dining room will be the entrance to the kitchen at some point in the future.

"Love This" pictures



This is the door for my pantry!



Minus the built-in toe-kick on the cabinets, this borders on what I want....with just a little less fitted look.



Look past the yellow island at the stove surround unit. I LOVE this...tin backsplash and all!  I think it would be really fitting for a farmhouse kitchen.  My appliances will be white though....I'm not a fan of stainless steel, and it's going out of style anyway.



So serene. This kitchen has to be from a house in "Hidden Valley", the place where no worries are allowed to enter in.



Don't like the color, love the cabinet.



I want to try to fit something like this into the kitchen for storage, but I'd want the bottom to have some type of foot or something.....and to be a different color.



I like it. Don't know what really grabs me about this picture, but something does.  Maybe the wood countertop. I want wood countertops.



This is my take on a perfect farmhouse sink. I'd love it if someone would find me and love me enough to give me one of these for my very own.



It's fun.



















A day at Sunnybrook....

....is the reason that I'm up posting at 1:35 a.m.! As a work-from-home medical transcriptionist I have typing that absolutely MUST get done before I can even think about you, my very few and far between blog followers.  As Jim and I spent a good part of the day at Sunnybrook, I have spent the entire time since we have been back typing and trying to make up for all the time I lost today.....though I certainly do not consider the time a true loss at all!

I took pictures of the kitchen "as is" from every angle today. However, I'm really not sure you can really call it a kitchen. It only has an unusable kitchen sink and an old piece of  homemade cabinet (of sorts), and both are going. Other than that, there's nothing that would identify it as a kitchen.  As a matter-of-fact, Jim actually wants to "move" the kitchen to an entirely different room altogether. Ummm....I'm going to have to have time to consider this possibility.

I'm sorry to say I'll have to wait until tomorrow to post the horrible kitchen pictures I took today (yawn).   By the way, I also plan to post pictures of the "love-to-haves" I have been drooling over for this room.....if indeed this room actually turns out to be the kitchen at all!

Night time is really the best time to work.  All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep.  ~Catherine O'Hara

Goodnight All.

And so it begins....

My husband, Jim, and I have just bought the most perfect imperfect old (1899-ish) two-story farmhouse, which is huge and, well...abused (for now!) 

It always saddens me to see the crumbling remains of an old house.  I imagine it in 'its day' and wonder about the story of the family who lived within it's deteriorated walls.  I've wanted to save every single sad one of those houses!  Jim tells me I've now "rescued" one.

The minute I saw Sunnybrook Farm (yes, it already had a name! How wonderful is that?!)  listed for sale, I wanted it.  No...I WANTED IT!!!  From the minute I stood in the yard and looked toward the huge wrap-around porch and up at the quaint little sleeping porch, I loved it....and it loved me.

We ignored the "Beware of the Dog" sign and excitedly (and hesitantly) crept onto that magnificent porch and up to one of the three large curtain-less (yay!) front-facing windows of the living room.  I pressed my nose to the dingy, dirty old window, cupped my hands around my eyes to block out the sunlight, squinted my eyes, and beheld beauty.  I saw old wide-planked sawmill-hewed farmhouse floors, large windows, interior French doors and glimpses upon glimpses of what could be.  Jim, however, saw work, and in truth, there's lots of it.  Oh, but I have a vision, and it's simply lovely.

And so it begins.....