Grandma Fisher's Sidelights & a SURPRISE!

{Mr. Movie Guy Voice}In a galaxy far far away. In a time long long ago....

Ok so back around Easter, my grandfather showed me some leaded glass windows that he had saved from my Great-Great-Grandmother's farmhouse. I was in {love} with this from that moment. So I told him I would love to have them and refinish them. He told me I could have them for $50. I tried to cajole him into $0, but my grandfather is a very shrewd and astute person and {knew} that he could get far more for these beauts than $50, but I was family. :) So I gladly paid him $50. They came home with us along with another chair, and then sat for the next 3 months in my garage.

Very sad.

Then Stephen declared a week before his birthday party that he wanted the basement transformed, and well, I was not going to let this transformation happen without my windows. Out comes the paint scraper.

Love the patina! Too bad blue does not match, and ya know, the fact that the paint is probably lead paint. :) 

I did not want to remove all of the paint, just the loose stuff, because I wanted to retain the time worn and painted over patina that windows of this age would have received. I am guessing that these windows are around 90 years old, mayhap even older, but like I said I'm guessing.

So after scrapping the big stuff off, I applied some zinsser's penetrating primer tinted gray and it did a FaB.u.LoUs. job.

The basement was a work.zone. Lots of stuff going on all at once.

Then two coats of Valspar signature series satin Quite Red (hey look, it wasn't a creature after all, just a chip brush covered in this wonderful color, because I was too lazy to feel like cleaning my good brushes) :)

And VOILA! Per.Fec.Tion! Wait....almost. They're a little high. Hrm.......what to do?

It was suggested that I cut my baseboard to let the windows hang at a more natural height, but I have instead decided to go with another option.

So on to the SURPRISE!

Did you notice something different about the blog? No, not the look. Its a bit more popular than it has been. Readership and followers have been slowly increasing over these last few months. Never did I think that when I started this blog at the end of February that by the end of July I'd have 200 followers. Not that I didn't want followers, but I feel so humbled that so many of  you found my blog worthy of following. Words cannot accurately express my gratitude and joy at this occasion. So I am going to be giving one of you lucky readers something.

Here's the skinny

Rather than cutting my baseboard to accommodate the windows, I'm going to leave them where they be and I want to add a sign above the door, sandwiched between the windows. Dana suggested to me naming the guest room in the style of a bed and breakfast. BB's always have such fun nice, whimsical names, and I thought this was a wonderful idea! So here's where y'all come in. 

I would like you all to come up with a name for my guest room. Almost anything goes except for profanity and outlandish innuendo. I'd like something that leaves people saying,"Why didn't I think of that?" {because I didn't....my wonderful readers did ;-)}

What's in it for you

A $20 gift certificate to Target, Lowes or Home Depot, winner's choice.
And a piece of your creativity hanging out in my house. I have big plans for this sign, so lets get those thinking caps on and name that room!



P.S. I wanted to add a little history about these windows. I already mentioned that they were Grandma Fisher's, my Great-great-grandmother, farmhouse windows. What you probably didn't know was that her farm is still, very much, in operation. Its a dairy farm, and when I was small, and 3 generations of our family all lived along a mile-long stretch of route 15, I would drink milk straight from the bucket after it had been pasteurized. When cows eat onion grass their milk smells like onions, but it still tastes like milk. :) The farm is named Burnley, and is located along route 15 near Louisa, VA.