Susan reading in the “cozy cottage.”

By Susan Shanklin

Tom and I just finished a home improvement project that only took us 112 years and some 8-day weeks! What? Well, that’s how it felt. Years of thought and weeks of work and still some details need to be finished … but you get my drift. 

We bought this charming 1880s brick farmhouse 16 years ago, and the former owners were not skilled DIYers.

To hide the unknown, they sprayed a popcorn ceiling in the living room. Well, of course, old sin can never be covered for long. The ceiling cracked and started to hang down in certain areas. I hated the ceiling. Tom tells me “hate” is a strong word. Yep, I hated that ceiling. Also, we burn wood, and the popcorn ceiling was a super magnet for soot. So we have a cracked, hanging, sooty ceiling that just had to be dealt with. Once I vacuumed the ceiling, then I had a cracked, hanging, sooty, streaked ceiling. Deal with sin!

Seems like months ago, we were in my favorite home improvement store, Menards. I could have a date night there and be happy as a clam. Haha.

As we were strolling the isles, Tom is drawn to the tongue and groove boards (beadboard). “How about this,” he says, “for the living room ceiling? “

YES! I cry out for all to hear. Not really, but close. We load up a rolling cart with enough firing strips and boards to do not one room but TWO rooms. Yes, the dining room has a popcorn ceiling, too, but the ceiling is still in good shape.

Tom handily unloads many 8-foot long stacks of boards into our dining room. 

Years go by (weeks really), and finally we start. But we have to move all the furniture out of the living room plus lights, books, and other stuff into the dining room, study, and kitchen. That also causes more dining room stuff to be spread out into the kitchen, study, and elsewhere. Oh my, things are getting tight in the Shanklin home. The dining room now becomes our “cottage,” as we called it. 

We each have a recliner, and when our leg rests were up, my feet were on Tom’s, and his feet were on my leg rest. We were verrrrry close! Not quite close enough, though, to keep us as warm as we are in our living with the woodstove. We used a little space heater and throws during a very cold polar vortex. Brrr!. Yep, this old house has no insulation in the walls.

Boxing all this in was our huge couch on the other side with a tiny walk-through. The dining room table was non-useable, with the chairs upside down. You get the picture … don’t forget the piles of lumber next to the recliner.

The start day and the next day and the next day went very slow for Tom and his one-man-band. Buzzsaw outside in below zero weather. Ladders and saw horses littered the floor along with the booming air compressor. 

I helped with the chalk lines for the firing strips. I’m still wiping up dark red chalk dust upstairs!

We realized that Tom needed another hand, so one helper was hired, and they did work together well. 

So we lived in our cottage and raised three more children. Oh, just kidding.

We had our trials but no accidents. After the beautiful tongue and groove ceiling was completed, we hired our helper to paint the ceiling and walls. Never have we hired painting help inside our house before, but cottage life was wearing thin.

Well, it turned out our painter needs to go to the eye doctor to update his prescription!

As a result of the painter’s subpar eyesight and lack of thoroughness, Tom painted the ceiling again, caulked, and painted again. I painted the walls and trim. We painted for days and days. We had sore backs, hands, and feet, but despite it all, WE did it. It’s done. It’s over, concluded, completed, finished!!!!!!!! 

No more sin. No more shame. 

So with considerable glee, we empty out the cottage and move back home. 

“Soon,” Tom says, “I’ll put up the ceiling fan and the wooden shutters.”

“Soon,” I say, “I’ll paint the shelves for the bookcase and put up the curtains and tie backs.”

Soon will be soon enough.

P.S. We decided not to do the dining room ceiling for the above reasons 🙂

The finished product. Was it worth it?

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