Our old farmhouse has many an area that needs some TLC.

Afterall, we purchased the entire place for only 12 grand.  Three acres, 7 buildings, including a 2,000 square foot house!    You can hardly expect to get a showplace for that kind of cash!

We were very aware of the challenges ahead of us, and knew that we would have to take them on, one at a time.  I wonder sometimes if folks think we are happy with the place as it is, because, well, it’s taken us four years to keep working on it all.   But we’re not finished, by any means!   And we have plans for areas that are two and three fold…  different phases.  Like flooring, for example.   This old house has the worse floors!   Everything is pretty much old, outdated, worn or just awful.  To do all the floors properly would be easily a couple grand.  If not more.   Just something we can’t do right now.  So we are tackling them as we can, in stages if need be and creatively within our budget.

Like the foyer entry up front.

As you can see, it was awful.  Just half finished in vinyl, just awful.  We had an old throw rug in there but it was not really doing the job.  We use our back entry a lot more, but still, this front gets used by our delivery folk for our rocks and other deliveries, and it is the front entry to our home for guests.   Which means, we would like it to look a little more inviting.  Clean and tidy.

Had in our mind at one point, to add like a little coat rack and maybe a bench or something.  But we never stop here to take on and off our coats and outer gear.   It’s all in the back.   So, then I thought, maybe just something cute and leave the space for the delivery boxes and such.  Yes…  that will work.

While we were hunting out living room flooring options, we went to a big flooring mill outlet that is just a few miles down the road from us!   Yes!  Out in the middle of nowhere!  Pretty neat place!   We walked around and got ideas…  they have a lot of carpet and vinyl remnants for sale at very reasonable prices and they wheel and deal a little!  Fun!  Our plans to find some wonderful cheap huge piece of carpet for the living room were less than realistic.   He had some discounted stuff that we might have gotten nearly a room full for $80, but the carpet was pretty thin and not quite the color we liked…  I think it would have been a cheap choice for a short term.  Now, if we could just save up a bit longer, he had some really nice rems that started around $120-$150…  nice, quality carpets, awesome colors and such, and something that might last us a good amount of time.  Even with our hard use of such things!  (Pets, Farm dirt, road dust…  we are hard on carpet!)

However, we thought, maybe we could find a deal for the foyer!!!  It’s oddly shaped, five sided…  and a pretty good area, almost 8 foot by 7 foot.  We started to hunt around and knew we wanted something that was either tile or stone looking…  since the place is all wood, already.  And we found this…  $30.  And we asked nice and he brought it down to $20!   Yahoo!   A deal.  We like deals.   And he knows we are going to be good customers through the year or more as we tackle floor after floor!

Doesn’t it look so much nicer!  I did it all by myself because the girls were busy and it wasn’t that hard.   Just had to measure a bunch, trim, adjust and place down.  This old house is not very square and plum!   Still, it wasn’t too hard, I got it done in about an hour or so.  I want to paint the door, but it’s a little too cold for that right now, so it will have to wait.  Still, it just looks so nice and bright and clean in there now!   Got a little floor rug to add, just to warm up the area and stop some of the snow and dirt from coming into the studio.  I believe I am going to make a cute little vingette in the corner…  using my old spinning wheel Harold as a decoration, with a little table and a plant or something.  Not sure yet, but will keep you posted!  I can’t stand to get rid of Harold, and he would make a cute little decoration!  He does spin, sort of…  but as a retired little art object and antique, he would do wonderfully!  (And it frees up some space in the studio!)

But in the meanwhile, so nice to get another little project off the list and for dirt cheap!  Will definitely be stopping back at Cornerstone Flooring Outlet again, soon!  Even if we find a different option for the living room, we still have the dining room and the big office that need dire help.  Since they are more reasonably sized spaces, we can probably do something nice for each under $100.  Something to save for and take on, one at a time.