PICKING UP A NEW DREAM: Renovating another old house

Seven years ago today, we purchased our beloved Wild Rose Farm. As the years went by, we began to dream . . . and made plans to build our Finally Farmhouse.

If you’ve visited My Place in the last few months, you know:

The dream died. We bought another old house in town.

I’ll admit. It’s been a hard adjustment for me. I needed time to put down one dream and try to pick up another.

I don’t pour my heart into things halfway . . .

For the first month we owned our “new” 1908 Victorian, I renovated during the day and returned home to the fifth wheel at the farm at night. But three weeks ago, I went to bed knowing that the next morning I’d wake up and be ready to start moving into our new house—and so we did.

A very few pieces of furniture turned one room into living, sleeping, and office space. Clothes were moved into closets. The pantry was stocked. The refrigerator was, too . . . or at least as much as possible until we can find where we put the shelves when we moved it to storage. 😂

But the house still felt like a stranger.

And so I did the only thing I knew to do.

I kept moving forward.

I pulled a wreath out of storage and hung it on the front door. It was only two weeks until Christmas, after all!

And then I got to work . . . Removing wallpaper. Testing floor oil colors. Making dusty messes!

After a pre-Christmas trip to see the grandsons and their parents—and get loved on for awhile!—we returned home and got back to work on the Master Bedroom. Here’s a reminder of what it looked like when we first saw it.

Real estate listing

This is what we accomplished before leaving for Christmas:

• Wallpaper removed ✅
• Paint removed from floors ✅

As you can see in the real estate listing pic, the door on the right was the entrance to the (horribly-configured) Master Bath. The door on the left was a small closet. Since we want to enter our closets from inside the bathroom, we decided to remove the door on the left.

But when we did, we realized IT was the original entrance between the two rooms. The door on the right was the afterthought. And so we did what every good old house renovator does when they get thrown a curve. We stopped. We looked for more clues. We reworked our bathroom layout.

We reinstalled the door on the left.

It will become our entry into the adjoining room. The one we’ll reconfigure for our Master Bath — but what I believe was almost certainly a nursery when the house was built.

And we removed the door on the right.

And then we started installing recessed panels to dress up the room a bit. Still working on those!

I was beginning to get back in the long-ago groove of renovating an old house. It was comfortable and hard at the same time. Honestly, though, I was going through the motions.

This place that was now my home still felt like a stranger.

And then suddenly it was New Years Eve. The blank slate of 2019 was ahead. I had to make a choice not simply to keep moving forward. That decision had already been made. But I had to choose to move forward intentionally and willfully. Bravely, perhaps, but choosing to embrace this wonderful gift of a house we’ve been provided.

It was time to DIY this place from a house to a HOME.

And so Renaissance Man and I drove out to the farm and brought back the old farm table we’d bought long ago at auction. The one that I hope will sit on our “someday” patio.

It’s rough, but I think it’s beautiful with its two wide boards and the scars of days gone by.

And we set it in the too-empty center of our soon-to-be-renovated (and relocated!) kitchen, surrounded it with card table chairs, and I did my first tablescape in my new house.

And if you look closely, you’ll see holes and mends and fading in that once-gorgeous old tablecloth. You’ll see paper towel napkins because my linens are still packed away.

Me? I see hope and encouragement.

I see God’s gentle promise that everything’s going to be okay. That I can trust him with heartbreak and lost dreams. That He understood when I was angry with Him.

There are no pretty berries at this house, but I found some lacy cedar to add a touch of texture. And, though hours before I had only four plates and not enough glasses, I could now set a table for five — exactly what I needed for the friends coming over for a very impromptu supper. My sweet husband had no idea what was in those boxes he brought from storage.

And even better . . . we had a good laugh about my hole-y tablecloth and paint-splattered table and how they’d “seen better days”. In truth, they were exactly the kind of things I would have used for a “fun” retirement dinner — and our friends were retiring that very day. I have a feeling God chuckled as well, pleased that laughter and hospitality were entering this house along with us.

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A little new year housekeeping request . . . If you’re a subscriber to My Place to Yours (thank you!), you should have received an email letter from me last week. If you didn’t, please check your spam folder. If it’s not there, please subscribe again to be sure you’re on the list. If it is in your spam folder, please hit “reply” and let me know so I can try to see if there’s something I can change on my end. The more up-to-date my email list is, the better chance of you getting the emails. Thanks all!

Related posts:

Renovating our Small-town Victorian: Week 1 FRESH START: Old House Kitchen Renovation Begins Old House Master Bathroom Renovation: DIAMONDS AND SWIRLS FALLING IN LOVE WITH MY OLD HOUSE: Feeling Like a Mail-order Bride