Letters of Support Please!!!!!!!

I am not known for my patience...so I am very sorry to those of you that I am annoying with my persistance!

We still need as many letters of support as we can get! Anyone can write a letter, so if you would like to see the Brown-Shugart House (Walnut Manor) Restored, please send your letter ASAP. I have a handy dandy trusty guide that will make writing the letter quite painless! Please see it below...

We are also wanting to boost our friends and followers so we can show the state that people are watching this restoration. Friend us on Facebook, email address walnutmanor@gmail.com and Subscribe AND Follow our blog here! Following is different than subscribing, but why I don't know.

Many thanks in advance!

Charity Beth Long

Guide for Letters of Support

Thank you in advance for writing a letter of support! We appreciate you championing our restoration project. We could not do it without the cheerleading of our friends, family, neighbors and fellow preservationists! Below is information to assist you in writing your letter. Once your letter is complete, please email it (preferred) or send it to 633 S. Samuel St., Charles Town, WV 25414, so it may be included with the grant application packet.

The Grant Process
We are applying for a development grant for historic preservation from the state of West Virginia. These grants are 50/50 matching grants and are used to repair, replace and restore building elements that have deteriorated. Unless your building is open to the public, the work is limited to exterior features and indoor systems like electricity and plumbing can threaten the safety of the house. Priority is given to items like roofs and gutters.

Our Project
We have several projects for which we are applying for grant assistance. They include replacement, repair and painting of the roofs and the replacement of the gutters. The back porch floor needs to be replaced or repaired and we need many repairs to be made to the existing wood features of the house. We hope to finish the stripping of exterior paint and paint the whole house. We will also finish the restoration of the windows and have the dangerous exterior wiring changed and/or removed. We are going to include the rebuilding of the front brick wall and Victorian fence as well as the restoration of the weather vane that tops the tower roof.

Things to include in your letter
Your name and address

Address the letter to the Members of the Archives and History Commission, West Virginia Division Of Culture And History, State Historic Preservation Office, 1900 Kanawha Blvd., East, Charleston, WV 25305

State how you are related to the project
o Neighbor
o Descendant/ family of the Brown or Shugart families
o Community Organization
o Community leader
o Fellow preservationist
o Friend/ Family

Why you feel the restoration of the Brown-Shugart House is important

Why you feel that a grant should be awarded to this project

Make your letter personal!

Send the letter by March 27th (The application must be postmarked by March 31st)

This post brought to you by the letter W

This weathervane is one of my favorite features of the house. Until recently I have not been able to get a good picture of it. I borrowed my father-in-law's telephoto lense and was able to get some good pictures even though it was a very overcast day. I have known for a while that it needed to be restored since it actually is part of the roof top. I knew for sure that is was in rough shape when one day during a wind storm the letter W fell from the sky.

Millie in Blizzard of 1983

This photo is courtesy of Bob Graham who is Millie Shugart's great nephew. Millie is standing on the front walkway with Jeff and Trudy's house in the distance. The picture was taken after the blizzard of 1983 which totaled at 36 inches. Bob was kind enough to send this snapshot during our last snow storm. Its amazing how something as simple as weather can unite us...

Snowpocalypse Damage

The massive amounts of snow have not been kind to our house! The other day I was working on the computer and heard (and felt) this soul rattling crash. It was our gutter being pulled off by big chunks of ice. As you can see the gutter was not in good shape so it was no surprise.

The weight of the snow has also proved to be too much for the front fence. The wall was unstable to start with but now its actually crumbling. We need to have the walls rebuilt, which will be expensive and complicated since they are retaining walls. We are going to include this project in the grant application, but there is little hope for getting funds for it since its not attached to the house.

On to some good news. Roxane Shugart's daughter Sue dropped by last week. Millie was Sue's grandmother. I gave her a brief tour through the chaos. She had only a few minutes to reminisce since she was driving back to New Jersey but it was great to meet her.

We are working on the grant application, so now is the time for you to make a difference! Please send us a letter of support to include with the application. The more community support we get, the more likely we'll be granted matching funds to complete the exterior restoration.

Thanks for reading!

Charity

Scout

I am sorry that it has been so long since my last post. Right after Thanksgiving we learned that our beautiful husky Scout had terminal cancer. The cancer showed up as very aggressive mast cell tumors. She declined quite rapidly and passed away a couple of weeks later.

Scout was 11+ and saw us through college, many moves, dating, engagement and finally marriage. She loved everyone she ever met and brought to our lives a spirit of playfulness, enthusiasm and love. When we moved to Charles Town, obviously our pets had to make the sacrifice with us and no one handled it better than our Mama dog, who greeted the challenge with excitement. She even welcomed a new family member into the pack, when Millie, the world's most cuddly cat found us.

Scout quickly made friends with all of our neighbors and being the escape artist she was, made many surprise visits to folks that lived blocks away from us! Who knew that an old dog could squeeze herself through a cat door? It took a while for us to realize how she escaping. She always amazed us with her intelligence and determination.

Since Scout passed, we have felt out of sorts and the energy in the house has been somber. Kahlua, our black lab mix, has been having the hardest time, so even though we don't feel quite ready, we have begun looking for a new friend. We are trying to find a rescue dog, and have applied for a couple and are waiting to hear some news. In the meantime, we are still meeting more tail waggers.

Winter is a slow season for the restoration, but we are working on our grant application which is due March 31st. We have gotten a very late start on the application, so we hope we will be successful in getting it completed in time. More on this to come shortly!

Craigslist Addict

Some of you may know that I am not just into antique houses but antique everything. I am always looking for antiques, and right now I am especially looking for furniture for the family room. I have come up with a floor plan and I browse Craigslist on a regular basis looking for great pieces at great prices. I was really successful last Friday, finding a pair of chairs from the early 1900s. I got them from a lady in Baltimore who worked in a lawyers office. She said they were custom made and were a family heirloom. They are simply gorgeous and in great condition. The fabric doesn't match our color scheme which in unfortunate because the upholstery is in excellent shape. Eventually we will have them reupholstered, once the family room is done. Now I just need to find a cool antique game table to put between them!

Fall cleanup

Hi folks!

Sorry its been so long since I last blogged, but we've been busy with fall activities. We had an amazing turnout for Halloween. The weather wasn't great, but we still managed to scare a lot of kids! We had out the tombstones and fog machines as usual but this year we added a wizard's table. On the table was a trick crystal ball with my head in it! I don't know if anyone got a picture of me in the crystal ball because my breath kept fogging it up. If someone sends me a picture, I will post it later.

We haven't gotten much restoration work done lately. We have been focused on cleanup. We cleaned off the back porch of all the construction debris we had been unintentionally collecting and called Herbie, the trash guy. I didn't take any pictures out of sheer embarrassment! I hadn't realized how bad it was getting until I saw the pile in the driveway. It was huge.

We also cleaned out the ballroom so we could store more lumber there. Its much more organized, but still filled with construction stuff. We bought a toilet, sinks and all for the half bath years ago, and they are still in boxes waiting for the floors to be redone.

We spent this weekend doing lawn cleanup. We have a multitude of trees, mostly deciduous, that make raking a month long job. Luckily, the city takes the leaves, but we have to get them to the curb. In order to do this we rake the leaves on to tarps and drag them to the street. The pile in the picture is about half of the front yard. Looks like we will be spending the Thanksgiving holiday raking!