Moving right along

It took a over a year but this is where the dining room is today.

Still far from what I had in mind.

I had more in mind white walls throughout the house. The plaster cracks throughout the house were long and deep and require skim coating. The ceilings in several rooms had large areas where it had come down. So we drywalled and skim coated in the living room and hall but it was not cheap. We didn't think the walls were too bad in the dining room but surprises came when the wallpaper came down and the drywallers were gone. The cost is almost like having drywall put over the walls. The darker paint did cover my vain attempts at skimcoating. We drywalled every ceiling throughout the main portion of the house. You have to appreciate drywall guys. It is a hard, dirty job. And we thought our necks hurt. Try drywalling a 14 foot ceiling.

We picked out a very soft shade of white with a hint of pink for the ceiling. Sometimes I just want to lay on the tabletop and stare at it. It is amazing to me.

We have come a long way in a years time. The floors have been finished by my darling hubby. The walls and ceilings have been painted and the trim has been painted several times. FYI Make trim board the last thing you do. I painted it before we did the walls. Then painted it again to cover the burgandy hits from the wall, then Dave did the floors, and I painted it again. I can just hear the person who decides to strip the trim when we are no longer around.....

"Can you believe the layers of paint???"

Why yes....I can

Next up..

Meet me in the living room.

What do you think of the rug I found.

Home Goods.....are they not the greatest?

Getting ready for the Holidays at the Old House

We have been working on the dining room for quite awhile now trying to get it ready for the holidays. This was taken last year and as you can tell the need for a year of neck massages will be in order after painting the ceiling.

Hint, hint to any of my children who happen to read this blog.

But first we have to take down the wallpaper fill in the cracked plaster and then paint.

opps one more look at the ceiling tin.


And then there is the carpet of which we thought would be a breeze to take up.
However the padding was stuck to the floor and the only way we could figure to get it up came by accident when the wallpaper steamer sat steam side down and as we took a break the steam made a wonderful ooooey gooey mess that came up by scooping it with a large drywall knife. This has been a wonderful project. It could only be done a small square at the time. Nobody had any advise for us on what we could use. Adhesive remover probably would have damaged more brain cells than either of us could spare. lol

So where do you think we should serve the turkey?

Thankfully we were asked to join our Pastor and his wife.

So we were very thankful indeed!

Hooked on Houses Tour of Homes

This is our house that we are restoring in Eufaula.

And my blog is about the restoration of that house but the photos below are what lead us to buying a home in Eufaula AL

While on a road trip we discovered a wonderful town in Alabama. We fell in love with the town of Eufaula. So much so that we started to look at houses in the town. This is the home that we almost bought.

It was completely renovated.

Highland View. It actually is for sale today.

This lovely home has been totally restored and the grounds are so beautiful.


Stepping into the dining room you will see why this home was one that was chosed to be on the Pilgrimage Tour of Homes.



The pocket doors were stunning. The Antiques were beautiful.


This picture was used in the flyer for the Pilgrimage Tour.



Unfortunatley the picture was dark but still try to see the beauty of this room





This is the rose surrounded pool...ahh I just wanted to jump in.





This is the family room.

This is a strange window that you actually had to raise the window to step out onto a very special porch.

Up the stairs there was a library on the landing.

This is one of three bedrooms.

Another picture of the beautiful stairs.

Nice bathrooms.

Now it is time for a wonderful adventure.

Julia of Hooked on Houseshttp://hookedonhouses.net/

is hosting a wonderful blogland Open House Special.

Are you ready for the tour.

Let me know your favorites.

Have a great day

Becky

Take a peek at more homes in Eufaula.
http://laceandlures.blogspot.com/2008/09/sweet-homes-alabama-my-friday-favorites.html

Hooked on Houses Tour

Today is the start of a wonderful blogland fantasy huge open house. Julia from Hooked on Houses is our hostess today. I am still working on my post but wanted you to see the houses of Eufaula that I have posted about on Lace and Lures. These houses and the charm of this town are the reason we now own a home in Eufaula. Enjoy your day or week as we are in for some great fun. http://hookedonhouses.net/

http://laceandlures.blogspot.com/2008/09/sweet-homes-alabama-my-friday-favorites.html

Pink Saturday Pink Bathroom

Happy Pink Saturday and welcome to our Pink Bathroom. When you are finished in the Powder room please go on over to Beverly's at http://www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ to see more pink pretties.

In this Pink Bathroom we used an old sideboard and wash bowl for our vanity. The pictures will reflect a few trips.

Which of the two mirrors do you like best?
Now we have the hardware on the vanity.
If you look out the door it leads into the sunroom. Dave pulled up the carpet and I painted the floor. I hope to one day do a faux rug. I have to practice my roses which of course will be pink!

I like the way the mirror captures the other mirror and this is a closer look at the bowl.
I found the old corner cabinet at the longest yard sale. And now to give you a peek at the start of the bedroom. A Pink duvet no less.



A Victorian Cottage Restoration is a little like the energizer bunny....it just keeps going and going and going. I really think that when it ends I will be sad because watching it change has been so much fun. I wanted to start immediately on the bathrooms. They were in such bad shape. It was like going into a public restroom taking a look around and then you just back out and say nevermind. Bathrooms are very costly so we did just what we could after the plumber discovered leaks all over the place under the house. The house needed to be completely replumbed. Then we fixed the rotten floorboard and placed tile down. It looks like marble with just a hint of pink in it. With each trip I would take something from Tampa. It is hard to decorate with all of your things in another state. But where there is a will there is a way.


These pictures refect several trips with this or that and so you won't really know what it will look like until we are totally moved in. Then perhaps I can persuade a couple of my blogging buddies to come and help me put the icing on the cake. I have always stayed in rooms at B&B's that were named for someone. So who do you think I should have decorate the rooms? I know there was a blog cabin but how about a Blog Victorian. I am loving the idea!

Bling Bling

A Victorian Cottage Restoration on a tight budget requires some imagination in so many areas.

How can I get away with not spending much money and come up with the look I love?

These chandeliers are nice but I really would love to put a grand prism dripping chandeliers in the long hall. I think an entrance needs that kind of statement. Have you priced them? I will just keep hunting for one at estate sales and auctions. I thought I had found a great chandelier hanging in an auction house only to discover after my winning the bid that the arms had been glued and were broken. I was so happy to have only paid $20 for it. But it was beyond repair so I took the chandelier apart and used what I could on the existing chandliers and this is the result. One day I hope to replace it but for now it gives just a little bling bling and sparkle to the areas. Who knows maybe if I keep adding to it I will have my grand chandeliers for my entrance.

Oh our aching backs

We both are a couple of wimpering renovator in need of a good massage!

Dave is painting the long hall's ceiling.

I do not recommend using this wallpaper on the ceiling. It is so heavy that I couldn't keep it on the ceiling. It will take several people to help you hold it up and is not a project for a tired couple by any means . I just opted to cut it into smaller pieces and piece it up. It looks like tin panels now. Anything looks better than it did before with all the holes. I do need to keep you all informed we are doing everything on a very tight budget. The wallpaper was so much less than having someone drywall. What is up there now is not drywall. Its like a particle board.

Getting rid of Creepy

So long creepy! But before you go let's just look at you one more time.

To the right are closet doors. This closet room is just off of the back bedroom. The back room is a poorly added sunporch. But it has its charm under all that ugly. Bright light streams in and the view of the back yard is a nice one. Ok have you seen enough because that beautiful carpet is coming up next and come back and see what I do with the holey ceiling board. Yes that is duck tape. lol

See the door knob. This is the current bathroom with tub, sink and commode. We are going to place a vanity where the closets were.

We put in a shower. Pink of course.

I will be posting a little all week with the finished bath on Pink Saturday.

Bye for now.

Becky

It's Creeeeeepy and It Makes Me Sick!

Yes it is so ugly I could barf!
This is a view from what is a walk through onto the sun porch.

Ugly carpet, Dirty curtains, Holes in the ceiling. It is awful in here.

There is a horrible bathroom close by with a rotten floor.

Are you scared yet?

The doors on the right are a closet. Watch what we make of them.

I am going as a Painter for Halloween.

I will be back soon to show you what we have been working on.

Stay tuned.

Becky

The Little Dining Room

This is the Little Dining room cabinet. It has plaster walls that are crumbling. But there is hope for this old china hutch. Notice the wallpaper too. Not my taste. The floors had really old linolem that we took up to find the wood which we painted because it was in pretty rough shape.
Hubby let me paint the cabinet pink and we added the bead board and glass handles. When we distressed the cabinet the green came throught. It is oh so shabby.
Then with each trip I would bring more and more of my china. I can't wait to round up my lacy linens and add them to the shelves.
The wall paper had to go and we quickly covered the walls with paint.

Please keep in mind that we are not finished with this room. You will see things laying around in the background. Sorry about that. I am getting a little better with removing things before I take pictures but that old mantel top was heavy and Dave was busy.

Because the walls are so tall the next project in the room is to add some rose crown molding. I hope to eventually add wallpaper.

We have posted this before on Lace and Lures Pink Saturday but I am adding it to One Shabby Old House so that the scrapbook won't miss any pages.

Thank you for the many kind words and encouragement. I will try to get paint colors for you.

Because all the paint is in Eufaula and I am in Tampa posting I don't have that information. So if you asked I will get back to you with the information.