PAINT!

It looks amazing!  As our grandson, Jack, would say, It's pank!"  The cut-in work took a while, but all the walls are now covered.  It looks really great next to the stained trim!

The rust colored cabinet will be antiqued.

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS

Stormy weather hits Commerce.  Again.  Rick and I woke up at 3am listening to a torrential downpour and strong winds.  The painter had been working inside the house, so we were worried that he had left some windows open.  Rick went to check it out.  When he came back to the barn, he said, "Well, we didn't have any open windows, but we do have a tree on our house!" 

Needless to say, this was not a treerific situation to be in at 3am!

There was very little damage to the house, just some to the porch cornice and roof.  Thank goodness it didn't break our beautiful, antique stained glass window that's on this side.  Our neighbor, Lavelle,  brought over his backhoe and lifted the weight of the tree off the house, while Rick began work with the chainsaw.  I took this next picture with my eyes closed, because it was scary to watch!! :/

Notice the part of the tree that's still upright?  That's the rotten part (literally and figuratively).  We've been talking about cutting that part off for a couple of weeks, before it fell onto the driveway.  Of course, the living part of the tree is the part that fell. :(  Lots of trouble, but it could have been much worse!

SNEAK PEAK....

The painter has been hard at work for a couple of weeks.  The inside trim is completely finished and looks amazing!  The lift you see in the picture is borrowed and must go back to its owner in 2 weeks, so the painter is taking advantage and painting the highest parts of the house while we still have it.  The gable is grayish-green and looks great with the white trim (and the "K").  The rest of the house will be a lighter version of this green.

I can hardly wait to turn the lights on in the parlor at night, get in my truck and drive in front of our house to look at our front door!  This picture doesn't do it justice.

I also hope to  open this door and find some Knight descendants on the other side!

This is the antique window above the landing that leads upstairs.  We bought it a few years ago, hoping it would fit somewhere someday.  And so it did! 

You can see how beautiful the stained trim is!  The balusters will be painted white and finials will be added to each newel post.

Our finials are made from bun feet (for furniture).

Everything old is new again... Remember how these huge pocket doors were painted white?  Now, they are back to beautiful!  We've used the same guy for years, when we've needed something stripped and refinished.  He always does wonderful work.  He actually just stripped these for us.  Our painter stained them when he did the rest of the woodwork.  

We used the pocket doors upstairs with the tracks on the outside.

Rick finished these stairs today.  Look at the ceiling of the back porch.  That's the original siding from the house.  The steps going straight off the back porch are going to be round.  

Totally unrelated to house restoration, but cute nonetheless.

Chevy.

A PLACE FOR DAYDREAMING...

A couple of Knight descendants told us that there used to be window seats in the parlor.  We put one in on the left side of the front door.  I chose not to put one in on both sides, because I have some furniture that I want to put on the other side.  I can imagine Leita or Myrtle or one of the other sisters sitting at the window and watching for their beau!

Completed window seat!  This is the best way to see the transom over the front door.  In case you can't read backwards, it says Horse Apple Hill.

                                                                                          

VIST THE OLD COUNTRY STORE...

We used some of the original siding from the house to put around our pantry door.  A rusty tin roof will go over the door, a wooden screen door will be the entry, and an old light will go beside the door.  I just couldn't wait for it to be completely finished, so you'll have to check back to see the finished product. ;o)

Wouldn't you like to shop here?  Maybe I need an old pickle barrel sitting beside the door! (with a checkerboard on top)

OK, I know you're saying to yourself, "Isn't that a level board beside the door?  Wonder why they didn't use it?"  It's just an optical illusion-it's really all on the level!  I think the photographer might have been a little out of level.

Pantry Complete!  The bottom of the screen door is an advertising plaque for a screen door company.

WHEW!! DIDN'T KNOW "WEATHER" OR NOT ...

...our house would still be standing, after yesterday!  Lots of tornadoes in our area!  Commerce missed the destruction, but surrounding areas weren't so lucky.  We hope everyone is safe and sound!

Our concrete workers set up the driveway to be poured and were working on the sidewalks, when the bad weather blew in.  Fortunately, the heavy rains didn't mess much up and we should be pouring the concrete soon.  Below are pix of the forms awaiting concrete.

This is the south side of the house.  The boarded up area is the back porch.  Rick enclosed it while the trim material is being stored there.  He didn't want it to get wet.
The sidewalk goes around the entire house, so it will serve as border for the landscaping, too.

I took this picture from the road looking toward the carport.  I wonder what John and Ella Knight would think about all this concrete?  Betty Knight Wallace has told me that they would often get stuck when they were visiting her grandparents during the rainy season.  She remembers her family's vehicle being pulled out of the mud on the road in front of the house.  We've made some nice progress in the last hundred years since this old house was built, haven't we?

Next, you'll see a picture of the underpinning.  It makes everything look neat and clean!  The porches still haven't been floored yet.  The material has been ordered, but Rick is going to lay it all out to dry when we get it.  It's treated lumber and it tends to shrink after it dries out, so he didn't want to build it right away then have cracks in it.  It might be a while before we can actually walk on something besides plywood.

Rick attached the mantles this past weekend.  They look amazing!  Craigslist is great-most of the time!  We saw the ad for one of the mantles a couple of years ago, so we headed off to Dallas.  When we got there, the man had another mantle that had already been stripped, but looked pretty bad.  We bought it anyway, 'cause it was cheap.  Rick sanded and refinished it, and it looks as good as new.

 This is the one in the music room that Rick refinished.

 This is the one in the parlor that we went to buy, originally.  Picture doesn't do it justice.  It's huge and made of tiger oak.

Those are two of our trim guys.  They are really good at what they do.

This is the dining room.  We already had this mantle in another house-just brought it with us.

Ebay find!

ALL THE TRIMMINGS...

Our trim crew has been working for a little over a week now, and things are looking beautiful! They are really talented.   For a while, when it was just sheet rocked, it seemed like a new house-not a 100 year old house.  Now that the trim is around the windows and doors, it looks like its old self-only better!  We put the exact same kind of trim back that was there originally.  Check out the following pictures...

This is the "girls sleeping porch" on the west side.  You can see the beautiful trim around the windows and doors.  The double doors are to the laundry room, and the other door is to the elevator.  The bottom of that door is not complete yet, because the blocks have not come in yet.

My laundry room is upstairs.  I can walk right around the corner and put up the clothes!

MMM, MMM, MMM! Can't wait to cook in this kitchen...

We had these made from quarter sawn oak, or tiger oak.  That is the same kind of wood that lots of antique furniture is made of.  You know what I'm talking about?  It's striped, sort of.  When the stain is applied, it really brings out the differences in the wood.  Granite tops are being made for the kitchen and the bathroom tops.

First meal in the new kitchen was ham, green beans and mashed potatoes!

 

Speaking of the bathrooms....

This vanity was made to look like an antique chifferobe.  The door on the left will be the linen, and the sink will go over the door on the right side.  It's made out of tiger oak, also.  We could have just used an actual antique piece, but we didn't want to have to deal with the drawers for the next 50 years.  Old furniture drawers just don't move freely like new drawers.
The next is a picture of the vanity for the master bathroom.  It's also made to look old--notice the claw feet.

 

The knobs and pulls are Bakelite.