What's Been Happening

 

After taking a long break from blogging, I decided it was time to start "The Diary of an Old House".

I haven't been doing a post for the last several months but I have been checking out all the great ideals everyone has. The last several months have been spent working on the house and the gardens. As I mentioned before the house sat vacant for about three years and although the previous owners did a wonderful job of preserving and updating the mechanicals of the house as well as the courtyards and yard, there is still work to be done as far as updating and maintenance. After all the old girl will soon be 100 years old. We have been back in SC for about two years, the first eight months were spent in a rental. I saw old construction, new construction but we always came back to this one. One of my dreams has been to own an old house and now I have been blessed with one. This house sits on main street and you would never expect that it was a working farm when it was built. Most of the land is in the rear with the formal gardens being in the front. There have been several families that have lived in the home since it was built but we have been very lucky that so much of its history has been preserved. I'll start with a little updating in what we would call the foyer but I have been corrected, this is the receiving hall. The house had a center hall that went the length of the house with a door at each end. On each side of the hallway were doors to other rooms each opening to the hall and to the door on the opposite side of the hall, early air conditioning! The receiving hall is separated by glass French doors from the family hall. at the back of the house. Enough of that, now onto the update.

 

If you saw earlier post you saw photos of the first time I saw the inside of the house. Notice the bright white walls and the green and burgundy stripped wallpaper above the picture molding as well as the green painted woodwork. It took four coats of the white to cover the green.

 

After we moved in.

And now.

 

This was a big job, with eleven foot ceilings I had to use a small airplane ladder to reach the top. Being five foot with eleven foot ceilings is no picnic. You will notice that the board and batten is still the original mahogany. We would like to lighten it a bit but no painting. Where are you Nicole Curtis ? You make rehab look so easy!

Most of the furnishings have stayed the same with the addition of a few pillows and a change in the lamps on the library table, which were moved from another room.

Notice the green carpet is gone from the back hall as well as the curtains from the French doors. Trust me taking the carpet and the other four layers off was no fun!

This light was painted gold but had collected lots of dirt over the years so it also got a coat of paint and well as a little highlighting of the details on it which, until I started cleaning never knew it had. See the little tabs? They were to turn the lights on and off! I wonder what kind of tool they used to do that. When the last owners moved here, four rooms in the front of the house only had ceiling fixtures

and that was the only way to light the rooms, no outlets for lamps.

 

Here is another photo of the hardware on the pocket door the way it looked when we moved in.

 

And now, after allot of cleaning! Copper and brass. The doors were made by a cabinet maker in Charleston by L. Wetherhorn & Son, they are signed. Mr. Wetherhorn was born in 1872 in Charleston. This type of door was made between 1875 and 1925.

 

The front door knob, once again copper and brass.

 I guess that's enough for today. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Stayed tuned, lots more to come.

Sandy

Linking to: Between Naps On The Porch for Metamorphosis  Monday