Seems there is always something on the farm that needs a bit of TLC. This summer the pavilion moved way up on the list because the quilt guild I belong to had asked if we would host the annual picnic at our farm. And the best place to seat a large group of women is under the pavilion. So, let the clean up begin. And begin it did in earnest 2 weeks ago.
Don't ask me why we waited until 2 weeks ago to do this huge task. I blame half of it on Joel being a perpetual procrastinator and half of it on being so busy bringing Buttercup into our lives. At any rate, we dug into the painting and cleaning with gusto. Especially since we were expecting 80 women to come to the picnic!
One of the first things we had to address was the wear and tear on the paint job of the main structural posts of the pavilion. We washed both the house and the pavilion with a wonderful "spray on and rinse off" product from Lowe's which removed any green mold on the siding, let everything dry for a day and then we were ready to paint. A few of the posts had to be scraped to remove the old chipped paint, but for the most part I just spent 3 days painting everything in sight.....
.....including the giant swings and bell post.
In the pavilion there is a wall which has a door leading to a bathroom and another double door which leads into a sort of kitchen area. For some strange reason the squirrels found that wall enticing. Even before we moved to the farm the grey squirrels were chewing on the trim boards on the lower portion of the pavilion wall and the bathroom door trim. How very weird! And what a mess. The best solution was to remove the door and all the trim going into the bathroom and start fresh. And that's what we did. What a difference it made once the new trim was painted and put up.
But first, let me show you how truly ugly and icky the bathroom was. Yes, it was bug heaven in there with dead critters lying about and spider webs attached to everything. We had been storing an extra table in there and I was happy to retrieve it from the buggy spot it was in and give it a good cleaning. Unfortunately, because there is no heat or A/C in there, mildew had strewn itself all over the walls. We scrubbed the ceiling and then the walls with a mild bleach solution and the walls came back to life. Now all they needed was a fresh coat of paint.
Out came the non-working blinds, utility sink, mirror and shelving.
Looks pretty bad, doesn't it? Yuk. I was kinda grossed out by it all but we kept plugging away knowing we were only a day or two away from something a bit cleaner and prettier.
We used our extra oak table as a very convenient work station. At least having this table to work off of saved our backs from picking tools up off the floor for the week we spent working outside.
All in all I spent 3 days painting trim pieces, over and over so each piece had at least 2 coats of paint on them before we installed them.
We've painted so much of the farm since moving here that I have a pretty hefty stockpile of paint buckets in storage. The lid of each paint can is marked with a Sharpie pen in large letters which room or outdoor structure that particular paint belongs to, which makes it so easy when I go in to pick up a can to do touch ups. We had enough left over paint from doing the outside of the studio breezeway that I could paint this main wall tan to match the other outbuildings. I even had enough leftover paint to do the entire bathroom
and the floor.
Joel came down to the pavilion after I put up these galvanized letters and looked at me with a quizzical look on his face. He asked me what "WOF" meant......duh.....Whispering Oaks Farm! We both giggled....not so sure the letters will stay up there but for now they're there.
This is the finished product! The floor is freshly painted with porch paint and I pulled a few rustic items from my stash of decorating goodies up at the house to complete the look of an outside farm-y bathroom.
I used some burlap and fabric from the sewing room to make cute little cafe curtains and hung a boxwood wreath above it.....just because it brought a touch of life to the room.
I pulled this table off of our screened in porch and put it to work holding extra toilet paper and a retro fan to aid in air circulation.
During the winter we found this cabinet and sink on sale at Lowe's and snapped it up knowing we were going to be doing this remodel this summer. The narrow profile worked perfectly in our small space.
In case you can't read it very well, the sign above the sink says, "Put on a little lipstick, you'll be fine". I love it! Just a little sass from me to those using the facilities.
And so, just in time for the picnic, we finished yet another remodeling project. Whew! Chalk that one off our list.
Debbie
