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August 8 through 15 was Centerville's 106th Old Home Week. Activities included a concert, presentations, a road race and an ice cream social for the kids. The Main Street walking tour provided an interesting introduction to some of Centerville's history and architecture, including some unexpected surprises. There were numerous Crosby family houses on Main Street and the James Crosby house started out in the Greek Revival style, was totally transformed into a Queen Anne style house
about 20 years later to match The Howard Marston house (now the Fernbrook Inn) across the street, and then expanded and completely reconfigured
about 25 years later in the Colonial Revival style. If you look at the three windows on the left side of the second floor you can see the little bit that remained. The turret, porch and detailing were all removed.
That night there was a bonfire and concert on the beach
and the modern version of the pied piper.
Although not a part of Old Home Week, on Sunday we took a shellfishing class,
caught a mess of quahogs and enjoyed them that evening.
Now, back to the house-
We were able to fit a small Powder Room on the First Floor. This is the Toto dual flush toilet.
The room is so small that we were worried about the space that the towel bar and tp holder take up. They do fit but just barely.
The corner pedestal sink is from Porcher. It was supposed to get the more rounded Grohe Eurodisc faucet, but the more angular Grohe Essence faucet that you see here wouldn't fit in the upstairs vanity. For some reason the vanity was built 20" deep rather than the more typical 21" to 22". There wasn't enough room for the pop-up for the drain so we had to swap them.
We searched for a mirror and finally found just the right one on Craigslist. It looks great and it was only $10.
In June I invited my mom along with my brother and his family to visit the new place for a week in late July. I knew they wanted to spend some time there and also extended the same invitation to my siblings. There are five 'kids' in my family and we're pretty spread out geographically. All of them came, along with some of their spouses and children and a couple of my mom's sisters too. It's just a two-bedroom house but is designed for gatherings and this was the experiment to see how things work out with a hoard of people.
We can't comfortably accommodate all of them, and a few stayed at the Centerville Corners Inn, which is just down the street, and the Fernbrook Inn, which is a beautiful former private estate turned B&B. The beds, trundle bed, sleeper sofa and futon accommodated the rest.
Since the five of us aren't together often, I arranged a photographer to do a group photo shoot on the beach in Osterville, although I don't have those photos just yet. Here's a less professional version.
Rain threatened and I had to modify the time with the photographer. The exact time was undetermined until just about time to leave, and gathering everyone was a little like herding cats, but we made it.
We had 17 for dinner that night. The table stretches out to 10' and the bar seats 3, so we did all fit in the Dining Room. The built-in hutch
is still MIA and would have been a real help. It's intended as a set-up area to free the table and peninsula/bar. It's just another example of what I called "Cape Cod Time" in my blog from June 28.
