Corners of My Home

Built 1898, this house is now 110 years old!
Click on any photo to enlarge!

Welcome! Come on in! Have a look around our Old Centennial Farmhouse! It's an ongoing project, still lots to be done, even after living here for seventeen years!




The porch, another thing to love about the old place...and our view. Corn is my favorite crop to live with in the spring, summer, and fall. It provides a nice windbreak and it also gives us some rare privacy since everything is very wide open out here. I love it most right before it's time to cut!

We can only hang asparagus ferns on the porch, because the wind out here kills any other kind of hanging flowers...nothing is as tough as these ferns and they last through fall. Birds build nests and have their babies in these pots each spring! It's fun to watch and when we had an outside kitty, a little scary to see if she would find them before they learned to fly on their own.

A few years back, Lem patiently tore down the old porch, and rebuilt the whole thing, and cut out all the pieces of gingerbread trim, sanded and reinstalled all of it. I appreciate that so much. The floor was rotting and sagging and he put new decking on that was pressure treated so we hope it lasts a good long time!


This is a tricycle just like Jamie and Mark, our oldest two kids, used to have (I bought it at a garage sale this summer for $10! A bargain just for the nostalgia!) It even has a little bell on it. The old wagon wheel I bought years ago at an antique shop here in Flushing. I try to change displays with the seasons if I can. This summer I scored some sleds and some ice skates that will go in this corner when the snow flies.

One of the best things about this place is the woodwork, five panel doors, the tall baseboards, corner moldings, wooden doorstops, and the black porcelain doorknobs. Amazingly, none of the woodwork in this house has ever been painted over. It's all original.






The shelf here and in the photo just above it, is built into the wall, there are three of them and we were told that they are old clock shelves. They have nail holes from years of stockings or other objects or decorations being hung from them! I like the old nail holes and wouldn't have it any other way.

In fact, I like to think of all the celebrations that may have taken place out here over the years. All the dings and scrapes and scratches in the old woodwork is fine with me. They've been here for 110 years, and they will be for as long as we're around!


This is our old buffet, that Lem's dad used to have and Lem refinished. It was a miraculous transformation as the old finish on this had turned kind of black and you couldn't see the grain of the oak through it. (Pardon me, the door on one side is not latched and you can see my stuff!)

The old radio on the buffet is another great old project left behind for us by Levi. It is in working order, or used to be, I haven't plugged her in for a while, but that old radio can pull in some really far-off stations, you should see the tubes in that thing! They're huge!


Some of my blue and white china....too much of that in one place, I think! But I've always loved blue and white dishes and pick them up here and there at antique stores or garage sales if I find them!

A lot of my siblings love antiques and it could be because our grandfather on my mom's side retired from education and went into the nursery business for himself and also opened a really large antique store in a large outbuilding on his property. When we visited grandpa, we would spend time out in the barn looking at the pieces he had still to refinish, and also the beautiful stuff that he already remade and refinished.

I loved the smell of the place, looking into old trunks and dressers and finding treasures, and still to this day think that a day spent in a flea market or antique store or at garage sales is one of the best times ever!


And this is some transferware in burgundy hues, too! I'd really like to start finding more and branch out into the brown and black transferware. They're all gorgeous.


We added another bathroom and Lem ordered all the old-style fixtures and I sure do love the tub. It looks genuine, but it weighs very little, it's made of fiberglass! There's nothing like a soak in a tub like this when you're aching or weary....light a few candles and you're all set!

The original oak floors in the bathroom, which at one time was a downstairs bedroom.

This stained glass flag hangs on our front door....I love red, white and blue, just in case you couldn't tell! That's what my living room theme is, all Americana!

I bought this old grain bucket for magazines! I have another couple I bought at the same time that I use for other things around the house.

From my red, white, and blue living room, you can see Old Glory waving away, it seems like it's almost always windy out here. Any of you who've been here to visit know that!

This tall old shelf here was left to us by Lem's dad. He was a recycler before recycling was cool, and he made this thing out of old lumber and an old shelf. We've had it in every house we've ever lived in and it's been several colors. Hopefully soon it's going to have another remake! I want to add some moldings to it and repaint. In fact, the whole house will be due for a repaint this winter sometime.

This is one of my very favorite things, my sister Mary embroidered this old flag with part of George W. Bush's speech after 9-11-01. She stitched it and had it framed and gave it to me for Christmas! I will always treasure it.

The eagle in the frame is a pencil drawing Mark did while he was in eighth grade. It fits in really well with my patriotic theme and I'm happy to have such a great use for this drawing.

This is an old dresser that used to be my Grandpa Pettit's, he gave it to my mom who passed it on to me. As with everything else around here, Lem refinished it for me and I because it was grandpa's, it's special and an heirloom I value.

On the dresser top are three pictures of the kids taken on a trip to Alabama after Jamie moved there! The mirror also belonged to Lem's dad and the corners of the mirrors have tiny flowers etched in the corners.

This bed looks old, but it's not, it's called a Garden Gate bed. I got it because I wanted it to look good with our old furniture! It fit the bill and hopefully my kids will keep it and it could be an heirloom. Our bedroom is in what was once the parlor. The house used to be a three-bedroom, now it's considered four.

I hope you enjoyed your visit. Perhaps another time I can show you more. I have a 1920's kitchen, that I really am not too fond of but it really is kind of neat if you didn't have to cook in it or use it for any practical purpose.

I have a niece that thinks we are terrible for wanting to replace it. I'm touched that she likes it and feels like it belongs. Maybe we can figure out a way to make a NEW kitchen to look 1920's....and find a clever way to disguise a modern dishwasher!


Oh, and I sure would love to hear from any of you who look in from time to time. I love to get comments! (Click on "comments" at the bottom of the post.) Stop over sometime, we'd love to see you!