A Shiny New Paint Job!

  

I know I mentioned this - and you'll have to forgive the indulgence of this post but this is the best thing ever to happen to Quiltville Inn this year.

While visiting with friend Martha in May - I checked out the progress of the new paint job on her fabulous old farmhouse.  Lavender!  She had that beauty painted lavender!  And as the trim and railings were being painted - this sweet old farmhouse rivaled any of the gorgeous Victorian "Painted Ladies" of San Francisco.

If you've been to San Fran, you know what I mean. That is where my love affair with old houses first began. I grew up in San Jose.  I had dreams of one day owning the Winchester Mystery House, and all of those weekend trips up to San Francisco (only a 45 minute drive but when I was a kid it felt like HOURS away.)

But I digress.

It turns out that Magdiel and his crew didn't have a big project lined up after finishing Martha's place.  We asked if they could come see ours.

And just like that - with me gone for a month - they had time to get it all done before I came home.

Talk about serendipity!

Power washing. SO much power washing.  

It didn't get rid of the paint on the foundation underneath the quilting quarters - but that would take sand blasting and that was more than we wanted to deal with.

Paint will continue to wear off over time - it looks kind of shabby chic right now, and it's the ONLY part of the brick foundation that has paint on it. (So why did the previous owners bother?)

All of the outside of the house and the trim has been redone.  I love the soft grey that allows the white trim around the windows to show.  It looks so fresh!

These steps are about 120 years old.  The surface had become pitted and the steps were uneven enough to hold water when it rains.

We had them ground down so the water now runs off.  Believe me - this is a much better look than what was here before.

The new paint really looks great!

The porch was the biggest beast.

Not only are there miles of porch rail - but the front part and the floor around the turret space was original, had been painted over and over so many times.

It too was pitted and didn't look that great - so all of that was sanded down as much as possible and repainted.

Such an improvement!

I wished the Hubster had taken in-progress photos while I was gone - but I am the photographer. He just doesn't think of things like that unless it involves wildlife - like deer, bear, or snakes.  THEN he'll take a photo.  LOL!

Just past the curve here is where the original old floor meets the rebuilt new floor that the previous owners built.

Looking back -

Those boxwood bushes shed leaves everywhere.

This is original floor - see how great it looks?

Miles of porch rail.

From what I understand there was a whole crew of gals doing all the fine detail work.  They did a great job!

Everything back in place.

(And Tula too!)

The tennis balls on the chair legs keep them from gouging up the paint and floor.

Bright shiny and fresh!

All of it!

And this sweet one.

Her left hind leg is slowly improving.

I got the culture results back from the vet which let us know we were dealing with a kind of strep infection that was hanging on.

The good news is, though it started to affect the bones in her leg, we are doing the right rounds of antibiotics long term to finally get rid of the infection forever.

Monday I'll be taking her for another round of shots at the vet.  And in 2 weeks we go back again.  We will see it through until she is ALL better.

These two girls. Inseparable.

Meanwhile the Ivy/Lola battle continues.

It's been a few days since we've had a hair raising all out brawl with claws, biting, hissing and spitting.  I think that is improvement.

For now, Ivy still lives under the guestroom bed when she is in the house, giving Lola a wide berth.

Lola sleeps downstairs in my sewing room at night. Ivy likes to go outside at night.  

I can hear her as we open the door for her and she rushes through "FREEDOM!! FINALLY! FREEDOM!"

Someday, maybe someday they will come to a truce and just tolerate each other from across the room.

Judy's Stitchers arrived from Mississippi on Thursday!

They brought with them so much creativity and laughter - it's good to be here and hear the walls ringing with happiness. (And 1970s music playing loudly with folks singing along.)

And into the weekend we go!

We are planning Fire Pit night tonight - can't wait.

While they are sewing I'm next door getting my 2024 Addicted to Scraps columns ready to send off to Quiltmaker.  I'd love to have them in the mail to them by Monday and cross that off my to-do list.

How about your weekend?  Do you have any sewing going on?

For my Instagram peeps: (If you aren't one, no need to comment that you aren't. It's okay.)

Instagram just released a new sister app for cell phones called THREADS.

While I had an account on the Twit App, I basically stopped using it once Elon Musk took over and it became a dystopian nightmare.

But because Threads is connected to Instagram, and I already had an account there, it was easy for me to download the Threads app from the app store.

What will I use it for? I'm not sure.  Conversations would be grand!

Social media has become extremely loud, and everything is a video with music or something you have to listen to.  I like to READ posts.  Sometimes when the Hubster is watching tennis (or archery or corn hole!) I need something SILENT that I can look at and read on the side. Kind of the way social media used to be.

At any rate, you can find me on Threads @ quiltville_bonnie.

Not sure how I'm going to use it yet - but it's there. Just so you know.

Quiltville's Quote of the Day -

Sometimes life needs interruption to regain focus and shake off complacency. ⁣

⁣

Refuse to settle into ordinary.⁣

⁣

Have a wonderful weekend, folks!!