old country house blog

Welcome to My Old Country House!

     Welcome!
This is MY OLD COUNTRY HOUSE!


     My name is Lesli DeVito and this is my New blog about My Old Country House. I have two other blogs: one for my writing (lifewithoutmom-taketwo.blogspot.com – this blog will ABSORB that blog and the postings before this one are THAT blog) and the other for my Paintings (leslidevitopaintings.blogspot.com – this blog will be in the menu of my Old Country House) . 
   Let me give you a little House Back history. 7 years, a virtual lifetime ago,  my eldest child started the first grade and we chose to send him to a private school which was inconveniently located 20 miles from our home. “We” is me, my husband and our 3 children. After doing the commute for a few months my husband and I had a “you owe me a coke!” moment, looked at each other and said,  “Lets move to the country!”. Swiftly, well as swiftly as you can with 3 young children, we put our house, the first house, the little brick rancher that we brought two of our 3 babies home to…on the market.  
   As if on cue, a business associate of my husband’s, who had recently purchased land near our school, offered to rent us the house on his heavenly piece of  property. He had planned to build a road on the property, connecting it to his even bigger piece of property and the house was incidental. The land is what he needed. He offered to rent us the house, and agreed to let us “make it livable” on his dollar. We had 3 months to make this happen. This is when I tapped into my MFA in Theater and began acting like a general contractor,  talking the talk, walking the walk. I did my best to look competent as I orchestrated the refinishing of floors, the installation of bathrooms and the relocating and erecting of walls. And finally I coordinated the painting of the interior, all 3600 square feet, including  the ceilings, every inch of which were covered with wallpaper. That process, and the nightmare it tried to be, may find it’s way into this blog one day, but for now, that will be the long story, charitably made short.
       So while we initially moved into this house as a rental, one year later, again, another story, we bought this house. I consider that single action to be simultaneously the best and the worst decision of my life. Oh well. Are not all the big decisions that way? The past 7 years have flown by faster than any in my life and I marvel at how much and yet, how little I have accomplished. Finances and the economy factor into that lack of productivity. But what I have done, what I have been able to pull off, with little to no budget for decorating, to me has been pretty astounding and these are the things that I want to share with you.
    My guess is that most people would have wisely turned and run upon seeing the condition of this house, but for me it was the ultimate challenge. Could I do it? It had a good bone structure. Would I be able to do this home, that had only one other owner in all of its 125 years – justice? Over the course of this blog, I hope you can let me know what you think.
Tomorrow I will show you some before and some afters…until then…Thank you for visiting “My Old Counry House”!

3 thoughts on “Welcome to My Old Country House!

  1. I’m really liking your blog. I found you from over at Rhoda’s place. I think your Old Country Home was very fortunate that you found her. I love what you have done. Your rooms are beautiful. So light and fresh. Great Job.

  2. I love your blog. I live in a house that was built in 1877 for almost 8 years. It has been a challenge but we keep going. It is a beautiful home and we enjoy taking care of it. I constantly change furniture around, paint, and just have fun. I also go to lots of yard sales and find great deals on old furniture. I found your blog thru Pinterest while checking other blogs out for DIY decorating and redoing furniture. I love antiques and finding bargains. I will continue to keep up with your blog. Cindy Manuel

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