Our Colonial Farmhouse Dining Room
Today is an exciting day. You get to see where I eat breakfast! And lunch. And dinner. Sometimes a snack or…three. That’s right, it is Colonial Farmhouse Dining Room Day. If you are new here, two months ago we bought a really, really old house. Old houses are quirky. Ours is no exception. This house has no formal or informal foyer space, which would drive me nuts if I didn’t have a thousand other things that were already doing that. When you walk through the front door of our Colonial Farmhouse, you are walking into the original room of this house (circa late 1700s). The previous owners used it as…
Clearing a Sight Line to the Pool
One of the perks of buying a really old home is that the landscaping is mature. But with every rule there’s always an exception, right? In the case of our colonial farmhouse, our landscaping had ventured into a realm past mature. I’m not sure how to say this delicately…so I won’t. Every single tree, bush, shrub, weed, flower, vine and blade of grass on the property was overgrown when we moved in. Not just overgrown, but out-of-control. Not just out-of-control, but rapidly taking over anything and everything in its path. It crossed my mind that if I stood still for more than a minute, the Virginia Creeper vine would probably…
My Dining Table Is Now a Coffee Table
Do you remember when I bought a $9.60 round dining table at the Habitat Restore and making over that table almost sent me over the edge? That was fun. Fast forward several months and the scars from the traumatic table makeover experience were healing nicely. Then I realized why that table might have been donated to the Habitat Restore in the first place. The top kept coming loose from the base. I’d tighten it and then people would put their elbows on the table (!) and eventually the top would loosen up again. The solution was clear. Either I could teach my family manners or we could stop eating all…
Breaking In Our Colonial Farmhouse
I’ve heard it said that a new home doesn’t feel like home until you start making memories there. So that’s what we’re going to do! I’m taking this week off to make memories in our new home. Our first guests, friends from Oregon, are spending the week with us. We are breaking in this Colonial Farmhouse with BBQs, pool time and late nights on the deck watching the fireflies. And by “late nights” I mean I’ll go to bed at 10 p.m. and leave everyone else to carry on without me! HA! I’m not even joking. But! I’m the one who gets up early with the kids, so it all…
The Doors of Our Colonial Farmhouse
My number one reason for buying our colonial farmhouse was the original, wide plank wood floors. That’s how everyone selects a house, right? My number two reason for buying our home was the original doors. According to my logic, if life opens one beautiful door and you choose to walk through it and discover another beautiful door and ANOTHER, how do you not buy that house? It was a sign from the universe I didn’t want to ignore. The doors of our colonial farmhouse are definitely the eye candy of this house. And I do love me some eye candy! And don’t even get me started on the glass knobs! This is…
Welcome to Our Colonial Farmhouse
This is not a drill. I repeat! This is not a drill. Our house hunt is over and I can finally talk about our new home without jinxing the deal. Thank goodness! Our new home is actually quite old. Old as in founding fathers old! So without further ado, welcome to our colonial farmhouse! If the story is correct, the original part of this house was supposedly built in the 1780s. The “new” section of the house (shown above) was built around 1849. There is some etching in a stone in the attic with the builder’s name and date to verify the 1849 date. Let me do the math for you. At…
