Painting The Library

We inherited a historic palette of paint colors in the library of this farmhouse which includes the living room and dining room. Most of the same colors will be used in these rooms after the repairs are done. The library was stripped of peeling paint, sanded, primed and had new shoe moldings installed before painting.

The light green paint is called "seedling", the off white walls and trim are "white dove", and the windows as well as exit door are "northhampton puddy". All are by Benjamin Moore and the first is part of the "Affinity" historic collection while the third is a lighter shade of one. A darker green called "boreal forest" is also an Affinity paint and on the dining room fireplace surround. The green living room walls are "pine brook". All are lovely names and colors while in the eighteenth century, green pigment was expensive and a status symbol. 

The window seat wall had a hole repaired with new sheet rock. The fix allowed us to discover that this part of the house was also very old and originally brick insulated, although conventionally insulated in the 70's. Two original; wavy window panes were broken and Christian removed several from a matching old window found in the garage to replace them.

  

Here is a picture of the Royal Govenor's Palace bedroom in Williamsburg, VA. A beautiful green and white room via Pinterest.

An Antique China Closet

The dining room china closet is now finished with narrow enough black iron hinges I found to hang the old plank door. Bill painted the original thumb latch hardware to match and added a stabilizing bar to draw two boards back together, inside. Material costs to build the closet were about $100 for sheet rock, finished plywood shelves, hinges and a replacement thumb latch part.

Christian rewired the ceiling light from a pull chain to a wall switch.

Patching Plaster And Sheetrock

We are now patching up the remaining holes in walls and ceilings here resulting from burst pipes. It seems all of the plumbing in the house needed to be fixed and the ceiling as well as an exposed plumbing line in the plaster wall of the library have now been repaired with new sheet rock.

Christian has rewired the ceiling light at this time, in order to eliminate a wall switch usually hidden behind a door. The wall plumbing has also been insulated with Roxul which now includes PEX water lines that heat the main bathroom floor. Installing a track light here seems best, to highlight books and artwork while keeping the house somewhat contemporary.

Some ceiling and floor trim was removed to make the repairs and I found a missing piece of long trim stacked in the barn.

It has taken initial coats of plaster before spackling, to make these repairs.