More updates

First, in the kitchen. Carrie made curtains and hung the curtain rods.

Then I finished the back transom and got it in place using the reproduction antique hinges. We also found some brass latches for the transoms. A 6-foot pole with a brass hook for reaching and opening the latches is currently drying in the basement.


Early this year we found a chandelier for the second floor bedroom on sale at an antique store. It sat around for a while until we found some replacement crystals to fill it out. Then all of that sat around until we finally decided a couple of weeks ago to get it in place.

We went online to architecturaldepot.com and found a ceiling medallion we liked. It arrived in a few days and the first step was to paint it with a couple of coats of the ceiling color


Then after some experimentation both on the computer and on the medallion, colors were picked and a paint scheme developed

After it was all dry, it was time to attach it to the ceiling using mostly liquid nails, but four finishing nails were used just for a little extra help. It looks a lot smaller way up there.
The last step was raising and attaching the chandelier, then making sure all the crystal pieces were in place. We counted 80 hanging pieces. The finished, working, restored chandelier:

Kitchen Paint and Stain

There's been a lot of work going on lately. Here's some pictures of progress in the kitchen.
The first step was picking a color for the walls, getting the unfinished trim stained, and attempting to do some refinishing on the cabinets.


That's as far as the cabinets got. It looks like they may just be painted after all.

The corner block rosettes in the dining room all need to be modified to match the thicker-than-usual trim. These two on the kitchen doorway are all that are done so far.

After all the window and interior doorway trim was finished, it was time to start on the two exterior doors. This one is the "front" door that opens to the side deck. The transom has been removed and boarded in this photo.

Here's the transom after stripping. The flat surfaces were stripped with the heat gun, but for the routing I used a chemical stripper, followed by lots of hand-sanding.

And here it is after staining (sideways photo, I forgot to flip it)

For the doors and transoms we found reproduction antique cast-iron church-steeple hinges. There are a few doors and transoms in the house that still have these original hinges, but most of them are covered in paint, or in bad shape. We got enough to start with the two doors and transoms in the kitchen.
And here it is working again. The brass latch is still on it's way here. The door is still waiting to be stripped.
Across from that is the back door. Here is preparation for staining.

Here is the completed trim and the sanded and filled door, ready to be stained and finished.
And finally, the upper-half of the walls were painted.

Remaining still is to strip the front door and rear transom, and to put the new hinges on those pieces. Plus we have to decide exactly what to do with the cabinets.
As a garden report, we got a decent haul of potatoes with quite a variety of shapes and sizes. Here's a sampling from one plant immediately prior to being made into dinner.