From Vestibule to Man Cave to Porch Nook

During World War II, a second entrance was added to the Eden Street side of The Big Yellow House to provide access to the second floor apartment.  While it is known that Mrs. Brown, now a widow, re-purchased The Big Yellow House as a rental from Samuel  X. Stephenson in 1930 when he lost the house in foreclosure, it is unknown how many renters may have actually lived here.  Operating as a rental for more than 38 years (from 1930 – 1968), with its four massive bedrooms, it’s quite likely the house has accommodated hundreds of residents. 

According to the 1930 census data, Samuel still owned the house and he and his wife (Mary H.) and their two daughters (Margaret age 24 and Mildred age 17) were living here.  They were joined by two “lodgers”, Warren Oldham and John Langston (ages 23 and 26), who were employed as a lithographer and city editor in a news office.

According to the 1940 census, the house was rented for $22 by Jordon and Evelyn Brow (ages 31 and 26). Mr. Brow was employed as a Cook Keeper at the lumber mill and indicated they were living in the same location in 1935.  Renters Edward and Edna Laughinghouse (ages 34 and 29) and their two children Edna and Edward (ages 8 and 2) were also recorded as being residents ($20).  Mr. Laughinghouse was employed as a dry goods department store manager. Additional data about The Big Yellow House’s renters will not be available until the 1950 census data is released in 2022. 

The Door on the Landing is Open

So let me tell you more about this small modification to the house. A small area (about 8X8) was closed-in on the north side of the front porch making a vestibule.  A second door was positioned at the top of several stairs giving the occupant access, without coming through the foyer, to the landing of the main staircase.  We assume the stairs were partitioned-off from the foyer as well, eliminating the possibility of any access between the two floors.  It’s unknown if or how access between the two floors via the back stairs was managed.   

While there was no partition between the front stairs and the foyer, when we purchased the house, the door and the stairs leading to the porch vestibule was still there.  The former owner’s used the vestibule as a (very) small office and we began to refer to it as the man cave.  During the kitchen renovation it housed our refrigerator as well as an assortment of rugs and boxes we were trying to keep out of harm’s way. 

 



Over the next several months, a leak appeared in the ceiling and despite several calls to the roofer we were unable to find its origin.  Frustrated and obsessed with finding the source of the leak, Larry took down most of the original tongue and groove ceiling revealing the original wooden roof shingles and the current metal roof.  (He also found a large long-forgotten squirrel nest, many pecan shells, and several roof and ceiling joists rotten beyond repair.)  Using several cans of Flex Seal Brite liquid rubber sealant coating, he fixed the leak before calling Patrick the carpenter to come and repair all the damage. By the way things looked, the roof had been leaking for a very long time.  

 No longer needing a man cave or renter’s access to the second floor, we decided to remove the door and return the stairwell landing to its original design. Well, sort of.  We actually believe there was a stained glass window in the stairwell above the landing, but a bedroom closet now sits in this location so it’s not totally restored. Out on the porch, we removed the internal stairs but we left the external walls up and the room closed-in.  Now instead of a vestibule, we have a closet—or what we call the porch nook.   

We gave the external door a fresh coat of paint, and customized a new screen to look similar to the one on the front door.  The old peel and stick floor tiles were covered with some new peel and stick floor tiles and a new ceiling light was hung.  Both stained glass windows were removed and the opening on the east side of the room was closed up to allow for more hanging storage. The second window will be reinstalled after it has been re-leaded. Some shelves for our garden gear were hung, a freezer set into place and our bicycles patiently await our retrieval.  It may be a small room, but it has a lot of history.
 

 

Occupy Edenton

If you passed through Edenton the weekend of April 5-7, you might have wondered if the town had become the latest addition to the coalition of encampments popping up all of the United States earlier this year (think Occupy Wall Street, Washington, etc.).  Everywhere you looked there were tents.  Big tents, little tents, red tents, blue tents.  Tents with fences, tents with patios, tents attached to other tents.  And outside all of those tents, there were bicycles.

While the downtown area was transformed into a tented city, complete with mobile shower facilities, the “Occupy Edenton” movement was different than all the others.  This weekend, Edenton was home to Cycle North Carolina’s annual Spring Ride and all of those tents were full of bikers.  The kind of biker that is lung-powered, not gas-powered.  We had young bikers (the youngest being age 4), mature bikers (age 81), female bikers and male bikers (42/58%). The average age for this year’s 1200+ participants was 55. 

 

 

Cycle North Carolina is a non-profit organization founded by North Carolina's Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce's Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development.  Their first event was organized in 1999 and the location of their inaugural Spring Ride in 2004 was to Edenton.  The bikers have returned 2 other times since then and this year’s event attracted riders from 28 states and the District of Columbia.

Since this is a weekend event and not all riders want to stay in tents, the community offers riders an opportunity to stay with a “host family” for a modest fee which is then donated to the local charity of the home owner’s choice.  Larry and I learned about the event from our neighbors, Patrick and Jeanne, and offered to house some friends of friends that were staying with them. Unfortunately, those friends turned us down preferring to enjoy the “full experience” by pitching a tent on the shores of the Albemarle Sound in Colonial Park.

 

 The weather that weekend was chilly—about 50 during the day making cycling a dream, but down into the 30s at night making sleeping a potential nightmare. No doubt, those friends of friends might have been regretting their decision.  It was also the NCAA basketball finals, and those friends of friends had no way of watching the game from their primitive tent.  So Larry and I invited those friends of friends to share our satellite TV at The Big Yellow House.  To our delight they came by and together we enjoyed the game, a few beers, and stories of their ride.

 

This small town event is what attracted Larry and I to Edenton and we were happy to play a small part in making our visitors feel welcome.  We look forward to the next time Cycle North Carolina returns to Edenton and hope to play an even larger role.  Heck, maybe we’ll even get our own bikes out and go for a ride!

The Power of Molding

I love millwork. That’s one of the reasons I fell in love with The Big Yellow House. As the owner of Edenton’s largest lumber and saw mill, Miles Gilbert Brown was generous in the installation of millwork incorporated into the house he built in 1916 for his bride, Patsy Anne Chappell.

Every door and window is handsomely molded with medallion corner blocks. The foyer, living room, and former dining room are adorned with six inches of dental crown molding and there is ten inch baseboard molding throughout the house. So why then is the upstairs hallway so plain? This is way the hallway looked when we took possession of the house in April 2012.

The upstairs hallway runs almost the entire length of the house, about 26 feet.  The door at the end of the corridor leads to the attic, sometimes making passage along this long and somewhat dark hallway a little bit eerie.  Last week we completed our hall renovation cheering things up a bit by adding some fresh paint, new lights, a few travel photos and some colorful rugs.  And of course, some millwork.
 

Ironically, we found some unused chair rail in the attic.  It’s identical to the millwork found in the former dining room and we feel certain it was intended to be installed elsewhere in the house.  Gary guided Larry through the installation process, including how to make the wall look plumb and level when it’s not.  Whether or not the unused chair rail was purchased with the upstairs hallway in mind, we do not know.  But we do know, we love the look!    

 

 



I Had More Clothes Than Closets

Sammy Davis, Jr. has been quoted as saying, “I had more clothes than I had closets, more cars than garage space, but no money.”  That’s kind of how I felt when we moved into The Big Yellow House. 

Most historic homes are known for their lack of closet space, and our new home was no different.  We also had no garage, but that’s a different story.  And the money we did have was disappearing fast with all the renovations we were making.  All of the bedroom closets in the house were filled with my clothes.  So were 3 cardboard wardrobes—compliments of the moving company. Larry had taken over the linen closet and what should have been stored there was stuffed into other nooks and crannies around the house.

Yes, this inconvenience was my fault.  I had to have a bathtub in the master bathroom and the only way to do that was to re- purpose the closet in the master bedroom.  I had made my choice and now I was paying for it.  Within a few weeks, I knew we had to find a better solution.  I was tired of sprinting from room to room looking for my clothes. More frustrating was wandering around the house searching for where I stashed the clean towels, extra toilet paper or the first aid kit.  We needed a master bedroom closet, and we needed it fast.    

Since the nearest Ikea is 222 miles away in Woodbridge, VA we placed our order on-line and waited for them to be delivered. My siblings and their spouses (aka The Big Yellow House’s Renovation Team) were planning to spend the week between Christmas and New Years with us, and I had a project to keep them busy.

The boxes arrived several days before our renovation crew (I mean guests), and the project began in earnest by carrying the 9 massive boxes from the carport up the two flights of stairs to our bedroom.  Larry and Gary quickly removed the molding and capped the electrical outlet located on the wall where the closets were to be installed.  Jim began assembling the first cabinet. Needless to say, the project was taking longer than I expected.  Nancy and I got into the mix by assembling the chests of drawers that would go inside the cabinets. 







After two days of holding, screwing, and inserting part A into part B, the closets were fully assembled.  I gathered up my clothes and celebrated each time an armful of shirts was reunited with its sisters. The temporary cardboard wardrobes were carried to the curb and the linen closet was returned to its original purpose. No more did I have to think about where I might find a new bottle of shampoo.

Within a couple of weeks I found just the right crystal-looking knobs and the job was complete.  At least for now.  Ultimately, I’d like to close in the area above the cabinets making them look more like they’ve been part of The Big Yellow House for many years.  But that’s a project for another time.
 

Nuts to You!



One of 3 Pecan Trees

 If you’ve been a faithful reader of this blog, you know we’ve already had several close calls when large limbs suddenly broke off of our pecan trees and crashed to the ground. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and there was minimal property damage. However, two occurrences in just a few months was enough for Larry and me to begin thinking about whether we should be making plans to prune or maybe even take down these trees. But that was in July and August and now it’s November. Fall is time for gathering pecans, and boy did we do our share of harvesting!

According to the NC Cooperative Extension Service, North Carolina produces 5 to 6 million pounds of pecans annually. Pecans are harvested when the shuck opens, allowing the nuts to drop to the ground. This natural process is fostered when strong winds prevail, as we had with Superstorm Sandy on October 29 and 30th. For a small-scale operations like that at The Big Yellow House, mechanical aids can also be used to speed nut fall. In our case, those devices were neighborhood boys swinging long sticks.



Our Neighbors Enjoy the Harvest



After gathering our first crop of nuts, Larry and I carried them to the attic and laid them out on window screens to dry. When we went back to the attic two weeks later, I was delighted to learn either we have no “attic critters” or those critters don’t like pecans and decided not to share in our stash. Not one pecan had been disrupted; they were all spread out on the screens just as we left them.



Pecans Drying in the Attic



The following week while Larry’s Dad and his girl friend were visiting from California, Jane and I bagged the nuts so they could be shared with those who attend The Big Yellow House Open House on December 2nd.



Bagging Nuts to Give Away

While Larry and I collected about 6 gallons of these tasty treats, our trees also provided an ample supply of delicious tidbits to several of our neighbors, the mailman, one of the salesmen from the local Sherwin Williams paint store, and a group of four women driving by on their way home from church.

We were delighted to share our harvest and hope we are able to do so again next year. There’s been no more discussion about those trees coming down any time soon.



Hurray, It's Moving Day!



Want to Buy a House on the Potomac River?


What can I say other than moving day has come and gone… and Larry and I are exhausted! Moving day was actually three days so perhaps that has something to do with why we are so tired.



Larry Says Goodbye to the River House







The festivities got under way early Monday morning when the All Star Movers team arrived in Colonial Beach to pack up the “River House”. While not yet sold—doesn’t anyone have a friend who would be interested in a steal on a weekend house with a million dollar view--, we decided to remove the furniture and take it to Edenton.  

Larry and I were both sad to leave our River House.  We've really enjoyed the time we've spent there, enjoying the quiet and solitude while watching the Potomac River flow by. 

On Tuesday morning, the movers arrived at our condo in Vienna with not one, but two trucks. It took them just about half a day to fill the first truck before they drove over to the storage unit to fill the other. Since it was late in the day when they finished, the movers decided to stay the night locally and drive to Edenton in the morning. Wanting to make sure the house was ready for their arrival, I left town when the movers headed off to the storage unit. Poor Larry made the four hour drive to North Carolina that evening.

Waiting at the Condo for the Movers



The Movers Arrive at the Condo



Wednesday morning, Larry and I had several hours to “prepare the house” for its new belongings before the moving trucks arrived from Virginia. It was nearly 7:00pm before the job was finished and the movers were headed back to VA. I was happy not to have to make that trip again and instead climbed into my big bathtub for a long soak before sleeping in my own bed in our Big Yellow House.

 

Ready or Not, Here We Come!



Larry's Retirement Luncheon

Since last I wrote, Larry retired from L-3 Communications. His colleagues gave him a great sendoff, purchasing and personalizing a toilet seat cover that wishes him well as he continues to renovate The Big Yellow House.  They also bought us a subscription to "Old House Journal", a monthly magazine we should have been reading for many years before initiating this project.  Since we now have more time than money, it was great to be able to make a mid-week trip to Edenton without all the usual weekend traffic.


When we arrived at the house, we saw a good portion of the hard wood floors upstairs had been sanded.  Unfortunately, they were in much worse shape than Dave the floor man realized and were taking more time than planned.  While apologetic about the delay, it was obvious Dave was working hard to make our floors look as good as they did when they were first installed 96 years ago. He was also striving to meet our schedule having drafted his father to help with the work!
 

Newly Sanded Family Room Floor





Dave at Work

Pop Helps Dave Meet the Schedule

We are also experiencing delays in the kitchen. The tin ceiling is late in arriving and most likely will not be installed until after we move in. All of the prep work, however, has been completed so installation can begin as soon as the tin arrives.

Tommy and Patrick Frame for the Tin Ceiling



James Helps Fit the Ceiling Lights



Elsewhere in the kitchen, much of the finishing work has been done. Beveled glass was added to the two exterior doors to bring more light into the kitchen, all the remaining hardware was affixed to the new cabinets, a glass tile backsplash was fitted near the sink, and most of the appliances were installed.




Windows Added to the Doors








Glass Tile Backsplash in the Kitchen





 

Despite all of this progress, the delay on the wood floors has caused us to readjust our priorities and to push back our move date. To simplify the floor job we've decided not to refinish the two stairways. While this dirty dusty work is better tackled when the house is vacant, it's just going to have to wait until after we move in. By eliminating these areas, Dave “thinks” he can get the floors done in time to let them cure for a few days before our furniture arrives. Fortunately, All Star Movers can accommodate a delayed move date and we're now scheduled to "begin" moving on September 24th.  I say begin because this will be a 3 stop move.  First we must empty our home in Colonial Beach before the contents of the storage unit and condominium in Vienna can be placed onto the truck.  Then, it's off to Edenton!