Fretwork alive again!

We have been having a nice warm spell here in St. Paul, MN after weeks of bitter cold.  I have been plugging away here on the foyer and my goal is to finish up the foyer in the next month or so.  I have custom milled matching trim that matches the missing original woodwork and this should be here tomorrow. Sadly it has been 2 weeks late which has made the process that much slower.  I need to put the trim in before I can move my radiator and then I can do the wallpaper.  As you may remember I bought this piece of fretwork way back in 2010, had it restored from the broken pieces in 2011 and then it pretty much sat in a dusty corner since then.  Every time I would see it I would imagine the day I would put it up.  Well that day came today!!!

 

Here are some before and after photos of the piece when I bought it and after I had a skilled craftsman restore the broken bits

 

 

The restored section.  Looks pretty darn good hu?

 

 

 

So in between the foyer and dining room is a large open area separating the two areas.  Originally I believe that there was a simple doorway into the dining room , but that was long gone and just a large open wall separated the spaces.   When I did the drywall in this room I framed the opening down a little to not only fit the fretwork but to also feel a bit more old house and not just an odd missing wall.  So last week I framed the opening in oak and today I hung the beautiful piece of wood decoration.

 

Ta Da!!! When my new old trim comes in you would think it was always here.

 

I did do one other little job in the house and that was to change out the parlor mirror.  I loved the mirror I had in there before.  A giant 1860s wood mirror with a little gold flourish, but I had always wanted a gilt mirror to go in the parlor.  Gilt mantle mirrors are VERY had to find in the Midwest so I was one night on an auction site and found a beautiful gilt mirror that I thought would fit PERFECT.  Problem was two fold.  I was bidding on a mirror while I was in Israel working and two the mirror was located in Pennsylvania.  Undeterred I WANTED this mirror and so I bought it.  A long process of getting it shipped in MN ended up being not cheap, but arrived fairly safely.  So I removed the old mirror (don't worry the previous mirror I will put in the library with the rest of the dark wood work) and I now have this beautiful gilt mirror in the parlor.  I am so in love...

 

Before

 

After! 

 

Enough for tonight.  Will update you when the trim comes to finish it up in the foyer