We live in a red brick schoolhouse. It was a school until the early 50s. There was an average of 30 students who went to this little school by the swamp. When Mike bought it in 1983, he had to do a lot of work to it--new windows, new roof, etc. When I moved in (1998), we redid our living room: new carpet, new ceiling, finished the fireplace. We also redid the laundry room: tile floor, painted, new cabinets. And put a tile floor in the kitchen. A few yrs later, we built a deck and added french patio doors. We spend a lot of time there in the good weather months (that being all of about 4 months out of the year here).
I thought maybe some of you would be interested to see what the inside of an old schoolhouse looked like so I decided to take a few pics this morning (I do apologize for some of them being a bit grainy--the house is a bit dark inside so it's difficult to get clear pics on cloudy days). I hope you enjoy them. So, let's start our tour, shall we?
First, the house! As I said, this was a schoolhouse until the early 50s so it wasn't made into a house probably until the late 50s/early 60s. The pillars are not part of the original school--those were added later. Mike had to replace them a few yrs ago because they were wood and rotted. These ones are aluminum. There are seven rooms in this house plus an attic. Being a rather small house, the rooms aren't large, and yes, I do wish we had bigger rooms.
This is the original bell. Not brass--metal. We have had so many people stop and ask if they could buy the bell. Of course you can, but you have to buy the house that's attached to it! Mike plans to repaint the bell tower soon (I hope). Oh, and did I mention we have bats in our belfry?
The deck. We spend a lot of time here in the warm weather months (all four of them!). As you can see, Jinx likes to lay on the deck too. I must admit, the bench he's on is the most uncomfortable thing in the world! We have cushions we put on them when we sit here. The deck chairs however, are VERY comfortable. Itty usually sleeps in one of them or on the hammock.
If you come in the house through the patio doors or back door (we never use the front door), you'll walk into the laundry room. I didn't post pics of it because I had done that some time back in another blog post. On the left is the living room. The laundry and living room are an addition to the original school. This old barn door is used as a divider between the living room and laundry room. It was here when Mike moved in. I kind of like it.
The living room's walls are made from wormy oak. This is not paneling--it is actually oak planking. I love it. I think it adds a rustic look to the house. When we remodeled this room, we decided to do it in a southwest style/theme. It goes well with the walls. This glass window is on the wall that divides the living room from the dining room.
This is my favorite part of the living room: the fireplace. Mike put the stone on this shortly after I moved in. I love it. We use it often in the cold months (that would be approx. 7 months out of the year). That's a fox hide hanging on the chimney. He found it in an antique shop eons ago. I show it to Rocky once in awhile and give him fair warning that if he doesn't behave, this can happen to him.
Now we'll go into the dining room. I love our ceiling. It's done in wood planking and painted white. I would never replace this ceiling. It also has beams that run from one side to the other. Yes, one of the bulbs on the fan is burnt out. Been that way for months. As you can tell, Mike doesn't get in too much of a hurry to do things.
This is a stained glass window that one of the owners (I have no idea how many families have lived in this house) put in. Not sure why or what purpose it serves, but it does look neat.
The staircase. Mike and his friend replaced this when he first bought the house. It's made of oak. I usually replace the flower garland with a Christmas one come the holidays. That's about the closest I get to decorating.
Can you guess what room we're in now? This is the wall that divides the kitchen from the front hallway. I like this little window. I think it gives the kitchen a nice country feel. It used to have a curtain but I replaced all the curtains with ones I made and just never did one for this little window. I rather like it plain.
The sink is right under that little window. We found this faucet and had to have it. I think it goes so well with the rustic look of the kitchen. Don't they remind you of the old fashioned bathroom fixtures? We have one for the bathroom sink too but haven't installed it yet. Another room I'm still waiting to redo.
These are the cabinets. Again--wormy oak like the living room walls. I love the shingle paneling above the cabinets. The ceiling in the kitchen is also like the ceiling in the dining room.
This is where I eat most of the time. The window looks out onto the back yard. I either read my book or look out the window when I eat. And that's the end of your tour! I didn't take pictures of the bathroom or bedroom because they're nothing special really. Hope to redo them before we get too old and feeble. One day maybe. I hope you enjoyed your tour through our little schoolhouse. Stop by for a visit sometime!
