The "Granary."

Now, to give a brief history of what brought my parents to this particular spot along Mitchell Road in Pittsford, New York (and for you little Libby, so when you are asked about your great grandparents in a history class, you will have this story to tell) ... back in 1999, my parents were in the process of restoring a home on Nantucket island when my dad received a call to serve in the presidency of the new LDS temple they were building in Palmyra, NY.  (He literally received a phone call from the church office building and spoke with President Gordon B. Hinckley, who was the prophet at that time.  It was pretty thrilling for my dad, as you can imagine.)

President Hinckley kept asking my dad during the course of their conversation, "Now, you are fully retired, right?"  He wanted to make sure that my dad would be able to devote most of his time and energy to this new calling as a counselor to the president of the temple.  Both of my parents are from upstate NY (where Palmyra is located) so they were as happy as can be to have a reason to get back to their roots.  My dad told my mom they would need to sell that Nantucket house and head off the island.  (Bitter sweet at the time, but they didn't stay away too terribly long ... yay.)

Way back when, in fact it was back around the mid 1800's, a big beautiful equestrian farm was built on Mitchell Rd.  The grounds were (and still are) absolutely stunning.  The primary residence is on one side of the street and across the road there is a big beautiful barn with stables for the horses (the carriage house), to the right of that, a large barn where the grain and feed was kept, and behind the granary was the bull barn.  The horse barn, the granary, and the bull barn had all been for sale for a few years as a group - that's what my mom wanted.  And now she could have it - oh, except that when they went to make an offer, they were told that there already was an offer in, but just on the horse barn.

It broke my mom's heart.  She did NOT want to see that little trio of structures split up and so they offered the new buyer more than what they had paid.  They didn't bite.  (It really is such a unique piece of real estate.)  Sad.  The timing was terrible.  BUT.  Mom and dad did decide to go ahead and purchase the granary, which had previously been renovated into a home and the bull barn, which was pretty much just home for all of the critters who ventured out from the woods behind it.  My mom's dream was to someday make that old dilapidated bull barn into a charming little cottage that she was going to call, La Petite Maison.

On the other side of that fabulous carriage house however, was another beautiful historic home that happened to be for sale as well, so my parents purchased that as their primary residence.  We all loved it, and loved all the wonderful renovations they did in that home during the course of the next eleven years.  The land around that house was beautiful too, but because it sat on eight acres and my dad is pretty much the sole "grounds keeper" (which he loves), it became too much of a house for them and they decided to sell.  Frown.

Enter plans for the granary.  (I'm still not sure why my mom decided to renovate the granary and not the bull barn though.)   The outside structure of the house is original, but they decided to gut the interior and start from scratch.  They are really good at what they do - that being home renovations.  We girls were blown away ... again!  Lots of oohs and aahs ensued.

Here is the kitchen as you walk through the french doors:









To the left of the kitchen is their step down living room:











Then you go up the stairs to their family room:












Beyond the family room, through the doorway is their bedroom and bath.  (Which I did not get a picture of .... in fact I was snapping these as I was walking out the door to the airport to come home.  I should have taken my time during the week ... sigh. Hind sight, right?)

It was just delightful to stay here.  We thought it would be tiny and cramped because we knew it was only a one bedroom house.  But the sofas do pull out.  Leslie and I slept upstairs, Spring and Courtney slept downstairs.  It was like a big, long college dorm sleepover with two really great "hall" residents who let us do whatever we wanted!

Thanks momma and daddy!  We miss you!  

xoxoxoxox