The Dreary Hallway

As soon as my short vacation was over, I started the task of scraping and sanding the hallway in preparation for painting.  I have dreaded knowing that one day the next item on the agenda for painting would be a hallway with peeling paint on plaster walls and nine doors, front and back to paint, but it has to be done, and so I began.

Not only the scraping and painting, but all the doors and floorboards looked as though they hadn't been scrubbed clean in decades.  The paint was yellowed from age or maybe the house once had a smoker.  It was gloomy and dark and has been bothering me since we moved here, but there were other rooms more important to do first. 

Have I mentioned I hate scraping?  I think I hate sanding even more.

Then once it was all finished, everything, the ledges, the walls, the ceiling, the floor needed to be vacuumed to get all that dust up.  

Just that process took four solid days from morning till evening to accomplish, and now ready for paint.

Oyster white is what I have been using on ceilings in other rooms, so it was continued into the hallway.  You can really see the contrast in this sample.

Two weeks later, first coat completed on everything, matte on the walls and ceiling, satin on the doors and floorboards.  Now, to do it all over again with the second coat, but you can see the difference it has made.  My hallway is now clean, bright and welcoming!

The tomatoes are coming in strong now, too many to eat and keep up, so time to give a few to my neighbors Kendall and Jim.  I made some homemade ranch dressing and brought that along so they could have a salad with dinner tonight.

Their house is the next one up the road from mine.  They live in the original farmhouse on the road, named for Kendall's family, Page. 

I was hoping these crepe myrtles were on my property line, but they're not.

This is their farmhouse, barely visible because of the 100 year old boxwoods.

Yes, that is the path to the front door.  They are doing some repairs on the porch.

Love the stacked stone.

Wish I had the barn, I could foster a lot of dogs in there!  They said I could have it, if I could find a way to move it to my property.  Evidently, Kendall has a lot of stuff stored in there that Jim would like cleaned out.

I spied this in the yard.  Would love to get a flower pot in that!

Continuing past their house you see the mountains more clearly.  Kendall's family owns 150 acres back here and two more homes. 

Rock walls line the gravel road.

This is the younger farmhouse which is totally renovated.  I have yet to meet the couple that rents it.  I have seen them walking their dogs.

There is a little stone bridge over a stream.

And this is KONO, a 13 year old chow that was in the Memphis, TN, shelter.  I got Kono out of the shelter and all the way to Sag Harbor, NY, to a rescue friend that adopts seniors.  This was the hardest save yet since I did this all on my own with no rescue backing. 

I needed to set up a transport from Memphis, to Columbia, SC, where a transport friend Dione would then drive him to NY without the requirement of him being neutered, which I would not do at his age, and without a two-week quarantine in order to get a health certificate.  I had to find an overnight for him since this was such a long transport, so he spent the night with my friends Rich and Pat (Rich above) then my friend Chantal in Knoxville picked him up to meet Joe who took him to Dione in Columbia,where he spent the night and made his journey to NY the following day.  

Here is Kono with his new mom and dad in NY.  It takes a lot of man hours and people to save one dog!  We have since found out he is deaf and blind in one eye, but very happy to have a home.  He is one lucky boy!