Restoring Fairview @restoringfairview - Tumblr Blog

Wine rack, made from leftover wood removed from elsewhere in the house.

Storage above the freezer for cookie sheets, trays, and other flat(ish) things....

Colors

For those wondering about the color treatment in the kitchen, that room is an entirely interior area, with no windows to the outside. The only natural light filters in from adjacent rooms. So I chose a bright yellow to reflect light around the room. In addition, when I installed a door between the kitchen & dining room, I used a vintage 12-light interior door from the Blue Crow Antique Mall. I had it set on a floor hinge so it would swing. And I had some decorative metal mesh installed over the lowest glass panes on both sides of the door to prevent someone’s accidentally kicking the glass.

The addition of the blue striping & color blocks helped to visually lower the ceiling. The room has terrible proportions, and to start out, it always gave one the sensation of being at the bottom of a well. The color blocks & striping did the trick, and the room now has a much more comfortable vibe.

Here’s another of those partially open upper corner cabinets. The space below it used to be a complete, but walled-off cabinet that was totally useless. Now I can get to my pots & pans very easily. This corner is diagonally across from my other corner wonders. I now have SO much more storage space than before.

This partially open upper corner cabinet is another idea I saw in an online magazine. Again, it makes attractive & easy use of that pesky corner space that’s so hard to see into & reach. This one’s located above my corner bin that stores plastic ware.

Plastic ware: Don’ you hate it? I mean, you need it, but where to store it? Here’s a great use of otherwise wasted corner space. I showed James two pictures from online magazines: One showed a big, disguised corner bin, while the other showed a bi-level cabinet insert for storing plastic containers & their lids. I had no cabinet that would have accommodated this expensive item, but had plenty of unusable corner space. (James is a genius, BTW). He combined the two ideas into this creation. Looking at it closed, you’d never know that it’s two cabinets & two drawers all made into one bin for storing that plastic ware -- and it extends all the way into previously unreachable, unusable corner space!

Kitchen -- not yet complete, but getting there.

Kitchen -- before

Before & after

The former mud room -- an old, enclosed porch -- is now the “pub room,” a place to have coffee (or something stronger), play board games, and chat. One end of the old porch had been walled off, and was where the laundry hookups were located. However, the room was so small that the dryer had to be installed sideways in order to have space to open the door. The old wall was removed & replaced with ceiling-to-floor curtains. An old washtub on stand was converted into a plumbed sink. The crumbling peel-&-stick tile floor under the whole thing was removed, and a beautiful heart pine floor was found underneath. The great diamond-paned stable door was found on Ebay. Charles & James did brilliant work here, as usual.

Ugly, beetle-browed garden house now improved with wraparound porch -- nearly ready for hanging hammock!

Downstairs main bath -- before & after

More new siding going up. The color’s a hit!

First of the new siding goes up!

Much excitement! The long-awaited replacement of the old siding. All the old plain white siding has been removed. It will be replaced by a soft, light green, with white trim & glossy black accents. The work will entail replacement of the insulation & wind block, along with new soffit & fascia.

Hack family cemetery in the back yard of the Andewey/Fairview house

It’s been a good many years since Thanksgiving was celebrated at Fairview, but here it is, mid-pandemic!

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