They've Started the Cabinets!

met with Seth and Jessica Brown of S.C. Brown Cabinet Company in Nashville last Friday morning. I have signed off on the plans and the cabinets will look beautiful. They are making all the cabinets in the entire house which includes the kitchen, master bath and guest bath. All wood will be Cherry and the kitchen cabinets will be painted with Sherwin Williams Jersey Cream. The master bath vanity will be Dover White and the guest bath vanity is stained a rich Mahogany color. I have picked out the pulls and knobs from HGH Hardware in Nashville for all the cabinetry. I ordered them this morning. Did I mention hardware is costly?!!!! The cabinets should be ready in about 3-4 weeks. Eagle Fabricators in Nashville have my marble and granite and are awaiting notification from Brown's to fabricate. pictures to follow!

Stable Progress - Center Aisle

Here are the pictures of the progress made ending yesterday. The tongue and groove are going up very nicely, the ceiling tomorrow! That's Andy's childhood saddle; we'll hang it in the tack room, Emma is supervising the work.

Stable Interior - Tack Room

These pictures show the interior of the tack room. The walls are almost finished with Michael Jones, our nephew who has been invaluable with this project, on the scaffolding. The tongue and groove wood is oak. Andy and Michael have laboured endlessly in getting this done. They will be continuing and hopefully finishing the stalls area next. Chris Gill, our builder showed them how to finish the hard parts and did some of it himself.

The Painting Is Done!

We have finished the painting inside the house! (well,except for a second coat on the main room upstairs) Photos starting from the bottom: the kitchen with Sherwin Williams' Van Dyke Brown paint and the nearly floor to ceiling windows, the second photo is a shot taken from the kitchen through the dining room to the living room showing the Van Dyke, Antique Red of the dining room and the Santorini Blue of the living room located on the left front of the house, third is a shot of Andy and Michael in the foyer painting the shutters which will be hung on the outside front of the house...more on the shutters below, the forth photo is of Michael painting the new upstairs bedroom in Certain Peach,and the top photo is of Andy and Michael painting the guest bedroom Pressed Flower. This room is part of the original house. Andy picked out the color to go with the Davis Cabinet's Lillian Russell furniture that will go in there, he has a pretty good eye for a straight guy:)

Michael and Andy renamed all of the colors to reflect their character (they said it was to reflect the character of the farm, but I don't know)...Santorini Blue is now Williamsport Blue, Antique Red is now Tomato Soup Red, Van Dyke Brown is now Hershey Bar Chocolate, Certain Peach is Farm Raised Salmon, Pressed Flower is now Simply Mauvealous, Halcyon Green is now Old Money Green,and Rainwashed is Public Bathroom Blue, and Ivorie, is, well, Ivorie. Oh, Michael has decided that when they greet each other they are to say, "How are you?" The other responds, "Peachy King, how are you?" "Simply Mauvealous"...they're spending WAY too much time together! Michael really needs to hurry to DC!

Now about the shutters: I found these shutters in an outbuilding on the farm and the markings on them perfectly match the markings on the inside of the front window frames. They appear to have been originally made for the front windows before the smaller windows to the left and right of the front two windows were added. We do not know how old they are, but judging from the wood, weight, dryness, and the old paint, they may have very well been a part of the original house. Originally they were meant to close over the front windows. So far they have taken one coat of primer and three coats of Hunter Green paint with no real end in sight. We will hang them on the front of the house on either side of the front windows. There are two sets of them.

In the upstairs Peach painted room I had the stained glass placed. I found the stained glass with the profile of a 1920's lady in a hat a number of years ago in an antique store. I bought it because it reminded me of a photo that I had seen as a child of my paternal grandmother, Emma Bloodworth Jones in the 1920's. She, in the stained glass, now watches over the farm and is facing where the mares will live. My grandmother loved horses and I have a photo of her with her horse "Billy". He was black and of indeterminate origin; he looked like a, well actually I don't know what he looked like!...a nice guy I guess.

Next steps...

Our builder must get all of the door knobs and locks attached to the doors and make sure that all the doors close and latch. The floors are ready to be finished.

meeting with the cabinet builders in one week to finalize them! Seth Brown of Brown Cabinets has brought the vanity for the guest bath and it is so beautiful! I will photograph it, but he does not want to add the doors until the hardware comes, and of course those are on back order. maybe next week?

hope we have a toilet installed by next week early, the folks at the Williamsport Market and Deli have been great about letting me use their "facilities" Thanks, Ms. Virginia! I must get a photo of the market and the ladies who work there!

Stay tuned!

The Exterior of Four Flues Over the Cukoo's Nest at Laughing Fox Farm

Progress Continues May, 2009

Well, we have started painting the interior of the house. All of the paint came from Sherwin Williams, all have a satin finish except the trim, mantles, and doors which are Dover White in a flat finish. The living room is Santorini Blue, the foyer under the chair rail is Ivorie, toile paper will be above, the Master Bedroom is Halcyon Green, the Master Bath is Rainwashed Blue, the Dining room is Antique Red!We have not started painting the second floor...

The exterior painting is done. The yellow is from Sherwin Williams and called Lilly, the white is Ibis White. The gutters were hung two weeks ago, and that's great as it has been continually raining since! The builder, Chris Gill, Innovative Designs, is working on the restoration of the exterior shutters that will hang on the front. The old windows continue to be a challenge, but Chris is working on them.

Our nephew, Michael Jones is moving to Washington DC, and has taken a few weeks to help us out with our project. He is painting, and both he and Andy are working on the tongue and grove paneling inside the stable. It is going to be beautiful!

Frank Jones, our electrician and plumber has started hanging the house interior lights.

S. C. Brown Cabinets in Nashville have almost finished the guest bath vanity. Andy wants it to be just like the one we have here at Averill, right down to the finish and brass fixtures. I am looking for those now. It looks like we will have the top done as culture marble probably from Dickson Marble, Lyles, TN.

Our kitchen island light/pan rack arrived and it's going to take Sampson to hang it! Thanks to Ann Cain for helping me find it! It will be perfect for the house with all of its farm animals on the border.

I have picked out the granite for the kitchen. It is primarily gold and white with cranberry veins, a lot of movement. It is with the fabricators, Eagle fabricators awaiting the cabinets.

The master bath vanity will have a marble top. And did I mention that vessel sinks and all their various parts have been a real hoot to get together, but I think I have done it. I ordered the vessel sink on line with a company called "Bathroom Furniture". It is by St. Thomas Collections and is white. The faucet, a Price Pfister is coming from faucets.com and one has to order a drain with the correct with or without overflow and plug. I hope it comes together.

Our Irises are so beautiful this year and the pink dogwood is so vibrant.

I wish someone would come and dig up all of our grass and replace it with grass that only grows 3" tall! We are beginning to look like a jungle!

The Exterior of the Stable is Done!

The upper border around all four sides of the stable was finished Friday. The stable is Andy's pride and joy at Laughing Fox. I plan to take pictures this weekend and will post them. The cornerstone was layed and completed the day before. Here are a couple of pictures of that.

Tennessee Stone Company in Nashville, TN owned by Larry Mashburn did the stone work. We would highly recommend them for stone work. They were conscientious, hard-working, dependable and did everything that we asked for them to do. Thanks, TN Stone!

Also here is a photo of the stained glass above the front door of Four Flues. So far this is my favorite part of the house...of course it's no where near done!