Home Sweet Home

One thing leads to another….. Spring cleaning leads to spring redecorating. The farmhouse I live in is 100 years old and no family has lived in the house for over a decade. It’s been a long haul fixing it up, but it’s been a labor of love since it’s an old family home and was a place where I spent a lot of time visiting as a child. I see myself riding around on a tricycle on the sidewalk out front as a little girl and am surprised–and honored–that I get to live here now.

Isn’t this old door neat? Might be hard to see in the picture, but it has lots of cool cracks and peels in the paint. This wreath seemed just right to put against it. I hung it without using a nail–I used a doorhanger at the top then tied the wreath to that using twine.

This is what is called the “Dye wall” in the living room. My Great-Aunt Ruby was born a Dye (my family) and this was the wall in the farmhouse dedicated to photographs from her side of the family. Really neat old pictures. I rehung a number of them in combination frames and added some decor. Then, you know, of course I had to buy a new couch…..

My bedroom was Great-Aunt Ruby’s room and is one of the largest rooms in the house but in recent years it had been turned into the Christmas Room. Ruby was a great collector of nativity scenes. Nothing against nativity scenes, but there’s not much that’s more creepy than Christmas decor year-round. I stashed away the holiday decor and revamped the room. The old fireplace mantel is one of my favorite spots, crowded now with baby photographs of my own children and flowers and candles. The old mirror makes a great backdrop. The fireplace was redone with a gas heater years ago when gas flowed free here (and I mean FREE). The heater in this room no longer works (thus my whining in winter!) but it serves nicely as a tabletop for more photographs and candles now, and an antique lamp my parents got me in Martinsburg when I was 12.

I have a thing for roosters, and barn animals in general, and the theme suits the old farmhouse. This is one of my favorite new pieces I picked up recently. I love primitives and I found a really cool craft shop tucked away on a hill off the highway a few miles away–filled with wonderful things that all had my name on them. I shopped there three days in a row until I was sure they’d think I was a stalker. I hung this rooster over a vine I placed atop the old shade over the kitchen window.

Windowsill decor has always fascinated me. Nothing is more fun to decorate than a windowsill. I potted some ivy and found this neat little house with a nightlight. It looks so pretty at night when it’s lit. I love this window in general. Through the screen, the meadow bottom opens up down to the creek. I watch my children play, or deer grazing, or cats jumping in the growing hay.

It was a lot of work fixing up the old house this spring, but I think the house is happy.