We have been updating some things in the house, and three of them were finished in December. They took an ABSURD amount of time to do by someone who worked on them full time for 3 months. I have no explanation for it. The first was adding this gorgeous barn door. When you walk in our house, you can see the bedroom hallway immediately to the left, and can see straight into my bedroom. It’s invasive. I wanted some privacy, and this door was it. I kept mentioning it to Adam, and he though I was nuts. Then one day he came home and there were not one, but TWO! barn doors in our garage. He sighed and rolled his eyes at his crazy wife. The best part? I got them FOR FREE. Of course they didn’t look like this when I got them. They’d been laying in a field and were weathered and dirty. The sides got trimmed up, the whole thing was cleaned and then rubbed with tung oil. Instead of buying the ridiculously expensive special barn door house hardware for $1,000 (I’m not exaggerating), we went to CAL Ranch Store and got real barn door hardware for $200 and painted it black.
Once he saw it up, Adam caught the vision and loved it too. Every single person who walks in the front door compliments the door, even the 60 year old plumber. It is stunning. I love it. If we ever move, it is coming with us.
This smaller inset door is one of my favorite parts. We go in and out of that little door a lot. I try to leave the main door closed to keep Daisy away from the bathroom. I’ll leave it up to your imagination to guess why. How did I get two 100 year old barn doors for free? I wanted one SO BAD, but doors like this can cost thousands in antique stores. Three days a week I passed this house on a few acres full of JUNK, and these two doors were leaned up against the shed by the road. So one day I stopped and asked the woman who lived there if I could have them. She didn’t even know they were there. Her late husband was a hoarder (you think?). She said I was the prettiest person ever to come ask her for something in her junk yard. And then she said yes! I got a friend with a truck to come help me move them. After that I would take her eggs, homemade jam, homemade bread, chili I had canned and leave them on her step. She lives alone and is just a really nice lady.
The second project was these doors. It was just a curved opening, but we wanted doors to give some privacy to the office. We temporarily use it as a bedroom while we were finishing the basement. I made coverings for the windows. Five kids in two bedrooms is a lotta kids. I got the doors on Craigslist. They are antiques. They used to hang in a nice hotel in the area. They were honey oak, the metal was brass, and it had the glass and bars both top and bottom, but I saw the potential. I had him add v-groove to the bottom panels and paint the door and paint the brass black. He also had to frame in the doorway. When I was debating the color of the door, I asked Adam what he thought. He absentmindedly told me to do whatever I thought would look best. When he came home and saw them up, he nearly passed out. “This is the color you chose?!” Um, I asked you what you thought. Those doors make me happy, and everyone who comes in mentions them.
The third project was these built-ins I designed. I know the lighting is awful in these pictures. Sorry.
It is so nice to get our books out of the boxes and onto shelves. There will be no shelf styling for now. These shelves are full of books! Books that were in boxes!
We also love having a home for the TV. Before it was above the mantel, and we hated it there. TV is not a focus of our life, and we don’t want it to be a focus of our home.
Since this is November I should have pictures of Thanksgiving dinner, but for some reason I don’t. Not sure why…
The only picture I have is after the grandkids got matching jammies from Grandma, Daisy didn’t quite have her pants right…
On Saturday after Thanksgiving I like to get out my tree, so we started decorating! Daisy has two of the animals from our Little People Nativity set.
Brinlee joined a competition dance team, and they had a performance at the Dickens festival. Very cute little routine. Grandma met us there. Brinlee is on the right.
When I got there, I found out it was paid parking. I never carry cash, so the attendant just grumpily took my two dollars and waved me in. When we met up, grandma gave me $3 more, and after it was over, I went back and paid the rest. The attendant’s jaw dropped. He asked my why I came back to pay the rest. Um, because I owed you three dollars. Thanks for bailing me out Grandma.
Daisy being her cute self before church. A rare moment when her hair isn’t completely wild.
Thanksgiving was hard for me this year. I really miss my family, and instead of seeing them about once a month, we see them about once a year. “I miss my Tennessee home, and I’ve been away way too long.” And I cry every time I hear that song. Every. Time. I’m too far outside my Southern comfort zone.