Downstairs House Tour - Before!

We have seen some changes happening over at the farmhouse this week!  Woo Hoo!  Lots of scraping and wall patching going on.  Brian and I even got to start painting (gasp!) this weekend!  It has been nice to have a long weekend to get some work done.  We're working on the upstairs bedrooms now since these rooms don't really require much work beyond paint and floors.  We also started working on the outside of the house.  The porch needs a lot of repair, scraping and caulking before we can paint.  I don't really have many any after shots for you to see right now.  So, I thought I would show you some of the downstairs before we started doing any work.  How does that sound?

Please let me begin by apologizing for the picture quality.  This is proof that owning a nice camera does not make a good photographer...  Photography classes are on my To Do list!

The listing called this the Parlor, we'll call it the Family Room

We have two living areas downstairs, this is the larger of the two.  Notice the coffered ceilings?  The pine floors go throughout the house and will be refinished and the walls repainted.  

This is the second living area downstairs.  I see a new paint job in the near future!

The second living area will be more of a sitting room.  The fireplace isn't working but we would like to add a gas insert at some point.  In the meantime, it looks cute.  This room connects to the dining room and the parlor.  The dining room is such a nice space.  Right now it is a pretty sunny yellow and has a very lovely popcorn ceiling...  The popcorn is actually being removed and the paint, it's going away as well.  I haven't located a new chandelier yet, at least not one that I'm willing to pay the asking price for.  It is disappointing that there aren't any original light fixtures remaining in this house.  I may have to get creative.  

Dining Room - Another fine example of my photography skillzzzz

Lastly, we have the master bedroom downstairs.  Really, this room only needs cosmetic changes.  We have lots pf patching and repairing of walls and ceilings downstairs from running the new wiring, so the rooms all look a lot worse right now.  

Master Bedroom

As an added bonus, I'm throwing in a picture of the "Big Scary Barn".  I have a love/hate relationship with this behemoth.  On one hand, it will hopefully be the home to lots of chickens and goats!  Yeah, I know very little (ummmm, nothing...) about farm animals.  Surely my degree in Agricultural Economics will help me out some.  Hey, I took Animal Science 101 and I can learn!  The scary part of the barn is, well look at it!  IT NEEDS HELP AND I HAVE NO CLUE!  

Big, scary and hopefully NOT haunted barn

Today, being Memorial Day, I would like to express my gratitude for all of those who have served in the military, those who have died for our country and the families who have awaited their return.

"And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier's tomb, and beauty weeps the brave." 

-Joseph Drake