Hello, everyone!
This begins the story about the restoration of the home at Laughing Fox Farm in Williamsport, Tennessee. Our friends know that we have had this farm for 10 years now. It has truly been a journey full of surprises (like the period sideboard found in the cellar of the house), excitement and quandaries. We hope to make this blog not only about the progress and life at Laughing Fox, but hopefully it will be a place to come for answers regarding the restoration of old (and I do mean old...like 165 years worth of old house) structures, building of a small equine stable, fencing, and farming (mostly we refer those questions to the farmers who take care of our farm...we are more like Oliver and Lisa Douglas for those of you who remember the old "Green Acres" sitcom) and topics of general interest in Williamsport, TN.
A little history...
Our farm is historically documented by that branch of the federal government that documents historic dwellings. It was in the same family, the Sowells and the Dobbins since its inception in 1843 or there abouts. The last Dobbins, Mrs. John Bills Dobbins (Olive Hamilton) died in the house in October, 1998 and we bought the farm from her nieces, Janice Mashburn and Sally Granger currently of Nashville, TN who are sisters in March, 1999. It is 200+ acres bordered on the back by the Duck River, on the southwest side by the Doyle farm, formerly the Russell farm, and on the east side by the Cain farm, formerly the Cheek farm. It sits on the terminus of Dobbins Lane. It is secluded but not too far away from "civilization". It is to the east of the Natchez Trace and Nashville can be reached in about 45-50 minutes. We bought the farm with investment in mind and with plans to move there someday. It has been continually farmed since the 1840's. It is usually planted with soybeans and corn and until three years ago we had up to 72 head of Black Baldie cattle on the farm.
Since 1999 the main house has undergone extensive renovation. After consulting a restorationist and a lot of people who said, "yes, we can do that" and we learned they couldn't, we started working on the house ourselves. Then my husband, Andy bought businesses that began taking his time and there was no time for the farm. During that time I lived there for two summers with my mare, Nancy. The farmers, the Kelleys, farmed the place and generally took care of it. Andy would come down for the weekends, but progress was SLOW!!!
Fast forward to 2008...
Andy decided that it was time to get going on restoring the house and building a small stable for the mares, Nancy's Angel and Good Golly, Miss Molly. He found a man at our church who has a company called Innovative Designs, and work started in diligence in August. Work on the stable also started about that time.
The "bones" of the house were great as it had an intact roof, and a strong stone foundation. The wiring and plumbing were at least from the 1940's if not older. Of interest, the outbuildings, even the slave quarter had been electrically wired at some point. The heating consisted of two gas floor furnaces in the master bedroom and the kitchen. There were also old gas Heat-O-Laters in all four of the fireplaces, but did not appear to be in working order. There was one window unit air conditioner in the master bedroom. The original floors, mantels, doors and door surrounds, stairs and banister were in outstanding shape considering the age that was by this time about 165 years. Mrs. Dobbins lived in the right side of the house during the later years of her life, so the floors were a little tired and there was evidence of water damage at some point. But overall they too were in reasonable condition. There were also "closets" that were original to the house and followed the Shaker design. One room was presumably a dining room. It originally came off of the back porch that lead to the summer kitchen. The original dining room has a wall of built-in cabinetry that surrounds a fireplace. And there is a very shallow but tall (ceiling to floor) closet in what was perhaps a parlor or living room. Five very old and possibly original windows with bubbled glass that had been covered with aluminum storm windows and doors were still intact.The original mud and livestock hair walls were still inside. They were covered with wallpaper that dated to about the 1970's. I tried very hard to find at least a tiny bit of the original wall paper but to no avail. But in the kitchen that was added in the 1940's I took off five layers of paper and I have kept samples of all paper removed from the house. Some of it is very colorful leading me to think that dear Mrs. Dobbins had a love of color just like me!
The house is of the Greek Revival style with four square columns on the front porch, a center foyer and two rooms on either side of the foyer. The floors in the foyer appear to be either Ash or Chestnut. The stairs to the half story upstairs are Chestnut. The floors in the other rooms are the original Heart of Poplar. Interestingly the room that was probably a dining room was floored in Poplar, but they must have run out and it was finished with Chestnut...would love to know the story on that! The upstairs floors are also Heart of Poplar, and the basement floor is bricked and has stone walls. The nieces from whom we bought the farm said they remember eating there and retreating to the basement during hot summer days. All of the framing is Chestnut and Poplar still holding the old square head nails and wooden pegs to provide even more structural integrity. I personally removed more nails than I could count when we took out the furring behind the mud walls.The house is so solid that it doesn't give hardly anywhere even the stairway! An attestment to wonderful workmanship and design!
Now each room's story including the outside of the house:
The House's Exterior:
The house still had the original or near original Heart of Poplar clapboard. It was in poor condition. We replaced the sides and back of the house's clapboard with Hardy Plank and have chosen to keep the original wood on the front. Historically it is correct to paint this era home a light gray, white or a pale yellow. Did I mention that I love color? Guess which we chose? I found a pair of very old wooden shutters in one of the out buildings and plan to have them restored, painted dark green, and hung on either side of the two front windows. We were able to save four of the five old windows. The front porch is now concrete, but from a photograph that Janice Mashburn, one of the Dobbins nieces from whom we bought the house, gave us we saw that it was wooden planking. The four square columns were in OK condition. We have had to have the bottoms of three of them replaced but have been able to save the remainder of the columns. The pediment above the front porch had to be essentially replaced. The front door is original and all doors are wide enough to accommodate Hoop Skirts popular during the era. The roof was in good condition, but we chose to replace it with a product called "Duration Roofing" that is guaranteed for the life of the house...maybe another 165 years? We did not go with tin. We have experienced a house fire and asking for another was not what we wanted to chance. The chimneys were in good condition. We have had them rebuilt and they will be regrouted soon. They appear to be in working condition, but the fireplaces, except for one are piped for gas, so we will follow suit and use gas logs...again that house fire thing. The back of the house has a very unattractive "patio" that amounts to a walkway from the kitchen back porch that is also really ugly. We are currently considering what to do there. Any suggestions?? We added a section to the second floor on the back of the house that looks very pretty from the back yard, a little Seaside-esk look, non intentional, but unexpectedly pleasant. I asked the builder to incorporate a space above the second floor window to place a stained glass window. It is a profile of a 1920's lady's face that reminded me when I bought it of my paternal grandmother, Emma Mae Bloodworth Jones. She now watches over the farm.
The Kitchen and Bathroom:
The house remained as it was originally built in the 1840's for 100 years until a kitchen and bath were added along with a little back hallway and closet, yes! a closet!! All of this was added roughly in the area where the back porch was originally. The kitchen was a nice size, but the bathroom was a hoot!! It was so small that when the door was opened, it hit the toilet, but the plumbing worked quite well, surprisingly. The kitchen had plumbing for a washer, a sink, wiring for a stove, refrigerator and lighting that at some point had gotten water in the fixture...a little scary when turning on a light and you see water sloshing around...we stopped using that light! It also had a pretty impressive exhaust fan on the wall above the stove that filtered smoke to the outside of the house. The kitchen had an indoor/outdoor thermometer! There were two windows that were fairly small on the end wall and one window above the sink. The floors were covered in vinyl that appeared to be from the 1970's that covered presumably the original oak flooring which we have saved. I took five wallpaper layers off of the walls and saved samples of them.These rooms have been completely gutted, the hall has been captured in what will be a master closet, that wall is closed to allow as much space as will be possible for the kitchen. The working end of the kitchen will be on the end opposite of the breakfast nook, in other words the end away from the end windows. That will look out ceiling to wall windows on three walls allowing for a beautiful view of the Duck River and sunsets. We have hired Seth Brown of S.C. Brown Cabinets in Nashville to design and build the kitchen cabinets. He is so into historic restoration that we look forward to his work! They will be painted a butter cream color and the walls will be a very dark cocoa. With all of the windows at the end of the room it should be a very inviting place to cook and eat.
The Foyer:
It is beautiful! Original Ash or Chestnut flooring, original stairs (Chestnut), original banister, original doors and door surrounds. I removed the wall paper, no original wallpaper could be found unfortunately, and all of the original livestock hair and mud walls and ceiling were taken down. They were about to all fall in. The original light fixture was still in the foyer and wired in a most unattractive fashion. I took it down and had it restored to its original condition as an oil burning lamp. I will hang it as an accessory light in the dining room. The original livestock hair and mud walls have been replaced with drywall (well, if it's good enough for Mt. Vernon...). We had a restorationist look at the house and he immediately said that if we didn't tear out the walls that they would end up on our heads...so out they came throughout the entire house. We plan to have the foyer papered in a hunting toile that my wonderful decorator, Jane Cherry of Columbia, TN helped me pick out from the Wall Paper Warehouse in Nashville. It is a very dark green on a taupe background, so looks neutral and works well when entering the foyer and looking into the kitchen. When the house was built, above the front door were five sections of glass, non-working windows. We had the glass removed with the intention of saving them, but they were so brittle, they all broke into a million shards. So, and not in keeping with historic accuracy, I designed a fox hunting scene comprised of five sections, each with a different hunting scene. My friends and current neighbours, Susan and David Alsobrooks of Alsobrooks Stained Glass Studios in Burns, TN drew the design, put the glass together and voile! It is spectacular! It is in keeping with the name and theme of our wonderful farm.
The four main original rooms on the lower level:
All of the walls have been replaced with drywall, I saved samples of all of the wallpaper that I removed. We have been able to save all of the doors, door surrounds, mantles and, as earlier mentioned, four of the five original windows. The fireplaces are very used as would be expected in a house of this age. Three of the four fireplaces are piped for gas logs. We will cover the hearths and edges of the fireplaces with marble that my husband loves that we have in our home now. It is of a gray background with cranberry and white veins. The room that was apparently originally a dining room will be the master bath! How fun to already have built-in cabinets for linens. The plumbing has been reworked by our neighbour who is a plumber and electrician, Frank Jones,and we plan to have Seth Brown build the vanity, we have a lovely tub in mind that has a double wall that hides a whirlpool. The floors in the two rooms to the right of the foyer have been sanded by our builder and will be refinished when the painting is done. The front right room will be the master bedroom and it will be painted a soft greenish-blue and the room behind it, the master bath has had beaded board installed to about the four feet mark and will be painted a coordinating color with the color in the master bedroom. The front room to the left of the foyer will be the living room and will be painted a soft dark blue with a wide fox hunting border near the ceiling, the back room will be the dining room and will be painted red!! that color thing again!
Upstairs:
At some point plaster was done on the walls and ceilings, but had fallen into poor condition so was replaced with drywall. The floors are Heart of Poplar and have been sanded and will be refinished. The a/c unit will be placed in the eves and our builder built an access door that matches an original access door in the same room. An addition was built on the second floor to allow for a closet come third bedroom. There is a guest room upstairs and in the house was an old wardrobe that our builder is restoring and we will use it as a closet in that room. Andy's office will be upstairs and he plans to put his pool table there, too. He has a great view of the south side of the farm.
The Cellar:
It is so wonderful!! The bricked floor will stay that way and we have a nephew, William Michael Jones who is determined that it should be a wine cellar...we'll see.
So today, March 30, 2009...
It seems that every time we are ready to do something new, something else inhibited that plan. For example, the weather would turn badly, storms, not just rain. These storms blew down two trees that were over 150 years old, but, thankfully they did no damage, but unfortunately to themselves. Then the cold came. The heating unit was stolen right out of the house (why do some people think they can take someone else' s things??...would be a bad idea to try that now on the farm, we have interesting security) So work on the house stopped for the winter.
Currently...
Right now we are waiting for the stonemasons to grout the chimneys, and while we are waiting on that, they are stoning the outside of the stable...more on the stable later. After the chimneys are finished, it will be warm enough to finish the exterior painting that had been started.
Some interesting tidbits...
About that sideboard that we found in the cellar. It was almost gone, but I saw potential. We found a furniture restorationist, Randall Grace in Nashville who picked up the pieces, kept it for one year and completely restored it. We will place it in the dining room. It is truly beautiful, a solid cherry top that oozed grease when Randall worked on it, crotch Mahogany veneer, and Heart of Poplar. It has four columns on the front, one was missing. I remembered seeing it nailed to something in the attic, so I retrieved it and Randall was able to use it. I can't wait to have it in the dining room, back in it's place of pride.
I broke my back during a fox hunt 10 years ago, so moving just after that time was awful. But we had just bought the farm,and I was still exploring the house. In the attic I found a hand carved frame that surrounded a print that is in poor condition of a buck, doe and fawn. The frame is about four feet by 3 feet and I will use it on something in the house.
The Summer Kitchen:
Still standing, but barely. We hope to restore it. It would make a great office for Andy
The Smoke House:
In good condition. The salt trough is still there. Andy cleaned it out a number of years ago and that it what I used for a tack room and grooming area for Nancy. It is now holding various things that will be used in the barn. Andy and I want to make it a chapel.
The Sharecroppers Residence:
This little building is behind and to the right of the summer kitchen. The nieces from whom we bought the farm said that they remember "Aunt Cornelia" a family dependent who lived in this structure when they were children which would have been in the 1950's-60's. It is two rooms with a center fireplace, a wonderful house with beaded board walls.
The Slave Quarter:
It is falling in now, but still very identifiable down by the original barn that is about 100 feet from the Duck River. It has a stone fireplace made with hand struck stone as are all of the fireplaces and chimneys in the out buildings.
The Original Barn:
Gone, flat like a pancake
The New Stable:
Now, how many men do you know who have no interest whatsoever in equine activities who would build a stone, stable for their wife? Andy has. It is so cute. It is 36'x36' with three stalls, a cemented center asile, a washroom and a tack/feed room all with cemented floors. It has a second story large enough to be converted into an apartment. The stone is Tennessee limestone and laid in a way called dry stack, and we had a cornerstone laid etched with the logo of the farm, the name of the farm and the date of the farm's founding. The logo is a fox, laughing dressed in formal hunt attire. Laughing Fox Farm is written above the fox and the date below. Hopefully this structure will last forever, Andy's mark on the farm.
We are so blessed to have this farm. I hope this is of interest to you. I plan to print this off and place in into a time capsule and have it sealed behind the cornerstone in the stable.
