The Dining Room

 Here is the dining room before painting.  Lovely, huh?

 More before pics.

The plaster walls have been scraped, patched and sanded.  Ready for paint, right?  I found out NO the hard way!

Here is the dining room mid-project.  I had A LOT of trouble with the plaster walls peeling and cracking as I painted, so I had to stop painting and scrape, patch and sand again...twice!

I finally figured out that I had to put down a coat of oil based primer, then the paint would stick to that.  Too bad I didn't know that at the beginning!

Here is the dining room painted a nice mustard yellow.  I wasn't quite sure of the color, but the more I look at it the more I like it.

The finished dining room walls.  Now we just need to repair and clean the chandelier, refinish the floors, repair and paint the window frames...will it ever be done???

The "new" dining room.  So much nicer to enjoy a meal in!

Our new front porch!

Just a pic to remember what the farmhouse looked like when we bought it in September, 2011.  After painting the exterior, we decided the next big project would be a new front porch.  David and sons have been working hard on our new front porch.  Here are some pics for you to see what they have accomplished!

 This is the old front porch.  Very sad. 

 Watch your step!

 David and Miles putting in new support columns as Grandma Jan sands down the old columns!

Grandma Jan doing her thing!

 Temporary support columns.

 Still working on it!

 Moxie is a good supervisor!

 And we are still working on it!

Old columns have been sanded, primed, and put back into position and lots of the porch floor boards have been replaced.  David and his boys have been working hard.

Working on the new porch steps.

Not completely finished, but here is how the new porch looks!  Notice the new metal roof over the porch, too!  Looking good.