A "Hooked on Houses" House Tour

Well, here we go! We are excited, and a bit nervous showing snapshots of our family home....you just don't know what people will think - heaven knows how we share our thoughts on Julia's posts on Hooked on Houses.....is it payback time????
Hmmmmm - well we'd love to share "the homestead" with you.
This is the family home - in fact, it's been in our family for three generations. It has quite an interesting story, and - though it might not be your style....we know you will love and appreciate all of the wonderful architectural details that we took for granted as kids!
Built in 1904, our big and beautiful Queen Ann home was patterned after a home in Chicago. We'd love to find it some day - to compare the two! When we were kids there would be people stopped along the side of the road taking pictures of the house - we could never figure out what they were doing!!
What is really neat about our home is that our paternal grandmother's family lived here for a while, then after they moved out, our paternal grandfather's family purchased the home - just a fun little fact about the house - talk about destiny!!

Well - come on in.....let's go up to the front porch and head to the door. Don't you just love this door? Its garland and bows are very typical motifs that were used at this time.
Welcome! Come on in......









As you come into the house you see the beautiful woodwork on the stairway to your right. All of the woodwork in the house is oak, and was taken right off the farm's property.





There is one thing that you will notice - that there is a lot of pattern going on in our family's homestead. This is Mom's doing....mixing and matching things to play up the wonderful woodwork and details in the home (this is why we do what we do today - we're sure!!). Notice the wallpapered ceiling in the top left picture - boy, do we remember the day that went up......it's a wonder anyone wanted to wallpaper again!!





Let's take a walk up the stairs! Notice the detail here - do you know how long it took us to dust this staircase every week???? AGES and AGES!! Have you ever walked up a curved staircase?? It's quite fun and almost regal - especially walking down (or sliding down like we did as kids!!). Almost at the top - what surprises await you up here.......ohhhhh we can't wait to show you.....


Here we are - look - do you see the book cases? This is the library - what a fun place to hang out as a kid. When the cousins would all come over - this is where we hung out - playing games on the floor, picking out books to look through, or just talking about the boys.....!!






Here's another shot of the book case on the left to the stairs...
but wait, here is the neat part about the upstairs - something you just don't see anymore......






a curved wall - isn't that the coolest? Look at all the woodwork. It is unusual to have the same, really nice woodwork upstairs in the house as the downstairs, but because the wood was taken from the farm - it wouldn't have been as costly to do this, so they spend the extra time in all the detail.












Look at the fretwork - the same garland and bows as the door in the entry way. It's missing some of the detail - and, no, it wasn't from our generation playing around upstairs - Dad said that he remembers jumping up and hitting the spindles when he was younger.......hmmmmmmmm!

Shall we head back downstairs? Before we do - take a look at one of the post's detailing. While growing up the woodwork upstairs was dark, while the downstairs was light. Our grandparents had stripped the downstairs woodwork, and had left the upstairs dark. One winter, Karrie and I stripped the whole upstairs - and all of its wonderful wooded detail - it was hard work, but we had fun (really it was the fumes making us think we were having fun!!)

















As we get to the bottom step, we face the dining room. Pocket doors - we love them!! Let's head on in and check out this room that was once the parlor....

The fireplace originally had green tile on it, but our grandparents took it out and put in the marble. The second entry way also had pocket doors at one time, but these were taken out.





As we leave the dining room we walk into the living room. This room originally was two rooms, and it was made into a larger single room.
From the living room we walk straight and find ourselves in the kitchen. A little over ten years ago, Mom & Dad remodeled the kitchen. The ceilings were raised to the original height. It was fun seeing the kitchen gutted - we got a glimpse of what it once looked like with the few tiles that were left, and colors that were hidden under the existing cabinets.
Bigger windows were added - and Mom had transoms put in above these windows in the kitchen - just to give it personality - but not deviating too much from the time period of the house itself. The windows that were in the kitchen were small - but now she has quite the view outside!


Hardwood floors were put in - and Mom says that she has never regretted it! They are pretty - and look original to the house. The cabinets that she chose were made of hickory and were a bead board style. It's the perfect for a farm house in the early 1900's.











From the kitchen we walk out to the addition that was added on in 1986. Mom has just started redecorating this room. She is enchanted with anything Williamsburg at the moment, and has such a passion for collecting blue and red toile plates - as well as pewter things. Here is where we enter from the kitchen into the foyer for the side porch.


Below to your left, you can see the new wallpaper that we put up last year.
Mom has quite the collection of plates for a beginning collector. She has them hung on the wall, and has quite a few in the hutch out in this room.
This room was originally the family room in 1986, now the back end of the room is Dad and her office area. I don't know about you, but I'd sure love to have a pretty little office area like this!!















Well, that concludes our tour of the Summer Kitchen Girls homestead.....for now! So, out the door we go and we'll find ourselves on the side porch - oh look - what's that behind the house peeking behind the tree??

Why - it's The Summer Kitchen!!
Hope you've enjoyed the tour of our family's home! We've had fun going through it with you - be sure to stop in the store for a cup of hot tea before you head home!!