Welcome!
I am so glad you stopped by!
Those of you who have been following the transformation of my Cowboy’s 108 year old house, have seen the kitchen, and two bedrooms…up to a point.
You have seen the before photos…and the first stages of a change that has knocked my Cowboy’s socks off. The shares so far have not included much along the lines of decorating. They have only included the “bones” of the rooms…walls, ceilings, floors and sometimes curtains on the windows.
If you are new to this series…you will want to stop reading this post now and get the full story on the 108 year old house. To start at the beginning…click Here! This link will take you to the first post and guide you through every other one, all the way back to this post.
Today, you are in for a treat! I am going to share the most charming space(s) to date. You are going to see what I consider two areas-- the staircase and the hallway! Now, I know you are probably thinking that it isn’t such a treat…but once you see how much work went into these two spaces…you will agree…it is a special little area. I also considered it two spaces as it had a lot of work…and the stairs are an entity all their own…lol
Allow me to explain:
This is the stairwell…yes…it is well worn to say the least.
At the top of the stairs there is the most adorable set of windows…and a huge mess.
I had already started filling in some of the damaged areas when this photo was taken.
This is the door to that wonderful little balcony…Don’t you just LOVE the knife in the door thing the Cowboy has going on in this house?
When my best girlfriend came for a tour she commented that she “loved the locks” lol
Maybe we should address the “locks” as we go through this house reno…what do you think? lol
…you remember this little balcony…I can’t wait to put a chair out here! BUT…it is winter now, and it is cold…so I am focused on the inside of the house.
I got myself started with the wall patching…
My GOODNESS (and I didn’t say it quite that nicely when I was here alone) did I have a lot of patching to do…I went through one full large pail of filler just filling in all the holes in the hallway and stairwell.
This area…didn’t need to be perfect as we decided to put some panel board up all the way down the hall on this side of the stairs as the original plaster was in horrible shape.
There was a lot of filling to do on the actual stairwell walls as well…
I felt like it would never end! lol
While I grumbled and moaned and cursed and complained about the filling and sanding, my cowboy put up the panel board over the original plaster walls. That means MORE filling for me to do! He used a lot of screws to make sure it was secure.
I am not impressed.
Have you noticed that filling holes and sanding are not my favorite tasks??? I can honestly say I HATE IT!
I thought it would never ever end!
I finally finished up…got all the holes filled in and started to paint!
The original plaster walls are not exactly the smoothest…lol…but we are just painting them as is…My Cowboy and I kind of like the character that the old walls have with all their ‘waves’.
We decided to use the wooden planks on the wall and ceiling in the hallway, so my cowboy got busy and put up this wall around the windows and the ceiling….
To my utter dismay, he damaged the walls a little bit when he put the planks on the ceiling. That was a long reach…and the wood was cut to be a tight fit…and my Cowboy is only an inch or two taller than me…(I am about 5’4”) …so that was a really long reach. lol (Sorry Cowboy…I had to say it out loud) lol
I needed to figure out how the heck I was going to fix that mess without getting paint on the ceiling!
One day while the Cowboy was away at work, I drove the hour up to Minburn and set up the ladder. I made it as tall as I possibly could…and I tried to get up there and fix that damage on the ceiling.
I climbed up to the top of the ladder, and still was about 3 feet too short to reach! So I grumbled, and complained and worked my way back down.
HOW THE HECK AM I GOING TO FIX THAT!????!
Then it came to me!
YEP! I did…I taped my cutting brush onto the handle of a broom…
ta da!
This isn’t the first time in my life that I have taped the brush to something so I could reach! lol
It worked like a charm!
After I did that little touch up…I decided to take the ladder out of the stairwell…and ended up getting stuck! That ladder is as heavy as they come…and it is not easy to maneuver on the stairs…somehow I managed to get it twisted and leaning on me…in a very awkward position…and I almost could not get out! I had gotten it condensed down, but had one arm stuck in it...and I was in a very bad position! I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t figure a way to work my way out of that little predicament…there is NO cell phone service in the stairwell most of the time…and I locked the door behind me when I came in…No one else had a key and my Cowboy was not expected to be home for 2 full weeks! I would have been hooped! I finally got myself un-stuck…and man was I sweaty and tired after that! lol Every time I walk down the stairs, I think of the day I had gotten myself wedged between the wall, the steps and that heavy ladder…and how I didn’t even ding the walls getting myself out! hahaha!!!
Anyways…enough with my clumsy story…back to the project.
With all the touch ups on the main walls finished, I then got busy and put the planks on the wall around that door! That sure did make a difference!
Things are looking much better up here!
I put another coat of paint on all the walls…and stood back and looked at my handiwork!
So far…
So good!
It looks so much better…but still something isn’t quite right…
It needs something …
…ya…that staircase…it needs me… BAD!
Cowboy was very happy to hear that I was going to address this area…he said when he was small, he would often have splinters in his little feet from the wooden stairs and floors in the house. He was not interested in getting any more!
So…I went home for the night and made a plan.
The next morning I got up early…and drove back to my special project house.
Have I mentioned I am in love with this old lady? Ya…the more time I spend here the more she seems to have gotten me hooked.
I spent the entire day staining and sealing the railing and staircase!!! This was an enormous job…it took me 7 full hours to do all of it! I was as high as a kite on the paint fumes too! lol
I have to admit…it did turn out fantastic!
To celebrate my success…I hung some sheers on that adorable little set of windows…and stood back to admire my work.
Yep…I totally nailed it. That staircase looks fantastic now…not perfect…but, again, perfect is not what we are going for. We wanted to spruce up the area…but hold some of the fond memories my Cowboy has of this space.
The end result was TOTALLY worth the huge paint hangover I got from staining and sealing the stairs! hahaha!
I just had to share the curtains with you guys up close…They still need to be “primped” a little bit…and I think a cute valance would be a good idea. I just love these old windows…they have so much charm.
I know what you are thinking…you are saying to yourself…”Toots…those curtains are NOT rustic, or Cowboy in any way, shape, or form! How BIG is that paint hangover…or are you still high????”
Well…quite frankly, I decided that I don’t care! hahaha! My Cowboy will have to suck it up, and have a little Tootsie in this space. hahaha!
Besides…if I go completely rustic, it would be nothing but hard, repetitive and boring…so I decided that we are going to add a little softness to the spaces in this place. There is nothing wrong with that! The Cowboy actually likes the curtains on the windows…so it’s all good! (lucky him…or he’d have had some curtains he didn’t like on his windows…FOREVER!) HAHAHA!
Just this last week, the Cowboy stopped at his Mom’s new place on his way back up to work. He took his computer out and shared photos of the old house with her. Cowboy’s Mom spent a lot of years cleaning up after her brood in this house. She knows this place like no one else does…(I am starting to know it almost as well as she did…I seem to have touched pretty much every inch of it in some way, shape or form so far) I don’t think she had time to look at the house quite the way I do, she was a very busy mom…8 children plus all their friends is a handfull! I honestly do NOT know how this woman stayed sane, or how she did all that she did…I only have 3 kids and I am exhausted, annoyed and overwhelmed by them a lot of the time! She might just be a super hero with the patience of a saint! lol The more stories my Cowboy tells me about his childhood…the more I have to say I admire this lady. She sure worked hard for her family.
When the Cowboy started showing his Mom the before photos of her old home…she knew exactly which room every photo was of…even though it had gone down hill a lot since she moved out all those years ago…she still recognized it. BUT when he started showing her the AFTER photos…she didn’t recognize some of the rooms! She was amazed at the changes we have made…and she really liked them! That in itself made all the filling and sanding worthwhile! I have to admit that I was a little nervous to hear her opinion of my work to this point. I was hoping she didn’t hate it, or get upset that it had changed so much. The relief I felt was huge!
That brings me to the end of my share for today. What do you think? Do you agree that this area was a lot of work but well worth the effort? I love reading your comments…so please weigh in!
Stay tuned…for more improvements in the 108 year old house. I am almost ready to share the best space of all…and can’t wait to share ALL of these rooms with furniture and a few little Tootsie Touches!
Until Next Time…Happy Junkin’/ Renovating/ Decorating!
*)*)*)… Take every chance you get, because some things only happen ONCE!
(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
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(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.
www.tootsietime.com
Did you miss a post or two in the 108 year old house series?
Article #1 If The Walls Of This Old House Could Tell A Story…The Saddest Chapter Is About To End.
Article #2 If Walls Could Tell A Story…The 108 Year Old House…On The Inside
Article #3If The Walls Of This Old House Could Tell a Story…The Small Bedroom In The 108 Year Old House
Article #4 If the Walls Of This Old House Could Tell a Story…The Master Bedroom
Article #5 If the walls Of This Old House Could Tell a Story…The Kitchen In The 108 Year Old House
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