Weekend Reconstruction

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  "Miss Lily"

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   in the original LMV kitchen

Want to know what we do EVERY weekend, rain or shine, for fun? Old house reconstruction! And every old house we have ever worked on has needed a new kitchen! LMV is no different.

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  Ladies Home Journal Kitchen Plan

Originally...

As we mentioned in an earlier post, the original house plans from the Ladies Home Journal were modifed by local architect J. Whitney Cunningham. When originally built, this wing housed a walled off breakfast room where the Maid's quarters would have been, and a kitchen area with a small pantry and a servant's restroom plus a door to the yard. Through the years, the breakfast room wall and the servant's restroom were removed.  When we purchased the house the original breakfast room was being used as a sitting room/office, and the side entrance door was moved with a covered walkway and carport added.

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  Believe it or not, this is cleaner than we found it!!!

Currently...

Currently, the kitchen is our project. The original walls in the breakfast room were stained and varnished pecan paneling which was painted white at some point. Hopefully, we will be able to reuse some of it to face an island and use elsewhere in the new kitchen. The kitchen and pantry areas had plaster walls. The small original side entrance area was a half step down with terra cotta tile on the floor. And little was left of the servant's restroom area when we bought the house. Due to shabby construction of an added breakfast area there 30 years ago, it had rotted away and was completely open to the elements when we purchased the house. This wing  received new joists, new subfloor and a lot of wall repair.

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  South Front Ready for Siding

Future Plans...

Our plans are to flip the kitchen. The kitchen area will move to the south front wall with a farm sink under the windows and a big gas range on the left wall and a side by side refrigerator and freezer on the right wall, with an island in the middle. The breakfast room will be on the North front side with the two large double hung windows that we are restoring and moving from the South wall, and a large farm table overlooking the beautiful lawn and old oak trees. The servant's restroom area will become a butler's pantry with a coffee bar and wine fridge. The original pantry will become a mud room beside the door to the yard. Of course, before we complete the inside, we will complete the demo and reconstruction of all other rooms--but a woman can dream, can't she?!!!

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  New South Front (Kitchen) Side

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  New North Front (Breakfast Room Side)

Next is the installation of new exterior siding and roof repair and we will get to move on across the south front repairing as we go, heading to the master bedroom wing. For a weekend only project, I think we are moving along quite nicely!