Well I haven't written in awhile...all wrapped up in the holidays, no pun intended. My husband has been doing plaster work in our upstairs hall off and on for the last two months but the pics of
that are really boring so I thought I would go over a few of the nice details in or house and also give everyone an idea of how much wood we have to strip! The brown tile fireplace is in the music room. It has a large oval mirror and the cast iron cover has the images of musical instruments. The dining room fireplace is the most ornate with leaded glass cabinets, double columns and a large mirror. The tiles are a mottled green and the cast iron cover depicts fruits. The bedroom fireplaces are less ornate. Two are blue tile and one is yellow. The covers are lighter copper instead of cast iron.
I dream of the day when they are back to their original wood finish. (I also dream of a swimming pool but that is another story) We have just had the coldest two weeks in N.C. since they started keeping records back in the late 1800's and these fireplaces have really been appreciated for the last few weeks!



The upstairs master has an adjoining room which was the nursery. While stripping wallpaper we discovered the original nursery rhyme stencils done in 1916 for Joseph Knox the couple's only child. We are preserving one wall of the stencils.




The largest built- in in the house is the cabinet in the butlers pantry. Again I can't wait to see it stripped! I have to stand on a three foot step ladder to reach the top shelf.





We have three matching chandeliers in the front three rooms of the house. In the back ground of the picture you can also see the oak leaf curtains tiebacks that are also original to the house.(We now have light bulbs in all the candles
this pic was taken when we were looking at the house.)












All of the doors are six panel.







I hope that when the time comes I can send them out to be dipped and refinished.

I don't know if you can see it in this pic but the cross shaped that is used as the attics vents is also carved into the tops of the inglenook benches. I thought that was a nice tie in design element. Well next week we prune the apple and pear trees. Hope its not 10 degrees!