Halloween night

I look at the date and realize it is Halloween. For the last few years, to avoid the hordes of trick-or-treaters on Peakland Place, Brad and I have come here on Halloween night. Now we won't be going back home after the "danger" is over!
As I see it, Hanshill is a rather masculine, rustic place. All the gray and brown, the rough cut wood, the non-adorned appearance give is that aura. Well, I made one purchase that creates one feminine corner, with some bling. It's slightly crazy, and it's fun. IT's the mirror for the first floor half bath. It's a little hard to photograph accurately. I took 14 shots and here are the best two of those.

 Besides the portrait of Murnie in the living room, we also put up this grouping. There are two Queena Stovall prints plus the things on the piano.

 Finally, I decided to move the little table that I painted last week from the green beach bedroom, to try it in the living room. The paint scheme matches the table supporting the TV, and it creates a place to set a drink or a book if you are sitting in the wing chair. Also I bought a new, real pretty cushion for the school desk.

Our architect, Hal Craddock, is coming to supper tomorrow.

motivation and results

I ended up putting three or four coats of rejuvenating oil on the little dresser rescued from the Roost. The weather turned cold, so I couldn't continue to work on it outside on the porch. Here are the drawers right after the final coat.

And here's the little dresser in it's new home, in bedroom #2. The coats of oil make it appear a bit darker than it did before. The room has received a couple of new trial names --- -the green room, the beach room, the green beach room, and the Schwarzes' room. My pile of things that have not yet found homes is dwindling over there in the right hand corner. 

 Now you can begin to see how the word beach became associated with this room.

 I can just picture Nina feeding the baby on this sofa in the middle of the night, at some point next spring!

 And the 3rd bedroom may be renamed the Barth bedroom, or the blue Barth bedroom. All the photos are of Brad's family of origin.

 Billy Adams made the mirror and the little blanket chest in this room.

Friends of my parents have said to me frequently over the past few months that they would love to visit the new Hanshill and see what we have done. So we decided to grab the bull by the horns, and just tell people to come and see the place. We wanted to do it before all the leaves had fallen, and before the weather turned really cold. So yesterday afternoon was the day. We invited 39 people and 29 of them came for a tour. This was a great motivator for us. Thus we accomplished the hanging of wall art, a vacuuming frenzy, and more unpacking, as well as major leaf-blowing and two small projects to make the original doors a bit less drafty.

Last week I went to Roanoke to attend a talk on flower arranging by a renowned floral designer from San Francisco. In the course of a 90-minute talk, he executed 13 arrangements. At the end the arrangements were raffled off. I won an arrangement --- first time I've ever won something in a raffle. It was perfect for Hanshill. The container is a clear glass bowl, supported by a black wrought-iron stand. It featured 3 large succulent flowers, which Anne identified as a form of "hens and chicks."  It was nice to have it here when folks came to visit.

Billy and Pat Williams brought us a wonderful housewarming gift. Again, black wrought-iron. Billy said the hummingbirds were in deference to Mama who always kept several feeders around for them.  (We certainly plan to continue that tradition!) This piece is not painted ---- all the designs are cut out from the black piece. We will have to find a special place for it!

Finally, here is the mirror that we chose on Saturday for the master bathroom. I figured you did not need to see a reflection of me in my bathrobe, so I stood off to the side to feature the stone chimney wall appearing as the reflection. I'll have a few more photos later.

starting on the dresser

I started working on the dresser from the Roost today. Here are a couple of pictures of how it looked "before." Hope it will look better "after."  Brad and I switched the two sofas tonight. Also I brought home a couple of mirrors to try in the bathrooms --- got them at Pier 1. If they work, I will have photos tomorrow! The drawer is sitting on the table where we eat on the dining porch.

 The ghost-frame of the dresser is sitting on the drinking porch, just before I started work on it.

painting furniture

The process of transforming furniture pieces to make them "work" here continues. I finished oiling the old black bookcase, and also painting the small bookcase for my desk area. My next project is using the Watco Rejuvenating Oil (sounds like a face product) on a dresser that has been in the Roost for as long as I can remember. I can't wait to get it done and put it into place in bedroom #2.  I'm also considering some rearranging of furniture. Anyway, here are some pictures.
Here's the small bookcase in my work area. There's just no getting around the junk-y papers and stuff that will be stored here. However, the seashell-covered balls are nice. I fell in love with these in Australia, and Nina gave me some for Christmas last year.

 Here's a medium perspective of the work area. The blue box still needs to be emptied.

 And here's a full room view from the far wall.

 Here's the black bookcase in place, with a few items added. Also I just finished painting the little half-moon end table. I thought the black top would look good with the bookcase.

Now here's a view of BR#2 from the entry door.  This view is a bit deceptive, because in the left corner, out of view ......

 it looks like this!  Everything that has not found a home is residing in this corner. There's more hidden to the right --- it's just out of view on the far side of the bed.

 So the rug in BR#2 is a nice green. Right now there is a blue sofa in the room, and we have a green plaid sofa in the sunroom, currently covered by a bedspread, which is a makeshift slipcover until I get around to buying a real one. Also the tan chaise has the same colors in it as the green plaid sofa. So I am thinking about switching the two sofas, and then putting the slip cover over the blue sofa that came from Nannie and Pop. Also the little table that I just painted would look better with that combination. I'm not sure what to do with the chaise. And of course there has to be room somewhere for a baby crib!

Quiet Saturday

Brad has not felt well for several days. It started with a tooth that ached, then it moved into his jaw and then into the lymph gland area. He just went to the dentist two weeks ago and had x-rays done. (Worst case scenario, think about what happened to Bobby on NYPD Blue ---- long time ago!)

Anyway, finally this morning he decided he should have it check out, so he went to a walk-in medical clinic. Diagnosis: raging ear infection. So he was given antibiotics and pain medication and is now allowing himself to take it easy/sleep instead of working around here all day. It didn't help that he staffed a dance at E. C. Glass last night and didn't get home til 12:30! Anyway, hope he will be better soon.

We had our first frost last night. Here's a shot of the view from my computer desk this morning, with the wind blowing. It's a bit fuzzy because it's taken through the screen.

bookcases

Bookcases have been my focus lately. Until bookcases are put into place, I cannot unpack books!
So the first one has been finished. This bookcase stood at the top of the staircase on Arrow Street. Then it was relegated to Daddy's clothes closet at W-C/Wood's Edge. When Mama and Daddy moved to Assisted Living, the bookcase came to the garage at Hanshill. I find that it will work well for us in the house. So Brad gave it a fresh coat of paint, using the color we put in one of the bathrooms during the renovation. It's not white, but a pale gray. So bookcase #1 is now in place, and as you can see I have put it to use!

 I don't plan to have curtains on many of the windows in the house. One exception is in our bedroom on the end wall. I love the fabric and did not want to give it up entirely when we moved here. I am going to shortenthe curtain but for now I just like having the color in the room.

So now, it's on to the second bookcase. This one has been at Hanshill for many years, and certainly as long as I can remember. It sat in the "back bedroom" aka bedroom #3 and had a few books and photographs on it. It is black with an intricate gold painted design on either end. However, it has been faded and dingy and the paint was not very noticeable. So I decided to treat with a wood-preservative type oil and see if that would approve the appearance. The first coat was immediately absorbed by the dry wood. The second coat went on this morning and is looking pretty good. I have it sitting in the upstairs hall, trying to get decent lighting. It will be placed in bedroom #2, the one that shares a wall with the master, when it is ready, so it won't have far to move.

The third and final bookcase is also being worked on. It's a small one we already had. Brad has applied one coat of the pale gray paint but it needs another. So for now it is sitting in the garage. But by the end of the week it should be ready to go and I'll be able to straighten my desk area and get rid of a couple more boxes.

Also I'm including a couple of shots of the front/driveway entrance hall. We hung some pictures over the weekend, so the hall is looking more settled.

Murnie comes home

Today was a very special day for Hanshill. My aunt Sis Dillard, who is Eleanor Cleveland Suhlilng Dillard, came for a visit. She was the youngest child of my Suhling grandparents. Daddy was the middle child. Sis was born in 1925, the year Hanshill was built. She came up from Greensboro, her long-time home, being driven by her oldest daughter Leigh Williams Dillard, who is married but retains her maiden name. Leigh lives near Minneapolis and is visiting Sis for a few days. Leigh and I are only three months apart in age.

The two of them brought me a gift. It is a portrait of Mary Leigh Williams Suhling, my great grandmother. Her nickname was Murnie. She is the person who built Hanshill as a summer home. It's funny because her home in town, at 700 Pearl Street in Lynchburg, is such a short distance away, but modes of travel were different in the 1920s and 1930s.

It rained most of today, so conditions were not totally ideal for a visit, but since Hanshill now has more indoors-appeal, things were fine. We ate at the dining table and had a great visit. Anne, Meg, and Mama were here, too. I made a lunch of a crustless quiche, sliced tomatoes from the garden, okra from the garden, bread (from the grocery store), mixed fruit with whipped cream, and miniature Hershey bars. And I used china that came from Germany from Wilhelm Gerhard Suhling, who was Murnie's husband. However he died at a young age, in 1915, so he never knew Hanshill.

This first photo is of Meg and Sis --- don't you love the quote on Sis' sweatshirt!!

Anne and Leigh Dillard (looking a bit serious)

Here I am in between Leigh D and Mama.

 We sat the portrait on a table temporarily.

I was relieved that Brad likes the portrait. In fact, he hung it within an hour of getting home this evening. It is beautiful. We have been waiting for the portrait before putting up much wall decor. This weekend I suspect that will be a high priority --- putting up other things.

Thank you, Murnie, for building Hanshill.

And thank you, Grandaddy, Mama and Daddy for preserving it so well.

Finally online again!

Finally, finally, finally!  I'm back online, with my own desktop computer. It was a pain to load photos onto computers which do not belong to me and then write my posts. I am back in business so you can expect to see posts and photos in the coming week. Tonight here are a couple. One shows me actually logged onto the internet looking at my e-mail, and the other is just a distance shot of the sunroom (at night) with me working at my desk.

First gathering of our little family

Sunday October 2 was a special day. We had Nina and Charlie, plus Eddie and Kelly, all here for the afternoon and supper. Nina and Charlie went to a wedding in Charlottesville the day before ---- that's what got them to Virginia. Eddie and Kelly drove down to visit with them. This was our first time having our little family group here. The first of many to come as our family grows. It was chilly so we ate inside at the dining table in the great room. You can see the double doors to the drinking porch behind us.

amazing carefulness

It’s been so long since I posted. It is very frustrating not to have internet service on my own computer. Progress has been made in that Brad’s laptop has it, but I still need another piece of equipment for mine to work.

I want to share a neat thing that happened with our move. The movers were extremely careful with our belongings. Not a thing was scratched or dinged --- either the furniture itself nor the walls at either home involved. As the movers were finishing (can’t believe it was four weeks ago today) one of them commented that our dining room buffet was rather heavy. I was surprised a bit, but didn’t give it much thought.

A couple of days later I was surveying all my storage options. I opened the right hand lower door of the buffet piece, and this is what I beheld:

Can you believe that? I had left a full set of Spode Billingsley Rose fine china stacked in the buffet. I thought the buffet was empty. I had completely forgotten about this china. My first reaction was to think how stupid of me it was to leave it in there and not move it myself. But that thought was quickly overtaken by the realization that nothing was cracked or broken! In fact even the little stacks of coffee cups were undisturbed. I had already been singing the praises of Five Star Movers, a local company, but then I really went into another gear. By the way, I immediately called the owner and told him. I focused on the meticulous care by the two heavy lifters. He pointed out what a good driving job he must have done, especially coming up the driveway here. A special angel who protects folks when we move was working overtime that day!!!