Coming Together

Here's a couple more photos to show off the new paint in the living room and dining room, as well as the refinished wainscoting.

We got really lucky, and the woman who did the wood refinishing for us had just finished a project at the Gamble House.  She had access to the paint formulas that were used to recreate the original interior paint scheme that Greene and Greene created and gave them to us.  That sage green we used is a totally period appropriate reproduction.

The plan is to paint the music room in the same color scheme, but it took us three full days to do these two rooms and I fell off the ladder, spilling an entire gallon of paint all over myself. It's safe to say we won't be rushing to start painting again any time soon.

Take Our Cue from Here

There is only one wall in the basement where it would be logical to have a pool cue rack.

It's a tight fit on that side of the table, so to keep the rack from interfering with your shot, it's recessed between the studs.

The framing of the rack is made from wood leftover from other projects in the house.  The back is made from aromatic cedar to keep bugs away, but it's already losing its scent.

This Is Kind of Becoming a Tradition

The mango tomato plant in the backyard produced a late crop.  

They were pretty nasty looking (see the tomato on the right), but I was able to skin them by making a shallow X on the bottom with a paring knife.  Then I dropped them into boiling water for about 30 seconds, plunged them into ice water and the skins came right off.

The result?  The nice, clean, juicy tomato on the left.  And the tomato sauce I made with it was delicious.

This isn't the first time we've gotten a late crop.  Click here to see our harvest in 2012.

Reach for the Brass Ring

The window seat has been stained and the final hardware installed.  Just need to come up with some sort of cushion so I can curl up on it with a book!

Shine A Light On It

There have been a lot of improvements at Goodin's Folly as the holidays approach and it's been really fun because all of them are things that we can see, as opposed to things that are under the surface.

We found this light fixture on a salvage yard's website.  Ironically, we drove past the place when we were in Nashville over the summer, but didn't have time to stop.

Rob hung it this morning and you can see in the background that we painted a few weeks ago.  (More photos of that later.)  You can also glimpse a bit of the refinished wainscoting, which I just love.

Devil Is in the Details

The window seat has been completed to match the wainscoting in the dining room.  Now we just have to get it stained.

The lids have special hinges that hold them in place so I can put things in it without getting my fingers slammed.

There is so much storage, I could put a body in here.  Hm...that could be useful some day!

A Seat to See From

Music room windows

This spot has been begging for a window seat since the day we moved in and it's finally getting one.

We found a cabinet maker to do our kitchen and decided to try him out on a smaller job.  He's been fantastic.  The outside of the seat is douglas fir, but the inside is melamine, so we'll be able to clean it easily if something we are storing spills.

I'll post more pictures later this week, but here's a teaser....the front of the window seat will match the dining room wainscoting. 

The basic frame of the seat