07
Apr

The Facelift

Look at this house.  I loved it but I also knew that changes needed to be made. Um, obviously.  Our facelift to do list: replace the tile, repaint, new lighting, make the entrance to the root cellar safer, make the entrance to the house more obvious and make the darn thing look better.   I poured over magazines, blogs, Pinterest. (follow me here) Oh Pinterest, how many hours have I spent pinning away, looking for the perfect porch?  Should a southern porch have wooden floors? Brick? Slate? So many opinions.  I thought I wanted wood.  I really wanted wood.  That was not going to happen.  More about that later.

This is an old home.   The log cabin was built around 1850 with rock additions made in 1860 and 1870 (If we are to believe the tales that have been told).   There was once a dog run which was later enclosed. I’ve searched for photos of the house online but haven’t turned up much.  I need to make a trip to the library (Yes, mom, I do listen.)  I love that our home has history and in every selection we make, I want to honor that.

Some of our neighbors were excited!  The home had been vacant for a while, part of an estate.  We were welcomed to our new home with great Southern hospitality! Meals, desserts, plants, flowers… I think we have the BEST neighbors anywhere.  We were off to a good start.  Maybe they just were excited that someone was going to mow the grass?   Maybe they were excited that we were going to remove the mosquito infested 1950s pool out of the front yard!  Wait, what? I didn’t mention the pool did I?

Digging up the pool
One friend did miss the pool…
A sure sign that big things will be happening… The Dumpster arrives!
Tucker name him Thomas of course.
He was fed kale and lettuce from the Farmers Market.
Don’t worry.  We live on a creek, remember? He found it eventually.

Back to the porch! I mentioned that I really wanted a wood floor for the porch.  Well, it couldn’t happen.  We didn’t have the threshold for wood.

Tongue and groove wood exposed when the tile was removed.

 As they pulled up the concrete path, some limestone was unearthed.  I love finding treasures.  This theme will continue but, back to the flooring dilemma.  I liked Old Chicago right away but looked at all of the newly fabricated versions too.

We even considered wood tile and slate.  Old Chicago won the contest.  So we ordered reclaimed Old Chicago brick that had to be sliced to fit the porch.  Some how I didn’t get a picture of this process but bless his heart!  Our stonemason was in the yard slicing brick FOR DAYS!

Exciting!

Watching the magic happen.  What could be more exciting for a boy?   Actually we were all excited.  Below you can see that we moved the giant limestone steps. We put one down lower where the walkway goes down to the field in front of the house.  We used some to create a wall protecting friends from a fall into the root cellar.  This will really come in handy if we get to Phase # Whatever and make it the wine cellar my husband has planned! We are saving the other limestone for a later purpose.

Don’t you just love Herringbone?
The next change was the columns.  We knew that we needed to remove a column.  My brilliant builder figured out how.  We doubled the columns on either side of the entrance.  Now I can have a clear path to my front door.  There are three doors across our front porch.  We wanted to be certain that the actual front door would be obvious.  We painted it a glossy black and we also installed wrought iron across the rest of the front.  This helps with the confusion. I should probably mention that the double columns flanking the entrance also makes sure roof won’t fall in!  Mathematically, we had to make sure the distance between columns was correct.  Blah blah, I don’t think about those things but I do love balance and beauty and making a fabulous entrance!

 

Round columns add that Southern touch, don’t you think?
Almost finished with the transformation!

 

Had to get my monogram in!

Blue ceiling and bell jar ceiling fans

And now we have a grand entrance to the “Old Grand Dame” of the neighborhood.
I need to show y’all a picture of my grandparents’ house in Houston.
This transformation probably looks familiar to my cousins!

While the porch transformation was going on, we had our own things to do.  My husband tore down the old dog house and some  old fence.  More silly treasures unearthed.  An old yoyo was under the tree and a 1960s paper was under the dog house.

The boys discovered two big perks about our new house.

Picnics under the big heritage oak trees are a must!  They would eat all of their meals al fresco if I let them.  Porch or picnic either way, dining out doors is the way to go!  Sweet big brother made the sandwiches, packed the lunch, and set it all up.  I love my boys.


The other exciting thing about our new home… We can walk to Main St.  What could be better than walking to Main St. to watch a parade on a hot summer day? Maybe a popsicle?

Yep, we are home!