Most folks enter our house through the back porch (pictured above) - simply because that's where the driveway leads them. There is no longer any parking or path conveniently connected to the front of the house. Just one of the quirks and charm that developed through the years as the roads came through and the property got divided, I guess. There are other eccentricities as well - I will introduce you to these throughout our tour. :)

Benny made the Adirondack chair pictured above after a pattern piece I purchased at Leaping Leopard Antiques. Later I also found the little white primitive table at Leaping Leopard to go along with the chair.

Entering through the back door brings you to this view of our interior back porch/mudroom. My good friend Marilyn who recently bought an old Victorian in town suggested that we could do something fun with this area to welcome visitors - especially since all paths at our house lead to it. She is an excellent designer, so I took her advise to heart. This little room is unique. And herein lies another quirk. Since the back wall used to be the exterior of the house, it still contains an exterior window - barely showing to the right in these pictures. I thought our primitives would make charming back porch decor, items like my grandfather's railroad lantern, likely from his years with the Postal Railway Service, and some of my Great-Aunt Firma Duchene Philips' more rustic paintings like Archie Foxworthy's Sugar Camp which hung for years in my grandmother's living room. (My grandparents used to help Archie and Mary get ready for the Rockville Covered Bridge Festival each fall.) I also thought Aunt Firma's non-traditional canvases - barn siding, cast iron skillets, and her saw mural would work well with the rough hewn, real wood paneling.

A right turn from the back door leads you to the kitchen and the main part of the house (see photo below). Benny suggested the red gingham curtains for a log-cabin look.

I've had a variety of indoor and outdoor furniture in the mudroom since we moved in - tables, benches, filing cabinets and what-not, but what I REALLY have been looking for are benches with storage - something you never seem to find enough of in an old house. This summer I finally found the white chest in these photos at Good Will for about $12.00 (with the senior discount). It's not a high quality piece - it was contructed from a kit and some of it is pressed board. But it is solid to sit on, and it offers storage in its cedar lined interior. I think it looks nice in this setting. It needs a new paint job which I hope to get around to eventually. :)

This quilted red pillow (shown above and below was done by Benny's Mom who was a fabulous quilter - I wish I could remember the name of this technique of stitching triangle folds into fabric. I've had this cover forever but didn't quite know what to do with it. Good Will is a fabulous place to find either filling or nice affordable old pillows for your pillow covers! I try to buy cotton ones that are launderable and that would also "stand on their own."

A left turn leads you to the laundry room and summer kitchen. The photo below looks back to the porch from the laundry room.

When we first bought the house, the washer and dryer, and a second bathroom with a toilet, a sink, and a shower all existed in one room just outside the summer kitchen. Which meant if someone was using the bathroom, no one could get to the laundry - or that you didn't dare use the bathroom if you thought anyone was in the summer kitchen. Benny sectioned off the bathroom area and put in a little sliding door, a huge improvement. Another challenge in our laundry room area was the big hole in the floor that was the entrance to the cellar. The hole was closed off by a big trap door that was slightly elevated off the floor in a slant. Benny drilled into the cement and installed supports so that the trap door was flush with the rest of the floor, making the whole area a lot more functional.

The entrance to the Summer Kitchen

Above is another view of the original outside wall. The gossip bench under the old exterior window, sat in my grandparent's dining room / study for as long as I can remember. The little red sewing table came from Aunt Claudine. Her mother-in-law gave it to her and Uncle John to use as a kitchen table after they married in 1950. The newly weds painted it red.

My grandfather's old gun rack below works pretty well for Benny's cap collection!

You never know what you'll find when you walk out here. There are a couple of suspicious holes by the steps that our dog and cat worry at during the cold months. Little tell tale pieces of dry dog food linger at the openings. The other night I came out here to find a fat little toad sitting in the middle of the floor. It's happened before. Our little amphibian friends like to hunt insects at our back porch light, and if you don't watch the back door, sometimes they hop inside! Or you accidentally step on them as you go outside ... fortunately nothing fatal has happened yet - to them or us.

http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/~hps/clipart/Animals/index5.htm

I may be a bit biased, but my daughter Bonnie is a decorating genius. :) Give her a long room, and it's amazing what she can do the space. She's always changing things around. Each time I think it can't get any better - and each time it does.