Cross and Bible Doors

It has been a great while since I have made an entry in this blog.  We have been a little busy with finalizing our adoption of our daughter from Bulgaria.  Now that she is home and mostly settled, I can turn a few moments of energy towards our farm blog!

I am looking for a new front door.  For a long time, I thought I wanted a "batten" door.  A basic door made from planks of wood.  It would of course be merely decorative as it wouldn't keep out the weather and snow, that's for sure.  But, where our door is located, it is a very dark area of the house.  So, I'm looking at a nice solid steel door with a beautiful lead came insert, to let in some light. 

While researching doors for homes built in 1799 or later, I came across this interesting article about the origins of our solid panel doors throughout the house.

I think our doors may only be four panel, but if they are six panel, they are known as "Christian" doors or "cross and bible" doors.  I will let you read the blog post for yourselves, but I'm always so amazed to learn more about the time period in which our original house was built!

http://www.historichouseblog.com/2009/01/29/the-christian-or-cross-bible-historic-door/

3/22/16: Weekend Project

Even though it is officially Spring, the weather here in Northern New England isn't having any of it!  So, we are still working on unpacking and doing a few indoor projects.  We are just itching to get out in the yard and fields so we can work on the horse related projects.  They are still currently over at my parent's house and it is quite the pain to drive over there three times a day for feeding and to keep an eye on them.  BUT, this will have to wait!

When we moved in, our downstairs guest bath / laundry room was painted a deep barn red with a federal blue type trim.  While I love bold colors, we both felt that this red was a bit much for such a small space.  I had purchased a fabric shower curtain to cover up the washer area, and it was the inspiration to lighten up the whole space with a few coats of white paint.

Last weekend was spent taping and using drop cloths to protect the floors and the trim.  Even so, we got some white paint in a few areas, but it's not obvious and we are looking for a way to remove it without having to repaint the trim or damage the existing paint!  Perhaps I'll add another blog entry when this finally happens!

So, here are a few "before" photos to give you an idea of how dark this room was.  Don't mind the nosy Calico, that's Ember and she's always up in everybody's business! lol

OK, so you can see, the color scheme is a bit bizarre, but perhaps there was a reason for this.  We wondered why they didn't just repaint it white as they had done in the other ground floor spaces.  Then we started taping and painting around the fixtures and understood completely.  The drywall had been painted prior to the toilet and sink etc., being fitted.  So, when we started painting we had to work around these things.  And if you were to peek behind the toilet tank, you will still see a bit of red that we just couldn't reach (and we were too lazy to shut off the water and move the toilet!).

The project did take a bit longer than just the weekend, as even though we used a premium paint (Kilz Premium, maximum coverage), the red was so intense that it took three coats to completely cover it.  So, we would do a coat and then forget to go back and repaint later in the day!

I finished pulling off all the painters tape last night and put the room back together.  On a side note, I do not recommend the 3M brand painters tape!  The product we bought did not lock out the paint as it said it did.  And when it was time to peel it off, if there was any paint on the tape, it would rip and I would have to use a razor blade to scrape it off of the trim!  This caused delays and just made me really mad!!!  I'll spend a bit more for the expensive stuff next time!

So, here are a few shots of the finished room.  We both think it looks so much brighter and larger in general.  I think a bathroom should be bright and give the feeling of "clean" when you look at it.  And plain old white paint did the trick no problem!!!  Total cost for the project was probably under $50 as we did need to purchase painting supplies in addition to the gallon of paint. It's been the cheapest home improvement project so far, and we like the sound of that!

January 22nd: We Bought the Farm - The Phineas Blanchard House!

We are so excited to have found our little homestead!

While living at my parent's place has been convenient, and worked for keeping the horses at home, the time had come to search for a place of our own.  Our dreams of expanding our livestock in the future could not happen here, as my parents are at the stage of life in which they want fewer responsibilities, not more.

We did not have high hopes that we would find a place that fit our needs and that would be within our price range, but we were wrong.  We did have to settle for a fixer upper, but for the most part, the house is very livable, and the barn can be updated and prepared for livestock and the horses!

J and I both get something from this property.  The main house dates back to 1799, which appeals to my history major hubby, and the 3 acres and barn appealed to my dreams of having a future hobby farm.

The main house has three fireplaces, one of which is original, with ovens built into the fire place!  I started researching how the fireplace and oven would be used back in 1799 and found this awesome blog with a wealth of information on Colonial living and how they cooked.   I plan on collecting some of the cooking tools they write about in the blog. Our keeping room with the fireplace in question is still very Colonial in style, so we would like to have furniture and common  tools in there that reflect the time period.

 Here's the link if you want to check the colonial blog out!

http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/2009/08/early-american-fireplaces-and-cooking.html

The Phineas Blanchard House circa. 1799

 The Keeping Room with original fireplace (the ovens are the doors to the right)

Another view of the Keeping Room (fireplace to the right, out of view)

We are looking forward to cleaning up the house and starting our hunt for authentic antique and replica items to put in the most original looking room in the house.  And don't worry, I will also be blogging about our farming efforts!  We are looking into heritage breeds, both for livestock and crops, just to continue the Colonial theme.