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!)
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