More Maintenance

In early November at the Molette House, we enjoyed the arrival of cooler weather, the popping of the cotton bolls in the field and the delivery of furniture that we had made for the house!

On the practical level, we cleaned and organized almost the entire house, which included removing quite a few ladybug (Asian lady beetle) stains in different parts of the house. In the front hall the beetles left quite a few artistic creations with their black, ink-like secretions that were very difficult to remove.

It took David probably eight hours of scrubbing to remove their trails just in the one hall, and that included going through four boxes of Magic Erasers!

Some plumbing problems cropped up, so we got a visit from one of our favorite craftsmen, Jabo the Plumber. The washing machine doesn’t drain after the wash cycle, and he determined it needs a new drain pump. So, in the meantime, we have gotten good at hand washing all the dishes. 😊

To take a break from the cleaning and scrubbing, we ate lunch frequently at the Orville Farmer’s Market and even managed to visit the West Dallas Antique Tractor Show, which was lots of fun.

Once the hall was finally cleaned, we hung two large framed prints that we just love, one of Turkeys and one of Quail. We see both regularly and started noticing a lot of turkey tracks in the driveway soon after that. Then one afternoon we saw a lone turkey booking it from one side of the yard to the other. Maybe the word has spread that we are love the wild turkeys?

With all these activities as preamble, the main event for us in early November was the day the outstanding furniture maker, Marty Weck, came driving up in his van with the furniture he made for the house, accompanied by his charming wife and daughter.

As you may recall, Eleanor’s second cousin once removed, Betsy Mallory, gave us the original Molette bed from the house. The posts were in good shape, but we wanted a queen size bed, and the headboard and tester (canopy) were not original. Working from photos of similar beds from the period, Marty made a new headboard and canopy.

Of course, we got the posts, rails, and headboard up the stairs easily. We assumed the canopy would fit since the queen size boxsprings fit easily. Of course, we were mistaken!

The canopy would not fit up the stairs no matter what we tried (and it was not Marty’s fault since we didn’t warn him about the stairs). We tried every angle, every move, every option, and nothing worked. We even cut out a section of the wooden wall to get one corner past a tight spot. No luck!

About this time Eleanor’s cousin Will and the landscaper who is helping us, Greg, happened to stop by, so the seven of us worked for over an hour before we were ready to give up. We knew we couldn’t disassemble the piece because it was extremely well made, fully joined together and firmly glued. It would have destroyed it to try to take it apart.

Eventually, we agreed if we took the stair rails down we might have a chance, so we took two railings down and were able to force the canopy up the stairs without too much damage. 😊

Getting the farm table Marty made from old floorboards from the attic into the kitchen was a simple operation by comparison, as was the refurbished chest of drawers for the bedroom that belonged to Eleanor’s Aunt Louise. As with so many things, on that day we took two steps forward and one step backward. So even though the stair rail is down, the bed looks phenomenal back in its original room. And we love the farm table.

Eleanor continued to focus on fabrics, window treatments, upholstery, and all manner of decorating challenges. We also received the permanent shades for the windows to replace the temporary paper shades that have been up for two years. With 42 windows in the house, we are still in the process of installing them!

We continued to plant some of the 200 Carlton daffodil bulbs in the woods nearby, and we hope to have them all in the ground soon. We look forward to them bringing us beauty and remembrance of things past for years to come.

All in all, early November in the country was peaceful, we had many highs and lows, and we are looking forward to our first open house as part of the Selma Pilgrimage on March 15th!