It's been a little more than two years that we were unable to live in the main manor. There was still insufficient hydro, plumbing, and many other simple conveniences that so many of us take for granted. We did have the Carriage House though that was attached located next door. The home was originally built in a unique fashion of having the main manor, ajacent carriage house, or buggie barn as it was once called, and the barn attached at the end.
I just try to imagine what the noices...and smells, must have been like in the 1850's. This was the first area in "upper town of Paris" designated for "residential" and this family had so many of the luxuries such as a horse drawn carriage. Today our barn holds different transportation. Hubby has his brand new Cadi Truck stored for the winter. Asa would have been amazed by this set of wheels, especially being in the lumber business. This man had built his barn in such a design as to have the stable under the barn and the hay drop above. The carriage house was designated for several carriages that we can imagine as there were two doors that opened. Each door a different size and can conclude that perhaps he designed these entrances to suit the styles of carriages or surrie that he owned at the time. The smells and the noices from the barn would have been overwhelming on a warm summer's night, however in the dead of winter, there would likely be little, if any odour at all. However, if you stand in the barn on a still August night, you might hear the sound of horse whinnying. The smell of hay is still there as I discovered when I was wallpapering so many years ago.
Now as I started to tell, we had the availability of our Carriage House to live in. It is converted now to a Bed and Breakfast suite that has its own bathroom, kitchen, two queen beds and the comfort of "home away from home". At the onset of restoring the manor, we would work all evening and retire next door where we could shower, watch TV and sleep the night...if we didnt have guests booked for those evenings. I remember one night that the three of us (hubby, son and I) laboured over the removal of the many layers of wall papers and paint. It was a saturday in December and we spent all day and night scrubbing and scrapping. When we had had enough, we would pack up our things and run from the main entrance, across the snow covered driveway and enter the Carriage House for the night.
We had nestled down in front of the TV, enjoyed a great movie and fell asleep.
I am a morning person and that means that at the first break of morning, I am up....yes, even at 5:30. I though I could sneak next door and jump on the computer that was still set up in one of the upstairs rooms or perhaps at that time even in the hallway. Nevertheless, it was a great time to just sit and surf or play games or have quiet time to myself. It wasnt long when I discovered that I didnt have my coat. I had left it next door...and in the pocket was my key. Not a problem, hubby would have his key...and with that I started to search in the dark for his jeans. Nothing. No coat either. How could this be. Were we both so tiered that we couldnt move next door fast enough? So here I was, trapped in darkness and no place to go, nothing to do. I couldnt turn on the TV as that would wake everyone up, couldnt turn a light, as kitties would wake up and start jumping over hubby...and that was definitely not something I wanted to do. So I sat, and sat, and sat...eventually surcoming to crawl back into bed where I lie with eyes wide open. I watched the clock tick away until finally the room was lite with morning sun and finally the 8:30 churchbells rang out. Surely that would wake hubby. It wasnt until 9 O'clock...the day almost over, or at least for me before movement in the other side of the bed. Finally, hubby would be able to tell me where his key was.
With eyes slowly opening, I sprung into idle chatter, explaining in a thousand words or less my plight and asking for his key...finally! "It's on the other side". "But I have no key either". Brilliant man suggests checking son's pockets. Why didnt I think of that. But there was no key there either. All three of us has dashed quickly from our project forgetting to grab our coats, or at least grab a set of keys. We had nothing! We couldnt open the doors as they are sealed up with dead bolts that would lock up Fort Knox. With all the doors in our house, how could we have everything so secured? And we wouldn't consider breaking the windows. Most of the glass is original to our home and we wanted to preserve that too.
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