Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Face Lift

Sorry to have disappeared so completely.  I am doing well, just struggling to find any words and a reason to go looking for them again.

There is not much interesting happening here, but that does not mean that there is nothing interesting going on.  Farm Buddy has tackled some big projects this year and one of them has been some long awaited house repairs.

I tried to find a decent before photo.....

Things always get worse before they get better (especially when I am taking pictures with my iPod and making the pictures even worse with clumsy fingers getting in the way).

It is quite amazing what a pressure washer can do in the right hands....

And equally amazing what a simple coat of  primer can accomplish.

This farm house is about 200 years old.  It needs a bit of TLC, but it is still a sound and beautiful structure.

 Nowadays, people are lucky if they get 10 years out of a new house before it needs major repairs.  After 200 years, this house needed a few boards replaced and a good paint job.

It is still a work in progress and I need to get back over with the camera and get some better pictures, but the old place is looking mighty spiffy these days.

17 comments:

  1. What a beautiful, and immense, old house. Please, please, tell me that Farm Buddy hired a contractor to paint, and is not doing it herself! Being "self sufficient" should have its limitations!

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    1. I WANTED to do it myself, as I am a capable painter, but I am not great at these kind of repairs, such as fixing the rotten soffit boards and such. Plus, I do not have a power washer and am very intimidated by what they can do. I AM going to paint the silver roof over the porch green, and then paint one side of the house ever couple of years or so, now that the carpentry work is all done.

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  2. What an elegant house! Mine is only 100 years old and I revel in that, but this one is stunning.

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  3. Fantastic that it's getting a face lift.

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  4. So glad you documented the progress on my house! Thank you! I love my house!!

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  5. A very dramatic and beautiful change.

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  6. What an incredible transformation! The before and after are startling!

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  7. It looks stunning! That's why we say "they don't build em like they used to!"

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  8. Wow! Great work Farm buddy! It looks gorgeous now!

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  9. Questions! Questions! I'm assuming that the old entrance to the house has the window decor? and looks Victorian but the shape of the house looks more Federalist. Why don't you tell us all about your house FB? Is the kitchen on the extension at the back? Are there four main rooms?

    Please fill us in! I love the white and green .

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  10. My friends that are enlightened about such topics tell me it is an Italian style house and not Victorian. It is kind of hard to explain, but the main road used to go by the house on the bay window side about fifty feet from the house. I am guessing that that road has not been used in about 100 years or more. What I call the "old road" separates my house from my hayfield. There used to be a porch just around the corner from the bay window, which would have given the people a view of the action on the old road. That porch was unfortunately removed in the 1940's or 1950's. Then in the 1990's, a deck porch was added, which you can see. I bought my farm in 2001. The house has six bedrooms; one downstairs and five upstairs. I never really use the upstairs. Downstairs has the one bedroom, a bathroom, kitchen, and living room. My neighbor who was born in my house in 1941 tells me that the extension used to be in the FRONT of the house, but his parents moved it to the side. This boggles my mind, as I can't imagine why anyone would want to go through all of that trouble and to what end. However that extension is the mudroom. I keep the freezers there, as it is unheated, and Bess has multiple beds there, as she usually sleeps there because I always leave that door open. I store my firewood next to the mudroom, in the garage. You can't really see the main front door, which I chose to leave unpainted, but it is a really cool door with rounded windows. When I bought the house, the previous people had "modernized" and put an ugly steel door and were about to rip out the big windows and put in energy efficient ones. Luckily my neighbor that was born here had the old door, which I put back, and I will NEVER change my beautiful windows! That about sums it up!!

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  11. hi folks I haven't visited you for 3 yrs- but winter 2012-2013 your blog kept me quietly calm after diasterous home loss. you photos have become so richly beautiful! thnx

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