One more house project finally finished.

The latest nightmare, oops, I mean house project was to take the wall paper off the walls in my office. It was starting to come off the wall and looking a bit shabby so it needed to come down. Problem was, the people that owned the house had put wallpaper on the bottom of the wall and it was so very difficult to get off, besides the valuted ceilings being so darn high that it made it difficult to get it all down. I had to do a wall at a time so that I could move the furniture off the wall, strip, paint, and then replace the furniture. I ended up completely changing around the whole room and doing a lot of cleaning.


I had to stack my yarn stash drawers...but to the left of the drawer units is where the two colors I painted come together. The colors are pretty close so you can't really see the difference. I painted two walls with the darker and two with the lighter to try to do somewhat of a highlight.


What a totaly nightmare it was to move my desk. I had to take it all apart and I still have bins and bins of things to go through . It was worth it, though, I love the desk being over near the light of the window and now I can see what's going on out the door to the room and down the hall.

I had tons of photographs from the shelf on the stairway that ended up on shelves on the walls in the office. I staggered them so that the highest shelf was closer to where the cats can get on the high dresser. Belle is crazy and jumps onto things so I have to keep that in mind when I plan where to put things.

I made some half curtains to go over the window in front of the printer to keep a bit of the sunlight out of the room. It gets really hot in the mornings. The fabric was from my stash and I am pretty sure it was left over from Jenn's grandmother's home when she passed away. Sammy is sleeping on top of the printer. He looks so very uncomfortable but he still sleeps up there.

Two Historic Chicago Buildings

I attended United's Purser Recurring training last week in Chicago. Our hotel was the Historic Palmer house, always a pleasure to be there. It was built and opened just 13 days before the great chicago fire of 1871, and of course, burned in the fire. Parker Palmer built it as a wedding gift to his bride, and of course, rebuilt the hotel after the fire. This is the gilt medallion on the ceiling (one of two) in the Empire Ballroom, where most of our meetings and presentations were located. This hotel was the first building put on the historic preservation list, it was also the first hotel with electric lighting, running water, elevators, and was rebuilt to be fireproof!

This is a detail from the ornate ceiling in the main lobby on the second floor. The lobby is absolutely beautiful and people were snapping pictures of it from all angles. The Hilton's website featuring the Palmer house does not do this beautiful place justice. The rooms are small as was the fashion of the time, but they are very comfortable and not too small.

The lighting fixtures are all original and have obviously been wired for electricity, they add to the beautiful surroundings in this magnificent place.

This is just one of the sides of the room in the Empire Ballroom. The Columbia College Percussion Ensamble was there and did a drumming presentation using galley equipment that was really fun. The mirrors along with the ebony wood and gold leaf was quite striking.

This is the lobby bar. There are comfy chairs scattered all about the lobby for people to lounge in and they are set up for conversation.

I absolutely was taken by the clock at the end of the lobby at the ceiling. It's actually carved into the marble of the ceiling, and it is absolutely beautiful.

Here's a close up of the clock which also shows more of the domes of the ceiling. The plaster work is raised and painted to accentuate the difference in colors from the background. I love this place!

We went to the Willis (used to be the Sears) tower and these pictures were taken from the windows of the room that we had dinner in.

All in all it was a great two days, we were delayed 2 hours getting home so I didn't get home until Midnight after being in the conference all day, but it was worth it. :)

The great closet adventure

Now before you get to thinking that's a strange title, you'd have to know that Tuesday morning, while my husband was packing for his business trip and I was actually taking a few things out of the closet to donate to charity, our closet imploded. No kidding. It looked like one of those buildings that the demolition team puts explosives in and makes fall into itself. It looked like the thing had already been detonated...

I hung up one hanger, and all of a sudden the wire shelves which held the hangers fell off the wall on the right side, taking with it the huge amount of boxes that were on the top and all of the hanging clothing. Most of the shelf supports ripped out of the drywall since very few were attached to studs in the walls, and everything bent and was a mess. Since the first falling shelf went around the corner, it bent the wire rack supports on the left side in the back so nothing was worth saving, it all had to be removed. I had a huge list of things I had to get done that day but having everything from the closet in the middle of the floor took priority. I was not in a good mood, I was hot, exhausted, and needing to do other things but now I had to deal with this mess while hubby drove away to be gone all week. Didn't the universe understand that this is not a good time for this?

I spent most of Tuesday emptying the closet, putting the clothing on the bed and pulling out all the boxes and such that were stored in there on the shelves. The bedroom had a tiny path through it to reach the outside world, and the cats were very disrupted. We have a very tiny house so space to pile things does not exist, you have to put things on top of other things. The closet is only 67x59 inches square. Prior to the implosion, we had taken the door off to give us added usable space and had baskets on the left side of the doorway, and baskets of stuff under the hanging clothes on the right side. Some of them bent and the frames that held them couldn't hold up under the weight of the clothing as well as everything falling onto them. I decided that they were going to probably be replaced with the racking but didn't know yet what I wanted to replace it with.

A trip to Home Depot was in order after measuring the now empty closet. I didn't even have the motivation to spackle or paint in there, it was all I could do just to get the tape measure from wall to wall. I decided to go with modular units that would sit on the floor and be attached to the walls for stability. I spent about an hour calculating what I was going to need and trying to design a plan right there in the storage section of the store. Those boxes of units were horribly heavy which didn't make my mood any brighter... I had help putting them into the car, and when at home, I brought them into the house one at a time, one step at a time and built each half of a unit in the living room. I dragged them up the stairs and got only the corner installed before I was too exhausted to do any more. They were heavy and hard to handle for one person but I managed, thank goodness for Ibuprofin.

I slept for a few hours in the small area on the far side of the bed that I'd been able to clear the clothing off. The cats were all freaked out about the disruption and slept nearly right on top of me because all of their usual sleeping places were now covered in closet debris and they were nervous. I got up very early and built more of the closet sections, installed them, and attached the bars to hang clothes on. I hung up what clothing was going to be in the closet but removed the hangers from many items and stored them in the new shelf units that are now in there. The basket contents were refolded and I went through my clothes and got out two hefty bags of things to donate to charity, with more to come. I got hubby's things incorporated into the closet as well.

I'm not finished though, I'm going to add shelves on the wall above the hanging clothes to put baskets with small items in them such as purses and scarves, and I still have piles of things to rehome and recycle as well as a pile of hangers on the floor to organize and dispose of. But I can sleep in my bed tonight! YEAH!

Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Our unit commander and his lovely wife welcomed our reenacting unit to their home for a Memorial Day cook out. The project that was planned was to make a false front of a building for the Battle of Hanover which is now held in August.

The historic battle preceeded the battle in Gettysburg and was actually a cavalry battle that was fought in the town. The reenactment is held in August to give a bit of time between the huge reenactment in Gettysburg on July 1-3ish every year and is held at a beautiful state park right outside of Hanover. The buildings are going to be as props for that battle.

Everyone got involved in doing something for the project, either working on it or supervising.

Just downhill from the barn yard where everyone was working is this beautiful field where Jim's two horses contentedly graze.

Pennsylvania is right over the ridge, their farm is just south of the Mason Dixon line.

The building was up and is just started to get painted here in this picture. It'll be taken apart for transport after it's finished and put back together on site. I believe there are a few other buildings in the planning stage as well.

Yup, there's Hanover right over the next hill and off just slightly to the Right.

The cookout was fantastic, great food, great turn out of about 25 people and great company. We stayed and enjoyed conversation for a long time and quite a few of our group camped out in their yard since the parade is so early in the morning the next morning.

The unit walked in the Hanover Memorial Day parade which is held in the morning so people can do both this one and the one in Gettysburg which is held in the afternoon. Gettysburg is about 30 minutes from Hanover. There were a great many veterans of various wars that were either walking (most in their old uniforms) or riding, and there was a huge motorcycle group of veterans. This gentleman had this trailer and I thought it was cute, it said "Polish Motorhome" on the back.

This Drum and Bugle/brass corp as well as the flag twirlers were all alumni and were from after high school age on up with many of them having served in many other Memorial Day parades.

This is the 16th PA marching in front of our small band of marchers. We host the Hanover Reenactment with them. They are a fairly new unit of just a few years.

We're a cavalry unit and our commander always says that he doesn't have to learn to march because he's normally riding his horse. Everyone is always trying to get pictures of him marching out of step and I noticed that he's actually in step in this picture.

And this one. You'll actually notice that pretty much everyone is out of step with each other in this picture.

There they go marching into the Cemetary where the parade ended and I finally got Jim being out of step with the rest of the unit. We'll let that go since it was such a great weekend and cookout.

May 22: Antiquing and Exploring

We started out to go to an antique show to benefit a very small town in PA's historical society. We paid our money and entered a very small Church school to look at what was offered. Everything we saw was nicely displayed but the prices were so astronomical that we were nearly laughing at them! There were truly some nice pieces, but we were just looking for a few finds, some things to take with us reenacting and maybe something we liked for the house.

We left the school and stopped at another shop along the road which had things for sale like a clock for $45,000 so we quickly left and got a bite to eat. We then went to our favorite antique mall where Mark found this unusual copper kettle. It has cast iron handles and solder, we're not sure what it is or what era, but he liked it and it'll find a place in our home.

The cats liked it too, they gave everything a quick sniff while I was trying to photograph, especially Sammy. Here's another view. If you know what it is or anything about this type of thing, please don't hesitate to add a comment.

Thanks to a presentation by Nicky Hughes on Civil War era "stuff" at March's Conference on Ladies and Gentlemen of the 1860's, Mark was looking for a stoneware jug to bring with us on reenacting weekends, they were very common. He found this one dirt cheap and it came home with us. I was looking for other CW "stuff" to improve our impression in the direction of more accuracy for our dining "stuff".

I got all this blue willow ware (in the dishwasher and ready to clean up to put away for the next event) for $7.00. I was very happy! Many vendors at various places I'd looked had one plate of similar tableware for upwards of $50. and I was looking for run of the mill junk stuff that I knew I'd eventually find cheap. This type of tableware has been in use for 150 plus years...I wasn't looking for a collectable, but for usable stuff to take with us. I'm going to make some cloth carrying bags for it and just keep it in a basket.

This sweet picture has a black cat sitting on the sidewalk in front of the middle house. I knew I had just the place for it in the house, and it was less expensive than a meal at McDonald's so it came home with us too. I think it's a bit faded but it looks great in my dining room so I don't mind a bit.

Mark spent some time in the used books and found these two for me. The Historic Costume volume is from 1925 and outlines the clothing from the Civil War...how accurately I don't know yet but it'll be interesting to read. They're going to both be read cover to cover and go into my textile reference collection.

This is actually a mirror, it's very primitive, and will go into the room I'm using for my office when I get the walls stripped and repainted. I thought the cats were really cute, kind of on the young side, but our grandsons will most likely be staying in that room when they visit so it's perfect!

We found this hanging sign at a little orchard store in Biglerville way in the back room and thought it was perfect for our door. We then had dinner and headed back home, satisfied with our finds after a day spent enjoying each other's company and exploring. I'm very glad that not every antique store is outrageous with the items it offers for sale!

May 21: Edison and Morristown NP's

We got up Friday morning before the crack of dawn to get on the road up to New Jersey. We were on our way to West Orange to Edison National Park. The drive was supposed to take a bit over 3 hours but there was a bad wreck that closed the Turnpike so it ended up taking close to 5 hours to get there. No matter, though, the museum director at Gettysburg had graciously asked the curator at Edison to host us in our visit. We met with her when we got there and she gave us some information on the enormity of the collection there and we talked a little about getting everything catalogued into ANCS and her staff and progress. Since we'd never been there, we then were off to explore the Laboratory unit of the Park. Here's Mark listening to the audio tour at the entry of the laboratory building. The door to the right of him is the door to the library shown next. The time clock to Mark's left had hands painted on at the time of the last time that Edison left the lab after he lay in repose after his death.
This is the library of the invention building. The Edison company had a huge complex of factories attached to this complex that were not under the National Park service, some were still standing (and very impressive) and some were torn down in the 1960's. Edison and his inventors used this library to think and draw up proposals, patents and plans. It has a projection booth right near the eagle, and little cubbies for the other inventors' desks, as well as a bed between the stacks on the first floor for Edison to take naps. Edison routinely worked 80 and more hours per week. The woodworking in the room was incredibly beautiful and as you can see, the engravings and pictures hanging were numerous and interesting. One of the hanging documents was the first ever academy award that went to Edison for inventing the motion picture. Amazing.
I had a hard time taking pictures here since the light coming in to the windows was so strong. This shows the large clock that was actually carved into the woodwork. Edison's large desk was right in front of it. The room was lit with the light bulbs you'd think of because of Edison's inventing them, it was an amazing room.

This statue which sat in the library was from the World's Fair (then called an Exposition) in Paris. He had a lot of exhibits and presentations there, and this showcased the light bulbs that were introduced by Edison in the 1890's. The original bulb actually burned out and had to be replaced (popular culture says it's still burning but it is not), but it took 75 years of use to do so. The statue was of beautiful white marble, and everything was wired with copper wires. All of the lighting fixtures were beautiful.
As we left the library we went past the storeroom of supplies for the inventors. It was caged off because it was a pass through to the machine shop part of the building, the fencing is original to the building. Everything was as Edison left it when he died. The storeroom had all kinds of interesting things in it, anything that an inventor might think he needed when trying out an idea. They lived in the era of all natural materials, and there were tusks, hooves, a tortoise shell, wool, metals, woods, anything you could imagine. Just looking at the sheer number of items here was nearly overwhelming.
This is another shot of the inventor's storeroom, just one of many areas that were truly amazing. The family gave the laboratory and buildings to the Park service early on so things were as they were left by people working there, including Edison. You'll see more of what I mean as we go through the buildings.
This is the machine shop. The machines are run by leather belts that come from pulleys in the ceilings. There were all kinds of machines for making and shaping and working with metals and other materials here. The desk in the foreground helped keep track of projects being worked on, all of the ledgers and records helped to figure out the cost of each invention and each manufactured good. The laboratory building employed sometimes 100 people at a time, and the factories next door employed many more. Women were also employed to help in the work.
More shots of the shop areas.
The leather belts are shown running on the ceiling via large pulleys from the big motors on the floor. There were no safety guards or anything of the sort, if you lost a limb or got hurt on the rapidly moving belts or machinery, it was because you weren't careful and you were on your own for medical care. The only thing the companies of that era were supposed to do for you if you died as the result of an accident was to give your tools to your spouse or next of kin.

Edison had a full time photography lab as well as photographers and many pictures from when the lab was operational were taken and have been preserved. This shot shows that the machine shop looks exactly the same as when it was operational, in fact, it looks like the workers are simply out on break, there are tools laying on the desks, and some items that were being worked on laying out just as they were.
On the third floor of the laboratory building is the recording studio (we didn't get any pictures, unfortunately) where Edison decided which music to record first on wax cylinders and then on records. The pianist played sheet music all day and when he heard something that he liked he would get musicians in to record it. We were delighted to get to listen to one of the original wax cylinders on an original Edison phonograph, the sound was vivid and crisp. The equipment to record was still there, as well as an extensive collection of victrolas, cones, and phonographs. The storage on this floor outside of the recording studio is in cabinets with glass panels, and also you can see into a fenced area where everything is on open shelves.
A look into the storage area in the Laboratory building. The array of items was incredible, just the phonograph collection housed a major part of the storage area.
More storage. There are 400,000 artifacts catalogued in the collection at Edison, including his home items. In addition there are 5,000,000 documents, including a vault in which are housed musical recordings, 50,000+ photographs (some are glass plate negatives) and laboratory paperwork, notebooks, and other paper documents. When they were cataloguing the enormous volume of materials, they found inventions that were previously unknown. They actually have a "marginist" who went through the books and notebooks looking for notes in the margins. The curatorial staff has 8 full time people as well as interns and seasonal employees to continue the work.

This plaque from the storage area up in the laboratory building mentions the numbers from the collection. I thought the Collection at Gettysburg and amount of work involved in cataloging and keeping up with it all was large until I saw this one, it's one of the largest in the Park Service.

This is the outside of the laboratory building. The factories are built to match, they're on the other side of the lab building. That's mark looking up at the building. There are other buildings on the property that are part of the park.

Here's the woodworking shop across from the lab complete with some of the items they were working on when the laboratory closed at Edison's death. There is also a Blacksmithing shop, and the "Black Maria" is the first Motion Picture Studio, it's right next to the entrance. They give tours with Rangers of that, but we had our tickets to go on the tour of Edison's home so we got underway to that nearby site.
In the woodworking shop, right by the door were blades and tools just as they were left, and we were looking at all the catalogue numbers upon each item. We have a great appreciation for the work that goes on in the curatorial side of the parks.

One of the buildings from the original site (called #11) was even shipped to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, MI because the Menlo Park buildings where Edison invented the Lightbulb are displayed there. It wasn't needed anymore so it was sent back to West Orange, NJ...it's the most traveled building in the National Park Service. I'm pretty sure that building was the blacksmith shop.

Our next stop was the Glenmont Estate, the home and lands that Edison bought for his wife, Mina. The local garden club keep up the grounds and the greenhouse and potting shed. Mina loved plants and birdwatching, and this area, called, Llewellin Park, is an oasis in the hustle bustle of life in West Orange. The greenhouse is shown to the left of the garden out front. This is the sight that greets you at the parking area.

Another shot of the beautiful gardens on this wooded estate. Mark got a lot of pictures of the home and furnishings, nearly as Mina left them when she passed away. Edison's cars are even in the garage, though we didn't get any pictures of them...Mina and Thomas are buried on the property too.

Remember this is New Jersey, but it was 110 in this room of the greenhouse, hot enough for those desert plants to thrive. There was a room devoted to orchids and other plants that love a little bit cooler temperature, and there were citrus plants in another room.


This is a healthy looking jade tree...everything in the greenhouse was labeled and dated and it looked like the garden club lovingly cared for everything.


This late Victorian Home was red brick on the outside, and though beautiful, was not nearly as beautiful as the interior entry hall. It was sold to Edison completely furnished at a price of $250,000, which is about 4.5 million dollars in today's money. They did very well and probably got quite a bargain even by yesterdays' standards.



Each hand carved rosette in the staircase is different, this was the place to impress your callers. The stained glass panel is in a later photograph.

This the entry room for receiving guests. Edison did not hunt, but received various animal rugs and other items as gifts from callers and friends. The stairway and hallway were carved Mahogany and Oak, quite impressive and beautiful.
The library just as the former owner left it. The guy that built this house was caught embezzling funds and told to either leave the country with the clothes on his back or go to jail. This was his office and library, Edison left it just as it had been and never used the room.












This was another sitting room, the family and guests used this one.


This sun room was added to the house by Edison for Mina. She loved to bird watch and enjoy the beautiful plants. It was used quite a bit by the family.





This is the sitting room. There are several pianos in the home, Mina played very well, in fact, she was playing the piano at a to-do in Florida that Edison was attending, that is how they met. Thomas Edison was nearly deaf in his later years, he played poorly.



The portrait on the wall in the entry room was of Charles Edison, one of Thomas and Mina's children. He became Governor of New Jersey in his later years. He didn't have children, only one of the children did, so the Edison name died out with him. There are great grand children surviving, but they carry their grandmother's married name.
These beautiful stained glass panels are in the servant's end of the home. The Edisons employed many servants and the women servants lived up on the third floor of the home while the men lived in some of the other buildings on the property.

The dining room. This table intrigued me. It's set for 6 here, but it has 9 leaves and opens out to a large enough table to fill the entire room. Mina entertained but Thomas did not like socializing very much.
One of two tiffany lamps in the home. Mina actually wrote most of the script that the guides to the house use to take visitors through. She gave the home as it's seen to the park service upon her death in the late 1940's.
A projector for watching movies in the men's sitting room.

Back to the servant's part of the house, this is the laundry room, with laundry hanging just as it would be in the winter time. They had an area outdoors called the "laundry yard" where the clothing would be dried in the nicer weather.

There were three wash sinks in the laundry but no washing machine.

Here are the washing sinks.

I had to smile when I saw that their kitchen was painted, including trim, in the same colors that I'd done my own in this early spring. This is a shot of the kitchen.

This bedroom belonged to one of the children.

Detail of the beautiful stained glass panel in the entry hall of the house. I don't recall if it was installed by the Edisons or in the house prior to them buying it.

This is the upstairs family room. It is between the bedrooms on the second floor and is where Edison used to escape to when they had company to continue his thinking and his work of inventing.

The guest room upstairs. Henry Firestone was a frequent visitor, he and Thomas Edison were good friends.

Another beautiful stained glass panel in the home.

This picture hangs on the wall in the Men's sitting room. Both Thomas and Mina Edison were from Ohio, and as you can probably see, this picture is of Robert E Lee. We just had to get a picture of that.

A Shot of the home from the site of the graves in the back yard.

Our next stop was in nearby Morristown, New Jersey. This National Park was in commemeration of the winter that George Washington encamped his troops to spend the winter.

This is his headquarters building in the town of Morristown. The home in which he stayed is right behind where I'm standing to take the picture, unfortunately the home is under renovation and not open to the public. The home contains original furnishings and artifacts, but the headquarters has several displays of artifacts from the encampment and era, including a collection of paper documents (pamphlets, booklets, and other documents) dating from pre-revolution on up through the 1800's.

Washington learned quite a bit from his hard winter in Valley Forge, PA. He had the men build wooden huts that drained downhill and were built into the hills in the area. The winter of 1780 was the worst winter ever remembered and there was 4-6 feet of snow on the ground at times. He wanted to be close enough to Manhattan Island, where the British were camped to keep them from attacking but far enough away to rest and restock his troops. The huts housed men on three sides and had a stone wall built on the other side for a fireplace. We saw where the Maryland Line was housed as well as the other state Militias. They spent a hard and hungry winter there. The Visitors center there had a replica and there was a driving tour of the sites as well as some huts outdoors for us to tour.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we were on our way home. The weather was hot and we were tired and it took many hours caught in traffic to make it home. We enjoyed our day, and we'd definitely go back especially to Edison NP. Oh, and did I mention that we got 5 new stamps in our National Park Passports?