Patience is a Virtue.....

We had made arrangements to see the Shelly house and Murray house that Gulick and Spradlin had renovated.  We met late one afternoon- Dave coming from home and I from work.  I arrived first and Peter a while later.  As we went into the house and I was immediately struck by the sense of simple elegance of the interior.  The photos on the web site were true to the physical nature which is often not the case.  Peter showed me pictures of the house before they started their preservation and how extensive the work had been.  I could not believe that we were standing in the same house as the photographs.  As we toured the house I tried to get a sense of whether or not he was going to take me seriously as a potential client or just a time waster.  Would you take me seriously? Dave had not shown up yet and I started to panic that he would be a no show.  Eventually he did manage to get to the house, only after I had seen the whole thing once myself.

We regrouped for the "important showing".  I was already convinced but would Dave see the same things that I did?  I held my breath and stood back while Dave and Peter talked about period moldings, good looking replacement windows, 18th century plaster techniques and the like.  I have to say I was really impressed with the plaster.  Who knew that anyone could muster up any enthusiasm for plaster but I sure did.  You can see in the picture below just how lovely it is. 

The kitchen is remarkably simple and functional.  No over the top cabinetry to conflict with the age of the home. Dave loved the lay out and the shaker style cabinets. 

The ceilings are all very low but very wonderful! 

 The corner cupboard saved and stripped of many years of paint.

Upstairs were plenty of closets.... hum, what's a closet?

Our path took us from room to room looking at everything.  I kept looking at Dave to see if his expressions would register anything that was going on in his head.  Can't say that I could tell anything... We went outside and looked at the exterior of the house- from the nails to the roof shingled with Enviroshakes (look similar to cedar but made from old tires- very green!) to the locally produced pine clapboards- it all worked.  The basement was like some futuristic movie- high tech and highly efficient not to mention highly cool!

From the Shelly house we ventured to the Murray House that was built in 1690.  This house was very nifty in a different kind of way- take the tour at http://www.gulickspradlin.com/projects.html.  It didn't have to be totally rebuilt but carefully updated.  The front door was especially impressive.  The second floor was built around a massive center chimney.  The bedrooms had lovely exposed beams.  Dave meandered around again taking it all in.  Back downstairs I saw him zero in on a door frame.  The ceiling had a little sag in it from the years it held and so too did the new door frame to follow this line.  I could tell that this hit the sweet spot for Dave.  He was now convinced that these guys knew what they were doing.  On our way out the door Dave pulled me aside and whispered "they're hired".  My heart jumped!

We next headed to our house to have a look at the "little wreck- William Tripp".  John Spradlin was waiting in the driveway for us.  Peter and John walked carefully around the house with clip boards in hand making notes and commenting back and forth.  At long last they said something to the effect of "yeah, we can fix this... seen worse... much worse".  They asked us a ton of questions about what parts of the house we used most and how we lived.  Then they proposed an addition off our dining room that would have a new kitchen and upstairs a master bedroom and bath.  I asked about the existing upstairs bath and Peter said... no, that's your laundry room. Well, who would have thunk all this?  It was all new and seen with fresh eyes.  Dave was pleased as punch when they left.  They would return later in the week to take pictures and measure for the design phase.

Mission accomplished I thought!