In true Liz Marie fashion I am not finishing any room of our farmhouse & just ripping everything out & starting one project in a room & without finishing it, moving on to a new room. It wouldn’t be me without doing that would it? Jose laughed at me so hard today because he walked into our sliding door living room [here] & saw that I had patches of the wall painted all over the room & there wasn’t one area that was finished. I have decorating ADD & it’s totally a thing. I’m sorry if it bothers you that I am all over the place with our 1800’s farmhouse reno & that I keep skipping back & forth between rooms, but I just can’t stop. While we are working on one room together I’m talking to Jose about my ideas for another room. That is why in the middle of our dining room makeover [here] we have started on our front living room that I truly thought we wouldn’t get to until winter. But one day I thought it would be a great idea to rip up the carpet in the front living room & a few other things because my curiosity was getting the best of me…
Here is what the room looked like before…
& now that we have ripped up the carpet & found the original brick fireplace when we removed the mantel..
We really went at it didn’t we? Oops! But guess what?! We found more original flooring from the 1800’s just like we did in our dining room!!! How awesome is that?! The only issue? The flooring 3/4’s into the room near the fireplace is just plywood. I’m thinking it was removed when the carpet was installed because it wasn’t salvageable? So many questions, but we are going to have to figure out what to do to that section of flooring.. trust me the ideas are already flowing, but if you have any let me know! The flooring needs a lot of work, but I think it will be worth working on them to salvage the original beauty of the home. The floors run the opposite direction of the original flooring we discovered in the dining room that flows right into the front living room…
We still haven’t decided if we will be painting, staining, or having the floors raw. Once we get the rooms both painted & we sand the flooring we will make that big decision. & another treasure we partly uncovered…
THE ORIGINAL BRICK FIREPLACE! Or at least from a very very very long time ago & what we believe to be original. The house was built in the 1840’s & these bricks seem super old. We are not sure how salvageable any of this will be because that marble slab was glued to the brick, but you know I am going to try to save it & bring the original brick back to life. This wall is going to need a lot of work, but that will be tackled later as well. The main things we are try to do now is a whole lot of paint, shiplapping or board & batten the walls, & restoring the floors. Do you see my issue now? I keep finding cool things every time I rip something up… it’s hard to stop!
I mean, look at the details on these floors! I can’t wait to sand them & reveal more of the awesome detail. This week we are throwing paint up on the walls & woodwork so I am excited to show you how different the room will look when we lighten the place up a little. I will be back later this week with that fun update. Also, just a little side note that I have been thinking about… I am really considering either making these windows in the room larger or changing them out all together for something else.. what do you think? We will be replacing the front door & those side panels with a door that allows more light into the space because this is the darkest room of the whole house. Let me know what you think of our flooring discovery & everything else down below, on facebook, & on Instagram! xx
It is definitely dark in there but I think when you paint the trim and walls and install the new doors it should lighten it up a lot. I have seen before matching the wood type and board size to make it all look the same. I think once you sand it and I think it should all look the same with a coat of poly on it. If it doesn’t all look the same then you should be able to just sand it all down again and either stain or paint it! I love that the floors are different direction in the dining room and living room! It adds so much character! You should be able to find a brick mason that should be able to feather in older bricks into the fireplace in order for it to look original. If I had found the original floors ripping up the dining room I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from tearing up the whole house! I have project add as well. I think you become more creative when you let everything soak while you work on another project! I am soooo excited to see where everything goes with this house!
I do the exact same thing! Always working on multiple projects. 🙂
I think the windows are definitely on the small side for the size of the room and if you want to replace them, now is the time to do it. You have lots of other wall space to play with in terms of placing furniture and hanging artwork etc., so I think adding larger windows would be a good move in this room.
Looks great! We have been re-doing our Dutch colonial house for 3+ years, so I understand how scattered projects can be. Keep up the good work — it’s fun to follow!
Regarding the area in front of the fireplace that’s plywood, would it be possible to maybe take the wood flooring from closets and patch it in? Or find matching wood and patch. You could have some old brick as a hearth which would fill some of the space. Brick or some really awesome tile.
I was thinking the same thing for the floor – whatever brick you add to the fireplace, make a large , perhaps 2 tiered hearth. As far as the windows are concerned, leave the 2 existing, and add one larger between them.
Are you sure those are the original floors and not the original subfloors? Same for the fireplace, I feel like that brick was just the infrastructure of the firebox/chimney and was always covered by a wall/mantle (as that was what would have been done at that time in a house like this)
Maybe a room upstairs would have enough flooring to patch the living room. You could put in new flooring in a bedroom and cover it with a great old rug…
I’m with you and going from project to project…. Just like a bird that sees something that sparkly, I hope around my projects….
I agree as well that it looks a little darker in there, but like previously mentioned, maybe once you paint the trim and wood work – it will brighten up a ton in there! If it doesn’t, some floor to ceiling windows would look rather pretty in there! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!!!
It is going to be beautiful, and that staircase is fabulous!! I do the same thing. I get one room almost complete and then jump to the next room. We are on house number 7…don’t ask. Lol I tell myself with each house I am going to finish one room before I start another, but it never happens. Oh well, it all works out in the end 🙂
[…] be quiet now & just show you our front living room progress. The other day I showed you [here] that we found flooring & the original brick fireplace & today we started […]
Those are definitely the original subfloors. The type of wood and size would not have been used in a main living space, plus the seams wouldn’t be so poorly laid out. That said, you can still refinish them. Our house was built in 1870, and we refinished the original subfloor in our kitchen.