Finishing Touches

This past week was a banner week at the Molette House, with as much happening in a week as normally happens in several months!

One major accomplishment was getting the shutters on the front of the house, which totally transforms the house. It doesn’t even look like the same house.

The expert furniture maker Marty Weck was able to restore and renovate all eighteen shutters on the front of the house through a very laborious and detailed process. Originally, we were going to do the shutters in two phases: downstairs first and then the second story ones later. That’s what we thought Marty and his team were working on.

However, he surprised us when he opened the doors to his van and all eighteen shutters were there. We were amazed!

As we started carrying the shutters in, Lane Molette (Eleanor’s first cousin once removed) happened by with some friends and they made quick work of hauling shutters. The only mishap was when one of the dogs tripped one of the guys on the way in and he fell to the ground but managed to hold the shutter up such that it never touched the ground.

Mark Manning’s crew installed the shutters on Wednesday and the house immediately transformed in our eyes from a work in progress to a finished house. It was very gratifying the see the shutters back up, especially after the years of waiting we have experienced in the interim.

We took the shutters down when we moved the house, we stored them at Eleanor’s grandparents’ house for a while, we moved them inside our house at one point, we stood them on the screen porch for a few years, we handed them off to Marty last November, and then finally they reappeared and were installed this week.

The journey they have taken is a microcosm of the whole initiative for us: lots of ups and downs, twists and turns, but ultimately success. As the old French saying goes, patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet!

Then on Monday Greg Bjelke and his crew showed up and installed the landscaping. They planted four boxwoods in front of the house and two new magnolia trees to replace the two the deer got. They also put pine straw in all the beds around the house. Having some greenery around the house also transformed its appearance!

Additionally, we got two planters to go by the front door, and Mark’s guys (Blake, Derrick, and Roger) put the porch swings back up and we put two rocking chairs out. Therefore, by Thursday the front of the house was totally dressed in its finest and looked like a new (old) house to us.

We have gotten a couple of questions about why there are two front doors. Our understanding is that one door went into the living room and was used by the family. The other door went into the parlor/office, which is where William Page Molette conducted business. In that way the family could maintain their privacy while visitors could come and go in the other room.

The guys also hauled away the big mound of decaying trees and piled dirt near the house that had taken on a life of its own as it as sat there the past four years. It has been such an eye sore that Eleanor was almost as excited to have that finally removed as she was about almost anything else we did this week. 😊

With all the activity outside the house, the inside was also a beehive of activity. One major accomplishment was that Blake was able to faux paint all the wood and trim that had to be replaced in the gray bedroom. 90% of the wood and paint is totally original to the room and we wanted to keep it that way. However, a few pieces of trim and a door were new and those had to be painted. Blake used a multi-step process to age the paint, and he spent probably 20-30 hours just painting.

The gray bedroom is now finished and is as close to fully preserved as anything in the house, including the original floors, walls, ceiling, windows, fire surround and mantle.

Additionally, Mark sent over a phenomenal deep cleaning crew of three women who totally cleaned, polished, organized and arranged the house from top to bottom. Danielle, Beth, and Amanda are the best cleaners we have ever seen. In addition to working like bees all day, they have a lively sense of humor and an infectious enthusiasm for cleaning and organizing. They are fun to be around, and we even pulled them into several last-minute decorating decisions we had to make, and they offered creative suggestions for those.

Since Blake had been painting the gray bedroom, they were not able to get in there to clean until the afternoon of their last day. Talk about saving the worst for last! That bedroom probably had 100 years of accumulated dirt in it, and most of it was on the ceiling, which is hard to get to. However, the women were up to the task and worked like Olympic athletes to push through the final cleaning to get to the finish line.

The house has never looked as clean and organized as it does now, thanks to the crew.

We were pleased on Friday to be able to host the Cahawba Foundation Board meeting at the house for the house’s first official function. David is privileged to serve on the Board and since Old Cahawba is only 12 miles away, we thought it fitting that the Board get the first look at the fully restored and renovated house.

The meeting and luncheon afterwards went very smoothly, we were pleased that the Board (the members of which are very attuned to historic restoration) complimented the house, and we were glad to be able to help support fellow history enthusiasts by sharing our home with them.

With the Selma Historic Pilgrimage this Friday and Saturday, we hope as many of you as possible will be able to come see the house for yourselves. There are six houses and other events on the Pilgrimage, and our house is open Friday and Saturday 1-5 pm both days. There will be volunteers at the house to show you around and answer questions, as well as two young ladies in antebellum dresses.

Tickets are $10 at the door (all proceeds going to historic preservation) or $40 for all six houses and other activities. There are two other incredible houses in Orrville on the Pilgrimage, as well as the wonderful Orrville Farmer’s Market. There will be maps to the Molette House at the Farmer’s Market, and it is about 12 miles away.

It’s hard for us to believe, but we acquired the house in October 2008 and in March 2019 we are now declaring all work on the house finished! (Except for the attic and a few other items. 😊)

Eleanor’s great-great-great-great grandfather built the house in 1819 (to the best of our knowledge), so the house is now celebrating its 200th birthday and we feel right at home.