First Night on the Grounds
Our dear friend, Mrs. Karen Prewitt, the official interior designer for Saving Little Mount Vernon and owner of Quattro Canti Interiors , suggested back in November that we turn our attention from restoring the house itself to preparing the grounds for our first event--an oyster roast. So, at Thanksgiving we began a major cleaning out of the garage area and preparing of the North front lawn for our 1st Night on the Grounds! Our last post showed the massive cleanout we did to improve the site, so I won't bore you with more on the demolition and building cleanup. I thought after that post most of the work was done; however, there was plenty more to do to prepare for guests.
Setting the Date
First was to set the date. That in itself was no small feat. We looked at family calendars and local calendars from the church, the Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, SEWE, etc. We decided on February 8, 2020. But no matter how hard you try there will be conflicts!
Preparing the Food
We originally planned to cook the oysters and prepare the food ourselves, but we quickly realized the amount of work and preparation we needed to do to make the house and grounds usable would prevent us from having time to plan that as well... so we called Tonya's Catering by Design! She brought in her fully stocked kitchen trailer, her tents, her oyster tables and barrels, cookers, serving tables and tablecloths, as well as her staff. She handled all of the food preparation and setup for serving, including oysters, crackers, sauces, chicken bog, and beverages. She did an excellent job, right down to the gloves and oyster knives.
Ticketing
Since this was a new experience for us and we were swamped with other things to get ready, we chose to advertise and do tickets as simply as possible. We decided to advertise through our Saving Little Mount Vernon Facebook page by creating a Facebook Event. And we decided to use Eventbrite to sell tickets online to our event. After finding out the cost for catering and the fees for ticket sales, we set the price for tickets at $35 per person. By clicking on the Get Tickets link, guests could purchase tickets online. Eventbrite collected the money, sent confirmation and tickets through email to the guests. It provided us with a guest list for the event, and even provided a link for us to email the guests. For more advanced event entry it even provides a QR code to scan for entry. But the night of the event, we chose a hands-on approach where our daughter Grace took the guest list and used it to welcome and check off people as they entered, and to add their tickets to our door prize drawing.
More Yard Work
We turned our attention to leveling more of the 6 acre yard for parking. Dwight manned the bulldozer for more tree and root cleanup and grading. Then used the tractor and harrow for smoothing and leveling. He worked at tractor work while I picked up sticks and trimmed vines. Oh my, the vines!! Millions of grape and wisteria vines every square inch! They had to be removed due to the tripping hazard, so I spent hours and hours raking and moving sticks, and on my knees trimming vines! Vine removal is a beast!!! (One weekend I even had my 3 oldest grandsons to help! They worked so hard hauling sticks with me!) Then we planted rye grass across the area to help with dust and soil erosion. And, of course, to make it look pretty and green.
Friendly Advice
For our first event, a friend of ours and DJ for our event, Jeff Smith, insisted that we had to enter through the North front entrance for the full effect of the home's grandeur. We agreed that our guests needed to arrive on the North front lawn winding through the lovely ancient oaks driving up to the columned side of this old home. So Dwight got back to work pushing debris with the dozer and tractor to reopen the driveway which hadn't been used in 30 or more years.
Utilities
Since we only have electricity on the service pole, and water at one spot in the yard, Dwight had to run temporary wiring from the pole to our covered shed and a waterline over to where we would be hosting the event. He got 6 LED strip shop lights to hang to give lighting under the shed. Then he put up LED spot lights around the shed and in the parking area and ran a string of LED lights through the house so we could give tours downstairs. The beauty of LED lights is that they draw very little current, which was important for this temporary setup.
Restroom Facilties
And we couldn't forget about a restroom! Since there are no restroom facilities operational on the site, we contacted B&B Porta-Jons of Orangeburg to get a portable toilet with a hand washing sink. Of course, they aren't free. It cost $150 to have for a week. Although I'm not a fan of portalets, I was very impressed at how clean and nice this one was. And the staff that delivered it and took my order was friendly and helpful. It was in excellent shape and came furnished with paper towels and toilet paper. All I did was add a stick-on light switch since it does NOT come with lights. Perfect! For an additional handwashing area, Dwight even ran a waterline across the yard and roughed in an additional temporary outdoor sink (from the numerous ones we had sitting around) and even added a paper towel holder, for oyster roast cleanup.
Old Shed Repair
Next we decided to do some quick repair to the side of the old shed serving as the backdrop for the area of the oyster roast. It was originally sided with particle board siding - who does that? - and painted green in the 70's, but the siding had long since deteriorated and the metal roof was covered with large limbs that had damaged it through the past 40 years--which is a later project. To make it look better we quickly added T1-11 siding to the side facing our event. The other sides are still surrounded by woods. Then did a quick stain to it with a concoction I use to make a natural stain from steel wool and a gallon of vinegar. Let it sit for a month or more. (I just had a gallon already mixed up.) And then spray the siding. It is a cheap cover for the bright yellow of new wood and gives a rusty brown finish to wood. This shed will get lots more attention at a later date!
Chairs to be Cleaned
In the old shed we found stacks of white resin chairs. Around 80 of them. Never used, still with tags. We took these out and I pressure washed 20 years of trash off of them and rubbed down discolored spots with a Mr. Clean magic eraser. Good as new!! Unfortunately the tables that went with them were chewed up and used as homes to rats and other critters over the past 20 years, so they had to be disposed of.
The Fireplace
When the original caretaker's house/ garage completely collapsed, it left us with a chimney which had a broken red brick face around the fireplace sitting on a 25 by 25 square foot concrete slab. We pressure washed the slab and fireplace and began work on the structure. First was to remove the broken brick foundation wall around the area, and then level the area from the slab to the ground. Although some of the face of the fireplace was still there, it was made of newer 1970's bricks with different bricks on the corners, not an original feature. The hearth survived and we salvaged enough bricks to do a little repair to the façade of the fireplace. We used what we affectionately call the "American Schmear" [which is more due to how messy Dwight is with mortar than it is an intentional bricklaying technique!] to gray the bricks with cement to improve the look of the chimney face. The chimney still needs more work, but worked just fine for our first event.
The Storm
Well, two days before the event, a huge storm blew through our area and dumped puddles of water in the yard. It showed Dwight EXACTLY where the low spots were that were missed in the grading/leveling! So he went back to the tractor with the blade to "squeegee" the puddles out to the surrounding higher dry areas to dry and resmooth and relevel... right where we had already planted the pretty green grass! Only one BIG problem! The mud smelled! It smelled like pluff mud!!! So we went to the store, got Pet Fresh carpet deodorizer and sprinkled it across the mud and Dwight harrowed the yard again! Amazing!! Pet Fresh works just as well on mud as it does on carpet! The final step of yard work on the day of the event was to buy 6 bales of pine straw from our local Ace Hardware and add a light carpet of pine straw across the area being used for the Oyster Roast.
The Day Arrives
So the day of the event arrived and we set out tables, which we covered with polyester red and white checked tablecloths I ordered from Amazon. We set the chairs around them and I added rustic centerpieces made from canning jars, spray painted white and filled with sand and a candle, and a jute bow. Dwight assembled and set out the 3 gas firepits also ordered from Amazon. (THANK YOU, AMAZON!!!) We added chairs around them so our guests could sit or stand near them to keep warm. Our friend and photographer, Beth McMillan Ellis, arrived to add plants and make the grounds more homey and inviting. Tonya and her team arrived to set out the tables and tablecloths for serving, the oyster tables with gloves and knives, the chicken bog and condiments, and the oyster pots for cooking. I added desserts including mini cheesecakes, brownies, and Fudge Stripe cookies and marshmallows for s'mores. Galvanized buckets of water with s'more's sticks were added to each side of the fireplace. And beside the North front entrance gate we added ferns, and lined the driveway with torches to light the way. We were ready for our guests!
What a Great Night!
And what a great evening it was! We were so excited to see over 90 people turn out for our first event. Our guests were so interested in seeing the house and hearing about its history and the work being done. Our guests listened and asked questions and shared their memories of LMV for nearly 3 hours! We shared with many new friends from Charleston to Lexington! We drew for door prizes of Saving LMV shirts, cups, Koozies and 2 rectangular wooden centerpieces made from original LMV cypress siding. Thank you to all our friends, family, and guests for showing your support for our endeavor and supporting our first event!
