Shabby Chic Find of the Week

On a failed genealogy mission to Redfield, SD we found an old medicine cabinet in a local antique shop.   Now my spice rack.

Replace mirror or leave?

Back to work!

Well after a major push last summer to paint the first floor rooms we lost a bit of steam and are just starting up again.

2014 Rooms Updated

1.  Interior Hallway painted
2.  Kitchen Painted
3.  Breakfast Room "Little Dining Room" Painted, (Oak Floors found!)
4.  Living Room Painted
5. 2nd Floor Bathroom gutted and redone.
6. 3rd floor bathroom, painted.
7. Interior Hallway Painted, railings fixed.

So What's Left?

1. Dining Room
2. Kitchen
3. Rebuild the buffet upper cabinets
4. Send the lead glass windows in to be fixed.
5. Pantry (Current kitchen)
6. 1st Floor Bathroom (I hate vinyl)
7. Open the Stairwell 
8. Fix the 2nd floor maple floors (Thanks grams)
9. Rebuild the linen closet (Have the original doors)
10. Fix the crumbling foundation. (Yikes)
11. Electrical (oh that's a given)
12. New Garage or something!
13. Refinish the oak floors on 1st floor.
14. Gut the Kitchen and Bathroom on 3rd Floor for the master bathroom.
15. Roof & Overhangs
16. Chimney
17. Paint the house.
18. Picket Fence

Our annual family holiday of "Trash and Treasure days" has come and gone and we have found many new Treasures out of the town trash piles.

My favorite is an old metal kitchen cabinet the eldest and I found.   With a lot of scrubbing of some unknown purple substance and a bit of sanding we now have a desperately needed pantry cabinet.  Keep tossing out your antiques people! I'll keep fixing them up.

All Manner of Nasty!

I think I have thing for this color. 

Great Grandma's Iris bed has bloomed! Long Live the Victorian Garden.

Great Grandma's Purple Iris, Robson's lilacs, grandma Dorothy's Lilly's of the Valley and wood violets.

Flowers Flowers Everywhere!

The Snow Balls have been here since the house was built

Bleeding Hearts

I"m obsessed with Peony's

Bleeding hearts everywhere!

Road Trip to SD - Love old Barns

We took a trip out to the farm in SD to see my ill grandmother. It was such a nice day I took the eldest out to the farm I spent a few years on.  The house is sadly gone, but the barns are still standing on the great great grandparents farm.

Not exactly standing, perhaps leaning.

Last Day of 2014, Celebrating 100 Years

Our Rescue Mutt at Howard House

100 years ago my great grandparents built this lovely old home. I'm so pleased with how far we have come and cannot wait to see where we take it in the future.

Raise a toast to: Old Houses, Old Dogs and Old People.

Grandma's Toast to 2015 

Minnesota in Winter...don't let the cats get bored.

So that was the plinking noise I heard from the kitchen.

Thanks, I was looking for that pen.

Trip east- A bit of Geneaology

The great trip East (Craptastic by the way, never again with 80 people) had a few highlights.

On the Brooklyn Bridge getting to see the area owned by our ancestor Cornelius Meyln.

At Plimoth Plantation, watching a reenactor playing one of our many ancestors who lived at Plymouth Colony. 

William Beamsley's Grave in Boston!