Farmhouse Souvenirs and Greenville PA

When we asked our son what we should pack for the trip he told us to bring shoes because the weather is very changeable and there is heavy dew in the mornings.  I took 3 pair of sandals, 3 pair of closed shoes and my rubber boots for walking down to the barn in the morning.  We had an entire suitcase of shoes and I wore everything I took - lol!  I abandoned our rubber boots and left them behind so I could bring back this wallpaper.  No kidding.  Priorities.  The red and the white are both vintage.  They are not fond of the vintage wallpaper but there was some in the foyer that I would have licked off the wall if I could.  The wallpaper in the back is modern and the previous owners special ordered it from Ireland.  I agree I would NOT want it on my walls but it will be fun for art making. 
The metal bits are barn findings.  I had a few larger pieces then decided to leave them behind since they might have triggered a TSA search.  They did search my backpack but that is a story for another post.

In the last post I showed you the front of the house.  This is the right side where the mud room, kitchen and deck are located.  Next Spring this entire section will likely be torn down and rebuilt.  The contractor said that would be less expensive that trying to fix what is there.  The previous owner fancied himself a handyman and he was NOT.
The chimney you see in the center of the photo is on the side of the kitchen.  While we were there we helped removed the old cook stove and replace it with a heating stove.  Despite what the previous owners said, a cook stove has a fire box about the size of a loaf of bread and was never intended to "throw" heat, in fact, it was designed to do exactly the opposite.  We also helped haul and stack wood.  It was a good thing since we woke up to a house full of smoke one morning and the boiler had gasped it's last breath.  They plan to put in geothermal next Spring and had just filled the oil tank for the final Winter on the boiler.  Are you starting to get the picture around here?

This is the back left corner of the house.  The portion with the hip roof is the original c.1820 house.  It was a small Summer home when it was built.  There have been a few changes over the years...  The second story is a master bedroom suite.  The windows below it are the family room.  We stayed in the room on this back corner of the original house. 

The room is huge and the previous owners did leave them with some beautiful old carpets.  They made it very comfortable for us.  Note massive non-working radiator under the window.  They are in every room and removing them will be a project in itself.  Luckily they have youth and enthusiasm on their side.  Restoring an old farmhouse is not for the faint of heart.

The house does retain a lot of it's charm, it is just filled with authentic chippy patina.  Betsy, this picture is for you.  These old marble doorknobs are stunning!

The balcony off the bedroom looks out over the farm.  They don't have any ambient light from a city so, on a clear night, you can stand out there and see the Milky Way.  Big sigh....  Or try to shoot a marauding groundhog.

Looking back from the house toward the pasture and soy bean field.  The property extends to the tree line at the very back of the photo.

Who takes a picture of a cellar?  Apparently I do.  I thought the quarried limestone foundation was pretty neat because I'm easy that way.

They live about half way between and somewhat west of Greenville and Jamestown.  The Husband loves old trains and, as luck would have it, Greenville has a railroad museum.  They were closed the day we stopped but the curator stopped to pick up the mail and saw me reading a sign out front and invited us in.  We got the low down on everything with a private tour.

After seeing the sign on the side of the Bessemer caboose we got back to the farm and I noticed the name Bessemer was stamped in to some of the bricks in the walkway from the front porch to the side deck.

I found a few others, as well.  The brick paths will be removed when the kitchen addition is rebuilt so I pointed out the railroad bricks so they would be sure to save them.  Maybe I should have sacrificed another pair of shoes for one.

This is the sign I was readying when the curator came by.  Stefan Banic was from Greenville and held the patent for the first parachute.  It was quite a contraction, like a big skirt you wore around your waist.  He had to jump out of an airplane to prove it worked.  That guy had some, um, brass somethings! We also learned the famous attorney, Clarence Darrow was from Greenville.

I think I have at least partially figured out the problem with my missing blog comments.  I have been getting a LOT of spam comments on my old Grow Your Blog post so I got frustrated with it and started marking them as spam.  I didn't stop to think that it might mark ALL the comments as spam.  Oddly, it only seems to have affected comments from bloggers that are also in my gmail contacts.  Go figure!  If you are missing comments, check your spam folder and mark them as NOT SPAM.