The Music Room

This is the first room we stepped into, it took some effort getting past the boarded up door with a crow bar.  The first thing I said once we got in was, "this is the music room".  Mostly I was thinking that because it was big, 20 feet long and 14 feet wide.  After we learned more about the house we found out that the man who wrote the New Mexico state song, "Asi es Nuevo Mexico" Amadeo Lucero  lived here.  One day his son was visiting and told us that this room was indeed his fathers music room.  We busted out one small window and put up a big 12 X 12 lentel and put in a double window to get better morning light.  The ceiling was old tongue and grove, which still hasn't been washed five years later.  My Mother gave us an old french door that belonged to the old Baker Ranch house in Tuolumne, CA.  We put new glass and took off all the paint.   After the old plaster was chipped off we used the soil from the yard to plaster, the final coat I added some very fine sand and clay I purchased from the pottery store, plus a bit of mica.  I sanded about three layers of paint off the wood floors, my thumb was numb for about a week.  First we used a big rented sander for a day and then for another 4 days I sanded with a circular sander.  The floor boards were pretty warped and have 1/8 inch gaps between them, but the wood looks nice.  The music room was fixed up first, which is where we slept for the past five years and the past three years with my son too.  My sister gave us her piano and the drum kit went up in it's permanent spot this summer.  Also, this room is where the fold out futon is for guests.  This last winter we put in a new Jotul wood stove which was nice, the old one was so smokey and made me nervous to leave when a fire was going.