A keeping room I don't mind keeping! Before and After.

 Happy Holidays, friends! 

It has been 2 months since my last blog. And I have been super busy (eating bon-bons and watching soap operas) enjoying living in Virginia. The weather here is amazing! Sun and beauty abound! So, Youngest and I have been enjoying the hunt country we live in, riding with the Keswick Hunt Club. The fixtures here (fixture=place to ride to the hounds) are so beautiful and large. Views of the mountains, riding around lakes and old forest and stately Virginia homes continues to trigger my happy. I have been hunting a borrowed black Quarter Pony, Lou, who is new to the sport, but is starting to "get it" and really have fun. I have also started to hunt on a wonderful spotted draft mare, Daisy, who is getting some more time to acclimate to her new surroundings before we go out again. Youngest and Baily are really becoming a great team in the hunt field. Last week they were the "gate closers" for the field, meaning Youngest jumps off and open and closes gates for the field (group of riders) to ride through if they aren't jumping out of the field. And, his youth and long legs mean he can hop back up on big ol' Baily over and over- much to my admiration. No matter that the "hop back on" is done with Baily itching to gallop off to join the rest of the field! 

And, in the last 2 months, Covid has become ever more menacing in our country, with a US citizen, or two, dying every minute of every day. So, we are still in seclusion for the most part, which means, other than riding, the only thing left to do around Foxcroft is the "bon-bons and soap operas". So, I will share some of what that looks like now. My Dad, accidentally? called it "Fixcroft" and the nickname has some merit. 

Youngest (my main helper at Fixcroft in the Fixing) and I have been working on a few projects at a time, but the biggest we have tackled is the main room in the house- the proverbial Heart. Although it is a cosmetic redo at this point too, with Covid I am holding off on contractors and subs working in our home, it is on the list for a more extensive renovation at a later date to make the kitchen a more workable space. For now I will share the redo in a before and after photo matched set. Oh how I adore before and afters!

When you enter from the front door, you can see straight through to this bow front window. A short hall through the entry brings you here. But, it was dark in this main room. The floors are a fabulous wide heavy plank. And the room featured some good- pine 3/4" tongue and groove wainscot and an enormous brick fireplace in the kitchen, and some dated- wallpaper with hearts and cross-stitch houses and alphabet sampler border, a heavy ceiling stucco treatment and dark, low beams. So, the biggest effort was in scraping the ceiling, which then needed some cosmetic help, damage repair,  and lightening/brightening/cheering up the room! 

The wall paper left and the walls were painted a warm white/grey color (SW Fleur de Sel). The original color of the bow front window was not a favorite, until the wallpaper left and the rest of the painting was done, and I kind of liked it, so I left it for now. 

If you stood at the first photo and looked left, this is what you would have seen. Some more good- a fireplace and a brick-floored sunroom (not in this project), and some dated- thick ceiling everywhere, wallpaper continued, an awkward built-in trophy cabinet, broken track lighting, dated ceiling fan and a stone faced fireplace.

The idea was to bring in the light, and accent the character of the room, to make it inviting. My New England roots started showing here. The low ceilings and fireplaces (2 in this room) felt like the old rooms from my childhood in Redding, CT. Rooms from the 1600s were much smaller, but were cozy and quiet.

The trophy cabinet was removed, exposing the wide tongue and groove horizontal board paneling. I whitewashed and parged the fireplace giving it instant age and character. The green door on the wall is from Cowfeathers, removed from the tractor sheds when I resided them, but I loved the old goat door with its chippy green paint. It makes me happy to have a piece of that history with us here. The painting on the wall is of the barn at Cowfeathers, done by my artist father. 


If you stood at the first photo and looked right, you would have seen the kitchen. It was dark. With and awkward layout. The stove and oven are on the right in the photo, set into the brick wall with the large fireplace. There is no counter space near the stove, and it is on the opposite side of the room from the refrigerator. The island is small, and the fridge blocks the kitchen worker from anyone sitting in the bow front window, unless at the stove. A boxed-in fluorescent light over the sink, and shutters in the window, blocked from opening by the faucet- a faucet without a sprayer- all made the kitchen frustrating to use. The large old-timey phone was kind of interesting, but hulked from the wall, cramping the stove even more. The honey colored cabinets were the same as the floors, and were dingy. Counters and backsplash are a black-green composite that paired with the cabinetry felt dated and out of character for the room. 

My effort here was to make the kitchen a clean country kitchen. No appliances getting moved yet, so cosmetic. 

I visually lifted the ceiling by scraping all the stucco, and painting the beams, adding some cross coffering to cover the drywall seams. Ceiling fans were painted white to help them disappear without going into the trash- summer here favors ceiling fans! I grounded the kitchen cabinets by painting the lowers a nearly black green high gloss enamel (SW Black Emerald) and the uppers a clean white. The island has 7 coats of a high gloss black blue enamel (SW Liberty Blue). And, I was pleased when we removed the cabinet hardware to find it was extremely dirty, but all nicely weighted solid brass bin pulls and knobs. They were boiled in water with vinegar and shined up beautifully. I backed the upper cabinets in a divine playful Rifle Paper in darkest green with flowers, peacocks and gold accents. It subtly pulls together the various colors in the room. I reused the island light, just altering the finish with a can of spray paint. 

A new faucet with a sprayer hose, and a new light fixture, replacing the florescent and plastic cover of the box and filling that space with tongue and groove, losing the shutters and painting everything reveals a kitchen I now enjoy visually.  It is still quirky ( yes, the cabinet doors don't meet on the right.)

The most striking feature of the kitchen is this large fireplace. All the rage in the colonial revival craze of the 1980s, a large fireplace and baskets hanging from beams were covergirls! The fireplace is still a great feature, but even sans baskets, this look is stuck in the 80s. 

While I like the fireplace, the "stove in the pizza oven" vibe makes me cringe a bit. But I can work with this, and look forward to the time when a contractor can come help me out! Meanwhile, accent the positive and sublimate the awkward bits. 

The room is pretty large, so I have divided it into 4 areas, a kitchen, sitting area in the bow front window, the dining table and a sitting area next to the stone fireplace. 

Entering the kitchen from the mudroom has this long view of the house. As my friend, Kelli said "Cate it has good bones!" 

Now those bones are being covered in a fresh face. 

I enjoy the creativity of this job, and the chance to take chances and be fearless. I enjoy breathing new (old) life into a home and dressing it up for it's new job as our home. 

And. YUP.  The ceiling is pink. (SW Pink Viburnum!)

Cosmetic tidy of the sink room

 After the master bedroom closet, it was time to move on to another area of the house, really it was. But, I just couldn't. The rest of the master is such a disaster. There is a room that has double sinks, and then the real pièce de résistance...the tub room. Which I am planning to leave as is for now until I am ready to bring in the sledge hammer- the only viable solution. The sink room was terrible, but did not have to be so bad. I do anticipate it getting wrapped up into the final master bed/bath remodel at a later date, so I was not going to spend money to do a facelift. 

So here is a CHEAP (my mother would tell me to say "inexpensive") cosmetic redo of the sink room. 

So many issues! JUST SO MANY. Who thinks the ivy wallpaper is the worst feature? 

But WAIT.... it is also..

Carpeted. This was a thing, I guess? Not in any house I ever lived in, but I think it was okay in the 90's?

So, the space, with a new face.

The sink room integrates well with the closet now, too.

The paint was from the closet redo, I had the side lights on the sides of the mirrors, rejects from the previous remodel. So, purchased were the knobs, with a nod to the blue leaf detail in the closet skylight, and the light above the mirror on the slant ceiling. 

Do you like the floor? I had a little fun. I wasn't thinking so Turkish, until I had a bottle of Ava Grace wine, and liked the label. Decorating should be fun! Getting the pattern right was a nice math equation to work out before falling asleep. 

Next up....? 

Oh, wait. I forgot. We ripped the family bath out to the subfloor. I guess that is next. 

Stay tuned!

One Month at Foxcroft.

 One month at Foxcroft Farm.

That helps my perspective so much! I have been getting a little overwhelmed lately on all that needs to be done/fixed/accomplished at our new farm. But, if I say "One month!" I can look around and feel less overwhelmed. 

We have the fields re-tamed. They were beautiful, but the tractor that was here had been sold a month before we moved in and there had been a lot of rain and sun! So, we arrived to tall pastures. They now look lovely again.  I am sitting on my back porch in the cool of the morning, watching Nelle pace the fence- she's ready for breakfast, and Pepe-the -Peacock-Poolfloat patrol the pool. The pool has large pots of asparagus fern and ginger mint and blue Plumbago softening the edges. At the far end of the pool, the periwinkle tuteur is in the center of a new garden chock full of peonies, Siberian iris and tree hydrangeas to show off next spring. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) I have a camellia under the window of my desk newly planted and a stop at a roadside garden center on the way back from cider tasting (all alone in a field- go tasting at one pm on a tuesday!) means mums and pansies are showing their colors. 

We have reasonable comfortable places to sleep, cook, eat, watch The Masked Singer on Wednesday nights, and play Trivial Pursuit- inside and out. We have plenty of rooms filled with boxes and mess- but this blog is about progress...so.

I have a lovely closet- and I can close the door and get dressed and it is like going from Oz back to Kansas when I open the door, but- truly- I like Kansas. And the thing I am most likely to put on when I get dressed are paint-infused coveralls, so the closet is just a reminder of where we are headed. 

We have been to three Hunt Meets, and two Pony Club Meets, I have a sweet, chunky, borrowed pony, who will get me out in the Hunt Field, from a new friend. Friends! We have made a few, despite being pretty much at home or outdoors all the time. That is maybe the most exciting thing.

We have been tasting at a cidery, but my B-I-L has gotten Huz out for barbeque, and Eldest out to two more cideries, before she went back to Columbus. And, Huz and I had a date on top of a mountain. I have been out with my sister to the Aldi store in Waynesboro. This is remarkable because for so many people, that is not a big deal, but having never lived near another family member since I left for college, I think that is so cool! 

One month in, and we are making it home. 

Quickly made the entry more inviting.

Then painted the door, added an antique bamboo mirror and liked it better. 

It has been great outside dining weather!

Poppie and Youngest get the tuteur squared up.

Some of the bounty from the pumpkin patch!

The boys getting ready to mount. Sunny View Farm.

Another beautiful hunt morning. Nokomis. 

Adorable, borrowed, Lou!

Eldest made Caramel Apple and Cinnamon Apple Cider Madeleines-both her own recipe.

Youngest and I got one stall, cleaned, oiled and painted. 11 more to go...

Now, I have to go put up a door and sand a ceiling. 

Priority: Closet. First Foxcroft Farm Before and After

Priorities.

 

Priorities are determined by action. You can state your priorities but what you actually do demonstrates your true priority.

Sometimes priorities are straightforward, as in “make time for friends and family”. Sometimes they can surprise you, as when you move to a new farm. After getting the animals settled, the first priority was kitchen. Then, a place to sit to eat, then a place to sleep, etc…

Once the basics are addressed, then comes the real tell on the priorities. “What are you going to first?” I was asked before we moved in. “I think the front door. I want a door that will allow more light into the front hallway.” Now, I wasn’t wrong, exactly. One of the first things I did was to paint the front door one of my tried-and-true blues, and polish the pretty brass knocker and handle plate. But it is still the same door, just fresher makeup.

As it turned out my priority settled on the closet. Strange to be a first priority, as almost no one will see the closet. But, after Eldest and Youngest who are here with us for the time being had bedrooms set up it was time to create a bedroom for Huz and me, which required emptying the room of boxes, most of which were destined for the closet. And, although I very much liked the square footage in the closet, I found it to be uninspired in its current state. So, Youngest and I embarked upon a closet “up-do” before I filled it, knowing that once it was filled it would become a very low priority.

It made sense to start there for another reason. The ceilings are all covered in textured plaster. We have waves, and flower shapes and random textures too, in all but two rooms of the house. So, the closet was a good place to experiment with how to remove it, (acquiring strong shoulders) and what kind of mess it makes (lots).

But, this is “the fun stuff” for me, getting dirty and creative, making a mess, and then making it shine.

I decided what I wanted to create was a bright, inviting and comfortable little room, where I could see the clothes to choose from and then see what I have chosen. This is a huge upgrade for a woman who lived a large portion of her adult life without a full length mirror!

The most interesting feature of the closet is the skylight. So, after I decided to highlight that feature, the room designed itself.

Original closet, before.

During the character building phase.

Current Situation as seen from design-challenged bathroom

One small room down, lots of rooms to- STOP. Don't get overwhelmed. 

 

 Looking up.

 

 

As it does, finishing one space means the adjacent space looks tired,

and our master bath is a real re-doozy!

So, for now, I have done the necessary –removed the bathroom carpeting, and am experimenting with removing the wallpaper. There is a LOT of wallpaper in Foxcroft,. I have removed legions of wallpaper in the past (Bluebells had rooms with 8 layers), but I got a fancy-schmancy steamer for this project, and will get the chance to master its usage. I’m not a master yet.

I guess it has become a priority.

 

 

 

 

 

Cowfeathers Farm to Foxcroft Farm

 We are in.

We are tired.

We are adapting.

We are grateful.

We are now owners of Foxcroft Farm.

Moving was an experience! And what blessings! It reminds me of our wedding. Tod and I had the most incredible wedding, because the entire production was pulled together by loving contributions. Everything from the venue to the cake and even my wedding dress were supplied by the generosity and creativity of our friends and family. Every detail became special because each was a gift in itself.

This move was the same. It began with my sister(E) and her husband(D), who have lived in this area for 20 years giving us a socially distant place to stay in the Covid era and the enormous patience and talent of D, who is an excellent Realtor! He counseled us through the search process, showed us this gorgeous area and E &D introduced us to the cideries, wineries, hiking trails, bold streams, great restaurants, and mountain vistas that have us sold on this next adventure. Friends and family packed boxes, provided the semi, loaded the semi, drove the semi, loaded the tractors, drove the tractors, and unloaded the things. And, as you can see, much talent was involved in those gifts. 

Without them, I'm not sure this would have all happened, but I am SURE it would have been much more difficult, expensive and upsetting. 

Even the new owners of Cowfeathers have become friends, generously giving us extra time to move out of the farm, relocating all the stuff, the machinery and 19 animals. The sellers of Foxcroft, too were understanding and kind, allowing us to move in animals and things before closing, with just an agreement and a small deposit.  

When we moved to Cowfeathers, we came from Bexley, an area in the city of Columbus. It was a local move, mostly done by us in the minivan, with a big press at the end when we hired Two Men and a Truck to move the big furniture and the piano. It was easy and fairly painless, super exciting to be starting the new adventure in such a picturesque spot of beauty. We did not use a semi. 

So, I did not know how poorly equipped our 200 year old driveway was to accommodate a 54' trailer with truck. This is where the ingenuity and talent started showing up! When friends- and farmers, Dave and DJ showed up with the semi, they had to build little bridges to get it around our driveway curves as they drop off precipitously. We had to hook up my boss truck to pull the semi at one stage, but this seemed unalarming to Dave and DJ. This was just a preview of what it took to drive the rig out of the driveway! 

Dinner break with the loading party.

Moving is chaos!!

Even mostly empty, and with only the island for furnishing, Cowfeathers is a beauty in the sunset. 

I'm back to overwhelmed all over by this photo!!

But this is what it looked like behind the mess.

Ryan was our loader. He was a champ and placed every single box, chair and mirror, dresser, table and bed- which is a lot, in the puzzle of loading a trailer. His experience won out, and we have not unpacked any casualties of the move! Another friend with talent.

This is Dave and DJ making little "bridges" for the semi to drive on, as the Cowfeathers driveway was neither wide enough nor straight enough to avert disaster- but for the can-do attitude of these two treasures. 

We arrived at Foxcroft with the last load of horses thoroughly exhausted. The next morning we had an easy closing on the property, followed by a day of organizing what was here in preparation for the arrival of the semi. The tractors pulled in late afternoon with DJ at the helm, having spent a few hours behind an accident on 81. The semi arrived not long after and we were witness to another master class in piloting a semi as Dave, wife Laura and DJ got the rig through the gates at Foxcroft. After parking the big thing, they said had the cab not been a day cab, or had the trailer been a drop deck, we would have had to come up with a different moving plan. 

Having heard to expect remnants of Hurricane Laura the next day- unloading day, Dave had me show him where the septic tank was buried so he could avoid it with the truck and backed it right up to the porch. 

This photo was taken at 10:54. With the unloading crews arriving at 11:00. And, by the time they started unloading, the rain had stopped! Also, since this photo it has rained a lot, and Youngest and I have unclogged the gutters so water no longer falls right onto the porch. 

At 11 am, 5 young men from the UVA Crew team arrived as my Rent-A-Rower unloading crew. Also, I asked a neighbor and new friend, who has a long history with the Foxcroft Farm if they could come up with some help. At 11 am, we had 14 unloaders! Eldest and I were traffic cops, Huz and Youngest were removing the pieces of the "puzzle" inside the semi and handing it to an unloader.  In about 2 hours the entire semi was empty and my wonderful sister and husband had arrived with lunch. 

Hurricane Laura had passed, but Laura, the hurricane stayed another night to help unload the kitchen. She and my sister, E, and Eldest were tireless in unpacking boxes marked "Kitchen" and "Pantry". The boys went to pick up barbeque from the best joint in town, and that night we sat at an actual table, with chairs and real plates. Dinner party at Foxcroft! 

We are in.

We are still tired.

We are constantly learning.

We are forever grateful.