Gallery 10 - My (new) Indiana Home

This Old Farm House Tour - 2009

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Farm Kitchen
Like any kitchen, mine is a busy place. Even without a lot of nooks and crannies, it manages to have several focal points. Some are architectural - like the picture window over the kitchen table and the window over the kitchen sink, etc. Others are add-ons like my Aunt Firma's watermelon painting and Benny's Sellers Kitchen cabinet by the back entrance.
The house has a modern kitchen added on in the 1980's and designed by the previous lady of the house. The old kitchen is now the master bedroom, which leads to the odd situation of having to direct visitors through our bedroom to get to the only bathroom in the main part of the house! Just another little quirk we've come to know and love. After all it is a 100-year-old farm house.

A partial wall and a combination counter and breakfast bar, separates the kitchen from the living room, making a wonderfully open space with large picture windows at each end.

This photo looks into the kitchen from the living room.

Here's a look into the living room from the kitchen.

Close-ups of the kitchen picture window in the photos to the left reveals our back yard view.

This watermelon painting by the back entrancein the photo above used to hang in my grandmother's kitchen during my childhood. The painter was her sister, artist Firma Duchene Phillips.

 

My neighbor's batches of Amish Friendship Bread are at work on top of the microwave to the left. Our over-the-stove unit died this year, so we hauled in the free standing unit leftover from the other house to tide us over. It hadn't sold at any of my garage sales and I had not yet taken it to Good Will. While a bit rusty from sitting in the pole barn for 3 years, it is actually a newer model than the wall unit - from the nineties instead of the eighties! :)

I love figurines! The shelf in these pictures, one of many I found at Good Will, allowed me to expand my display area for these treasures. The top of the Sellars cabinet was getting a little crowded!

Some of my favorite kitchen decor and serving dishes play off my Aunt Firma's watermelon painting. My friend Marilyn is the shelf guru and she inspired me to look for various ways to use shelves throughout the house.

 

 
 
Another focal point along the same wall is our super-sized Sellers kitchen cabinet. Some years ago Benny found the top at a flea market where we had set up. He built the bottom to go along with it. It is a wonderful piece for this old farmhouse and practical as well, because of all the storage it offers.
This very old walnut washstand stands to the right of the Sellers kitchen cabinet. Benny restored it this year - a gift from a neighbor for giving him one of the sheds on the property. This old piece had square nails - and several coats of paint!
 
 
Coming in for a closer view

I try to furnish the farmhouse with vintage items and this vintage wax, plastic, and aluminum sheet dispenser that I found at a garage sale is actually pretty handy! The paper towel dispenser underneath is a black wrought iron piece, another theme in my kitchen and back porch decor, in the tradition of my grandmother.

This little plate also from Goodwill seems appropriate since we just acquired five hens and one rooster! Although I'm technically not a country girl by raising, I guess I am one at heart - one who also likes technology and computers! Ha.

Isn't a kitchen sink with a window, especially facing sunrise or sunset, always a focal point? Mine faces east whereas at our old house, a 1950's ranch, it faced west.

The photo above shows the view from my kitchen sink in 2006 or thereabouts. By 2009 the magnolia bushes had both gotten full, beautiful, and tall but unfortunately, they also blocked our view. So I worked pretty hard trimming them back this spring. I wanted to beat Benny to that job, because he isn't particular about whether he does it before or after the bushes set blooms for the next spring. Men. ;)

Cut flowers from my gardens - and a brand new screen for our resident cardinal to tear up again. He sees his reflection in the windows and pecks holes in my screens.

A feisty little year round neighbor (see below) that we enjoy, I took to feeding him at the window sill (among other tactics) in hopes of distracting him from his reflection. That's how I got started feeding the birds! In spite of my cat. The previous owners must be happy - you could tell by the bird houses on the property that they were bird lovers.

"Red"

This is the first year I've had abundant enough flowers to have bouquets all summer long! I've learned alot about how flowers grow and how to get cut flowers of different types to keep opening up and blooming. Mainly common sense stuff I never had time to really think about - like keeping a healthy route to the bud and trimming off other items that might sap energy. Regularly rinsing and trimming the stem and changing the bath, and adding sugar. Also, Mother Nature's been helping me out! This has been a weird summer weatherwise. Rainy and unusually cool. We've had several storms with high winds - and I've learned to walk my garden afterwards to gather all the broken flowers, branches, and bird nests for bouquets and garden decor.

Old canning jars and milk bottles make nice vases for shorter stemmed flowers and it's hard to beat Good Will and the Dollar Tree if you need a vase!

More of my favorite vases!
We are now into the beginning of September and the temperature has yet to get above 93 - and more often it's sitting in the 60's and 70's. I actually wore flannel at night in July and August as the temperatures ranged down into the low 50's and 40's! We haven't turned the air conditioning on once this summer although we probably should have a few times. Most of the time we haven't even used the fans! We have however taken the chill off one or two mornings. 43 degrees in August? Who ever heard of such a thing! =:0

 
As we say goodbye to the kitchen, let's pause briefly to celebrate some of the fruits of summer!
fresh garden veggies! fried zucchini and yellow squash stuffed green pepper casserole

Late breaking news September 2009 - New curtains! New curtains! New curtains!

Geez - I wasn't planning on doing this - but Walmart seems to have my number this fall. Here's my kitchen's new green and cream (warmer) look for fall and winter!


  
As the farmers bring in the harvest, I find new throw rugs and curtains from Walmart - my fall spending frenzy has started early - that equinox and Hunter's Moon, you know. Fortunately the prices were very reasonable. A fall windstorm brings lots more downed flowers into the house as Kate grazes in the background.  
The threat of light frost and replacing petunias with mums in my half barrel brings more flowers indoors.  
This is the third year I bought a cyclamen in February at Pay Less. It's the first year that my cyclamen survived the summer and bloomed again in September!
 
  
 
And since we just got live chickens - I have a new (sub)theme!
  

 

 
More Portraits of Rescued Flowers
New Look for my Kitchen Sink Window

 

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a big thank you to the folks at American Blinds Wallpaper and More for the lovely vintage wallpaper backgrounds!