A Work in Progress - Part Two

The Studio

Can you believe all that dark wood paneling? We also had this paneling in our kitchen nook. Several people seemed to think we should leave the natural wood, which was most likely added in the 50's. We have no regrets. It looked better and better with each coat of paint, which were many. Sometimes even the smallest fixes, like repairing a hole in the floor or some cracking plaster, make such a big difference, but painting all of this panelling definitely made one of the biggest improvements in the feel of these rooms.

The Basement Stairway

I actually don't have a good "before" picture of the entire basement, but we've cleaned it up a ton as well. The first picture of the stairway here is post removing a 500 pound cast iron coal burning furnace, thus the grease and hand prints along the walls. It's telling that one of the first things I needed was a clean place to keep our cleaning supplies, with crisp clean blue walls- so many ways to apply color theory! I braided all the onions from our garden and hung them up there as well, if you're wondering what's on the wall.

Perennial Garden

Just one of many perennial gardens, with more to come! We added the fence after we adopted Lulu. It completely changed how the house looks from the street and opened up the side yard. And, provided this little corner for some planting. We've dug up hundreds of iris and day lily bulbs from the back yard, along with lots of old stone, which we used for the walkway and border here. We even dug up a sink- see below. We still haven't made the caps for the fence post, or fixed up much of the exterior, but we're counting down the days now till the painters come to visit! So, certainly not a finished "after" photo, but I thought it would be nice to include one of the exterior.

Of note- the enormous camilla trees on the side of the house that bloom in March, the wild nandina we can't control, and some rosemary I planted from one of the arrangements at our wedding!

I love black eyed susans and cone flowers!

some type of phlox we got at Ijams Nature center-

it's tripled in size since we planted it in the fall

Lulu practicing how to use the gate instead of jump the fence

what else could be under there?

literally hundreds of surprise lilies, and this doesn't even include all the irises and day lilies!

Again, so much more to come! We've done so much in these two and half years, but still have four rooms to go, plus more on the exterior, in the yard, and in the details. I'll keep you posted.