Christmas at the Manor

[Mark Metcalfe]

Each year, on the day after Thanksgiving, it is my job to bring up the decorations from the basement for Decorating Day. Decorating Day lasts for four days in our house because Joy, the Master Decorator decorates EVERY room in the house. I get pulled in for grunt work, but not decorating activity. It is her forte and not mine. So the following pictures are many of the rooms that Joy has decorated in our home.

The pictures are all shot without flash, giving them that warm, yellow look with added glow to lights. (I prefer this coloration to the stark colors of the flash photography.) I shot these by hand (so there may be some blur), but I've learned a trick to cut down on push-button blur with low-light (no flash) effects: turn on the timer feature and wait for the seconds to tick down because you can hold the camera more steadily and don't have to push the button.

The first two (here) are on the outside at night. I'll follow up with inside photos in a reply.

Merry Christmas!

The Metcalfes

[Mark Metcalfe]

1. The Living Room - tree is dressed more formally.
2. The Dining Room - tree has Kincaide ornaments.
3. The Computer Room - cloth angels and ribbon
4. The Spa Room - the stencil above the door says Happiness is not perfected until it is shared
5. The kitchen - Angle 1
6. The kitchen - tree is decorated with tea cups and gingerbread men

[Jonathan Long]

Mark,

If you used the "Custom White Balance" on your camera you could still do these shots without flash and reduce or eliminate the color cast from the lights. Then the shots would look like your eye sees them.

Nice shots,

Jon

[Mark Metcalfe]

7. The Master Bedroom - tree has sachet ornaments
8. The Green Room - this is our second guest room (the first was not photograph worthy when I took these photos last night)
9. The Green Room - other angle
10. The Barn tree - our largest and most colorful family ornaments.
11. Our front stairway
12. Even the John gets a makeover.

I have a few more rooms to photograph, when they are ready to be photographed. I hope you enjoyed Christmas at the Manor.

Mark

[Mark Metcalfe]

Mark,

If you used the "Custom White Balance" on your camera you could still do these shots without flash and reduce or eliminate the color cast from the lights. Then the shots would look like your eye sees them.

Nice shots,

Jon

Thanks, Jon. Perhaps I'll try this! (I'm a simple - aka lazy - photographer; basically point and shoot with a pocket digital camera.)

Mark

[Andrea Larabee]

Beautiful! I am sure that is a ton of work for your wife! But it must be worth it all. Your home has a real "Welcome Home" look to it.

Thank you very much for sharing the warmth!

[Hans Deventer]

The first two (here) are on the outside at night. I'll follow up with inside photos in a reply.

Merry Christmas!

The Metcalfes

Ah, good memories! Though it wasn't Christmas, I do recognize a lot.

[Mark Metcalfe]

Ah, good memories! Thought it wasn't Christmas, I do recognize a lot.

Repeat visits are encouraged!

P.S. We have an open house Christmas party on December 8th, if you're in town then! ;-)

[Hans Deventer]

Repeat visits are encouraged!

P.S. We have an open house Christmas party on December 8th, if you're in town then! ;-)

Thanks! I didn't plan to be there, but I appreciate the invitation :basic02

[Anne and Dwayne Hood]

Mark, I may have a mansion like that when I get to heaven, but never here. I noticed a bedroom dresser that looks just like one we bought in 1968.
Wish our computer room was tht neat.
BEAUTIFUL!

[Mark Metcalfe]

Mark, I may have a mansion like that when I get to heaven, but never here. I noticed a bedroom dresser that looks just like one we bought in 1968.
Wish our computer room was tht neat.
BEAUTIFUL!

"...just over the hilltop..."

The story of Providence for our house is a long one. We are happiest when it is shared and feel quite a bit more like caretakers than owners.

Mark

[Dennis M. Scott]

Repeat visits are encouraged!

P.S. We have an open house Christmas party on December 8th, if you're in town then! ;-)


How open is the invitation? Open enough for people who live close enough to stop by? :)

[Mark Metcalfe]

If you're as close as you are, then you are urged to join us on the 8th!

I hope you and Linda (and any other Scott) can make it!
C'mon over! (Even if you can't make the party, we like drop in visitors.)

Mark

[Cindi Hammons]

Ummmm....Mark....I think Joy might be a little aggrivated that you took a photo of your full trash container in your bathroom and posted it on NazNet! :) (snicker, snicker!)

P.S. Thanks for sharing your "loverly" house. Please tell Joy that I bow in her presence. (no decorating done yet in our home)

[Mark Metcalfe]

Ummmm....Mark....I think Joy might be a little aggrivated that you took a photo of your full trash container in your bathroom and posted it on NazNet! :) (snicker, snicker!)

P.S. Thanks for sharing your "loverly" house. Please tell Joy that I bow in her presence. (no decorating done yet in our home)

Yeah, I saw that but thought:

1. It shows that we have a real household, and
2. Joy doesn't visit NazNet (or she might be miffed at me)

:q)

[Barb Bouldrey]

Mark,

Thanks for posting these photos. I can see why it took 4 days. I lost count of the number of trees!

You have a beautiful older home. What a treasure. It looks like something out of "Better Homes and Gardens."

Barb

[Dennis M. Scott]

Yeah, I saw that but thought:

1. It shows that we have a real household, and
2. Joy doesn't visit NazNet (or she might be miffed at me)

:q)

You are a unique individual. I suspect there aren't many names on the list of "people who have posted on naznet pictures of their bathroom."

And we love you!

[Mark Metcalfe]

Tonight is the night!

We hope to see you here!

Merry Christmas!

[Mark Metcalfe]

I just snapped photos of the other rooms that I missed before.

1. The guest room where you would stay if you visit the Manor.
2. The guest room bed.
3. The Master Bedroom bed.
4. One of the two third-floor bedrooms (facing the front street). The other does have a small tree in it, but the room (and photograph) wasn't partulcarly Christmas-like.
5. One of the many accessories around the house; this one on a deacon's bench in the second floor hallway.
6. The main bathroom - not particularly Christmas-like, but I thought to balance out the little one that I photographed earlier. (There is a tiny tree in another part of that room, too. You can actually see it's star in the lower part of the mirror.) :-)

Mark

[Mark Metcalfe]

And one more photo for the fun of it. I dressed up as Santa Claus for my company's holiday party this morning. I had Emily, my helper elf, take a few home shots. Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho!

[Dennis M. Scott]

Wonderful open house. Linda and I really enjoyed being with you guys again. As always, the manor is great. Joy is a dream. Thanks for being the friends you are. So why was it we didn't get a naznet picture? Metcalfes, Jeffreys and Scotts would have made one.

Miranda's daughter is a little doll, too!

[Marg Webb]

What wonderful memories you have brought back this Christmas.
I had a home similar to this at one time. The rose wall paper is so like what mine was.
Thank you for the memory.
I still have several pieces of the furniture. Have made sure they are in my will.
I would so hate to have an Auctioneer slam a gavel down on the marble.

[Christine Josephson]

We are renovating my husbands 1911 homeplace, it is taken years and years. Your wifes decorating techniques are some I would like to use (BEAUTIFUL). I am saving these pictures.
And by the way you make a wonderful Santa.

Merry Christmas

[Ian Gentles]

Lovely house, and its made that way with the folks who live there, thanks for sharing your home with us all.

http://iangentles.livejournal.com