How Cool is This?

As I look out my kitchen window

Renovating a 93-year-old house ain’t fun. We hit many snags like crumbling plaster and rock-wool insulation. Discovered lead pipes and *shiver* an ungrounded outlet I used for the clothes washer for 30 some years. Chipped, scraped, and cleaned off ancient wallpaper. From a Indiana Jones standpoint, seeing the styles of wallpaper and the original stenciling underneath (very cool) was fascinating. That led to one unanswered question though:

Why in heavens name would you want to paper a ceiling?

But I digress.

When we decided to use the south half of our porch to join our old house with the new addition, I left part of the beam. This led to my biggest discovery, Martha Stewart and her precious metals paint.

Quit laughing. Right now. Because this little 10 ounce jar of paint that I bought at Home Depot for about 7 bucks is incredible. It gave a sheen to everything I painted. And I used it a lot.

This little jar put two coats on the beam, a bathroom niche,

two small heart-shaped shelves and added highlights to wall décor

old door knobs and hinges

covered a sooty deposit by the chimney. I painted some of the bricks as an experiment.

This little 10 oz jar also put two coats on a step leading from the old part of the house to the new addition, an old wooden beam that is approximately ten inches wide by twelve feet long. I put two coats of Martha Stewart, metallic Copper Red, then three coats of polyurethane.

I waited and bit my nails off worrying about the durability. Boy howdy, was I ever pleased. It seems resistant to scratches, fading and looks darn good.

Once again, ONE jar did all this.

Martha, I am your biggest fan.

***

In summary, I want to thank Lowes for backsplash, Home Depot, Menards, Ron the manager at our local lumber yard who helped me with the floor plan, the Legacy cabinet company who offered hickory doors with all the bird pecks and knot holes, and Hineline.

And my sweet Babboo who said, “God forbid we ever add onto the house again.”

Addendum

And another thing. Alicia reminded me of a very important detail, a thread that colored all the work on Our Old House: the blame game. 

Is the wall uneven after filling cracks and sanding? Blame the previous owners. Did someone paint over a mud daubers nest? The last guy did it. WhyTH did someone put the drywall on backwards? Not me.

In short, with an old house, any problems or taste in design that seems, um, unique, my answer is, Who me? Heck no.