Big Finale, Open House Part Two

So...here is the front of the Project House. Guess I never realized I had not posted the full view of what we have been working on. It has such a welcoming porch - you can't help but want to stay awhile. We will head upstairs today and finish the open house...

As you head up stairs there is a landing and a small attic room behind the door.

Inside, there is a comfortable trundle bed for the guest that likes a really dark room for sleeping.

There is a small skylight in the roof, but it does not let a lot of light in, which makes this great for sleeping late!

It's very cozy! Behind the quilt against the back wall is a "huge hole" where Miss Janice stores all her Christmas decorations.

BUT, the biggest secret to this room is that it also doubles as a 'server' room. For you all geeks out there...this is heaven. At one time there were 7 servers humming happily in this room. Now, there are only two.

When Miss Janice sold her office building and brought her business home - along came all the servers, papers, desks, work related items. We have been busy purging a lot of these items, but there is more to do. Our goal is by the end of the year all of this will be gone and this will truly be a small guest room...without the droning hum of servers!

When you leave the attic room there is another short flight of stairs to the second floor. At the top of the stairs is the upstairs bathroom.

This room turned out to be a huge disappointment to us. We did not finish this one area. There is still pink floral wallpaper to stripe off. Very soon, though. The second disappointment was the floor. When we originally pulled back the carpet and peeked underneath, we saw wood floors. YEAH! We would just sand and stain them. However, once we pulled up the full piece of carpet, there was a piece of plywood in front of the shower. This meant we would either have to re-carpet the area, or paint the floor. Miss Janice had been hoping for a "painted" floor...so this was it!!

I decided to draw out a design to play up the plywood so it would actually look like a small mat. I created the design then transferred it to the floor to paint. It takes longer than stenciling, but the results were what I had hoped. The bathroom will eventually be black and white, and have pink accents.

Next door to this bathroom is the larger guest room.

This is a wonderful space for a guest to make themselves at home. Not only is the room large, but it is homey. This was originally painted green and we have left that color, but highlighted it with pink. This white dresser at the entrance of the room will eventually move into the craft room - but until some more purging happens in there, it will have to make it's home here. The mantel Miss Janice was using for her headboard in her bedroom has been painted white and affixed to the wall upstairs to create a cozy little sitting area. I had a wonderful pink and green piece of fabric we stabled to the back of the mantle to create a little interest.
Miss Janice had a lot of quilts and vintage linens put away, some of which were her mother's. I pulled out everything pink and used it in the room. The hanging quilts are hung from a ballet bar that was in her room as a girl.
Outside the guest room is a nice reading nook on the top landing of the stairs.

It's a comfortable place to curl up with a book or just sit and visit with a friend. As you leave this space you enter the last bedroom, which is now Miss Janice's office/craft room.

When Miss Janice first moved her office home she needed enough space for her and her assistant to have space to work. This was the perfect room! There are two large work areas and lots of storage.

Miss Janice has since closed her business, so half the room has now become a craft area. She has space to spread out and create to her heart's delight. There are still many files and "office" type things that need to be purged and shredded, but it will come!

It a fun place to work together on projects...each can have their own desk, yet sit right across from each other and talk. The best of both world's!

Thanks again for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed your visit and all the hard work that went into the makeover. Miss Janice is already talking about knocking out a back wall in the kitchen to create an eat in area....hopefully that will be next year!

I guess the completion of this project frees me up to sew some more...so I better get busy.

Till next time,

debi

Big Finale, Open House

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. Life seems to slip by.

My husband and I took a "real" vacation this month. We spent the first eleven days of October in Florida. We enjoyed a great, relaxing time, just the two of us. Not only did we have time to do nothing, but had time to re-connect with family and friends that live in Florida.

We were able to re-connect with friends we have not seen in 24 years! It was such a great time of catch up, pictures, and remembrances. They left Dallas (and Dallas Theological Seminary) in 1986 and we have not seen them since them. We were able to fill in all those years over dinner...almost as if we'd never been apart.

We also had the opportunity to visit some elderly "relatives" while we were there. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch time with them and laughed and caught up on times gone past. We also enjoyed dinner with their grandchildren and my girlfriend from college. Lots of new memories were made and MUCH laughter was shared.

However, once we returned to McKinney...we had the final push on Miss Janice's house to complete ALL projects and hold an open house to show off the new digs. There had been many items completed while we were gone, but all those little things that seem to hang on till the end needed to be tied up...and we had one week. (Hence my reasons for not posting!)

I just realized I don't have a good picture of the front of the house...I'll have one by tomorrow. I thought today I would take you through the downstairs and tomorrow we'd tour the upstairs.

Let's get started. Last Sunday was perfect weather for an open house. To begin we will start on the porch. This is our favorite place to spend Friday nights after a long week of work.

I finished sewing the new cushions the week I returned from Florida.

There's space to swing and enjoy dinner...or just relax.

Once you enter the front door...you're in the entry hall...To the right of this picture is the dining room and living room...which is where this whole project began about a year ago. This was originally the living room (and the dining room was in the larger area). We flipped the two rooms to create a more livable space for Miss Janice and to suit how she entertains.

In the dining room we pulled the carpet and sanded the heart pine floor. A design was laid down and we stained the floor two colors to create the pattern. The walls were also painted the two pink tones. (Actually pink and raspberry.)

The dark woodwork was original to the house.

From this room we can enter the living room, again painted a two tones of pink. You can see into the kitchen from this doorway.These floors were already finished, so only the paint was added to this room.
Across the hall from the dining room is the library. It was originally painted red by the last homeowners who totally brought the house from the brink of destruction. When they purchased this house in 1982 - it was condemned by the city. Miss Janice purchased this house in 2000 and has only had to do some cosmetic things to bring it to her liking. The original owner came to the open house and was very pleased with all the work that had been done on this great home.

Originally this room was carpeted. There was plywood underneath the carpet, so this pine floor was laid new, sanded and stained with the border around the edge.Miss Janice is able to show off all her Texas/Cowgirl memorabilia in this area.She has some great antiques...and some wonderful vintage Texas art!

From the Library we'll move next door to the master suite. Miss Janice's bedroom was also carpeted as was her bathroom. I might mention here that all the rooms downstairs (except the kitchen and the library were painted peach! There is no longer ANY peach in this home!)

Miss Janice loves PINK - as I'm sure you've guessed by now. Originally her room was filled with pink (and yes the walls were the peach color) She has gone with a very calming and serene blue and brown theme now.

We were able to create her sitting nook with a garage sale mantle we found. My husband and son-in-laws created the whole effect to look like she could cozy up to a real fire. There are still some tiles we want to adhere to the back of the fireplace...just one of the "small" things that was not completed before the open house.

She swapped out some antiques she had stored out of sight upstairs, and now they seem to have always been part of this room.

The bathroom was also completely redone. There was old linoleum under the carpet in this room. (As a bit of history, this 1917 house was a boarding house after WW1. Women stayed here to be close to their husbands who were in the VA hospital here in McKinney. This room was a kitchen during it's boarding house era.)

We laid the new tile floor, in keeping with the era of the house.
The floor just finishes off the whole area! Even Dorothy got a new dress for the open house. Of course, Miss Janice can't help herself when it comes to dressing things up with bling!
We also found this small cabinet to store towels in at the very last minute (the day before the open house!)
Next we'll travel down the hall to the downstairs guest bath. There was pink carpet and peach walls in this small space. We went with dark blue and refinished the floors. The design was added to create more interest in the small area. We brought in Miss Janice's bluebonnet pictures which go perfectly with the walls in this small bath.

Across the hall from this bath is the kitchen. No real "cosmetics" were done to this room, however the grout was routed out and re-done so that all the counters are now gleaming. My daughter also refinished the edge of the counters to match the floor color. I also made new curtains...but Miss Janice's dream is to knock out the wall behind the fridge and take in part of the porch for an eat in kitchen. I'm thinking that's another project for another year!

When you leave the kitchen you can head out back to the deck and potting shed.

I was able to finish all these cushions before I left for Florida. The area is so homey and inviting now...most everyone at the open house ended up out here just visiting and of course eating. We had all the food set up out back for the party.

New steps were added to the deck along with this small wall to prevent people from falling off. Miss Janice also got a new fan and a metal room on this area after a big storm blew off her shade cloth and ruined her old fan.

AND....finally....her is the potting shed. My husband originally built this a couple of years ago, but it's the center piece for the back yard.

Later this week I'll take you upstairs. There was not so much a re-do upstairs as a "purge and re-move." The upstairs guest bath had carpet that was removed...which now leaves only the attic room with carpeting. For now...that will stay. All the floors upstairs were already re-finished, so not sooooo much work like downstairs.

Thanks for coming to the open house. It's been a year long labor of love (even if it's not my house!) We've learned a lot in our journey and had fun along the way. I want to than Miss Janice for allowing us to "have our way" in her home! To my husband, Peter, my daughters Ashley, Emily and Stephanie and my two son-in-laws, Mike and BJ. Each made a contribution to the project and each played a part that was integral to the completion of my dream and vision for this house!

Till later...then we'll go upstairs!

debi