The Ranch

This house holds half a century of human drama, of “blood, sweat, and tears.” Many people have lived here under many different circumstances, and now it’s just Zbyszek and me, and Bartek the mouse who occasionally scurries in. The house is quite big by Polish standards, but we mainly occupy just one level. That’s the level I focused on with a dust rag in my holster and comrade vacuum at the ready.

The first order of business was to switch out some beds and couches and wardrobes. Luckily, Zbyszek’s friend came to town so the two of them lifted and carried while I directed. We made what was formerly a bedroom into a living room. I went antiquing in the attic and found two paintings and a fabulous Russian clock, which Zbyszek fixed up into working condition.

Here’s how the room looked when we first arrived:

The next makeover was the guest bedroom, formerly a living room/tv room of sorts that had two couch beds in it, and not much else. Here is the before:

We fixed it up with a proper bed, some pretty curtains, and more attic antiques. It’s now quite a cozy room and we’ve had one guest stay in it so far with no complaints 🙂

I’m not quite sure of the purpose of this next room: study, small living room, oversized closet…? I’ve always thought it would be romantic to have a home with a library, though, so if one half-filled bookcase can elevate this space to a library, so be it!

Here is the space before its library glory days:

We didn’t do any major moving of furniture here. Zbyszek rescued that dead washing machine with some brilliant electrical engineering and put it in its proper working place in the bathroom, and he moved a gratuitous second desk up to the attic. I mostly just cleaned, de-junked, and hung curtains.

On to the kitchen!

The kitchen took me a looong time, but it doesn’t look too much different than before because most of the cleaning took place behind closed cabinet doors. However, you can see some of the difference in the pantry. I’m quite proud of that pantry!

Before:

And after:

Perhaps it looks the same to you, but it’s a much more pleasant experience to shop in the pantry now!!

The last big change is the outside and basement area. Zbyszek spent several days cleaning out the brush and trimming trees in the yard so we could have space for a little party outside. Again, a lot of the work was cleaning up layers of dust, dirt and spiders, so pictures aren’t really remarkable. But here are at least a couple views of the outside.

And that’s about all for now! Until I am brave enough to take on the attic…

Luckily, I live with a very big encourager.

Come visit anytime!