At any rate, for years she had had her eye on a ranch property not far from Fredericksburg and 11 years ago she bought it (she had been told, no way, that property was not and would not be on the market, but the Calcotes happened to be in F-burg one weekend -- they're frequent visitors -- and learned that the place was suddenly for sale. They told Dian and that was that.)
The house, three stories and basement, was built in about 1880 by a member of the Bode family who had decided to move out of the crowded town of Fredericksburg. Well, Dian, her husband, Harlan, and a Fredericksburg designer/decorator renovated the whole house, added a new wing with kitchen and dining facilities, converted various outbuildings into guest houses, filled all of this with great period art, furniture, crafts, memorabilia, etcetera, etcetera. It’s now known as Mansefeldt – mansion plus fields. Our jaws dropped and continued to drag as we went from room to room, building to building. This is the sort of project and property you see only in fancy magazines and books about great country homes. All new construction was made to look like 1880 construction - hand-hewn rocks and beams. Plaster was scraped from old walls to reveal the underlying stonework. It's just awesome. Elsie kept saying this topped many European castles they had toured.
In this picture you see the original house and part of the addition on the back.
The view out front.
Here's a dining room piece.
Here's the third floor attic, all one large room. That large picture in the center is a screen , painted with various Fredericksburg landmarks, including Mansefeldt, covering the TV set. Dian doesn't like exposed TV sets. One of the more unusual features in the house is the TV in her bedroom that pops up through a table covered with family photos.
Dian makes her home available for church and charity functions, retreats, whatever. For example, TX Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson used it for a staff retreat three days after Dian had moved in. The sheep barn has been converted into a banquet or concert hall, next picture, and is the site this coming week for a series of concerts and other events.
Here's a view of garden, swimming pool, and beyond. A current issue in the area is a proposed windmill farm set on one of those distant ridges.
A new barn, constructed to look like an old hill country barn.
In the new wing an old cistern was left in place to form the base of this glass-topped table. New staff are told that their first job will be to be lowered into this 40 ft. deep shaft - it's lighted so you can lean over the table to see down into it -- to clean out the cobwebs. Ha!
And here's our hostess and guide:
Friday morning we went to Dian’s “Sunday house” in F-burg. Sunday houses are generally small homes built long ago by area ranchers who would come to town on Saturday, stay the night and go to church, then back to the ranch. You spot them, the houses, not the German ranchers, all around town. As you might imagine the interior of the house was authentically decorated and furnished.
Back to reality. Friday morning the Rays headed back to Abilene. We and the Calcotes did some shopping and gawking around town. Oh, I haven't said much about eating, but we've been sampling the local fare quite liberally. Lots to choose from.
Our plans have changed to stay the weekend. We were planning to leave Saturday for the Dallas area where we would pick up daughter Heidi on Sunday to continue our trip to Branson, MO, and then Nashville. Turns out it's better for Heidi to fly on Monday, either to Austin or San Antonio, so we'll stay here until then. We'll skip Branson this time. There's a big motorcycle rally going on here, so we'll put on our leathers and bandanas and hang with the bikers.
Cheers,
Rob and Susie
No comments:
Post a Comment