Rustic Rehab
Make an old house feel new, look old
PAM ADAMS GateHouse News Service

The Paynes wanted their 127-year-old home to have an old farmhouse look.

CHILLICOTHE, Ill. - The dishwasher and a built-in oven are hidden behind a stained and milk-painted poplar wood that matches the cabinets. The cooktop is hidden behind another square of wood-stained poplar. The refrigerator doors are covered in old barn siding.

"My wife didn't want to see any appliances," Jeff Payne said by way of explanation.

True, but only partly so.

Darlene Payne wanted the look of a rustic old farmhouse, a look artistic types call "primitive." But neither she nor her husband wanted the primitive, rustic lifestyle. For the past 2 ? years, they've been in experimental rehab mode - transforming a 127-year-old Queen Annestyle house into this new old house.

"It's really a new house built on the framework of an old house," Jeff said.

New furnace, new ductwork, new plumbing, wiring, air conditioning and windows. Next up? An idea on how to remount the original stained glass window behind the new energyefficient picture window in the living room.

Jeff and Darlene Payne and cat Missy sit for a photo in the living room of their rustic rehabbed home in Chillicothe, Ill. Photos by Tom McCarthy

Payne confesses he had to talk his wife into buying the house. It was standing, but that's about all. One selling point was that he promised she wouldn't be living in rehab hell for the next five years. Another was the old building, once a general store, across the driveway from the house.

Darlene had always wanted to open an antiques store, selling primitives, of course. The old store would be perfect; in fact, it was the real reason they bought the property. And they've been buying and stockpiling merchandise to sell once they open the store, possibly by fall.

They tore out walls down to the two-by-fours, scoured classified ads for old wood and barn siding, and made use of Darlene's brother, who operates a custom cabinetry business. And they experimented, not only with money-saving ideas on salvaging old materials to renovate, but with money-saving ideas on how to use new materials in new ways to create an old look.

In the first, salvaging old materials, they used barn siding to panel the family room and corrugated tin for the ceiling.

In the second, using new materials to create an old look, Jeff created a bathroom sink from a shiny new metal bucket. He cut a hole in the bottom for the plumbing and installed it into the vanity in a half-bathroom on the first floor.

To get barn siding on the refrigerator doors, he bought the type of refrigerator that could be paneled. Instead of using the paneling kit, however, he installed barn siding with screws and liquid nails.

And about that family room with the barn siding and tin ceiling: That's the addition they had built on, along with extending the front porch around the house. The first-floor addition and the larger front porch replaces the house's original second-floor cupola and widow's walk. Jeff said he had to decide if the two were worth what it would cost to replace them.

Besides, Darlene said, "I wanted it to look more like an old farmhouse."

Upstairs, they tore out and/or rearranged walls to enlarge the closet and bathroom in their bedroom.