Yes, a long journey, which challenged me in my sknills, force and staying power. But we are on the home straight now.
After a lot of very hard days that made me believe I would never get this project to an end, which made me despaired, which made my bones aching, I finally managed to make a comfortable living room and library out of the barn, which has been used as a storage room for more than two years. I totally underestimated the amount of work that had to be done. The room was full with furniture and stuff and to paint somewhere I always first had to move a lot of stuff. Especially the books, I think they weigh more than one ton, had to be moved 5 or 6 times until I could get them to their final place in the big bookcase.
But now it is done. OK, the curtains at the door leading to the garden are still not there (they have to be sent directly from the UK. The company only sent the curtains for the big window, which once was the barn door.). Also two big wing chairs in Biedermeier style made of cherry wood are still missing, because they are at the upholsterer to get a new upholstery. And a TV is missing, which we are going to buy at our local shop next week. But the rest is done.
Here is an interactive panorama. Click on it and move with your mouse for moving around in the room:
Interactive panorama
Formerly the barn was a dark room although there is a really wide glass front where there once was the barn door. It has also got another glass door leading to the garden. My parents chose dark colors like dark green and red and brown. Now the room looks totally different with the light cream tones combined with all sorts of light pink color tones. And it looks two times bigger, because we furnished it with only half of the furniture. The glass front is pointing to the south, so there is bright light all the day.

View from the garden door

The door leading to the garden with my great grandfather's desk from about 1880. The curtains are still not complete. I'm waiting for the cream drapes from the UK.

The big book case (you can't believe how many books are stored in this gigantic book case!) and the sofa taken when I was sitting in my favortite wing chair.

Old sofa from my grandfather

Some wall decoration. The porcelain box was painted by me about 8 years ago when I took part in a porcelain painting class.

Sideboard with the big old shell my grandparents gave me from time to time, because I wanted to hear hte whispering of the waves of the sea when I took it to my ear. Sweet memories!

One of four showcases with the bird collection of my father

Sofa corner

This is the place for another two wing chairs to complete the sofa. Show case with colored and hand cut glass and some procelain.

This is MY PLACE! The wing chair is gigantic and you need no bed, because it is an excellent place to sleep in. It is perfect for taking a nap! It once was my father's chair. Give me a pot of coffee and I can sit there for hours!

The fireplace!

Again the sofa.

The lamps on the window sill are 43 years old and they look pretty with their new cream silk lamp shades. Formerly they had red lamp shades.

I love crystal lusters...

We can't wait until we buy a new TV. This corner of the room will be perfect for some family time.

The mighty book case....

Painting from my Granny's brother Karl Albracht. In our family are a lot of artists, mostly painters, but also musicians and writers.

Detail of the wallpaper, which directly comes from Cleveland/Ohio.

Statue of Empress Sisi (Elisabeth) of Austria
OK, now the room looks fine, but I am at the end of my tether. My right arm is aching like hell and does not let me sleep of pain. My back is hurting. Yesterday I did not know how to get into my car, how to get out of it again, how to get up the stairs, how to get into my bed and so on. So today there had to be a break! After buying our groceries I decided to have my cup of coffee outside on our new bench in front of the house:





Only a short pleasure, because there was a thunderstorm coming and I went inside helping Anna packing for her England trip, which starts tomorrow.
Anna will come back next Weekend, when there is Whitsun. We both will have a break from renovating until then. But the next weekend after Whitsun I'm going to get started with the last two rooms in the house, with Anna's living room and her kitchen. Yesterday they already delivered the kitchen furniture. So everything is ready for the home straight.
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