Country Garden & Landscapes At The Local County Fair

While working on our country place last weekend, we decided to take some time out and attend the county fair. This county is still so new to us so it's nice to be able to attend any community events while we are in town.

What wonderful displays in the landscape and garden areas!  I would love something like this little shed to house our well pump and other unsitely equipment on the property....and where can I find this post and lamp?  It would be perfect for the barn house.

The old wheel barrow is perfect alongside the patina of the barn wood.

Clever use of barn wood here, this one resembles a little country bridge.  I like this lamp post too!

Great little planters like these were placed throughout the grounds. We'll be making some of these for the barn house as well. 

This beautiful pavillion was made from old logs and this teepee is formed with long pieces of tree bark. So unique and creative.

We couldn't believe the size of this old steam saw on display. It was used in saw mills in the early 1900's. We missed the saw in action cutting some of the huge logs shown below.

Naturally in this agricultural community there were vintage tractors on display. Our John Deere isn't this cute, shiny or clean! 

Such fun..... now back at the barn house......

We're making  progress on the interior. The kitchen was gutted last weekend by our son and his friends who have been frequent visitors to our little compound :)  Nice demo work guys!     Tom will replace drywall, texture walls and ceilings and install new lighting before we reassemble the entire space.

Joe, Katy and our son Dan

Dan, left and Joe waiting to check out the rodeo at the fair

 It's getting close to harvest time in our little valley....this photo was taken at our neighbors vineyard. I can't wait to experience the harvest season here.  These are Zinfindel vines, beautiful to look at and very sweet tasting:).

 

The little country road on our property dead ends at his vineyard.  Absolutely breathtaking!

I've managed to squeeze in some shopping at a few antique stores and am adding to my inventory of items for the barn house.  I will share soon in another post.  Thanks for following along :).
Cheers for now!!
 

Little barnhouse update and some country inspiration

The past six weeks have flown by and while most of the work is currently happening inside this little place the one major thing we're doing to the exterior is giving it a big dose of barn red paint!   We are in the process of painting now and I just love it!  I couldn't wait to share-even though we're not finished yet.

  

The deck on the left will also be rebuilt and modified. It has a cat walk on one side of the house that neither of us like so it will be removed.

I  bought a few lights for the exterior from Barn Light Electric. The galvanized look is perfect against the red.

 

 

 And on the inside....

The interior was gutted several weeks ago and bundles of white oak hardwood for the floors have been acclimating nicely in the living area.    The two large windows were just installed. This room had small windows which didn't take advantage of the beautiful views outside.

The post and beam construction will be interesting to work with in this long narrow space. The post here is off center and most of the beams were painted with several layers of enamel paint :(. 

We hired a contractor to rebuild the stairs- they were quite narrow and a bit steep. We haven't decided on the type of railing just yet.

I am so happy the demo portion  is done in here.  Now on to some interior kitchen inspiration!
 

First, I tested a new grey based stain on some sample pieces of the hardwood floor. I really like the muted tone, it's very grey brown. Love it!

Since we also gutted  the space in the tiny kitchen, I've been gathering photos which really capture the look and feel I would like to achieve.  A simple understated country feel is the goal as in the photos here....

image via pinterest

image via pinterest

image via pinterest

And while the days spent here are always busy busy, the evenings are for enjoying the local wine, the warm summer weather, and more beautiful views!

Cheers and happy summer to you :)!!

It's Official,Our Own Little Barnhouse in the Country!

We closed escrow a few weeks ago on our country property!  While this little barn house is in need of a serious makeover, the 21.5 acres it sits on is in a quaint little valley surrounded by family owned vineyards.

And I'm sharing the first "before" photo
I can't wait to tear down that street light thing :)

This will be our "family compound".  A place for our family to hang out on weekends and holidays.
We plan to renovate this little house and eventually build a European style farmhouse on the other
side of the property. We also have young adult children who enjoy wine as much as we do so we plan to plant a small family vineyard and try some wine making of our own. Why not...when in Rome right?

We have our own little country lane that leads to a large vineyard behind our property. Our dogs love it as much as we do!

We are surrounded by beautiful, picturesque vines.

We have huge heritage oaks...

and many manzanita groves.

 

The majority of the property remains undeveloped, so we have a lot of work to do here. 

While we'll have to call in some professionals to trim and cut many of the tall oaks around the property, Tom and our son tackled some of the branches around the house to improve the views.

And while I've been gathering inspiration for the barn house makeover, Tom has been shopping for one of these!

He bought an older tractor like this one- and OMG was this a serious mission! 

We hope to have many happy adventures here and look forward to sharing this big project with you.

Take Care and thanks for reading me.

Progress! Our Den Makeover....

We are nearing completion on our den makeover.  Tom installed the beams and coated the walls and ceiling in our favorite limestone plaster...

The photos really don't do the plaster justice..... the variations of color add such texture and depth  to the space.

The chandelier and portrait were antique store finds.

I am also making over a pair of danish lounge chairs that I plan to use in the den.  I painted the wood in several layers of gray and white and plan to have them reupholstered in an oatmeal colored linen and canvas.

 
The chairs were a craigslist find I bought a year ago.  I'm crazy about the art deco details and
can't wait to see them covered in the linen and canvas.

We're moving on to the bathroom makeover project we started.....will post about the progress soon!
Have a great week!

Barnhouse Envy!

I wish I could say I'm back after a nice break- but since I've been busy working my tail off, I'll just say-the past several weeks have been very busy around our little house. Beams were installed in our den and Tom is busy plastering, so as of this writing we are surrounded by drywall dust and plaster!! 

In bit of a whirlwind trip we  found ourselves making a offer to buy some acreage in a small rural community surrounded by vineyards.  Fingers crossed it all works out for us!   Naturally it has an old little home that needs renovating (yay!) and ever since I have been experiencing such Barnhouse Envy!!

My favorite is from Heritage Barns
I love the mix of stone and old barn wood. It's perfect together.

Photo from Heritage Barns

I think I'm drawn to the simplicity of some of these barn homes. It provides so many possibilities-my little renovating wheels are already turning!  
The red barn wood is so vintage country. Very cute.

Photo Matt Wargo  Architectual Digest

I sure love the rustic vibe of the salvaged barn wood used on this little beauty!  Sigh....

Photo William Waldron Architecual Digest

and I'm even envisioning some interior color schemes for a cute little barn house. I love the use of the gray barn wood in this bedroom. It provides a more modern country look.

Photo from Pinterest

I absolutely love the spread in Country Living magazine on Actors Corbin Bernsen and Amanda Pays home.

I would love to try the painted barn wood cabinets in a kitchen.

Photo: Max Kim-Bee

or even better in a little bathroom.  I'm so loving this whole look!

Photo  Max Kim- Bee

So keep fingers crossed for us and hopefully we'll have our next renovation project in the hopper!  But for now we need to focus on finishing our current projects and cleaning the plaster mess off all my wood floors!

Have a great weekend!