Walnut Avenue in May

Mama is almost a full time resident at Walnut Avenue.  She’s rented her farmhouse to a family friend and has to be out by June 1.  Her furniture has been moved, either to Walnut Avenue or to a nearby storage unit, and now what’s left is to pack her kitchen and closets, pack piles of odds and ends that are left from moving the furniture, clean, and make some repairs.  She is not moving things from her barns or storage buildings for the time being, just from her house.

Walnut Avenue is not quite ready to be occupied, so she roughing it for a bit.  She has to sleep there because she has no bed in her farmhouse.  She has no working tub at Walnut Avenue, so she is driving back and forth to bathe.  Mike will finish her Walnut Avenue bathroom this week.  Things will be a little easier for her once she has a functioning bathroom.

Are you wondering what has been accomplished since I last visited?  The four second floor rooms and the upstairs hall have been painted.  Mama rented a sander and sanded the upstairs floor.  What a difference sanding made.  The floors will be beautiful when she’s finished with them.  She is thinking about hiring someone to do this because she’s getting a bit overwhelmed with doing it all herself.

Take a minute to look at this album showing her second floor.  You’ll see her laundry area, her bedroom, and the two other bedrooms.  Painting really made a difference.  With the sanded floors, it looks like a totally different space.

Mama has a temporary kitchen in her basement that will one day be her craft room.  She also has her family room down there.  There were pieces of furniture that she didn’t want to put in storage, so now they are in the basement.

I love how even though she’s in the middle of a massive renovation, she took the time to accessorize her kitchen.  The wheelbarrow was my dad’s when he was a child. 

This piece will offer great storage for her temporary kitchen.  It won’t fit in her new kitchen, so it will go in the sitting room.

The china cabinet that you see in the picture below is original to this house.  My great-great uncle built the house and when he moved out, he rented it.  He couldn’t take the cabinet with him, so a special room was built in the attic to store it where it could be locked away from the renters.  Later on it was moved to PA by my uncle’s son and then my grandmother inherited it and moved it back to VA.  Mama inherited it from Granny and now it is home once again.  Isn’t that a neat story?  She’ll move it upstairs once the area is ready.  The sofa that you see covered by a sheet is the only place Mama has to sleep for the time being.  The TV is not connected to cable so she has no evening entertainment.   (If she gets too miserable she can sleep at her sister’s house.)

I am pretty sure that this piano is original to the house, too.  Mama was going to get rid of it, but I’m really glad that she kept it.  It will stay in this spot in her family room. 

It has really pretty details.  It was in the basement in her farmhouse and I never realized how pretty this piece was until she moved it here.  Lighting makes all the difference in the world!

Mr. SP and I helped Mama today.  We were able to clean and prime three rooms on the main floor.  The walls in all three rooms are ready to be painted, but the woodwork in all three rooms needs some attention before painting on it can begin.  We also primed the downstairs hall.  (You should be able to click on these pictures to enlarge them if you’d like to see details.)

Parlor Before:

Parlor After:

The primer makes it so much brighter.  Mama has not purchased paint for this room and is not sure what color she will use.

Sitting Room Before:

Sitting Room After:

Dining Room After: 

The downstairs hall looks so much brighter with primer.

We moved Mama’s wicker chaise lounge to her highest porch.  She’ll enjoy relaxing out here each evening.  (Especially since she has no bed or TV.)

This will be a busy week for Mama.  She has to finish moving, plus she will continue to work on her renovations.  This project has taken a lot longer than she anticipated.  When she started in July last year, she thought she’d been done by Thanksgiving! 

Stay tuned for the next report.  I am really looking forward to reporting on a finished bathroom!