2019 was packed with family events, Tours, and the painting of the house.  Our youngest daughter (Madi) and her husband gave birth to their first child---our fifth Grandchild.  One of older daughters, (Kristen), married her sweetheart in October and decided to hold the wedding at Cleydael!  This was our first wedding and we had a TON of work to do.  The rest of the kids all pitched in and, of course, Charlie went into overdrive!  Five days before the wedding, Charlie had a heart attack.  I was in the back yard planting rose bushes and Charlie was cleaning the ceiling of the back porch.  He told me his ear and his teeth started to hurt and within 20 minutes or so, he felt like he should lie down because of the pain.  About a half hour later, I finished, took a shower and realized he didn't feel better.  I Googled the symptoms (head ache/teeth hurt/ear hurt) and the hits for heart attack came back!  We went to the Emergency Room and he was in full blown heart attack mode.  Over the course of the next two weeks, he received six stents involving all four arteries.  He has recovered nicely and has incorporated cardio and a better diet. Life moves fast and I can tell you that we look forward to EVERYTHING now----with more excitement than ever.  2020 is a big year for us and for King George!  It is the 300th anniversary of the founding of King George and there are many events to celebrate our very historical County.  We also were very fortunate to have been invited to include Cleydael on the Garden Club of Virginia's Historic Garden Week Tour in April. It will be amazing to have the house decorated with thousands of flowers to be enjoyed by the public.  We are SO looking forward to spring and the Surratt House Tours also.  We really love sharing the house with the Tour Groups and learn as much from them as they learn about Cleydael.  I will really try to keep up with the news this year!  :-) 

It seemed like the spring tours groups were here and gone in a flash!  The groups were lively and super excited to see the property and hear a few stories about Charlie's latest work on the house and the latest ghost stories we threw!  The fall tourists will see a brand new brick walk from the front steps of the house to the driveway.  After the light posts go in, plants added to the borders, it will be truly beautiful!  We've had more than our share of rain so Charlie has had to postpone work days and that never makes him happy!  We hope to have a few touch up paint jobs completed before the fall tours as well.  See you soon!  

We were super excited to host many of Dr. Richard Stuart's descendants this fall at Cleydael.  The family reunion was organized by Betsy Stuart Valentine and included Senator Stuart, his family, and many of their relatives.  The Stuart family toured our house and enjoyed our sharing of the joys and challenges of the restoration of Cleydael.  We're sure they left confident that Cleydael is in good hands!  :)

It was great greeting visitors from the Surratt House Tour today!  We so love sharing the house with lovers of history, like ourselves.  Charlie has been very busy since my last post.  He is currently working on the reconstruction of the back porch (original front porch).  He ordered Douglas Fir tongue and groove decking boards and went to the trouble of dipping each board in water sealant, then priming each before laying them with caulk in between each board.  That extra work should ensure the porch lasts a good long time.  Charlie also finished the trim in the kitchen, built a playground for our Grandkids, and built a three bin holding area for mulch, topsoil, and crush and run.  He has been very busy indeed!  We also had a 22' X 40' concrete slab poured for the Grandkids to ride bikes on, play basketball and four square on, and of course, draw with chalk on.  We expect he will finish the back porch in the next couple of weeks and if the weather allows, he will patch a spot on the front of the house with some fresh paint and then see about ordering some storm windows we found on line that work well with old homes with varying window sizes.  It would be great to have storms up for better insulation and reduction of the heating and w=air bills!  We only have three tours this September but look forward to every one of them.  Hard to believe we've been here five years!  Time flies when you're loving life!

'Once again, it's been far too long since we've posted.  Time flies when you're restoring!  Charlie had metal roofing installed on the back porch which completed all rooftop replacements.  He has begun work on the flooring of the back porch and in the process, discovered that the foundation beam under the main door facing the South side of the house is completely rotted and needs to be replaced.  This explains why the door has become harder to close with time.  Charlie's plan is to replace the beam with a piece of oak from a tree that fell on the property last year.  

The kitchen ceiling is being covered with bead board---that process began this past week.  This will take more time than originally thought as Charlie is meticulous about the cutting of the angles, etc.  The bead board will be painted white, the ceiling fan/light installed, and the ceiling will be complete aside from some finishing moulding that we haven't decided on at the top of the wall board.  The top beam (original to the kitchen) will be left exposed.  

We are still hoping to get to the painting of the front of the house before the weather turns cool again.  We won't be concerned about the approaching winter this year as all four fireplaces have been opened and the chimneys relined!  There are two fireplaces on each floor so we decided to leave the fireplace in the living room open and use wood stovesin the remaining three to maximize the heat output in the winter.  It was WONDERFUL burning wood at the end of this past winter once they were finished with the install! 

We decided to put in a garden this spring----I've wanted to grow all kinds of vegetables for so long but never had the space.  We started small with a 15' by 14' garden and planted tomatoes, corn, green beans, red onions, green peppers, watermelon, and canteloupe and I'm happy to say that we had great success with all veggies and are anxiously waiting for the ears of corn to finish their growth!  We think we may double the size of the garden next year!

There are still many items on the "To Do" list but the work is very satifying for both of us and we wouldn't have it any other way.  We love this place and its history!  Looking forward to sharing the house with those touring with the Suratt House this fall!

The Fall tours went very well.  We are always excited to find visitors that have been to the house before we purchased it and fortunately, we find a return tour taker on almost every tour.  Charlie spent the summer replacing all the rafters in the front porch roof and had a new metal roof put on top.  He then finished the repairs on the back porch roof and we are scheduled for metal to be placed on that roof soon.  We are super excited to share that the chimneys will be relined and all four chimneys opened!  The work begins this Monday!!!  The kitchen is being finished with a new ceiling with bead board this winter.  The kitchen will be complete by the time of the spring tours. The wife of the developer of Cleydael, Joy Veazey, gave us many Iris and Black Eyed Susan bulbs to add to the beauty of Spring in 2016.  Plans for the spring and sumer include touching up the paint on the front of the house, painting the pasture fences, and planting more fruit trees andperennials.

Wow!  We had over 700 people tour the property this past spring!  Charlie is working to repair the front porch roof and touch up the paint on the front of the house in the process.  Hopefully, he will finish this project be fore the fall tours.  

It has been some time since our last post and much has happened.  Charlie spent much of the late summer and all of fall re-wiring the bottom floor and a bit of the upper floor.  He mapped out all of the circuits, decided which circuits needed additions or deletions of outlets, and got rid of the old wiring.  It's wonderful not to have to worry about cloth wire insulation or overburdening a circuit!  The outside of the mudroom and kitchen got fresh paint and looks wonderful.  This spring, Charlie will scrape off the peeling paint off the front of the house above the front porch and put some fresh paint there.  There are a few easy cosmetic touches we would like to finish in early spring such as lattice under the porch and fresh gravel on the driveway. 

We planted two weeping willows on either end of the oval and the large maple in the front yard had to be cut down a couple of weeks ago as it was dying.  I am excited to see the willows after a few years of growth.  We also hung a tire swing and two regular swings for our Grandkids to play with.  We will add much more playground equipment this spring and summer as tow of the three Grandkids are over two and the third is over one and walking.  We are going to need LOTS of outdoor toys! I can't wait until they are old enough to play hide and seek in this house!!!

We are expecting more than the normal amount of tours this spring and we will be hosting a group of ghost hunters as well!  It's sure to be a fun spring and summer and we will do our best to blog more often!!! 

We've had a busy summer so far--Charlie had quite a job of installing new supports under the front porch in addition to removing and replacing both side steps and front steps.  After removing the front steps, he decided to install a widened version of new stairs so that they span the distance between the first two set of columns and it turned out beautifully.  He installed much needed railings for safety and of course they add to the beauty as well.  He then began work on the front porch deck boards themselves, scraping off old paint and laying down fresh paint.  It's almost finished but the first tour groups will be able to see the "before" and "after" of the deck boards as the far right side of the porch will not be complete before the first of the September tour groups visit.  The inside has been updated a bit as well.  Two of the bedrooms upstairs got a fresh coat of paint and that work is being wrapped up in the next couple of weekends. 
     We can't wait for the September tours to begin -- it's always exciting to talk to others about the history of the house and show off the work that will ensure the house will be standing strong for many years to come! 

We are almost into June and the progress on the house is ongoing!  The tours in April were wonderful---Charlie and I are always amazed at how many people take the Booth route tour and how excited they are to visit the various sites on the route.  The work on the house is neverending and Charlie has accomplished so much since November!  It's hard to believe we have been in the house almost two years.  Since November, Charlie completed work on the clapboard outside the kitchen and mudroom--it's been caulked and is ready for paint.  He added handrails to the front porch, installed our farm bell at the top of one of the hand rails, finished the second pantry in the mudroom, installed more bead board and trim in the mudroom to complete the closet that houses the hot water heater, replaced the plumbing in the upstairs bathroom, painted over the green paint on the roof of the front porch with black paint to match the main roof, installed a chalk board in the mudroom for the family to leave messages on (and for our Grandkids to play with once they are a bit older), planted pear and apple trees in one of the pastures, jacked up the back porch roof in preparation for repair/replacement, replaced/repaired the hinges on the all the pasture gates, and replaced all the missing boards around the small pasture so that our Great Dane (Lucy) could run free without escaping.

We so relish the time we spend on the front porch and playing in the yard!  Our grown kids and grandkids are truly enjoying the beauty of the property and the fun the expanse of yard allows for.  We will have a few more esthetic fixes completed before the September tours roll around and before we know it, we will be getting ready for the holidays again.  Time flies!  I will load some newer pictures this weekend!