Pre-Renovation Tour

Since it will be a little while before I get down to the farmhouse to start the clean-up and painting, I thought I would show you the "before" so as we go along you will see the changes.  This is standing on the front porch looking up the driveway where the main house is.  That bush has since been removed and boxwoods planted.

The living room is a clean slate with windows on every wall, old pine floors and a brick chimney for a wood stove.  There is just a light bulb in the center of the ceiling at this point, but I brought one of my antique chandeliers from my house in Georgia which will go there.

The brick chimney has a hole for the wood stove, which we will need to buy, and has some really crooked shelves next to it, which I hope to cover up with a door or old pine boards.

The next room is the kitchen, a very large kitchen for such a small house.  The previous owner was a paper mache artist, a very fine, well-known one at that, and when we came to see the house the very first time, a lot of his stools and brushes and other work materials were still in the kitchen.  He used the tiny farmhouse as his work studio.

The kitchen also has a lot of big windows.

The floors throughout the house are much prettier than the main house and older; a beautiful warm pine, aged with a lot of grain.  All they need is a good cleaning.

One wall of the kitchen is all cupboards.  I have boxes of old milk glass dishes, cups, pitchers, vases that I will display with either the cupboard doors open or removed.  My old Amish ladder is in the photo, and I will find the perfect spot for it, most likely on the porch.

The inside of the cupboards have an old blue-painted patina, and a few shelves have what looks to be old wallpaper.  It all needs a good scrubbing, and if I can clean the paper without destroying it, I think I will let it stay.

Everything needs a good scrubbing with bleach!  Oh, so much work to do!

I love the old apron enamel sink.  The cabinet is metal, needs a coat of paint.  The sink is in perfect condition, just needs a scrubbing and new faucet.

Another enamel sink in the kitchen, can't imagine what this was used for, maybe for big pots to cook some pasta?  I will definitely need some fixtures for this sink.

On the other side of the sink is a cabinet with an ugly linoleum top.  Easy to remove and replace with one of my two vintage butcher block cutting boards that I have yet to clean and bring indoors.

Then there is my teeny, tiny, stove and oven to go with My Tiny Farmhouse, and it looks like it has never been used.  Perfect for guests!

Down the short hallway from the kitchen is the only bedroom.  A lot of pine going on here, but I intend to leave it as is for the time being since I have so many other walls to paint.  

Looking from the bedroom down the short hallway to the kitchen, the door on the right is a closet and the bathroom is on the left.  As you can see, I still have boxes of milk glass dishes on the table waiting to be unpacked once the kitchen is cleaned.

The bathroom has an old sink, stall shower and toilet, but it is so dirty that I didn't want to share a photo of it.  What I like is that all the walls are wood boards, it has a nice old door and window.  We will have to replace the shower stall, paint, clean, but it will be very cute once finished.

This is the cabinet in the kitchen with the top that will be replaced with butcher block.  The old scale was given to me years ago by my dear aunt.

The door from the kitchen goes to a little stoop where I can put some potted plants and a chair to sit and look at the bamboo forest behind it.  That big thing is the propane tank, which will most likely be moved to a hidden spot.  The area will be completely fenced for my friends who bring their dogs for the night.

I want to have fun with color in My Tiny Farmhouse.  I have always chosen neutrals, earthtones, dark colors, so I want this to be completely different.  I love pink, so a very pale pink for the kitchen, an orange-pink tone for the living room??

The farmhouse will be a modern twist on Colonial, with oil portraits, silhouettes, primitive furnishings mixed with new.  Benjamin Moore's paint brochures are like looking at a magazine.  They use color in exciting ways, yet the rooms still have a historic feel, and that's what I hope to accomplish in My Tiny Farmhouse.

I can assure you I will be working through the holidays to get My Tiny Farmhouse ready for spring guests!