A Diamond in the Rough

I am happy to meet you back at the house. Ya all come in and take a look at some of the things we find dirty....but charming.
Of course there is Prince Charming himself, Demo Dave, scratching his head and thinking
"What in the world have I got myself in to?
This is the living room with it's pocket doors that lead into the
dining room. And here is a wonderful
old mantel.

This room is found down the hall and to the left and it is the Master Bedroom. The door next to the mantel leads into another bedroom. We are going to close that off and make a closet.
Now I know ya all want my carpet. You can have it really you can.

The door off to the right is the bath. Wait until you see this little pretty.

Pretty Scary that is.

Back to the Mantel in the living room. It is placed at an angle which is pretty neat.

So there you have today's tour. We will be working on the house this weekend so

I will post more on Monday. Have a great weekend.

Becky

DEMO DAVE AT WORK

One Shabby Old House

This is my wonderful, loving, kind, love of my life Dave. We will be calling him Demo Dave for this post.

Meet Demo Dave. Just the guy you want to have around your house when your house needs a good messing up. It is hard to believe but this picture was taken just 3 weeks after a Hip replacement surgery. The man would not be stopped. He is like that. The word quit is not in his vocabulary. He didn't waste even a minute after we opened the door to start ripping up the carpet. All of the carpet was out of the house by the end of the day and this is what we found. Beautiful wood floors. He did stop long enough for me to take his picture but I think if there were one of those word captions by his face it would read, Will ya hurry up, I have things to do!" Meanwhile.......
I worked on cleaning a bedroom so that we could stay there that night. It was creepy, creepy,creepy. I think I cleaned up 100 years of dirt off of that mantel. I scrubbed everything I could get my hands on. Meanwhile.........
Demo Dave was admiring his work. See that dust pile? That is old carpet padding. And we will have to stop there for now. More messes to follow. Warning this blog is not for the weak stomach. It gets creepier!

Becky

THE LONG HALL....HAUL

We're going in! This is what we look at as we step through the front door. I think that I could make this a bowling alley or dance hall. I'm kidding of course. This is one of those rooms that you can see the floors all polished slick and the kids running and sliding all the way down on their knees. I am not well educated on Victorian houses so if any of you know why they would make such a long hall I am currious to know.
There is a wonderful Spindled arch above.
Then we have carpet. Dirty, ugly, carpet which I am sure was added to help insulate the floors.
And looking off to the right you will see either a bedroom or a Ladies Parlor. I feel it was used as a bedroom but perhaps intended for the other. This is my favorite mantle in the house. I will take a close up picture of it once it is painted. There are five such mantels in the house. As a former shop keeper I loved finding these at flea markets. They were expensive to say the least but something that everyone wanted me to find for them.
So there you have the first peek inside. As you can see it will be a long hall/haul ahead of us but one day.....She will be a Swan.
Until then...
Becky

Welcome to this House of Mine

Come on up the steps and lets go through the door but first let's look at a few thing on the porch.

One day I hope that we will share a cup of tea together on this porch. I have since placed an old swing that I couldn't part with from my shop right behind me. It is so much fun to watch the cars go by often with cameras in hand trying desperately to get a quick passing shot. For now the house is white or rather dirty white. The house sits on the main road and it causes the white to get so dirty. This is the stained glass window over the living room window. See if you can find something about the window that the previous owners must not have noticed upon installation and leave me a comment. It adds to the charm. If you look closely there is a little handle that turns and it rings a bell. The owner added way to many locks to the door but he was in his 90's and I suppose it made him feel safer.

So this is just a peek for the day. Next post we will go in. Will you come back? Good.

I'll get the tea ready.

Becky

A Restoration Scrapbook Begins

I call this page, "It's all in the Details." I love so many things about this house. Gingerbread trim, stainglass windows, personality and charm. I think this is going to be a great scrapbook. I hope that you can see the details. If not I will repost these pictures because I just can't believe the work that must have gone in to this porch. I can't wait for the page that hosts a tea party!
On each side of the house there are these windows and arches. The window has small panes of colored glass. We had a light placed in the attic so that at night you can see this often missed detail.
I can't wait to paint the house. I would like your ideas on color choice. Please leave me a comment.

Guess what color I want to paint it?

Restoring a Victorian Cottage

This is our Shabby Old House located in Eufaula AL. If you have seen the movie "Sweet Home Alabama," you have had a peek of Eufaula. As Reese Witherspoon comes driving back home she actually is driving on Eufaula Ave and the first house shown is just down the street from ours.
We discovered Eufaula while on a buying trip for our store, Lace and Lures. Drawn to the charm of the town and its wonderful oh so friendly people and the famous Lake Eufaula we started to have dreams of opening a Bed and Breakfast packaging it with Fishing guide work. We thought this was a great retirement plan. So now we are in the process of restoration. I will be taking you room by room but keep in mind it will always be a work in progress, slowly but surely becoming the Beautiful Victorian Lady she once was.
Here we go.
PS...go soft on me because you will be seeing lots of pink!