My house is a MESS and I'm pulling my HAIR out!! I hate messes.. really HATE messes.. yet.. this mess is for a REALLY good purpose! We have decided ( well I) that it was time to take the original wallpaper off of our front entry way and up the hallway stairs. I thought because the paper was old.. really OLD... Like 1914 old it would pop right off... umm WRONG! Here's a before picture.. and a during picture.


Here is our lovely assistant.. my daughter.. doesn't she looked super thrilled?? She did this all day and then headed out to her job!!
Here is what it looks like after.. the walls are HORRID.. they are cracked and just old looking so we skim coated half off the walls today.. I have to tell you.. that's a LOT Of work!!
But here's a sneak peek at some of the features in my home.. please ignore the dirt.. You know.. tearing off wall paper is like taking a dead Christmas Tree out the door... you keep finding needles for weeks after. There is wallpaper ALL through my home.. I feel like I vacuumed all day long and it looks like NOTHING has been touched! I guess that having neighbor boys tear through your home doesn't help either....This is the stained glass window that sits at the top of my stairway. See the house through the window? It's for sale.. Wanna be my neighbor? We sit higher up then they do, but they have a cute little yard!

And here is the future linen closet.. I know.. doesn't look like much now.. but I can't wait to actually have something to put my towels and bath products in. When this house was built so many years ago.. people didn't bath like we do now. Most people probably had one towel per/person that they used til wash day.. so why bother having a closet.. right? One bar of soap probably sat in the bathtub... so what was the worth of a linen closet?? Probably nothing to them.

Here's another stained glass window.. it's a smaller portion of a HUGE window.. I blocked it with my craft shelf.. hmm kind of wonder if I should move it out of the way.. I AM blocking it's beauty!!

And here is an original light fixture to the house.. hubby wants to replace it.. I don't.. I LOVE it... we've replaced just about every other light.. but this one has character that I REALLY love! What do you think? It's also hanging from tin ceilings....

this isn't original to my home.. but I had to share ( we had to move it to take the wallpaper off).. It's a old cabinet from a church here in town that was built in the 1700's. The Cabinet says Parish Library.. I'm assuming it held the library's books. It now holds my canned goods.. It's a great eye level cabinet. The age of the cabinet I'm not sure.. but it's well built and REAL wood.. so I'd have to say at least in the 1800's if not early 1900's.. They were just going to throw this away!! I think it was a lucky find!

On a side note STILL NO WASHING MACHINE!!! I'll leave that story for tomorrow.. Still on the same book as I've had NO reading time this weekend... boo hoo!! HOPEFULLY tonight!! My book IS getting better... but I've been so tired.. who has time!!