The old farmhouse - 07:06, Tuesday, June 30, 2009

I don't think I have ever taken a photo of the old homestead from this angle..... I was on my mower today and I had my camera in my apron.... this is being taken looking west from our garden area...... I wish I had a photo of what this looked like " before".. oh my! It was so delapitated!  The building next to the house is our "schoolhouse" or aka: "smoke house".... it was built as a smoke house and was in such bad shape when we moved here. Many told us to tear it down. My husband decided to make something of the old structure and completely remodeled it from floor to roof... and made our schoolhouse! We spend a great deal of time here... this is where we do all our schooling. As you can tell it's close enough to the house, that I can run in and check on things.   This November it will be 3 yrs since we moved to Missouri. This place has seen many changes - it's really not the same place we drove up to!  Wow.  Still have things to renovate still, but most of the stuff is done! Praise God for that!

Storm brewing.. - 07:01, Saturday, April 4, 2009

 I mentioned earlier today we are expecting a storm .... I was out in the fields today picking up branches and tree limbs and I couldn't help but take a snapshot of the beautiful & stormy sky with my old farmhouse below........ I love this view of the old homestead...

If you look really closely you can see the 'blue' tarps...... we put those out again today to cover all our bulbs that are coming up....we're supposed to get a freeze and some snow, and I don't want to take any chances!

I think the stormy sky above looks so beautiful........

Gloria

Heating the house with wood heat - 03:49, Monday, March 9, 2009

   We have had been using our woodstove since Christmas.  I can honestly say we have become "spoiled" by the radiant, oh so 'cozy' warmth of wood heat....... in all honesty I don't think I could go back to using forced gas heat as our exclusive source of heat anymore ......... the kids gather around the hearth and play and read and pull up their chairs...... it's the favorite spot in the house. :)

  The heat radiated truly heats up the air, so one feels so much warmer, down to one's bones.

   There have been a few days where we didn't get the stove lit right away and the kids always complain about how it's so cold in the house... even though the furnace kept the house warm enough at 68 degrees.......I do like having the furnace as a "back up" so that I don't wake up to freezing temps in the home or when we leave for an outing I can come home and it's not freezing.

     Now with that said, we invested in a very inexpensive stove that does not do the best of jobs. We have to stock the stove every few hours or the fire goes out. So, there is a lot of tending the "homefires" sort of speak. But hey, what can I expect for $300, right?   ( that is how much our stove cost)

  Ideally, we would love to be able to save up for a good quality , tight stove that we could load up and burn all day........ that will run us about $2,500 or so.......

  So for right now, we'll make do with our stove......

  The other issue with our stove we have had is that the stove has turned white from overburning! The stove was made in China ( vogelzang) and the paint was just poor quality. The first time we used it, the stove turned white!  We are going to take it outside in the summer months and paint it over with good quality stove paint. 

  Other than the issues we have had with our particular stove model, we are very happy using wood heat.

 Oh yeah! I forgot to mention the savings on the propane bill this winter!! Granted, we have had a rather mild winter this year, we have only gone thru 2 tanks of propane since we filled up at the end of October! That is a huge difference from last year, where we were filling up about every 3 weeks! We do use the furnace in the evenings while we are sleeping.  So we are burning wood from about 8 am till 11 pm....... most the day at least.......

  Although our stove does a good job heating up our 2,000 sq feet, some of the exterior rooms do stay chilly.......that is one of the cons of wood heat. Fortunately our bath is above the stove area, so the upstairs bath stays very warm all day long... and there are vents in the ceiling so the warm air does rise. I have only noticed it being rather chilly in the downstairs bath and laundry that is on the edge of the house.

  Overall , we are very pleased with wood heat!  It does mean a lot of chopping wood , but that is good for a body and my boys are the ones that stock my woodpile each morning. I have a wheelbarrow outside my door that has the wood for the day, so I avoid having any messy wood in the house. 

 I know many here at HSB are interested in wood heat, so I thought I would post a review of our expierence, after using our woodstove for the past winter months.

 ~ gloria ~

The Old Fashioned Parlor - 05:11, Saturday, November 29, 2008

Long ago,  "the parlor" was a place where the family would gather after a busy day of hard work..... a place where families would gather to sing a song around the piano as mother or sister played a tune.... a place where the family would sit and listen to the radio for hours of enjoyment......

Does your home have such a place?

In our old 110 yr old farmhouse we have such a room...... we have tried to recreate some of that "old fashioned" wholesomeness that just can't be found in the modern homes of today.... our parlor serves many purposes in our family. It is the place where I meet the Lord each morning.... as the sun streams in thru the windows in the morning... it is the place I gather my children together for prayer, for worship, and for our daily bible readings...... it is the place we play games, sing songs, and it is the place where I sit at the end of the day to read aloud to my children..........

There's the piano where my beautiful daughter hannah often sits for hours and plays, while we sing and lift our voices......we even have an old fashioned radio that we enjoy....... it plays CD's too...

Then there's the comfort of sitting and enjoying each other's company......I guess I could have gone with a more "modern" decor.... but I oh so wanted to "recreate" yesteryear.......lace curtains don the windows..... doiles on the couches....... a crocheted afghan to place on cold knees......we draped the walls with an old fashioned wallpaper similiar to the one the walls originally had......

It's wonderful to see the house a glow from a distance..... the lamps turned on to elude a shining warmth emanating from the front room that houses our "parlor"......

My 15 yr old son and I were in the city last week and he noticed that the houses all appeared so dark......so few were lit at dusk........ he mentioned to me how much he loved driving up to our old farmhouse to see the whole house lit up....... I reminded him that many families have both mom & dad working, so no one is home to "turn on the lights" sort of speak......

I hope that as home keepers we  may never doubt the work we do in our homes to keep the "lights on" in our homes and hearts......... to make room in our busy lives for time to gather to share, to sing..... to pray, to worship........ to listen , to laugh and to "be" together as families, surrounded by our loved ones.

As my children grow & mature, they now share with me how very important this role is in their lives...... how much comfort they take that there is a place called "home" that they know will always have the lights on ,  waiting for them with open arms....

This is the essense of being a home keeper......

May God bless each of you as you keep your home fires bright & burning!

~ gloria ~

Pot Belly Stove - 04:29, Monday, November 24, 2008

Our furnace has been acting up this year..... not major stuff but enough to be a bother at times... with the weather getting cold, not having a working furnace is not an option.  It's been frustrating at times to wake up and realize "once again" the furnace is not working! But the Lord tell us "all things work together for our good to those that love God".... I really do believe that!  The "good" news about our latest bought with furnace problems is that it has placed a fire under my husband to F I N A L L Y give me the "go ahead" to purchase a much needed wood stove!  All I can say is : FINALLY!! This is our 3rd winter in our old farmhouse, and although we have replaced all the windows and added insulation where we could, it still is a 110 yr old drafty farmhouse.  My heart has been burdened to get a stove for years now......knowing how much the propane bill amounts to in the winter time ( last winter it was roughly $800 a month in propane!). I have been in prayer about it for some time......and not wanting to nag my husband about the stove issue, I just left it at the Lord's feet.  Well I am thrilled to announce that tomorrow I will be picking up a stove! I also have the go ahead to purchase the stainless steel liner we needed to line our old chimney with. ( very $$)  I am so excited! So are the kids! They are looking foward to a warmer winter!

Because we are on a very very tight budget, I could not purchase the stove I had originally wanted. ( a soap stone wood stove, that runs about $2,500 ) .  I looked at many different stoves, and found this one was in our budget ( about $300) and made of cast iron vs. metal,  & should do the job.

 Doing a little research on the history of the potbelly stove, I found that these stoves were used in the 1800's and 1900's to heat large areas -- such as train depots. Because of their "belly" design they do give out lots of heat.  This model is a reproduction of the old time stove. Made by www.vogelzang.com

We are going to save about $100 on this model because we have a coupon from the store where we will purchase it from. So the stove will cost us about $200, pluse $400 for the steel liner kit.

If you do have a potbelly stove, I would love to hear from you!  Do you find it heats well? I did the consumer research on this model and found good reviews.

In any case, I am grateful we will be keeping much warmer this coming winter!

~ gloria ~

For the love of old things...My kitchen renovation, part 5 - 02:22, Friday, November 14, 2008

The final part of my renovation I am going to share is another piece of furniture that we also designed our kitchen around... it's a lovely old oak hoosier cabinet. 

This piece may be old, but it is truly a work horse!  Years and years ago, homemakers did not have "kitcen cabinets" and they did not have the amount of kitchen tools and gadgets that we do today.

The hoosier was used to store their "tools" and also a place that would house flour and sugar....and other dry goods.  There was also a "ledge" or "counter" for homemakers to prepare their meals.

Since my kitchen is somewhat compact, I really do make good use of my hoosier!

The counter/ledge on it is stainless and it can be pulled out to reveal a large counterspace to use for making things.... the stainless surface makes it really nice for rolling out dough and baking.  It can then be tucked in to conserve space. Very handy!! 

There is also a space behind the roller that reveals a place that hides all my cookbooks. Notice the sugar bowl ring? Sadly the sugar bowl that had come with this hoosier had been stolen at the antique store while I had it on layaway. :(  I hope to find a replacement some day.

The drawer below used to hold flour. It's slightly slanted at the bottom. It now holds my mixing bowls!

There's also a place to hide all my cookie and grilling pans...

The top of the hoosier has some spots to display some collectables and some smaller drawers.

As you can tell this piece really is so functional! I know now why the were so indespansable in the old days.

Well, I sure hope you enjoyed the tour of our renovated kitchen. We are still not done.. we have some trim to put up between the kitchen and laundry & bath..... I really do LOVE having my laundry right off my kitchen. It has been such a huge blessing as I can stay right on top of my laundry!

I spend a great deal of time in my kitchen, and although the renovation process was challenging ( it took about 7 weeks from start to finish) I am so grateful for the finished project!

Thanks for taking the tour!!

~ gloria~

For the love of old things... My kitchen restoration project, part 4 - 05:05, Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thanks ladies for your kind remarks about our kitchen renovations. Some of you asked "how" it can be so clean, and I just wanted to tell you that is it doesn't "look" so spotless normally.... we had just cleaned the kitchen before we took these snapshots, so don't get the idea I don't cook, because I do!!  I also have an abhorhance for clutter, so that is why you see very little  "stuff" on countertops. I just don't like clutter and "stuff" ... I try to keep things to a minimal. It means less to dust! :)

I also wanted to answer the ladies who wondered if I did all my cooking on our reproduction stove, or if we had another stove we used. The answer is " yes "  we have a another newer stove we use for most of  our cooking. It has a self cleaning oven, and the reproduction one doesn't ... so I use the newer stove for most things.  We did pick up a "black and white" model, to match the "black and white" of the reproduction stove.

This is a view of the more "modern" part of our kitchen. We had to put the stove and fridge somewhere! :)

Here's another shot of the kitchen taken from the stove area .....looking towards the sink area.

Please check back tomorrow, as I will finish up the kitchen restoration "tour" with some photos of another piece of old fashioned charm that we planned our kitchen around..... it's a lovely antique Hoosier cabinet that we really do use and has become an indespensable part of my kitchen!

Until then,

~ gloria ~

For the love of old things...My kitchen restoration, part 3 - 05:28, Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Today I am going to share the 'sink area' of our kitchen. I really, really wanted to incorporate a very old sink we had picked up at a salvage yard, but my husband really felt the finish on it was too fragil for the heavy beating it would take under my use. :) So we went with a standard white sink.... alas, I still think an old fashioned sink would have brought a lot of charm to the kitchen, but I had to make some compromises for the sake of "practicality". 

I went with white appliances vs. black because I was concerned about things getting "too dark" with the wood work being stained such a rich dark color. Also, the kitchen faces north, so it receives little sunlight.  I chose white porcelian handles, which adds a farmhouse flavor and ties into the countertops.

I also picked up some warm colored braided rugs. They add such a "homey old fashioned" touch.

Our cabinets were very "basic".... so we had to add trim and other touches to make them more customized. We took 2 single pantry units and screwed them together to make 1 unit.

We added a lot of thick oak trim on top of the cabinets...... another victorian touch...

I left enough room to place antiques and decor above them.... although I have yet to get to that!

I also want to add a little more gingerbread above the sink area..... I have left some space to hang some art work there......

Thanks to all of you who have left kind remarks.  Please check back tomorrow, as I will be sharing some more glimpses into our restoration project.

~ gloria ~

For the Love of Old Things.. My Kitchen Restoration Part Two - 03:32, Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I shared with you yesterday a little about our kitchen renovation project. Our entire kitchen was designed around our antique reproduction stove. It really set the "theme" for the kitchen.  The original kitchen was a 15 x 16 room and we kept that room dimension.  We did keep an old fashioned "look" but we added some "modern conviences" into the kitchen with an old fashioned "twist" to it.

One of these is our kitchen island. I absolutely love islands! We do a lot of cooking in our home . I make everything from scratch and my 3 older girls are always beside me helping me out. My island serves as "grand central station" in many ways!   When I am cooking I usually have a daughter or 2 helping out and the little ones love to sit at the island and help "stir" whatever I am making.....or help "taste" too!

My husband is a gifted carpenter , so we saved tons of money and were able to add some "fun" elements to anotherwise budget project!  We purchased our oak cabinets thru Lowes. They were stock cabinets and were unfinished oak. I think the total cost for our entire kitchen for cabinets was around $1,200!!  The kids and I sanded the cabinets, stained them a chesnut/walnut color and then finished them with a clear waterproof finish.  The cabinets were very plain, but we did some creative things to jazz them up a bit. We added trim at the bottom of the cabinets, and we also did the same on top of the cabinets for an "old world" look. We also wrapped the cabinets in oak beadboard.  This gave otherwise plain cabinets a custom appearance. We love how it turned out!

On the island, aside from wrapping it in beadboard and also adding trim at the bottom we added some Victorian gingerbread..... to add some charm..... The ginberbread was actually "screen door" accents that can be added to wood screen door, and we stained it and then placed it under the island countertop.

The other custom touch we added to our kitchen was placing a piece of marble laid into the tile counter tops, for rolling out doughs and such.  We couldn't afford solid countertops, but we could swing for a small piece. ( 18 x 26).  

I know a lot of people may think I was nuts to choose white tile countertops with white grout, but in all honesty I really enjoy them! Yeah, they are high maintance, but with all the dark woodwork we had in the kitchen I really needed to offset it with some bright. I also didn't want the counters to "stand out" or look modern and so many of the countertops today are speckled or have patterns in them. The white is very neutral, although high maintance. ( I use a lot of bleach to clean them!).  We purchased the tile thru Lowes, again a stock item and I believe the total cost for the tile was around $125!!

The island was comprised by taking 2 stock base cabinets, screwing them together and then wrapping them in bead board.

Check back tomorrow as I will share more about our kitchen restoration project.

~ gloria ~

For the Love of Old Things.... My kitchen restoration - 05:50, Monday, November 10, 2008

For those of you who have been following my blog thru the few years I have been blogging here at HSB, know we purchased a very old home we have slowly been restoring .  I say "restoring" because it is a completely different process than remodeling.  We have built new, remodeled and restored and I can honestly say "restoring" is by far the most challenging and labor intensive! It's all very gratifying to take something old and bring it back to it's splendor and beauty.

A little history on our home. It is a 1898 midwest 4 square farmhouse.  It has simple victorian details. When we purchased the home, the prior owner had done some "remodeling" and we had to  redo what he had done.  We didn't want painted millwork -- but wanted to bring back the millwork to it's original look... darkly stained.  The carpets were torn out and the old wood floors have been lovingly restored. They are old floors, so they are not picture perfect . They have knicks and holes, and that is ok... it gives the floor "flavor" and a bit of history too.

We are nearing the end of our 2 yr project and I am relieved, to say the least! It has taken it's toll on our family and on our pocket book too!

Many of you know we recently tackled our kitchen. It had been "remodeled" with newer cabinets, and pergo floor...... we gutted the kitchen.... re-wired, re-plastered, tore out the pergo, etc..... we wanted an "old" vintage look and feel.  I love the finished look!!  It may appear "old" to you... kind of like grandma's kitchen... that's exactly the "look" and feel we  were trying to achieve.

I thought I would share some long awaited photos with you all.

For today, I wanted to start with a piece that the kitchen was designed around..... and that is an old reproduction stove......

This stove is a reproduction of a turn of the century wood cook stove. This model is electric and works! We found it on ebay for a great price and had it shipped from Maryland to Missouri! It has a small oven, and a warming oven and some storage drawers. It adds such a sense of nostalgia.

We didn't change windows in the room at all. We wanted to keep the same size room and window placements. We did install new wood windows and stained them to match the old restored woodwork. I love the old trim, with the Victorian rosettes at the corners.

The entire room was staged around this stove........ we wanted the feel to be very old fashioned... very farmhouse......we installed oak beadboard around the entire room and for the backsplash too.

The stove displays some antique copper tea kettles ( I collect tea kettles) and some other knick nacks.

Although the stove is a modern rendition of an antique -- we love how it looks and the charm it adds to the room!  It really makes things "cozy".

Please stop by my blog tomorrow as I will be blogging and sharing photos about our kitchen renovation all week long.

Until then,

~ gloria  ~

Our Homestead - 11:33, Saturday, July 26, 2008

Summer is in it's fullness now on the homestead ~~ bees are buzzing and long hot summer days are in full swing!  We have been so busy with house renovation projects, we once again did not have time to plant the much anticipated garden we had hoped for! Ah well ~ one can not do all things, and I am trying to be content with what we can "get done" at the present.  :)  We are enjoying the cool summer mornings, and I try to get my yard work done at this time before the heat kicks in. The grass has stayed such a lovely green this summer ~ we have been blessed with an abudnance of moisture, so it has been a blessing to not have to use any sprinklers this year! 

For those of you who read my blog last year ~ you know we have been working on this old house for the past 1 1/2 yrs..... this past winter we were able to add a much needed 2nd bath and new laundry room! The laundry is tucked right off my kitchen and I love it there!! I don't think I would want a laundry any other place! I have found since I moved the laundry by the  kitchen it has been all the easier to keep up with the laundry and stay on top of it! In fact I am seldom backed up at all! PTL! That is a blessing with a family of 10 children!  The 2nd bath has been a God-send , as we only had 1 bath and with all the children it was a struggled, especially in the mornings! The 2nd bath is compact, but it is the boy's bath and it has made a huge difference in stress levels around here! No more waking up to children arguing about "who gets " in the bath first!

We also tackled our mud room ~~ it was an awfully dark and depressing unfinished room ~ we are pleased with the new product and it is now a cheerful place to enter into! We put in a large shoe closet, so shoes can be tucked behind closed doors, and that has been handy!

Our project we are currently finishing up is our kitchen! Can I say that by far has been the most difficult project to tackle! Tear out began in May, and we are now putting on final touches. :) Living without a kitchen for about  8 weeks was challenging. Especially since I make everything from scratch. But , Praise the Lord I made it thru, and I still have a head of hair on my head!!

The kitchen is turing out so lovely & I am truly enjoying it! I will post some pics when I get a chance.

The next room we are going to tackle is our parlor. We have walls to redo, and new carpeting to go in, as well as wood work to refinish ~ but in comparison to the kitchen , it should be easy!

Well that's the update from our farm ~ now you know why there was no time for tilling up a garden this year! Maybe next year! All in good time.

May you be blessed!

~ gloria ~