A RIVER IN TIME brought to life!

I just couldn't resist arranging one of the bedrooms at The Oldest House the way Izzy would have found it in my historical fiction novel, A RIVER IN TIME.

Luckily, we do like to re-arrange the vast amount of furnishings we own at the House, to show things off to advantage. Each year, of course, we curate different exhibits and displays, and along with that we like to change things up in many of the rooms in the House.
The upstairs had a slight makeover last year, and we heard lots of positive comments from visitors. So this year, I re-configured the largest bedroom and divided it into two rooms, one of which showcases our vintage clothing display. It's  finished, and here's a preview:

The gown on the dress form is from 1861 and is silk. There are several other pieces on walls not visible in the photo: you'll just have to come and see for yourself!

Then of course, I had to re-arrange the other half of this large room; I decided to make it a children's room/nursery, even though that wasn't the way it was set up in RIT. Here's an idea of how it looks:

Now, this all looks very nice, and it allows the House to really show all of the beautiful antique and vintage quilts we own. This was done specifically to showcase the quilts, particularly since our opening event, 'A Simpler Thyme' is also our Quilt Show.

The secret 'behind the scenes' detail, though is that the 3/4 size rope bed in 'Izzy's Room' used to be in what is now the Nursery/Children's Room. And the long bed now in the Nursery used to be in Izzy's Room. We had to switch them: sounds simple, right? No.

I in my naiveté thought that, oh, well, they're old beds we can probably bend them and move them. Not so. The Rope Bed (a Cannonball Rope Bed from the 1830's according to my friend Mike, who knows about such things) had to be un screwed before we could move it into the room we wanted it in.

And I say 'we' because Tony, who is also an active Volunteer at the House and is our Board President, helped me. Or I helped him.

At any rate, both sides of the bed had to be unscrewed, and then the rope support undone. The bed was moved in pieces into Izzy's Room, and then the sides screwed back in, and the ropes re-strung. 

It only took us two hours, but the next day I think both of us were ready for traction!

However, it looks really good and although there are a few minor things still to be done, on the whole, I'm really pleased. And I think visitors to The Oldest House this year will be too.

We have great plans for the downstairs exhibits and displays...but more on that later.

As I mentioned on the introduction page,  I am seriously considering writing a sequel to RIT. It would be set at the House of course, for at least some of the book, and I think in Washington D.C. as well. The period would be 1802 I think. To that end, I've been reading 'Incidental Architect' by Gordon Brown (not the former UK PM!) to get an idea of what the fledgeling US Capitol was like in its very early days.

So...stay tuned! And thanks.

DLC