Our Little Piece of New England

Every farmhouse needs a really great sink.  I spent lots of hours looking at photos online of farmhouse kitchens and fell in love with the real vintage, cast iron, apron front sinks that I saw.  In all of our adventures to my favorite local antiques dealers and other junking locales, I would never see the kind of sink I was dreaming of finding. 

Then one day, I stumbled across This Old Tub and Sink through an internet search.  The sites "About Us" brought up an exciting description "We specialize in salvaging vintage bathtubs and sinks from the New England states. Since we focus only on tubs and sinks we have a vast inventory of beautiful fixtures from which to choose." 

Would they have my sink?

Their vast inventory, and it is vast - plus if they don't have it, they'll try to find it for you - did in fact include the sink that I had dreamed up.  A gorgeous 1948 Vintage Double Basin Porcelain Over Cast Iron Farm House Sink.  The description read "The sink dimensions are 42"LX26"D. The shallow basin reaches a depth of 6" and the deeper basin a depth of 13". It has a 6" backsplash and a 7" apron." 

I got out a ruler and laid out the dimensions...it was perfect - I wanted a BIG sink to be the centerpiece of the kitchen.  I loved the detail on the apron and it was in really good condition.  We ended up calling and purchasing the sink.  Kevin, from This Old Tub and Sink was great to work with.  I had never made a purchase of something so large before and the sink had to be shipped from Massachusetts to Wisconsin.  There were absolutely no problems!

This is how the sink arrived.

We had to unload it off of a semi into the back of my Dad's truck. 

The sink, in the crate, weighed about 300 pounds.

Of course, I couldn't wait to open the crate.  My dad making his way around taking out a few dozen screws.

It's crazy know to think this was already a year ago!

It was so exciting to see it in person.  I loved being able to run my hands over it and feel the smooth porcelain with all the little wear spots that left little bumps and valleys.

It's imperfectly perfect.

I was even able to find out that the sink had been taken out of an old farmhouse in Southern New Hampshire.  I love knowing that - having a little piece of history from New England, a place that we would love to travel to, adds so much to our story that is unfolding here at Shady Grove Farm.  We'll probably never know exactly where the farm is that the sink came from or who used it on a daily basis to care for their family, but just wondering about what their life was like and who the people were is fun to imagine while I clean up after supper, arrange a vase of flowers, or for a long time, when we first moved in - gave Charlie baths in the deep basin side of the sink.

Charlie taking a bath in the sink.  This was before we had even moved in.

The installed sink.

I love how the apron has the bands around the bottom that bump out and that the front corners are angled.

The basin on the left is about 6 inches deep and the one on the right is 13 inches.

The windows behind the sink open into our greenhouse.

I can look through those windows and the large greenhouse glass to see our barn and the fields behind our house.

This picture shows the reflection of the pendant lights over the island.

You also get a sneak peek at the cabinets that we made ourselves.

The sink cabinet has different knobs than the rest of the cabinets.

A closeup of one of the two vintage soap holders I got for my last birthday.  My mom got them for me at one of the barn sales we've been to at Meadowview Farm.  Normally, they are seen on a clawfoot tub (that's where the other one is being used) but I liked how it looked on the sink, holding some locally made goat's milk soap.  It leaves your hands feeling so soft and smells great.

 

Our little piece of New England

has become the centerpiece of our kitchen.

We are working on installing trim this weekend, once it's painted I'll be showing the entire kitchen!

Cabinet Hardware and Barn Update

The cabinet hardware I ordered came in!  We are going with oil rubbed bronze finishes for the metal in the house.  This wasn't really a decision, it just sort of happened.  We found lights we liked  for over the island - the finish they came in was oil rubbed bronze.  The kitchen sink faucet we looked at - oil rubbed bronze.  The upstairs bathroom towel bar and toilet paper holder that we are now going to keep - just happen to be oil rubbed bronze.  So, when it came time for the cabinet jewelry, we had to go with - oil rubbed bronze. 

The hinges are wrap style, butt hinges - the wrap part will give a little extra support for the doors and the "butt" means that the hinge pin butts out from between the door frame and the cabinet face. 

The knobs are 1 and a 1/4" round and they are heavy.  I love how they feel, that weight, like a good solid foundation for us in this house, something that will last for years and years and years.

We also were able to get the locks off of the chicken coop and the double barn doors this past weekend, with the help of my Uncle's bolt cutters.  My sister scooped up a few treasures and I found a couple projects.  But the best news is that Nate is now completely on board with SAVING THE BARN! It's going to be a big project it needs to be straightened, reinforced, and have the foundation fixed or replaced, and that's just to keep it standing.  My hopes to turn it into a great get-together space will be many years in the making...

Kitchen Progress

It’s a slow progress, but we are definitely in the “putting it all backtogether” phase of our complete kitchen renovation. 

Since Nate and I both work 40 hours a week, with him commuting an additional 20 hours a week, we don’t put in many work hours on the house during the week.  To be honest, we love working on the house, but we love our family time with Charlie much, much more.  Plus, we are trying to stay sane during this process.  Luckily for us, we have very supportive families and the best friends in the world that have all been helping out.  We definitely wouldn’t be as far along as we are without them.

My dad and I are building the cabinets.  Custom cabinets were out of the budget, stock ones we could only get in oak and that just wouldn't work for the look.  So building them was the only decision.  It's been a challenge, but I love it!  They will have inset shaker panel style doors.  I wanted the cabinets to look like we had used just the base of an old stepback cupboard and repurposed it to fit our gas cooktop, so I designed them so that there will only be doors, no drawers.  To keep the look cohesive all of the cabinets will have the same “only doors” look.  I have plans to use old wood tool boxes or milk bottle racks for holding utensils, etc. on the shelves inside the cabinets or in our island’s many cubbies.

The electrical work was all finished up last night.  I got to play with the double wall ovens - I didn't even bake in them, but just getting to hear the beeps and feel the heat has me dreaming of Thanksgiving dinners and cookie baking marathons. 

We still have quite a bit left to do, but we are getting there.   Here are some pictures of where we are at now and descriptions of the pictures.

The view of the kitchen from the main entry off of the greenhouse.  The cooktop will go in the cabinets along the knee wall, looking into the dining room.  (That is the wall we took out the day we closed on the house.)  I had to do a mock up of the island with a couple folding chairs.

This is the view from the back porch door entry.  The goal is for the fridge and the wall ovens to look more built in.  We are still working on those cabinets and all of the doors.  The beadboard ceiling that is visible is original to the house, this part of the kitchen used to be an old porch.  We plan on keeping it and just painting it.  We will be adding a wood plank ceiling in the higher portion of the kitchen as well.

The view of the kitchen from the dining room.  See the giant beam we put in with my Uncle's help.  It fit perfectly on the first try.  This side will all be drywalled, except for the far right part - my dad is making us a built in shelf that will be very shallow, only about 4 inches deep.  There is another built in shelf like this in what will be our office.

My farmsink!!!  All I can say is, I think this deserves a post of it's own, so that will be coming.   

 Another view of The Sink.



A glimpse of what's to come

Last night I came across these pictures of the outside of our house.  We took them this past summer when we initially decided to make an offer on the house.

This is the front enterance to the house.  It faces North.  The view is out over a farm field and the countryside.  We have seen deer, turkeys, and pheasants almost every day we've been there working.  There actually was a deer bedded down right in the front yard the other night.

This is another view of the North side of the house.  The tree on the right is an apple tree that I am very excited about.  We hope to plant more and have a small orchard across the driveway from the house.  You can also see the screen porch on the left side.

This is the West side of the house.  The bay windows are the dining room.  The room that the back porch comes off of is the kitchen.  The plan is to replace the chain link fence with pickets.  This photo was taken from the driveway looking up at the house.

This is the East side of the house.  The screen porch is on the right.  The first floor window that is visible will be the Laundry Room.  I like the idea of being able to take clothes right out the door that leads onto the screen porch outside to hang on the line (or the lattice like the renters that were there did).  I can almost smell the summer breeze just thinking about it.

The next few photos are from the old kitchen.  Really the only thing that will be staying are the floors.  1 1/2" random length solid wood.  We are having a local Amish craftsman make some new pieces so that we can patch where the old cabinets were and replace some very slippery tile near the door.

This is the view of the kitchen from the entry off the back porch.  The wall that we are in the process of taking out is behind the fridge and the cabinets to the right.

This is the view of the kitchen from the door we will use as the main entry to the house.