Décor, Displays and Doors

With just three weeks until the Molette House is open to the public as part of the Historic Selma Pilgrimage, we are scrambling to get the house ready to show and trying to finish up some projects that have been outstanding for months –if not years!

Eleanor is leading the charge on decorating and fabrics. There are so many window treatments, bed covers, pillows and who knows what that it sometimes seems overwhelming. Everything is being made, which gives us the flexibility to get just what we want and need, especially since we have some unusual needs.

The sun is so harsh at the Molette House -- it fades everything badly, in addition to making our electric bill soar in the summer-- so we looked at all kinds of blinds, shades, shutters to block the sun. We finally settled on the old-fashioned pull-down window shades. We can wipe them off if the ladybugs get on them, they block the sun well, and they were the least expensive option.

The only problem is that by themselves they don’t look all that great and we needed some kind of simple window treatment that is washable to cover up the blinds.

Everything needs to be washable because we are also constrained by our perpetual nemesis the Asian lady beetle. Given that the house is a major target of the lady beetles every fall and winter (since it is a large white object sitting in an open field), we are trying our best to use only fabrics that can be washed. The lady beetles stain everything they touch, so we must be able to wash everything. We are hoping that someone at Auburn comes up with a solution for these ladybug imposters soon!

We are blessed to have found a wonderful seamstress through King Cotton fabric store in Montgomery, and she has been a life saver on the sewing front. She can make anything and make it quickly.

We are also working with Greg the landscaper to get a few shrubs in the front flower bed. We don’t want to go all out on landscaping right now, but Greg is going to get us four large boxwoods for the front of the house. The rest of the beds, for now, will be pine straw.

In the fields near the house we did plant two magnolias last year, watered and cared for them for a year, and then the deer attacked them in January and wounded them mortally. Greg is going to replace those for us, and this time we will build a fence around them. 😊

We stayed up late one night to see the super blood moon wolf eclipse, and it was amazing, given the clear air and absence of light pollution in the country. Also, the next morning we rose early, and the moon was setting across the field. It was so bright we thought it was the sun!

After much agonizing, we decided we must replace the original heart pine front doors. We love the fact that they are the original doors, but they are in very poor shape. The wood is so thin in places you can see the orange glow of light through the wood at sunset. Also, the doors don’t fit well, and air rushes around the perimeter, and the gaps serve as a point of entry for small creatures, especially those lady beetles.

We will keep the doors and perhaps display them somehow, but they are not practical for modern living. Therefore, we called in our master woodworker Brett, and he has ordered two new heart pine doors from Marshall Lumber and Millwork in Montgomery. They do a high-quality job, and the doors are now ready but not yet delivered or installed. We can’t wait to see them, as getting the front doors right is something we have worked on for years!

With a punch list of probably twenty items that need to be done (e.g., reinstalling the stair rails we had to take down to get the bed upstairs) we reached out to our standby contractor Tripp, but he is booked solid for months.

Although we were disappointed, our disappointment turned to relief when we discovered that Mark Manning and his crew have a couple of weeks of availability to help us out. Meeting and working with Mark and his crew has been like winning the renovation lottery because they are so detail-oriented, reliable, and personable, and we appreciate all they have done.

The first day they drove up with their trailer we practically cheered because we knew that desperately-needed help had arrived. They took a quick tour of the house and within a couple of hours had the stair rails reassembled.

Even that was tricky, however, because every single baluster was a different height and had to be placed in the exact location on the stairs that it came from. Since the balusters were laying in a pile in the corner, it took some quick measuring and sorting to get that worked out, but they were on it!

It is an exciting—but stressful—time as we stumble to the finish line to get as much work done on the house as we can before Pilgrimage.

If you want to see the finished product in person --and help support historic preservation by buying an admission ticket-- please stop by for the tour as part of the Historic Selma Pilgrimage March 15-16 1:00-5:00 PM Friday and Saturday.

Hope to see you there!