June 2015: Renovation + First Trimester

It's been over a month since I've posted anything...Last post I wrote about the farmhouse reno/baby brewing beginnings and left us in a house full of dust and inspiration. So...First thing's first with this reno getting into full swing first week of June:

#DEMODAY - more like #DEMOWEEKS or even #DEMOMONTHS

1. We knock down the wall between the "parlor"/"entry room. (See previous May 2015 blogpost).

2. Next up: Remove the strange "T-shaped" wall between the dining room & the living room/downstairs bathroom entry/mudroom & pantry entrance. Also: remove country blue door to the water tank & reconfigure the original woodwork into this space from the T-shaped wall + dining room/parlor room wall demo scrap. We had to bolster this area while doing so since this was a support beam. Added in new support beam and enclosed it in scrap shiplap from other areas we altered. The intent here is to create some symbiosis between rooms. Open up the downstairs for better flow. We envisioned a space to be welcoming and family oriented. It would turn out that having the capability of having eyes on a wild toddler would be priceless. 

 

3. Wood, wood, and more wood scrapped onto the porch. Basically all of the walls in the dining room were covered in pine boards, which hid original woodwork. We wanted to uncover these true beauties to match the parlor room's original tongue & groove cladding, dating back to early 1900s.

Throughout the reno process, weekends were spent hunting for antiques to incorporate into the house. Frank and I were so lucky to find a house with so many doors to replace because we seriously can't get enough unique doors in our life. It is a problem that will probably haunt us. Searched high and low...and found what I was looking for! A monster door with privacy glass for our laundry room. A barn door for our downstairs office/future playroom. This blue & green barn door below was an 1800s carriage house door from the Niagara Falls area (it still had the poster on the door for the "West Shore Railroad!"). These doors were found all over the area at salvage yards and hardware stores. It takes a lot of patience and an idea of what you're looking for. Both of these were buried treasures. We also found the rolling chalkboard of my dreams that someone else had already had a hold on...more on that later (persistence and vision paid off). This month was a dream. Sifting through old salvaged brass door knobs and stacks of forgotten doors with thick glass and sturdy wood was dreamy for us. 

 

4. Last week of the month and we are getting into another big demo section:

Knocking down the pantry wall that abutted the downstairs bedroom and mudroom and tearing through the closet in the bedroom to create the hall we mapped out in our mind to create a connection between all the entries, manage the flow of people, open up lighting and establish a home for cozying up once inside. Removing this closet resulted in us not being able to categorize the bedroom as a bedroom for resale, but we didn't care. We were making it functional for our lives and what we thought was the most ideal design. The idea was to have an office here enclosed by a barn door, with a view of the hydrangeas and pear trees. You will see later on that the vintage "Career Services" door would eventually lead to the mudroom after we fixed it up. 

So, half of one wall of the hallway had rustic, nail-ridden ship lap. We decided once we opened this hall up we'd start hunting for scrap shiplap to complete this wall in old shiplap. More on that later...As you can see, lots of electrical, plumbing and the like to take care of with all of this demo. Ending the month with further stacks of wood on the porch and tools strewn about. As crazy as it sounds, looking back, I really do miss this stage of the home reno process. We are project people, so it isn't too surprising that we enjoy what looks like torture to some people. The excitement of figuring out the design, sourcing unique products, repurposing long forgotten pieces, injecting character and the tangible change that unveils before your weary eyes is so worth it.

May 2015: Memorial Day Weekend Baby Reveal + Wall Dismantling

I am so full of emotions right now. Going back in time to sift through pictures of the before, during and after stages of our farmhouse reno may not have been the best decision for a sentimental mama bear like me. Looking back through these photos means seeing videos of baby Auden kicking my belly, infant Auden asleep on my chest as I walked through our woods, his Grandma Laura's first time bathing him only one month into his beautiful life, those long days of snuggles and breastfeeding during maternity leave, and his first time in a crunchy leaf pile. 

Nevertheless, I will attempt to organize the life we've lived for the last few years to share all that we've learned and experienced. I have this storyteller instinct that makes me want to tell the story of this last few years in eloquent novel form. Instead I will post this messy and truncated version of events. I will do my best to just get out there what I want to share even if it means that this blog is just a place where Frank and I get to look at progress and our family's story when the memories are far enough away that we can't recollect the vividness of this stage of our lives. If we are the only readers of this spot on the internet that's fine by me! I never want to forget a single memory. I'm so happy and so lucky to be living this life. Great love is so rare and I have found it. 

After we moved into the house in January 2015, I left my job working at the State of Oregon as the Governor's "Chief EV Officer" to accept a job at PlugShare as Vice President, Strategic Initiatives. I started my new job April 15, 2015 (speaking at a foundation event in Atlanta, GA). If you aren't in my immediate family, you may not realize that this date holds significance for me - my dad passed away on April 15, 1994. More on that later. A month later I found out I was pregnant!! Just a quick recap here  - new house, new job, new baby...soon to be new reno within just 3-4 months. If you know me you probably aren't surprised by this fact though. 

So, Memorial Day weekend 2015 comes around and my family from my dad's side is coming down to visit us on the farm. Little did they know what was in store for them. Here is where I introduce you to my Grandma Linda. She is a fire-breathing, earthquake, and hurricane legend of a woman. When she decides she wants to help or do something she's conjured up in her head, brace yourselves. She is someone you want to have on your side. I am sure you will get to know her, in all her profanity-laced glory, throughout this blog as she has always played such an immense role in my life. 

This was the weekend we would surprise my family that a baby was growing in my belly! We played it out by giving them a tour of the farmhouse and telling them what our intentions were for doing a remodel, walking them through each room to get their input on our plans. It was then, at the end of the tour we landed in the "future nursery" outfitted with a single frame that contained the original "Bambi" embroidery my grandma made me when I was born in 1984. Queue the screams, jumping, f-bombs, and hugging. 

Which then brings us to the "wall dismantling" part of this blogpost title. One of our main items we knew we needed to do was to knock down the wall between the dining room and entry room that contained the woodstove. Being the storm that she is, my grandma decided this was the weekend we were going to demo the wall and she was going to sledgehammer it for us. We definitely weren't ready to begin the reno process, but she decided it was getting started right then and there. A baby was on the way and shit needed to get done. So - the clock began at the end of the month in May and we had 7 months to figure out how the hell we were going to finish the rest. My grandma is below with blonde hair and my Aunt Lorelei with the red hair. They killed it with my Aunt Lorelei's husband Steve and my Papa "Snunk" John! This pregnant lady steered clear of the nasty dust. 

 

Check out what we found in the walls! First - a "National Cloak & Suit Co." Postcard! Addressed to Mrs. J.L. Reed in La Center, Wash. (Clark Co.)!! This style book card is dated 1915. Also a vintage "Merry Christmas" baby card! We were so excited at this point to uncover some life beneath these walls. Old house lovers love finding old shit in walls. 

LOOK AT ALL THAT YUMMY LIGHT! This is what we imagined and it was already manifesting itself. A house full of light. So, after my family started knocking down the wall on Sunday, after a few hours they peaced out and Frank and I were left in an "oh shit" what do we do now status. You can see the pile of "old wall bits" outside our house by the tractor. Boy were we unprepared for this moment. But it was staring us right in the face and we forced ourselves mentally to ramp up the process. Even on a holiday weekend, we were able to find a contractor that could fairy in the next day to help sprinkle some contractor pixie dust after it struck us that living in a house left in disarray wasn't an option considering I was pregnant and we both had full time jobs with little time to tend to this mess. We went into project management mode and started the get shit done phase.  

Once the plastic wrap cordoned off areas where the work would start, the first stage was to finish the wall demo (including hauling the massive and heavy wood stove), remove all the 1980s pine board covering up the Victorian era tongue and groove walls, and drywall from the ceiling. Frank and I wanted to strip this house to expose the history and transform the house into a beautiful white canvas with white wood and rich dark wood layers. There were two rooms that had the original doug fir flooring - the dining room and the parlor/entry room. They needed so much work. Doug fir is soft and thus not ideal for flooring, but we wanted to keep the original floors and stay true to the region and resources of the home when it was built. Notice the distressed country blue door - this led to the hot water tank. I knew right away it had to be removed and replaced with the same original tongue and groove siding. We just had to figure out how to access the hot water tank in another area. After the first week of June 2015, we were left with a porch full of wood, a large hole in the floor where the woodstove was, and exposed lead paint on the original walls and ceiling. Some might have seen a mess, but all we saw was a beautiful wood canvas that needed some love. 

December 2014: Foxglove Hollow Beginnings

So...I've been a little busy. New job + lots of travel + lots more new adventures I will be able to share soon. I wish I could write all the time and be better at kindling relationships that are spread so far geographically. Alas, life always has a way of taking over all your thoughts, aspirations, and expectations.  

I was excited to uncover a lot more before pictures after I already shared the June 6th Horvat Homestead blogpost. The photos were taken during our first showing in December with our agent Lori Tydeman. 

This first meeting at Dave & Sandy's kitchen table included pie as the main character and it would become a trend that I made sure to perpetuate. I have a thing with trying to make any occasion an occasion for pie. We put an offer on the house that same night. It wasn't all smooth sailing from there, but we eventually nestled in. 

A Wintry Scene & Fate

When I first saw this calendar painting hanging in Sandy's dining room below - I knew it was meant to be. I had this EXACT same print I had kept with me from forever ago as the idea of my dream homestead. In my mind there was a glimmer of hope and possibility that one day this home we were perusing could look like this picturesque scene. I will still keep searching for this homestead forever in my dreams, but I would come very close to feeling all the feelings this scene emotes at Foxglove Hollow - pictures will come in future posts....Winter of 2016-2017. I have to say this post alone makes me so happy in a strange way to be writing this retroactively because it shows all of the vivid, accidental, and perfect connections that life often affords. Nothing is ever linear. But everything is so interdependent and calming when you realize much is out of your control, but that which is in your control can help guide that which is not. So convoluted, but writing in stream of consciousness mode without editorial in an effort to complete something, if anything that I have stored up in that mind of mine. 

Kitchen & Dining Room

The kitchen was blue. Very blue. And maroon. It had a smell of deeply permeated meat stinks on one side where 10 years of meat stewing took place. But the layout to me was ideal. The view spectacular. This would become our most important room. Lucky charms birthday cakes, homemade pasta, copious breakfasts, tacos for years, and overflowing coffee cups were just an iota of what has emerged out of this kitchen. We also moved the steamy meat stinks process away from the cupboards. 

Entry room (or as I call it - the "Parlor") (or as Frank called it - the "Whiskey Library")

The original front door # 1 you see with the lace curtains (photo 1) and there is the front door # 2 (photo 4) with the Christmas wreath hanging. In photo 3 you can see the connection to the dining room separated by a superficial brick-covered wall that houses the wood stove. Photo 6 & 7 show the view of the front lawn and barn from the front door # 2. Photo 8 shows the entry from door # 1, which led directly to the staircase to the second floor, as well as what was formerly the only bedroom on the main floor. 

Living Room 

Frank surveying the house as surveyors at heart often do. Contemplating at this point if we would dive into this project of a house. Wondering if this would be the home where we'd finally establish roots. Since he was 27 (he's 31 in this picture) he has wanted to buy a house with me and start a family. Four years later I was finally ready. It finally felt right. Home has always been an elusive concept to me. More on that later. 

This entryway through the wall between the dining room and the living room faces out to the backyard and then on the other side you get a view of the mighty Willow tree. Looking back at these pictures of all the previous owners' decorations in the holiday season of 2014 brings me back to our first Christmas we hosted here in 2016 and the Christmas of 2015, when the power was out and I was just a few weeks from giving birth to Auden. If you were to look out the willow window now, beyond the willow, you'd see two houses that weren't there before. Dave & Sandy's eventual home that they built on 5 acres and Connie and Jack Love's house down to the right, which would soon house our cow buddies - Rosie, Matilda, Maynard, and of course Muddy. 

Pantry/Mudroom 

This pantry would not live a very long life after we moved in. The entry to the mudroom and the mudroom as a whole would also be transformed...as it stood when we moved in - you entered into the pantry/mudroom area via the living room, with the downstairs bathroom entrance also right by the mudroom entrance (facing the dining room). The original tongue in groove/small shiplap wood ceilings were bare here and a smaller wall strangely separated parts of the mudroom. 

Downstairs Bathroom

This is the bathroom on the main floor that you accessed via a door that opened out right into the dining room area. Exactly where you want all the poop smells to disseminate, right? One of three bathrooms in the entire house (+ 2 in the barn). 

Downstairs Bedoom (the only one)

This was the sole bedroom on the main floor. So, this is the room door you saw when you first walked in the front door # 1 (the one that leads to the staircase) to the left. This room was situated on the other side of the pantry/mudroom. For the first couple months of living here when Matt, the neighbor boy (former resident of this house), would always stop by and ask if he could see "his room," which would become my office....and eventually Auden's playroom. 

Staircase 

Heading upstairs from the front door # 1, the stairs were pretty rough and the railing super unsteady. The entire upstairs is carpeted, the upstairs railing in no way up to code/current safety specs and not the best construction. Note the doors to all the rooms. These would all be replaced in our true schoolhouse fashion. The wooden doors were very heavy and looked to be constructed by one of the previous homeowners. Old door handles that did not work. 

Upstairs - Guest Room 

Heading up the stairs, to the immediate left is an entrance to the guest room (far left) and what would become Auden's nursery (to the right). The rest of the pictures below are photos of what the guest room looked like when we first viewed the house. The view out the windows of the driveway and the backyard/goat shack. 

Auden's Room 

This tiny little stunner would eventually turn into little Auden's nursery. The hexagonal window prettiness factor, a wall of diagonal, rustic shiplap, and the view of what would become termed "Auden's Tree." In an earlier shot, under the guest room header, you can see the schoolhouse light that was originally in his room. We eventually replaced that with an antique copper schoolhouse light set we found at an antique store and moved the older light downstairs into his playroom. 

Master Bedroom & Bathroom 

From the hallway entrance to the master bedroom, in all its carpeted and cornflower blue glory! 

Guest Bathroom 

 

The "White Room" 

Originally, I had envisioned this room being the nursery. After all, it began my "sewing room," otherwise known as the room I stored my sewing machine, an 1800s spinning wheel passed onto me from my ancestors in Iceland, alongside all hopes and dreams of ever learning how to sew, pioneer skill acquisition, piles of dust-covered fabric, and the time it takes to get shit done. Bonus - this room has a view of our mini pear orchard! 

Exterior 

The back of the house (note the mudroom door - which will change!), the shed that houses the water pump for irrigation system and the garbage, and Frank perusing our field and woods behind the house properly outfitted in a field jacket with Sandy & Dave's late dog, Donald.