The Progress Before and After / The Dining Room

The Dining Room - Before

The Progress Inside...

The Dining Room

I cannot believe we have been in our home for nearly a year now. We waited so long to get here, but wasted no time to start making our mark. We have accomplished so many things, I thought posting some before and after pictures of the work that has been completed so far would help tell our story of restoring the old farm house and property. We have "Gone Country".

One of the reasons we wanted an older home was for the woodworking details that are rarely replicated in homes built today. These handcrafted raised panels cried out for attention. This picture does not show the separation of the raised panels or any other defects the room held, but all of them poked loudly when you walked inside. Each panel had all the caulking removed; then was sanded and re-caulked. This took many evenings, but after three weeks they were ready for paint. I moved on to the walls which needed the same care and time to prepare them. Holes were filled, along with a lot of scraping and sanding of the imperfections.

The Dining Room - After

I favor the deep rich colors and painting the walls “Red Delicious” was a success for creating the ambience I wanted to achieve. It is made by Glidden and was in an egg shell finish. I chose “Crisp White Linen” for the trim and I will carry this color, on all the trim work, throughout the house. It too is made by Glidden but the finish was in a semi-gloss.

Everything we have completed so far started with a game plan before we ever moved forward with the actual work. Debating back and forth, we decided to leave the baseboard heating vents in place until we remove all of them throughout the house at one time. New units for heating and AC were installed and these vents are no longer needed. My husband changed the chandelier to the one we brought with us from our previous home. I purchased this chandelier many years ago and it was bare boned compared to what it is today. I searched for crystal pendants and chains of varying shapes and sizes. As time went on, I added them to the skeleton creating our dining room chandelier.

Many more projects to complete, inside and outside, so stay tuned.

Go Green Tips:

• Look into buying salvaged items. Of course, think safety first, but in certain areas a salvaged item could be better than new one. Can a rustic, reclaimed door for a room work or can it be used as a coffee table? Be creative and look around; there are a lot of items laying around out there just waiting for ideas.
• List items you no longer have a use for on sites like "Craigs List". The chandelier we took down in the dining room went in 1 week after posting it.  

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

  Any Go Green Ideas?

Email us: info@agreenhorse.com

"To understand the soul of a horse is the closest human beings can come to knowing perfection."

Author Unknown