Hellooooo Dining Room!

Hello again everyone!!

Consider this your first peek at the next major project.

With items going back into the kitchen, as well as to goodwill and freecycle, things are starting to disappear around here and we are gaining ground in the house.

Rooms are opening up and the first one to do so was the dining room.

So there you have it. The next big room to be tackled will be the dining room.

That being said there are also some other projects that will be worked on as well such at the powder room and attic so expect a lot of non-dinning room posts as well.

Remember this scene from many, many months back?








Trust me, it got a lot worse…a lot LOT worse…before this post.

With Christmas coming we’ve been excited here around the Folly. This will be the first time in three years we can decorate in the manner we’re use to!

In order to do this a lot of cleaning had to be done. So, we’ve been frantically cleaning the main level of the house and this includes the dining room.

For the first time in history I conceded to start decorating for Christmas the week after Thanksgiving. I was raised that you did not decorate until about two, maybe three, weeks before Christmas day. In fact, the phenomena of decorating immediately after Thanksgiving, or even before that in some cases, is less than 50 years old! I digress though…I’ll ramble on about this in another post.

Moving on… It was decided to start decorating ASAP but before this could be done the cleaning must be done. Honestly, the desire to get it done was dashed by reality on the rocks. I really thought I’d be able to get the lower level clean enough to start decorating in two days, three tops.

It took over a week!!!

Anyway, let’s get back on the subject, I’ll rant about this later.

Here’s the dining room after about four days of sorting, removing and cleaning - but before we cleaned the floor.

You might notice some of the furniture has changed, We moved a few items around with Christmas in mind.

For those of you interested, the settee in the middle of the bay is the gift I gave SWMBO for our 1st Anniversary.

The Singer sewing machine, as well as the notions box on the peddle, belonged to SWMBO’s Great Grandmother. Get this, I’m a HUGE WWI buff and SWMBO’s Great Grandmother used this sewing machine to make uniform shirts for the Doughboys!! My mother-n-law has the actual sewing instructions (somewhere) the Government sent SWMBO’s Great Grandmother and I have an original shirt like the ones she made.

The lamp on the sewing machine was a family heirloom belonging to our friend Bill. It appears to have been made in either the late 10s or early 20s. It is missing one stained-glass pane and needs rewiring though.

Just another view.

In this picture though you can start seeing the little ’problems’ that will need to be looked at in order to prep for restoration.

You can see water spots on the ceiling as well as along the joint where the left side of the bay meets the main wall. The stain stops right at about the beginning of the window top.

You know, there are times I really hate digital cameras!! Look close and you can see the built-up dust on the chandelier crystals and the bulbs.

BTW, the door has what we think is the original stain. Not sure why it looks so splotchy, perhaps it’s the way the shellac aged.

The French doors.

Note how the finish on these doors are different than the other one? We know these doors are not original to the house but were installed some time in the 50s (we think). Originally there were pocket doors here and the hardware to hang them are still inside the walls. I’ll deal more on this later as well.

With the light on you can see more stains on the ceiling.

SWMBO has also just finished cleaning the floor and are still wet. She did something funky to clean it and treat it and it took two days to dry!!

Did you notice the white dresser on the wall to the left? That is the dresser we are considering for the lavatory vanity in the upstairs bathroom. We are wanting to put a buffet/sideboard in this spot so we thought this would be a good way to see if we like this size.

More of the wet floor.

The amount of time it took to dry definitely put a crimp in the cleaning and Christmas prep plans.












Here it is - FINALLY - dry!! I think it’s about 1 A.M. when I snapped this shot.

Okay - now we can get down to the nitty-gritty of looking at some of the ‘issues’. Right now they are nothing major but one never knows what lurks beneath.

This is just one of a dozen places where the wallpaper (installed in the 50s?) is trying to escape the clutches of the walls.


Note that the tear is jagged. This could indicate a crack in the wall or it could just have been caused by something snagging it. I know the answer, but you will have to wait.

Another spot where a piece of the wallpaper came loose and popped off.

If you follow along the top of the mopboard and you will eventually come to a section of paper that has puckered/curled. Most of the spots where the paper is pealing away is along a seam and look like this.

Here we have a large piece of wall paper that sloughed off under it’s own weight (with a little help). Currently it is covered by a piece of furniture.

The plaster finish coat is very gritty/sandy and particles the size of sugar crystals come off if you run your hand against it. If there is no major damage to the wall, and the finish coat is still solidly attached to the base plaster, this can be stabilized. All-n-all this will be an interesting project.

The brownish stuff you see is the old wall paper glue and looks like mold in real life. The finish coat was something along the lines of a fresco. At this point the glue appears to have obliterated whatever wall color, or design, that was originally there. It would be nice to know what the original color in this room was.

The thing hanging above the spot is the bottom edge of one of SWMBO’s tapestries.

Okay now, keep in mind that ALL this work was being done so that we could start decorating for Christmas.

That being said; as you can see…

…we have decorated and are ready for the fat man’s visit!!







Till next time…

Cheers!
Larry ~