Wrong pic, try this one.
Josh's House
Yes, those window sills are great and he gets pretty good light on the front and one side to grow a few plants. He has a Banana tree in the dining room right now and those palms (or whatever) that are in the living room he has 2 of those. He only has curtains at a few of the windows for privacy as he wants to keep the big window sills open.
You could seriously do a nice article suggesting historic indoor plants appropriate to one of these houses. My friend has historic.house--they go to extremes with construction details, why not with plant details too? If you don't I might nyah ah ah...
Great idea Sally, jump right on it. Especially the old Victorian Houses bet they had African Violets and Gloxinias.
Parlor palms? Time to research. But this is in line behind a couple others for me.
Sally, You might get some ideas from the Rawlings Conservatory in Balt. When we were down there with Gita they talked about 18th century conservatory and what a difference it made when they were first introduced and about how up to then plants were only of a size that could be kept in homes bet they could help with some of the history of plants at that time.
Good hint! Thanks!
Josh borrowed our utility trailer it's 4ft wide X 8ft long X 2ft deep. He took 6 loads piled high of leaves out of his yard. Just dumped them in the woods near by. What a shame, nobody had time to do more than that.
Josh, Hosted our family Christmas Diner at his house this year. His first Christmas in his new home. He is a great host and put a lot of time and effort into the party. He started with the outside the large artificial wreath belonged to Josh's Dad and now proudly hangs at Josh's house. The fresh green swags were made by Josh. He came over to our house one evening and Ric showed him how to make them.
Then he moved inside, starting with the tree. I've been giving my children Christmas decorations and ornaments every year since they were babies. Plus a close family friend has been giving us all ornaments for years. So he had a really good start before he picked up some extras at a yard sale along with some other odds and ends.
Here are a few of his childhood gifts along with some things he has collected and hung in the kitchen rafters. These rafters aren't original to the house and were put in about 30 years ago. They came from a local barn that was torn-down.
The large kitchen is a great place for friends and family to hang out. That is Josh's sister Julie, introducing his and her niece Lily to one of Josh's friends.
Even the ugly dining room wall paper looks good. Josh picked up this huge table at the SA store for $40.
Boy Holly, you sure were up early this morning or to bed late last night! How wonderful Josh's house is, and his enthusiasm for starting his own decorating and hosting traditions is fantastic. You and Ric must be so proud. Glad you had a good Christmas... terri
Up all night, Ric and I came home from Josh's and laid down for a nap I never woke up till sometime around midnight. Been up ever since. You are up early, too. Or didn't you go to bed either. LOL
I'm very lucky to have 4 great kids with a lot of different talents. We helped our oldest daughter build her home and I found the house my other daughter lives in, youngest son has several acres of land and they are living in an mobile home until the land,septic and such are paid for then they will be building probably in the next year or two. Josh is a real collector and has stuff stored all over the place. Man am I glad to get his stuff out of my place so I can organize my own things. LOL
He's pretty talented builder and has a good eye for things. He just put up a covered area next to the old carriage house to store wood. The beams he used came from and old garage in a nearby town. Freebies he and Ric collected I have some, too. He let one end of the beam extend out several feet beyond the roof and has a diagonal brace from the post to the cross piece. I mentioned it would be a great spot to hang a plant and he said "That's what I put it there for" nice touch for a wood shed. I have such fun going over there and finding the things he has been saving for years like one of the old saddles, when he found out I was getting rid of the saddles and equipment he put one of them away. Now it hangs on the back of a chair in his sitting room below a hand drawn picture of his horse I had given him for Christmas when he was about 12. I didn't even remember those pictures until I saw his hanging up. He must have packed that up more than 13 years ago. Here is the group at dinner Josh at the head of the table, daughters Julie and Jen with husbands, Jen's 2 children Lily and Lucas, my Aunt Margie visiting from Calif holding Lucas, me and my parents. Youngest son Jamie with wife and son came a little later after dinner. Ric's taking the pic.
Hollly, what a beautiful family! I would love to have a photo like that of our family all sitting at one of the big holiday dinners. We were all too busy chowing down. LOL And usually there were so many we needed two big tables, one in the kitchen and one in the family room.
Mom isn't really up to those monster dinners any more and I like the smaller, quieter ones but I miss the ones who are gone now.
Is that at Josh's new house? I love the stone walls in the back. Looks like the sandstone that was used to build the really old houses in my hometown.
Yes Hart, That is Josh's house it's that red sandstone that is so common in our area. Built in 1876. Three of the interior walls in the living room and the walk in fireplace in the kitchen have the red stone showing inside as well as the entire exterior. First floor has huge kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry and bath. Second floor has 3 bedrooms, office, sitting room, attic has 2 rooms that can easily be finished and turned into bedrooms.
Ric, got that pic just before we said grace and started to eat. Josh picked that big solid wood table up at the Salvation Army Store for $40. It easily seated 10 of us.
Nice buy on that nice table!
That's the same stone you find all over the place in and around Manassas.
Here's Ben Lomond House, built of the same stuff, 1837. The walls are about two feet thick red sandstone.
http://nps-vip.net/history/BenLomond/index.htm
The Stone Bridge
http://www.civilwaralbum.com/misc/manassas11.htm
and Stone House at the Manassas Battlefield.
http://www.civilwaralbum.com/misc/manassas6.htm#bot
I just love old stone houses and bridges. His window sills are very wide like you said walls 2ft thick.
Me too. It's kind of weird out here, no red sandstone but lots and lots of limestone full of fossils.
Ooooooooh , Wide window sills, Drool !
Nice pictures Holly, thanks for sharing your family with us.
I'm in total awe! What a magnificent home.
Thanks snapple, it will take a lot of work but it really has great possibilities.
What a cool home! What came up in the garden this spring -- tulips, daffs, etc. anything?
Roni
Not much, there were a couple of hyacinth, a large daff clump and tons of lily of the valley, a few hosta all the same type. There is a large peony I'm waiting to see what color it is. The rose bush is getting ready to bloom. I really don't know much about roses but they are climbing, with very small leaves and small buds. I thought I would post a pic over on the rose forum and get an ID. I did also find a couple of waterlilies in the wreck of a pond and Purple Pickerel. Ric and I were down there this week weeding and planting. Some of the wonderful plants that I received at the swap went down there. DG'ers are all just so generous. I picked up a flat of impatiens today some will go down around his tree and some to Moms. While I was down at his house I stopped at one of the other old large houses down the block from him to admire a clematis. The owner was out working in the yard and gave me an armload of variegated Solomons seal. She had weeded it earlier in the day and it was looking rough but I think the roots are still good. Not in near as good shape as the ones Happy brought me.
Variegated Solomons seal will come up in the compost pile. You won't have any trouble. About the only thing that stops it is a shovel or full sun. It's a beautiful plant for shade, a bit of a thug, but beautiful none the less.
I have a perfect spot at Josh's house for them.
I have a few pics from Josh's house. I didn't get much done in Josh's yard last year. I did a few annuals and added a few nice plants to the shady area off the back porch. This year I hope to do a bit more expand on what I started last year. Josh has been pretty busy one of the larger inside jobs that he finished was gutting and finishing the downstairs bathroom and it looks really good. He started this project a couple of weeks ago it is the area outside the kitchen door, this is the entrance most used. This area didn't have much in the way of good plants growing in it. There were a lot of lily of the valley, vinca major, some spring bulbs, a very pretty azalea and a couple of Dogwood seedlings. Looks like there had been a tree in this area that had been cut down the rest was weeds. I went over a few weeks ago and showed him what was good and should be dug out (there wasn't much). After he removed the few good plants he covered the area with a heavy landscape fabric and river rock. Then he started rehabbing the brick patio area. It was pretty uneven, when he bought the house there were 4ft high weeds growing though a good bit of this patio. This is what the area looked like when Josh bought it 2 yrs ago.
Here it is today. He has been lifting the brick patio removing sections and then adding a layer of sand and relaying the brick and setting the edgers.
With Josh's summer schedule he needs something that looks good and is easy to maintain. He ran the fabric and stone up along the side of the fence and sometime later the green area mostly vinca will be replaced with something nicer hopefully a small tree or some shrubs or evergreens to provide the back porch a little more privacy. Some thing that will tie into the pond area that may be reworked next year. Right now he is just going to get the pond leak fixed and get a pump and filter in there so it is working.
Looks good! I (think) I would have a lot of fun rehabbing a garden like that. It must be a lot of work too.
He was given a nice fountain last winter, a friend didn't want it any more. So he got that set up and working. That is a solid, cut brownstone slab a good 4 inches thick, maybe more. It was more rectangular and he wanted it square to set so he cut one end off and then drilled a good size hole in the cent to run the fountain piping. He also ran underground electric and installed an outside electric box.
Looking good!
Sally I think it is going to be really nice when it is done. Josh has good ideas, he has been driving me crazy he has those nice big pots he wants me to fill and I keep telling him he has to wait for last frost date before I plant them. Just another week or so. There is a dry cistern right there and he put in a copper line for an outside faucet, notice the red stone that he used to mount the electric box and he is looking for a hand pump to put there. He has an old one that isn't working, he could mount it as decorative but wants one that works. He spent part of one day just pulling a broken pipe out of the cistern well.
Cool stuff! A cistern, like he could store rain water if he wanted? I would lo-oo-ve to have that in my yard, and hand pump up to fill my watering can. And I need friends who have fabulous concrete fountains to give away too.
Thanks Jen, I expect to get over there this summer and do a little more planting. In the next couple of weeks he will head out to the island to get that open and the docks in the water. Once he finishes this area and gets the pond working he will be done with the yard other than to maintain it.
I think at one time it was set up to hold water but it is dry now. LOL on the friends who have fabulous concrete fountains to give away. Parents of a long time (back in grade school) friend, they just love Josh and he goes over there to visit and do a few odd jobs that they need done from time to time. They probably spent several $100 on it and then decided they didn't want it anymore. I'd love some of their cast offs, too. LOL
I'm not sure but I think Josh's cistern may have acctually been a hand dug well that had a casing added later. As to the hand pump the single stage draw pump can only lift water about 19 1/2' making his water level iffy. We may have to use one with the pump on the bottom of the pipe. Ric
Hey, if any of my kids friends are still visiiting me and doing odd jobs years later I will BUY them 100s dollar fountains; they'd deserve them! Josh is a sweetie.
This area looks wonderful. LOL on wanting his pots planted NOW. One of my DILs is getting into veggie gardening this year and wants to plant, plant, plant and I keep telling her wait, wait, wait. She does have a few 'colder' things in, but wanted to plant beans 3 weeks ago.
I'd want some of those cast-offs, also. That fountain is cool. Great idea on the river rock.