Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Potting Shed

Before I get back to the kids in the next blogs, I thought I would take some time to share one of my favorite things about our home. My potting/storage house was designed by my dad and built by him, my father in laws, and even my Grandpa Ingram. This was one of the first major constructions we did shortly after buying our c1892 home. There was an old shed in the back at first and all my dad had to do to raze it was to give it one big push! Lots of the materials came from a "railroad salvage" store in Knoxville, including the windows. My father-in-law designed the gingerbread trim...it's a smaller version of the trim on our front porch.
Shortly after its completion, we had to convince the property assessor that this was not a small house! (My dad thinks on a large scale!) In fact, for several years, we would find a bagged telephone book on the door handle as if they thought someone lived here! This dutch door leads to the potting room. There is storage space in the back that covers the length of the porch and potting room.
One of my favorite wreaths I have made. It's about seven years old, but it still looks pretty good!
Another design-by-dad...My potting bench.
Besides my bench (that is so precious to me) this is the other fav thing in my room. A very talented lady in Spring City had a shop where she sold her creations. She has since closed it and moved on. I am so glad that I made the purchase of this shelf long ago!
I love birds and birdhouses...This is where I store and display the majority of my collection. The crackle effect painting was done by myself and Paw Lowell (before he was Paw Lowell!) Jonathan was not even born when this was started and completed. (So you see where I spent my time and energies before the kids came along.)
A favorite view...This is from the swing looking onto our back porch. I always plant petunias of some sort in my planters in memory of my Grandma Ingram. My grandfather was gifted in farming, agriculture, and horticulture. In fact, he was a high school ag/shop teacher until he retired in the 1970s. After retirement, he and my grandmother opened a greenhouse business. I spent many Saturdays as a teen helping out during growing and planting season. My grandma was in charge of the flowers, and she always had to have petunias when they placed their seed order every year.
A view out the dutch door...I knew in my heart that we would have kids one day. So I had this spot picked out long ago to house a fort/play set. Hopefully, one of these days, Tori and I will have a "little" playhouse (with my dad designing it, one never knows) to be seen out this door, too. (I have approached him with my playhouse plans a few weeks ago...)


Have a good weekend in your favorite place!

3 comments:

KJ@letsgoflyakite said...

This is a lovely and special space. I have always wanted a potting shed. Yours is beautiful. I also love old homes (ours is "only" 1911 though!). I am so glad you shared this. Your plantings are beautiful, love the bursts of colour.

Heather said...

You lucky duck....what a wonderful space! It must be a fun and relaxing place to go to!

Musings from Kim K. said...

What a beautiful space. I can't wait to share this with Chris. He has plans to eventually close in the open space under the treehouse and turn it into a potting shed. I've been told I'm not allowed to decorate it though. Darn. I'd have fun. I'm sure you would be happy to help too! Hugs!