The Ancestry and Second Floor Tour

Yesterday I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting a descendant of the Robinson Plantation. Lynn Buker Brannon and her husband Dan. Lynn shared this beautiful photo of a painting she has of the house in its glory days. She also shared some great history on the home and has so much more to tell us.  I am looking forward to more time going through pictures and learning about her childhood. But I'm anxious to wrap up the pre-renovation tour so I can start showing you some of the transformation that is happening at the house.

So let's continue with the Second Floor........

- The Landing -

At the top of the stairs is another very wide hallway with 4 rooms, 2 on each side of the hall. The bedrooms are separated with another small hall and a bath in a "jack & jill" configuration. We will be making some changes to the layout to increase the size of the bathrooms and better utilize the space. Closet space is always in short supply in houses of this era. 

-The Bedrooms-

3 of the rooms we will call bedrooms. They are color coded by the tile used for the surround on their fireplaces. The Blue Room, The Lavender Room and the Yellow Room! 

I am unsure of the original purpose of the 4th Room since it doesn't have a fireplace. However just off this room is the "Sleeping Porch". A screen porch that I understand was used during the hot summer months because it allowed better air circulation. Remember they didn't have A/C back then.

We plan to open the wall between these two areas, enclose the screen porch and convert it into a Game Room/Theater Room.

One of my favorite things about the whole house is this elevator. The shaft of the elevator was sealed up in the wall downstairs at some point. We are exposing it and hope to make it functional again. If not for people at least it could be used as a dumb-waiter when needed. 

One other unique character piece in the home is this bookcase in the hallway of the second floor. It was filled with many old books that we have preserved and plan to re-display here. We also have plans to replicate this bookcase in the hallway on the first floor to display artifacts and history from the Robinson Plantation.

So much history of South Caddo parish is here. If you like this kind of thing I hope to host an open house when all is finished.!

Continuing our Pre-Renovation Tour

This beautiful Chandelier once hung in the parlor. We are hopeful that this and one other similar fixture can be re-wired to return to their rightful place in this home. 

I need to get the pre-reno tour complete in order to share all the progress we are making. My last post left off in the kitchen which requires a substantial renovation to make it attractive for living. We will continue our tour on the first floor with the front "bedroom" which we feel will be better suited for a library-office. I just love these windows to the floor facing the front porch.

 - Library-Office -

-The Master Bedroom-

If you look at this picture closely you will see multiple colors of paint on the walls. Friends in the corners that should be outside!! (There are a lot of these around the house! Yikes!) 

And an overall need for some attention. 

-First Floor Bath-

The only "functional bath" at this point will get a complete gut job to make way for a master suite. We will take down the wall between this room and the laundry room and reconfigure the space into a more usable and attractive master bath and walk-in closet.

- Existing Laundry Room - 

At the end of the main hall is a storage room which appears to have been a "Butler's Pantry" perhaps. You can see the built-ins below with their vintage hardware. This room will be demo'd to make way for French doors opening onto the new porch that will extend across the entire back of the house. I will save these cabinet doors and drawers to be re-purposed in some way.

Just to the left of the Butler's Pantry is a door to the back porch. This space will be enclosed to make room for a new laundry room and powder room. 

- Back Porch -

This concludes our tour of the First floor.  Come back soon to see the upstairs!

I was very intrigued by the history of this home. Originally built in the late 1800's the house was originally a single story home on the banks of the Red River. If you look closely you can see the river just beyond the house. As the story goes...the river began to change course and get too close to the house. It was decided to relocate the home to higher ground. Using mules and tree logs the house was moved one mile over the course of 6 months to the current location in the early 1900's. Sometime between 1903-1905 the second story addition was made. 

I believe this photo was taken about 7-8 years ago right after a fresh coat of paint.

Here is a photo of the house in its current condition.  It's about time for another make-over! 

You can see my sweet daddy who turns 83 today in this photo tackling the jungle! Once again he's looking out for his baby girl who's ideas are often larger than her brain!


As promised here are a few photos of the inside prior to any demo. I will give you a brief tour of the before. Later posts will dive into the specific changes we are making.

 -The Entry - 

Often known as the "dog trot" a hallway through the center of the house allowed a constant breeze to move through. A/C was not available in those days!  It's not working right now either hence the Fans!

- The Parlor -

 With its big bay window, 14 foot "Red" Bead-Board ceiling, and beautiful transom French doors to the Sun-Porch. The hardware in this house is beautiful! 

- The Dining Room -

Has a very large picture window. The window a/c will go! The old heaters will stay and be refurbished to keep the character of the home. Every room in the house has a fireplace but most are no longer functional. We hope to change that too! The little closet to the left of the fireplace will be replaced with a matching transom door into the parlor allowing symmetry and flow between the rooms. 

- The Breakfast Nook -

Just off the dining room is a small room that boasts a beautiful built-in china cabinet in addition to built-ins in the corners. It is unclear exactly how this room was used. We think it may have been a porch at one time. Unfortunately, all of these walls will have to go, including the china cabinet that will be preserved and re-purposed in another area of the house. We are going create an open-concept kitchen, dining, living space in these rooms. Obvious water damage and layers of wall paper can be seen in the photos. And you have your first glimpse into the original kitchen under a few layers of paint! 

-The Kitchen-

Ahh....the kitchen...the heart of the home! In this case, NOT!  The Floors are a mess, several layers of vinyl over old hardwoods. The kitchen was once separate from the house to protect the main house from fire. It was attached at some point and is probably why the strange configuration of the breakfast area you saw earlier. The highlight of the kitchen is the awesome farm-sink. This is the only thing that will remain here in a new cabinet of course!!

Okay so I have to go now. We are only one-fourth through the house!!