Details

This probably sounds pretty lame, but the new exterior doorknobs arrived here yesterday and I'm very excited about them! I obsess over every detail, just ask David. He has to sit through nightly discussion about wallpaper, paint colors, floor finishes, and until now, doorknobs, an issue that is finally resolved. I searched in stores both here in Lincoln and on the Island the last time I was there, as well as on-line for new locksets for the front door and new back porch door, for about 2 months. I wanted to find something that would be durable but also a natural fit for the house. I found what I was looking for at a store here in Lincoln. Now I have to ship them to Carter. And now that the additions are being framed and the house is getting enclosed, they will need to be able to lock the doors very soon so this had to get resolved. In the picture below, the kitchen door knob is a brown marbleized porcelain, the only one like it in the house. The rest are white porcelain. This door knob will remain.

Below is a new lock and knob. I will have the modern set replaced at the front door and I have a second set for the new back porch door that I got from Kerras Jeffery. Hand forged bronze plates with marbleized brown porcelain knobs. PERFECT!

I took these pictures below in our house here. I had the three ceramic tiles of the house made 4 years ago. They are based on the photo that Dad took that I use in the blog masthead. I have a second set of unframed tiles that I will have installed as part of the tile backsplash in the kitchen. The water pitcher set in the photo was Mary Anne's.

The tiles will be a reminder of what the place used to look like

The shelf in the following photo came from the house and was sitting in pieces buried in the upstairs front bedroom closet for untold decades. I have no idea if it ever was used in the house. Maybe it was in the original kitchen where the parlour is now. I'll take it back to the house and put it on a wall somewhere. It seems to be a small mantel that is missing the side pieces. The lamp second from the left was "salvaged" from the attic of Jimmy Smith's house. I'll take that back to the Island as well.

The details are important. When deciding what to do with the house and where the walls are going to go, I decided on how the house is to feel, and to restore the "spirit" of the place, even if it will look a little different. Colors, finishes and patterns are all a part of the architecture. I want to do this right. Yeah, I know. I'm weird