I have a friend, whom I have been friends with for about 57 years, give or take a day or two. :) (Am I right Lupe?) She has been bugging me for photos of our house down here in Ajo, and I admit, I have been lax in sharing any, anywhere. Mostly because we have been VERY busy with the renovation and also, things seem to change around here on a daily basis. Glen will ask me "What are you doing?" I respond "I'm thinking." His response is "PLEASE stop thinking!!" (If I start thinking too much it usually means more work for him!)
But, we are moving ahead, and really a lot has gotten done. Today I'll concentrate on photos of our 'new' kitchen. A kitchen designed around a lot of very old parts, pieces and a little Ajo history.
The original house was about 450 sq ft. The livingrm/kitchen was a combination room about 10 x 20'. At some point an addition was put on (above) in which half was designated to a new kitchen (1950's style) and half to extend one bedroom. Unfortunately, the addition was not the greatest quality so we tore everything back to the original 450' except for the roof and flooring. We decided to use this space for an open air deck and it provided for many wonderful gatherings with friends last year. That turquoise cabinet you see was the original kitchen dish cabinet which we kept. 1950's nostalgia. :) The rusted dado along the bottom half of the wall is part of the old roof from the house we tore down.
Here is the second wall completely covered in the old roofing. Down here it seems to be almost sacrilegious NOT to use what is already here. When we tore down the other house I can't even begin to tell you how many people stopped and asked if they could have (or buy in some cases) this metal and/or the old wood from the house. We honestly didn't do a lot of sharing because we had a sense we would use it, we just didn't know what for in the beginning.
The deck was very funky to say the least. This rounded shelving was built in to a wall in the livingroom. We took it out to put in a doorway but I couldn't bear to get rid of it at the time. Thus, it took its spot on the deck.
I think Glen hauled away 25 trailer loads of 'stuff' the first year here, and more the second year, to either the dump, or if usable, then the resale shops here in town.
I know, not looking entirely glamorous here . . . Electric is in and
that's some of the old wood from the tear down now gracing the walls. New flooring in boxes waiting to be installed. As much as we liked the original wood floors, it was a situation where 'it just wasn't meant to be'. Too much damage.
Two outer walls now in along with 2 nice big windows. :)
Stuff everywhere!
A real door out to a small landing (next year hopefully, the landing will be part of a new deck). Tools are everywhere!
French doors in and now awaiting that same deck. (The other door you see now goes into a new pantry).
Walls are finished! Walls and windows are both awaiting new trim.
The start of cabinets, etc. For those of you that remember our Mullan home, you might recognize the fact that we went with another toolbox in the kitchen. I LOVE my toolbox. Perfect for everything from silverware to spices to pot lids, baking pans, etc. We actually should get a kickback from Home Depot. I know for a fact we have sold several of these for them!
Getting there . .
Cabinets stained, counters in, shelves up.
Yes, we were going for the industrial look. It was planned. :)
You probably can't tell, but the black and white photo in the upper left is a photo of the house when we initially rescued it from demolition. People love seeing the difference between now and then.
Double oven, and for overkill, a microwave/convection oven above it. In our defense, we bought the micro/conv. before we knew we were going to be doing all this.
The ceiling is also covered with old wood, now varnished. And yes, both of those prints over in the corner say 'Cafe' Martin'. :)
A little hard to see against the dark wood, but that is an old Cotton scale friends of ours down here gave us for our new kitchen. He is originally from Alabama and has carried this around for years. He asked if we would like it. He thought we would appreciate it and he was correct. Hard to see, but that is a 'bell' weight hanging on the right hand side. He said, when the sharecroppers brought their cotton in to be weighed, it always managed to weigh out in the landowners favor. Some things never change.
Light over the table.
And for the piece de resistance . . . our table. This we rescued from a yardsale about 17 years ago when we up visiting friends in Newport, WA. It was originally the back door to a bar in Post Falls, ID called the Lions Lair. We know this for 2 reasons. First, carved on the underside of the table is 'Lions Lair 1976'. The second way I know this is because it was an old haunting ground of my husbands 'back in the 'day as they say. (I actually do not like that saying . . . sooo overused these days and here I am adding to that!) :/ For the first 16 years or so it was our coffee table. Glen made legs for it out of twisted steel. As you will see in a future blog, the livingroom here is way too small for a coffee table this size. So . . . in another one one of my 'thinking modes' I said "How about making it our kitchen table! Groans. Sighs. But, as you can see, it is now our kitchen table with rusted (and varnished) legs to match. :) I have a great hubby.
A little hard to see, but it now has a tempered glass tabletop over the wood and metal top. This makes the ends also usable. You can see from the photo above you really couldn't seat anyone on either end due to the metal bar.
So far the reviews have been good. 'Comfortable' is the word we hear the most and that suits us just fine.
O.K. a teaser . . .
A small part of our very small livingroom. Not quite done, but the floor is in along with a few pieces of furniture.
Onward!
Hope to see you soon!
Charleen and Glen
