Millie is helping with a project today 

Holz Hausen

We go through about a cord of wood a month from November to April so we have many, many piles of wood in the driveway.  After filling up one bay of the garage we decided that since we needed to stack the wood outside we should make it look cool.

I read up on how to build a holz house here and then sent a video to my teenage helper Harry and asked him to go for it.

I think they look great!  J says that he feels like he's in Bavaria with the VW jetta parked next to the holz house.

and, as per usual, Millie is interested in helping.

BIG Project in the works!!!!

Something awesome is happening......

Reclaimed mantel

We have 2 fireplaces upstairs in the two front bedrooms. Neither have mantels, but the fireplace in my room has some nice moulding all around. The fireplace in the "French room" had very plain paneling surrounding the fireplace. Another caveat is that one of the two entrances is directly next to the fireplace, so whatever we put up had to be narrow. 

I ended up using the rest of the reclaimed beam from the barn lighting 

Since I had to cut this board for the lighting in the barn I ended up applying stain to the end. 

To hang the mantle up I drilled a hole using a 3/4 inch drill bit. I drilled the hole halfway through the board ( 2 inches in) and then used a 4 inch screw to continue through the back and into the wood surrounding the fireplace. Itseems surprisingly   secure! I added a few tiny prayer books to the mantle and flanked them with grubby battery candles from Stary Creek Primitives in Ware. 

Above the mantel I added a framed picture of a herd of sheep that I found in Aunt Sue's basement.  

Now that school has started, and that it has been raining and/or incredibly muggy, I haven't finished painting. Hopefully I can finish and have a full post up next week!!

Barn Pub

While we have a beautiful and large front door we would rather enter the house through the attached barn.  The barn is a structure that attaches the house to the garage, and it's also the way we access the deck. 

I could kick myself for not taking any before pictures of the barn, but I do have this one:

We were lucky that the previous owners left a pretty good billiards table. The lighting is poor in this room so Christmas lights were strung across the beams. 

When J saw this space he knew he wanted his own Irish pub. We actually met at a pub in Dublin whilst studying abroad and we had been collecting Irish pub decor for awhile in anticipating of having a pub one day. 

My brother built us an awesome bar out of pallets and found 2X4s...

He started framing it out and did have to buy some new 2x4s to get the desired length. 

He made three sections. 1 for a kegerator, 1 for a wine fridge and the last for shelves for glasses, etc. 

After 

Three bar stools painted green, white, and orange like the Irish flag. 

I bought J a kegerator for Christmas and drilled a hole in the bartop for the tap. 

This chandelier was originally for the dining room, but we ended up going with something more traditional in there. I removed all the hard wire electrical and ran a socket plug down the chain. I then added a large decorative Edison bulb. 

I made a new light fixture for above the pool table by taking a scrap piece of old wood from a pile in the garage. I suspended it from chains and the. Ran 5 socket lights down and wrapped them around the wood. Each socket has an Edison bulb and a wire sconce. 

Socket lamps are $25 each at Lowes so I bought work lights for $12 each and removed the tin shade. I then plugged them all into an extension cord that I ran across the beam. The wire shades were $18 each-- more expensive than I would've hoped for. I spent a few weeks looking for baskets made out of chicken wire to retrofit as shades, but no luck 

A piano is needed in a pub as are flags. Technically British and Welsh flags wouldn't be in an Irish pub, but J is Welsh so we had to...

We bought a little pot bellied stove on Craigslist before we knew it would cost over $2,500 to install it. Now it sits in the corner as a decoration. 

J also collected vintage lights. The theme is historic beer sponsors of New York baseball teams. 

The old fridge from the kitchen is now the beer fridge. I painted it with chalkboard paint to use for lists or to keep score when playing pool. 

Even Millie likes to hang out in the pub! 

She also likes to play pool....

Little Grey Guest Room

The saltbox has four bedrooms (five if you count the study). Since a saltbox design has a pitched roof you'll have slanted ceilings in the back bedrooms. The little grey room is one of those. 

Before

Plain white room. 

This is the smallest bedroom and has a lot of exposed wooden beams. When I went into this room I felt like I was in a cottage. 

Inspiration 

I bought this painting on etsy and it was the main inspiration for this room. 

My second inspiration was a little cup that the previous owners left behind. 

I just knew that this room has to remind the person staying in it of being in a garden in the middle of the woods. 

After

Ginger relaxing on the indoor outdoor carpet. I love this rug. It's kind of scratchy , but I love the texture that it brings into the room. The room has a lot of woven things like baskets and jute rope. 

I painted the walls a medium grey color ( paint by Martha Stewart in "Grey Squirrel"). 

Continuing the theme of bringing the outdoors in I placed a wicker chair in the corner. The lamp to the left was given to me by my brothers fiancé and it has little birds on the base. I wrapped the shade in rope and secured not with hot  glue. 

I printed out picture of Peter Rabbit and framed them in white frames. I strung running through the hanging hardware and secured the pictures to a nail by tying a the ribbon in a cute bow. 

There was a cutout above the door that I imagine was to aid the travel of heat. I placed a pretty white lace curtain over it for some added privacy. 

 I added a bittersweet branch to the top of the built in desk as well as sheer curtain to either side. 

Originally the top of the deal was red laminate. I painted it with Rustoleum white countertop paint. 

I found this template online and printed it on cream cardstock. 

The light is tricky in this room. The only window is a skylight. I bought a socket lamp and wicker shade at ikea. I then ran it up one of the wooden beams and secured it in the middle of the room. 

I feel like this room is garden- like and I enjoy hanging out with Ginger in it when it's not full of laundry!

Downstairs Bathroom

One more day of vacation. Today I ran down to Walmart for a litter box for the new barn kitten. She's too little to be outside alone so she'll have a litter box for a bit. 

My new barn kitty, Millie.  We have a lot of mice around so she will be a busy girl!

While at Walmart I impulsively bought a quart of blue paint for the downstairs bathroom. 

Before

After

This is a tiny wooden childrens' chair that the woodshop teacher cut a hole in to make a dog dish for tootsie. Everyone thought it was a potty and kept asking why we had a potty and why was it in the kitchen??!!  

I moved it to the bathroom and put a plant in it. The picture on top is the town seal and the inspiration for the paint color. 

An antique map of town that my parents found at a flea market on Cape Cod. A rustic little box on top of the toilet holds The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, and another box with dividers is hung on the wall like a shelf. 

Wooden crate hides pottery that holds more toilet paper as well as the waste basket. On top is a ceramic jug with pussy willows, a copper pot with potpourri, and a Yankee candle. The nightlight holds scented wax to diffuse scent. 

I think this vanity is pretty neat. 

Recycled aluminum deer head holds dried herbs. 

I love this guy. I got him on overstock.com. 

Exposed beams showcases the floor boards of the guest room above. 

My shower clock since I'm always late. 

The Barrister's Study

Summer school ended on Friday and J had an overnight business trip to New York on Monday. Since I don't have to go into work for the whole day I started a remodel of his study thinking it would be a nice surprise. After 5 tubes of caulk, 1 can of Good Off, and two gallons of paint  it was suddenly Thursday. J's surprise makeover wasn't really the great reveal I hoped for, but he still appreciated it.

Here is the study before we moved in:

And

Like the rest of the house this room has a fireplace that J uses quite often. Since he spends so much time in here he wanted his internet radio and TV so that he can listen/ watch the New York Mets, Jets, and Rangers. 

Before we really redecorated my dad and brother came over to help J mount a flat screen above the fireplace. Usually he really wants to decorate in the time period of the house but I guess the flat screen doesn't count. 

Watch out. City Boy with nail gun. 

My brother and J didn't think the horsehair plaster would support a TV, so they nailed 1X4s to the top and bottom of the mantle. They then nailed ship lap to the studs and mounted the TV to the wood. Since nothing in this house is remotely level (we don't use levels ever. Our eyes work much better) they had to put trim above and below the ship lap. In retrospect I would've asked them to use a single piece of wood because in the winter the individual pieces of wood are noticeably individual, but that would've been a nightmare to cut. After the TV was mounted we put up pre cut and pre assembled moulding boxes on either side to mimick the mantle decor below. 

After :

Grandfather clock made by one of my former students in woodshop. 

Club chair by Bombay company via Joss and Main. The twin to that chair is behind J's desk. 

Painting windows is my least favorite thing. Especially when you've got 24 pane windows. I've found the easiest thing to do is to paint over the dividers and don't worry about the glass. The thicker the better. Once dry use a flathead screwdriver to scrape as much off as possible and then finish up with a paper towel and goof off. The screw driver works so much better than a razor! 

Valences and curtains from a consignment store. They're very high quality and match a Morris chair and ottoman I had recovered for J in our old house. The fabric has elephants wearing saddles on it. 

J went to school in Saratoga and we always purchase a racing season poster for the important years in our relationship. 

Obviously all dens need a comfy seating are to watch TV!!

We also both rowed crew.  This coffee table is made from an old shell. I bought it here. 

There's a lot of stuff going on in this study. Horse racing, crew, and barristers. 

This is part of a series of three pictures and is from Vanity Fair. They were in J's dad's office back in the day. 

While historically one would paint the moulding a color and keep the walls a dull white I changed it up. It is more modern, but I think the room looks far less dank. The dehumidifier that is emptied 3 times a day also helps with that.