Grandma’s Painted House

I’m so happy ya’ll like the mirror project! I can see Lowes and Home Depot getting some extra business this weekend. How about this…all of you who end up doing the mirror project, let me know by email or leave me a comment and if we get several people doing this in the next month or 6 weeks, we’ll have a Mr. Linky party! Won’t that be fun?

In case you’re wondering what’s going on with Grandma Eleanor’s little house, well it’s finally been painted inside, as well as pressure washed and the back deck’s been painted and boy, does it look a whole LOT better than it did 5 months ago. It’s taken awhile for Peter to get all the work done by the painters and get it listed with a real estate company, but it’s now on the market. Of course, Grandma doesn’t know this yet. She’s going to have a little hissy fit when she finds out, but it’s just not practical to keep holding onto this house. It’s just a money drain with taxes and insurance and Grandma may very well need the cash out of the house to live on in the coming years. We just don’t know what the future holds, so it seems best to go ahead and sell the house and pocket the profits. With my hubby’s expertise, he can grow the money for her too.

So, we took Grandma Eleanor over there last Sunday afternoon so she could see for herself how far the house had come. Last time she was over there, it looked like THIS…what a mess and I for one, thought it would never be cleaned up again. I sure didn’t want to be the one to tackle it. But, thanks to 1-800-GOT-JUNK, the trash got cleared out of there and the painters spruced it up as well as they could for resale. Grandma still thinks she is going to move all sorts of furniture and stuff over here and that she is going to visit several days a week and even sleep here by herself. It’s just not going to happen. But, how do you explain that to a 90 year old woman? It’s like talking to a kid who wants her way. Oy, as they say! Hubby had to take her keys away from her last summer and you’d have thought we were torturing her. Every chance she gets, she tells people how mean he’s been to her. I’m sure they understand how it is with older people, I hope they do anyway. But, today she was all smiles and couldn’t wait to visit…”her little house”.

This is stepping into the small little porch coming in the frontdoor.

Vintage mailbox on the porch.

Porch door behind the main front door.

Walking into the livingroom. Isn’t it the cutest? This place has so much potential for a young couple or single person who doesn’t need a ton of space. Two bedrooms, 1 bath, small dining room and kitchen. Full basement. With the fresh coat of paint, it sure looks a lot more inviting. There was extra paint left from Grandma’s house and I tried this paint color out for my dining room redo, but it turned a strange grayish taupe color and didn’t look nearly as pretty in my house. But, I’m going for something really similar to this for my dining room. I’m testing colors now and think I might have a winner.

Fireplace

Looking back towards the frontdoor. Aren’t the floors pretty? This house was built in the early 50’s.

Little dining room right off the living room and kitchen.

Check out the vintage glass doorknobs.

Kitchen is small, but very cottagey.

Quite a few cabinets for a small kitchen.

I love these open shelves above where the fridge would be.

Small hallway going back to the bedrooms and bathroom.

One small bath.

Hallway looking towards one bedroom.

And the other bedroom. Love the old doors.

See Eleanor with the yardstick in her hand. She measured the space where the fridge would go because she wants to order one to have it delivered here….for when she comes over here to stay and visit. Oh, she’s persistent. We just listen and tell her she doesn’t need to buy a fridge. Hubby will probably have to put his foot down AGAIN. It’s hard to be firm with Grandma Eleanor, but she is so determined that she’s coming over here to stay. She’d have all sorts of furniture and stuff brought over if he would let her. She was very appreciative this day for all the leg-work that Peter has done to get this place back in shape.

Here’s the deck all freshly painted.

And the backyard which needs some major cleaning.

So, it’s up for sale, but in this economy it might take awhile. I guess we’ll bring Grandma Eleanor over here to visit when we can and try to appease her. That’s not going to be easy either, when all she wants to do is move in and reminisce about what it was like when she lived there. For some reason, she’s really romanticized it all in her head. The house she and her daughter (Peter’s mom) live in now is SO MUCH NICER, but Eleanor just dreams of living back in the matchbox again. But, it’s no place for a 90-year old woman to be by herself and the neighborhood isn’t that great either. What do you do with an old lady who wants her way?

I’m so excited! Early Friday, I will be leaving for Nashville for the Blissdom ’09 blogging conference, where I’ll be meeting ALL sorts of girls who I’ve met this last year in blogland. We are going to have a big slumber party and lots of girl talk and I will come back with so much to share! I’ll leave a fun post up Friday for ya’ll to enjoy while I’m gone. Won’t be returning home until Sunday.

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