Lime-washing the Ceiling

Trent and Ethan white-washing the ceiling. I chose lime-wash, for historical reasons, and also because I wanted to maintain the texture of the old wood.


Ethan wanting to know how many more coats we have to do.


The secret to a good days work: a big country breakfast.


Ethan frying eggs in bacon grease, just like Great Grandpa George used to do.


Trent discovering the charms of a small town paper.


Ethan making hermits from Jennie's vintage cookbook. For your information, a hermit is a spice cookie with currants or nuts. They were so very good.

Over Head

Uncovering the plank ceiling in the living room was really exciting. Once we got the right tools and heavy gloves we developed a system of peeling and cutting away sizable pieces to haul outside. I could never have done this without Trent.










The front room looked like a war-zone for a little while.

Bye, Bye, Shag Carpet, Hello Plank Floors

Here, Trent is removing carpet tack in the East bedroom.


After removing the blue shag carpet.


The floors were painted around the perimeter to compliment an area rug. They were shades of blue and red at one point.


The original floors have an incredible quality to them. People pay big money these days to try to reproduce the look and feel of a hand-planed floor, but we've always had them.