Some of my friends came over to the farm after we had lunch at the Sly Fox today. They gave some excellent input on the colors and I think we're making headway on that. I feel like I'm belaboring the whole color thing, but Charlie said it's probably the most important aesthetic decision we'll make, and I agree.
Everyone loves the greyish greens next to the chimney, and I can agree intellectually with them. It is gorgeous and warm and elegant, classic even. But at the end of the day, I'm a yellow girl. When I look at the pale yellow sample around the back of the house, it pulls me in. It feels like home and makes me happy. And this is going to be my home, not a show house to please other peoples' sensibilities. You might as well know right now that it has to be yellow! And it also has to play well with other colors.
A couple local houses that I'm especially drawn to are stunning simply because of their colors. One is a stucco over stone farmhouse on Rt. 562 in Moreysville near the old Montessori school, which is a creamy color that just suggests yellow, with green shutters, tan verging on mustard trim and a red door.
The other is a brick Victorian on S. Reading Avenue next the empty lot in the 200 block. Its turret is a creamy yellow (have you begun to sense a theme yet?) with incredibly daring trim colors on the dentile molding and the decorative joist caps. It also has some really fun colorwork on the carved garlands and rope decorations. It's a jaw-dropper!
One thing the Victorian proved to me was how striking a deep brown roof looks against pale yellow. I thought I was hooked on a dark green roof like the one in Moreysville, but Charlie tried to persuede me to consider brown. After seeing how brown warms up the yellow, I now understand his preference for it.
This morning, at Charlie's suggestion, I went to Hutt's Glass to talk about a cover for the old well. Then I went to Garber's Well Drilling to discuss approaches to preserving that well and to talk about water quality. After researching hand-dug wells on-line, I became alarmed to discover that old wells like this can be a source of contamination of the aquifer from which the drinking water is drawn. I'm already very nervous about the quality of the drinking water because it looks dirty, and right now I wouldn't drink it if you paid me. Immediately, Paul gave me some peace of mind by telling me that the water in the hand-dug well is surface water, and it doesn't have a direct connection to the ground water. He's going to come down to examine it next Wednesday and give me his ideas about preserving it. He also mentioned Hutt's, and he will review with them what he considers the requirements for a glass covering if we decide to persue that. Garber's has a person who deals with water quality and testing, and I am awaiting a return call from him to further discuss that issue.
Keith reconnected the 2 heating zones that he earlier closed off in anticipation of the side porch demolition. Who thought we would still be only this far along by the middle of December? Now we're into sub-freezing temperatures that threaten our water pipes. We turned off the electricity to the well pump, hoping the water main doesn't freeze. We saw that John covered it with straw where it is temporarily exposed above grade. The weather is truly our nemisis for this project. I wish we had started 2 months earlier or waited till Spring.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment