Building an entry to the "Hobbit Wing" of Redwoodshire- an interior barn door

During the upstairs renovation, we removed all of the doors for ease of carpet installation and painting.  And 8 months later, we've only put the bathroom door back up.  All of the doors that came with the house were cheap, hollow wooden doors that probably came from the 1970's.  On the lower end of the list of things to do, is find some nice old doors with character to fit the very uniquely sized bedroom doorways.  We have 2 salvage/ house parts stores here in town, Historic Houseparts & Re-House.  In the realm of doors, the Laird's top priority for me was to find a door for lady genevieve's room, so that the Laird and I can get a decent nights sleep.   Between both stores, I found 2 doors that could possibly work for her 28 1/4" x 79" doorway- a very short doorway (to go with the very short ceilings).  I didn't really love either of the doors, but was willing to go with one of them over putting the ugly original one back up.  While in one of the stores, seeking an opinion from the Laird on whether or not to purchase one of the doors, he encourage me to wait and keep looking.  As I looked around at the second store, I found a section of doors labeled "Rustic".  There I found a door that I loved, a tongue and groove paneled door.  It didn't have a thumb latch handle, which I love, but nonetheless it was right up my alley of interest.  The only issue was the size.  A little too wide, and possibly a little on the short side.  As I evaluated the simplicity of the door, I convinced myself I could make a door like just it.  So began my online search for how to make a paneled- barn style interior door.  Sure enough, there were a handful of blogs detailing other people's adventures of making and converting doors into barn doors.

Originally, I had plans for a hinged barn door made of tongue and groove pine panels, with a "Z" crossbar for support, and a cute thumb latch handle.  In college, my parents moved into a very old farmhouse in the Northeastern corner of Connecticut.  All of the bedrooms had this style door with thumb latch handles.  Growing up in Southern California, I had never seen such a thing.  But it made such an impression on me, that I have been fond of them ever since.  As I have been searching for hardware online, my idea has transformed.  We decided to make a sliding barn door, instead of a hinged one.  Being a typical old farmhouse, built in the mid-1800's, the rooms are small and the ceilings are low.  And oftentimes, one must walk through one bedroom to get to the next; this is the case in our house.  We had plans to raise and vault all of the upstairs ceilings, however finances caused us to rethink our plan and only do half of the upstairs.  We left the 2 small bedrooms with the original low ceilings.  I call it the "Hobbit Wing" of the house; where the little people (lady genevieve and future siblings) live.  One must walk through lady genevieve's bedroom to get to the second bedroom.  Both bedrooms are very small.  A sliding door is a better fit for such a small space (rather than having an open door cut the already tiny room in half or block the flow of traffic to the second bedroom).

STEP 1:  Measure doorway for door dimensions.  Use saw to cut planks to size.  Our door is 2.5 inches wider than the doorway, which works because it is a sliding door.  If we were making the hinged door, the plank would have to be ripped down to the proper size.  Then cut cross bars to length.  I chose to do a "Z" crossbar support.

STEP 2:  GLUE tongue & groove planks together.  I used a bead of Liquid Nails in the tongue and groove space.  Be sure to get a tight fight between the planks, and secure if necessary.

STEP 3:  Lightly sand with 120 or 220 grit sandpaper.  This lightly roughs the surface, which allows for better penetration of the stain.

STEP 4:  Distress Edges of wood planks (*Optional).  I used a small chisel.  This is an optional step, but I highly recommend it.  It adds the extra worn look- it's all in the minor details.

STEP 5:  STAIN.  Originally, my plan was to assemble the door (attach support "z") and then stain it.  But I stained it first and then assembled.  I used a homemade stain of tea, vinegar & steel wool to give the wood a weathered look.

STEP 6:  ASSEMBLE DOOR.  Originally I had intended to nail the cross supports to the door, as I thought it would look most authentic.  However, in my research and per the Laird's suggestion, I decided to use 1 1/4" drywall screws to attach the "Z" support planks.  Screws attach the wood and secure it much tighter than nails- therefore I sacrificed the look for better function and stability.

STEP 7:  Attach Supporting header (*Optional- for sliding barn door).  If you are doing a hinged door, this step is not necessary.  This will be where the barn door hardware will be attached.

STEP 8:  FINISH.  Apply 2 coats of polyurethane to door for protection.  Lightly sand between coats.

STEP 9:  Hang Barn Door Track on wall or ceiling.  Attach straps/ rollers to door.

STEP 10:  Attach handles to both sides of door.

STEP 11:  Stand back & admire your work!  

The bedroom side of door

The hall side of door

Lady genevieve almost has a door on her bedroom.  The biggest challenge in this project was deciding on a track with which the door could be hung, since the ceilings in this room are so small.  Considering barn door hardware is so expensive, we have to look into other options.  I am too excited about the door, and had to post this before we figure out how to hang it.  So on the list to complete this door is the polyurethane finish, handles, & track/ door installation.  Will update once the door is in place.  I love character & unique-ness, and this door definitely fits the bill.

SNEAK PEAK:  In the midst of this project, I was inspired to make Double Dutch barn doors for our linen closet.  I found a great blog tutorial and am in the process of building them.  Considering one of the current laundry room doors is broken, the other one doesn't slide as well as it should, replacement cost is more than I wish to pay, and it's the first thing you see when you enter our house- it's time for new doors!

Both bottom doors are mostly assembled.  Purchased the wood for upper doors today.  Hopefully, will be hanging these doors in the next couple weeks.  Stay tuned!

Raising the Roof- well actually just the ceilings!

From the top of the stairs, looking into the master bedroom.
Left door: bathroom
Middle door: hall closet
Right door: bedroom

From the bedroom, looking into the hallway

Our recent home renovation, involved a new
kitchen, new stairs, and raising the ceilings of part of the second floor.  The original ceilings were so low they touched the top of the door trim.  The Laird wasn't going to be able to live in this house in the original state.  We hired a contractor who vaulted the ceilings to the rafters, in the hallway, bathroom and master bedroom.

ORIGINAL PHOTOS-

The hallway had 2 large closets.
The bedroom did not have a closet.
A door was added on this wall.

Notice how short the ceilings are- right above the door trim!!

RENOVATION PHOTOS-

View from stair landing

View of hall from the stair landing.
Left door: bathroom
Second door: bedroom
The old closet door was filled in

View of bedroom looking towards the hallway,
with new closet door added.

View of bedroom
from the doorway

Ceilings were vaulted to the rafters, and spray foam insulation added. New recessed lighting. A new opening to the closet within the bedroom- we do still need to figure out a door.  We still have the old door, but I may build one to match the one I made for lady genevieve's bedroom.

 A view from the bed towards the door.  The original closet opened into the hallway, on the new wall where the picture is hanging.  The closet now opens into our bedroom.  Check out the cool robe rack I recently made (refer to post about the process)!

Our bedroom!
In the beginning, we weren't sure how it would look as we tried to imagine these renovations.  Needless to say, the photos tell it all.  We were amazed at what a different raising the ceilings made.

Weathering wood- for the classic Barn wood look

Currently in the process of building a door for lady genevieve's bedroom.  There is a more detailed back story to come in the post describing the step-by-step door building process.  As I searched ideas for our barn door, I came across the process of staining wood with tea, vinegar & steel wool for the weathered barn wood look.  Seriously amazed!  I was so excited by this discovery, I couldn't wait to try it out.  

Stretch out steel wool and place in a 1 quart mason jar.  Then fill with vinegar.  I used a mix of apple cider and white distilled vinegar.  Place lid on jar.  Allow to sit for a minimum of 24 hours.  After 48 hours, I used a paint brush to spread vinegar onto a piece of test wood.  It turned the wood a very light grey color.  I wasn't very impressed.  I had read that using tea prior to the vinegar solution helps to bring out the natural tannins of the wood, since tea also has tannins.  Thus resulting in a darker, richer stain.  I boiled 4 cups of water, poured into a 1 quart mason jar and soaked 4 tea bags for 1 hour.  Then I squeezed liquid from tea bags and discarded bags.  Once cooled I decided to test it out on the door (I assumed that if it didn't turn out quite right, I could always paint or stain the door a darker color).  The tea did not change the wood color at all.  Once dry, I then used a paint brush and generously applied the vinegar solution.  Within a minute, the wood started turning a dark grey shade!  I couldn't paint the vinegar on fast enough before the wood had changed color.

Test wood with vinegar only

So simple.  So natural.  No nasty fumes to deal with.  I am thoroughly impressed with this method of weathering wood.  We've been wanting to find some old barn wood for our open shelves in the kitchen, but have yet to find the right wood.  Look no further, we can make it ourselves.

I used 00 grade steel wool (there are 6-7 different grades).  A mix of apple cider vinegar and white distilled vinegar.  Two 1 quart mason jars.  Two paint brushes.  Pine wood.

*Important to apply tea coat and allow to dry.  Then apply vinegar coat and allow to dry. 

Post about the construction of the barn door to come.  Loving the look of it so much, I hope to make matching doors for the bathroom and master bedroom as well.  The Laird encouraged me to wait to see that this first one turns out, before I start building the other doors.  If we can figure out a door track, this first door is going to be a sliding barn door- which is perfect for maximizing the small size of lady genevieve's bedroom.  The bathroom and master bedroom doors will likely be hinged, which will involve replacing the trim.  Since this will involve a bit more work than simply building the door, I am thinking of build some double dutch barn doors for our laundry closet.  I found a beautiful tutorial (single dutch barn door) on a blog and am ready to go out and buy the materials!  The Laird is skeptical since the door opening is so wide, but I have full confidence that it will work out great;)  We will see.

On another note, I finished up the third and final rush seat this past weekend.  Until we find more rush chairs, I am finished with that project.  It's great to have nice sturdy seats to sit on while we eat our meals together.  Not to mention they look sharp.

Hi ho hi ho it's off to work I go...

Mid-Summer Garden Tour @ Redwoodshire

We've already enjoyed Rhubarb, lettuces, & sweet peas, and are now into green & wax beans, blueberries and raspberries.  We picked our first zucchini this week and have many more coming!  Our bush beans are in full production, and the pole beans are just starting to flower- which means green beans until the Fall for this household.  Here are a few photos of the fruit growing on each of the plants.

CORN:  Our little plot of corn is quite tall- taller than the farmer's corn field across the road.  If you look closely you can see the corn tassels coming out of the top of some of the corn stalks.  The Laird tells me this is how they cross pollinate.

Close up of the corn tassels

SUMMER SQUASH:  The Laird planted the zucchini and summer squash in the same plot and mixed them up.  The two plants look very similar.  So until the flowers started growing their fruit, we were unsure which plants were which.

ZUCCHINI:  Here is a big juicy zucchini flower.  I have heard that they are edible- just fry them up.  We may have to look into it and give it a try just to see what they taste like.

Our zucchini & summer squash plants are quite impressive for size.  Due to the amount of space they have to grow (in contrast to our tiny city garden) and the abundance of sunshine each day, they are thriving.  We've picked our first 3 zucchini this week.

This photo was taken a few days ago.  Today I imagine he was one of the lucky ones to get picked.

CUCUMBER:  We've never grown cucumbers before, but we buy them for salads all the time.  The flowers have been blooming for a couple weeks.  This is the first fruit I have spotted for the cucumbers.

TOMATOES:  The tomato plants are huge!  We have beefsteak and cherry plants.  About 90% of the plants are cherry tomatoes, since we lost our first transplant of seedlings due to frost.  Our remaining beefsteak plants are smaller because they seeds were directly sown into the garden, a few weeks after the seedlings had already been growing inside.

GREEN BEANS:  Tons of green beans, that will continue producing for  the rest of the summer.  Currently we are picking from our bush bean plants.  There are flowers blooming on the pole bean varieties, so it's only a matter of time before the bean count increases.  We're already getting behind in our freezing, as we cannot keep up with the abundance of beans growing.

PEPPERS:  We have both sweet and hot varieties growing.  Here is a photo of the first flower on one of the pepper plants.  We aren't sure which plants are which, so it will be a surprise as we continue to watch them grow.  The plants look great!  Pepper plants are much slower in maturing and producing fruit, than so many of the other garden vegetable plants.  So be sure to appreciate the bell peppers you eat, they take time to grow.  

CANTALOUPE:  Our first set of seeds sown, were dug up by chipmunks.  Therefore, the plants may be a little behind.  Currently the plant is still growing, and flowers/ fruit are yet to come.

THE GARDEN:  Remember the early photos of the Redwoodshire "Garden Emerging"?  Well this is what it looks like in mid-summer.  Don't mind the weeds, they are super hard to keep up with.  The upper tier:  foreground going back- lettuce, peas, tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe.

lower tier: carrots, green beans, cucumbers, squash & zucchini, kale, peas, corn (Three Sisters)

Close up of the lower tier, where you can see green/wax beans, then squash/ zucchini, then corn

And this concludes this session of the Garden Tour at Redwoodshire.  Updates coming in a few weeks.

Wall Mounted Coat & Robe Hooks

The house of Redwoodshire was built in 1860.  Though we do not yet know much about the history of the property, the house was very much a poor old farmhouse- low ceilings throughout, narrow hallways, and very limited closets.  Our renovation to the house, converted 1 of the 2 upstairs hall closets into our bedroom closet.  The other upstairs closet was lost to the new staircase, however we were able to replace it with a closet under the stairs.  This was a necessity considering there were no closets downstairs.  Like most Americans, we have a lot of stuff.  I like to think I tend towards minimalism- at least I like the idea of it.  Contrarily, the Laird loves collecting things and having a little bit of everything; games, toys, tools, books... you name it.  Between the two of us, we balance one another out.  He likes to see all the cool things he owns.  I like it all to be hidden away or nicely organized.  

The under stairs closet is located on the other side of the house from our main entry- not exactly practical for hanging coats.  Currently, the entry is severely lacking in a practical system for coats, wallets, keys and shoes.  The shoes get left wherever the wearer takes them off and end up blocking the walkway.  Coats end up draped over the back of my sweet Pottery Barn Glider (from Craigs List). Initially, to bring some order to all the chaos of jackets I purchase a standing coat rack.  It worked well for a few months, but the screws got loose and if the jackets were not placed properly to balance one another, the coat rack would tip over and take out the lamp.   My hope is to create a mudroom coat & shoe system- out of a storage bench with shoe cubbies, a cubby tower for bags, and then top it off with the coat rack.  Pottery Barn has a nice system, but it costs a fortune.  I have been searching online and on craigslist for things we can possibly up-cycle and use to create our bench and cubby system.  

I knew I wanted to build the coat rack, but hadn't decided on the hooks or wood.  Rather than spend any more time brainstorming and finding expensive options I liked, I decided to pick up some fairly inexpensive hooks from Lowes $4.  Nothing special, but they do the job great.  In our garage we also have a pile of pine, tongue and groove paneling that was saved from the stair renovation.  I cut the pine panels to the desired length and painted them white & creamy white.  Initially I watched some videos about distressing wood, in hopes of distressing my coat racks.  It did not work out as planned, so our coat racks are simply painted without the distressed marks.  I made a 5 hook rack for our entry, a 4 hook rack for our downstairs closet, a 2 hook robe rack for our room & a 1 hook dragonfly for lady genevieve.  The Laird kindly hung them up for me, and I am happy for a place to hang our coats, robes,  & towels.  I love living in a place surrounded by things I make with my hands.  I am growing somewhat addicted to hooks- I think this is only the beginning.  I would like a few hooks for the kitchen, one for my aprons and something for my dish towels.  And when it comes time to work on the bathroom, we will need hooks for towels in there as well....

  This is our entry way coat rack.  The hooks are spaced 8 1/2 inches apart, with 3 inches on each end.  Wood painted cream.  Rubbed oil bronze hooks.

A cute dragonflly hook for lady genevieve's room- wood painted white to match the trim in bedroom

This is our bedroom robe rack, the hooks are spaced 12 inches apart, with 3 inches on each end.  Wood painted white to match the trim in bedroom.  Rubbed oil bronze hooks.

Such an easy project, all you need is a wood board, paint, hooks, and screws.  A saw to cut the wood, and drill to attach the hooks.    I had to buy shorter screws than the hooks came with, since my boards were too thin.  We screwed the coat rack directly into a stud in the wall, with cabinet screws left over from our kitchen renovation.

Blueberry-Lemon Kefir Ice Cream

Kefir Ice Cream Rocks!  No really- it does.  Since the Kefir grains need to be fed fresh milk each day, an abundance of Kefir builds up weekly.  Therefore, a batch of fresh Kefir ice cream is always in order.  Today we experimented with blueberries.

Blueberry-Lemon Kefir Ice Cream
2 cups Kefir
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. Lemon juice or Lemon Zest

Mix eggs & sugar.  Then add Kefir & heavy cream.  Chop fresh or frozen blueberries in food processor.  Then add blueberries to cream, sugar & egg mixture.  Add the lemon juice.  Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and churn for 15 minutes or until thickened to a soft serve consistency.  Eat immediately as a soft serve or place in a freezer safe container and chill until desired hardness.

Tastes delicious!  I imagine it would taste even more amazing using fresh lemon zest/ juice.  Another keeper of an ice cream recipe.  The consistency was perfect, considering our strawberry (fruit) ice cream usually comes out more hard and icy, rather than creamy.

Lacto-Fermented Garlic-Basil Beans

Tonight I tasted my first lacto-fermented batch of ginger carrots (refer to previous post).  It tasted very strongly of ginger, so if I attempt another batch I will decrease the amount of ginger to 1/3 or 1/4 the original amount.  I had no idea how potent even the smallest amount of fresh ginger root is.  Needless to say, it was a fun first attempt, but definitely not something I liked and want to gobble down.  However, lady genevieve likes it and does not seem to be bothered by the strong ginger taste, so it wasn't a wasted attempt.  I will feed that baby snacks of gingered carrots until that jar runs out or she stops liking it.

Onto the next lacto-fermentation batch: Garlic-Basil Beans (green & yellow wax).  Most recipes I found online were for Dilly Green Beans.  At the moment I do not have dill ready for use, so I decided to go with a garlic & basil combination.  It seems like a nice Italian seasoned snack.  We will see how this combination goes.

Cut & trim ends off fresh green & wax beans.  Then lay 1 quart canning jar horizontal on it's side, as you fill with beans- this keeps them standing straight up and makes it easier to squeeze them in tight.  Then dissolve 2 Tbsp. Sea salt in 3 cups of filtered water.  Pour into jar of beans.  Add 1/2 tsp. minced or fresh garlic.  Add 2 Tbsp. whey (optional).  Add fresh basil leaves to taste- I did about 7 medium size leaves.   Place glass weights on top of beans & basil to keep vegetables submerged under brine.  Fit air lock onto jar and place in a dark cool spot.  The instructions I found, suggested letting it ferment for 24-38 hours and then placing in the door of the refrigerator for a continued slow ferment (since this is the warmest spot in the refrigerator).  This causes the ferment to take longer, but also preserve the beans longer.  That recipe said the beans would be ready to eat in 1-2 weeks.   I think I am going to do a week of room temperature fermenting, and then do a taste test.

Finishing touches on a handful of mostly-done projects

This past weekend, the Laird was highly motivated to finish a number of "almost finished" projects.

1) Installed the final piece of wood floor in the corner of the kitchen
One final piece of flooring in the upper left corner that was overlooked during the previous flooring work days.  Small piece had to be cut, then ripped, and nailed in with nail gun.  Refer to Kitchen Renovation posts, to see what the floor used to look like.
Eventually, our hope is to add a nice big breakfast/ eating island to the center of the kitchen, and move the table and chairs to our dining room.  In the meantime, we have a spacious dance floor!



2) Installed the bull nose trim and wood flooring on the landing of the stairs
For the past 8 months, we've been walking on a cardboard covered landing.   Another project checked off the long list.   We still have to fill nail holes and touch up stain and add some trim.  We had to purchase unfinished Red Oak tongue and groove flooring to finish the landing.  It's stained with 3 coats of Provincial Miniwax stain and finished with 3 coats of polyurethane.
























3) Installed the trim and sill for the kitchen window
During the kitchen renovation, we discovered that this wall was not straight; it has a slight lean outward.  Somewhat concerning, however considering the house has be around since 1860 we just went with it.  It order to prepare the walls for upper cabinets, the wall had to be leveled.  Refer to step by step kitchen renovation post for photos.  Leveling the wall, also meant deepening this window & sill.  Finally trimmed & 1st coat painted- it makes a world of difference in the feeling of almost finished with this kitchen.

4) Installed shelf brackets for open shelves in kitchen-  It took me a while to finally decide on shelf brackets for these open shelves in our kitchen.  I found these particular brackets on Etsy.  Our hope is to get our hands on some barn wood boards for the shelves, however, in the meantime we are using some of the pine panels taken down during the renovation.  Surprisingly, they the stained pine looks decent enough!  It's amazing to have the extra storage space and be able to clear off the counter tops down below.  With the open shelving finally installed, the kitchen is looking more and more like the "farmhouse kitchen" we had imagined so many months ago.






































With a handful of half finished projects finally completed, the Laird and I are feeling encouraged!  There's still more to do, but the original Project List is dwindling down and the house is looking more and more like a house (instead of a construction zone).

Current projects in the works:  Hanging coat/ robe racks for the closet, entryway & bedroom.  Tongue and groove barn-styled plank door for lady genevieve's bedroom.  And the garden is in full force, so there is more to update there as well.   Look forward to the posts to come!