Where to start........
With a house of this size and so much to do it is hard to find a starting point. The best advice that I've been given is.... Start with one room, finish that room and move on to another. Since the kitchen is still under plumbing repair I've started painting the dinning room.
The Dinning Room
This part of the the house is from 1821. In looking at older photos the chimney was inside the room. I don't know the date yet when it was moved to the present location. I'm sure the original fireplace took up a lot of space in the room. The floor boards, wide pine where taken from another builing in Harrison; The Harriosn Hotel. I found out this information from a home video recording by Dr. Charles Smith made in 1981. Dr Smith was a former owner from 1978-1998 aprox. The dinning room has a beautiful simple mantel, leaded glass china cabinet and built in storage under the stair to the 2nd floor. I am almost positive that the molding at the top of the ceiling picture molding. I noticed this since its not flush with the ceiling and once the paining is done will research this further.
I'm not sure how to set up the furniture for this room. I don't think it will be used as only a dinning room but more as a family/entertaining room. The color deep red is to bring on conversation per one source. I feel the bright gloss white finish on the woodwork brings out all the fine details of craftsmanship from the past.
The large detailed front window is not original. It was replaced and there is another one in the yoga room leading to the enclosed porch. How to winterize this window is on my mind. Some of the glass appears to be original by the defects and wavy effect. I am thinking of 2 large pieces of Plexi- glass. One on the inside for insulation. One on the outside to protect the glass. Both outer portion open, currently the latches are painted shut and there are no screens.
What a finely build structure. Detailed yet simplistic and so finely crafted.
