STONEGABLE~ OUTDOOR TOUR AND HISTORY

This morning was  perfect for taking pictures! Coolish and overcast. It had rained most of the day yesterday so everything was green and lush.

I have never really shown pictures of the whole front of StoneGable on my blog... only snippets. And I have never shared StoneGable's history.

So dressed in my pj's and crocks with a camera in hand I went across the street and into the neighboring farm field to share StoneGable on an early summer morning...

A few disclaimers first....sorry about the telephone lines going across the pictures... we live in the country and still have lots of telephone poles and lines! I could not edit them out.

And the grass needs to be mowed... a job Bobby is doing this afternoon. He would frown about pictures of StoneGable with tall grass... but he's not home right now to frown!

And lastly, I'm not quite sure why our American flag is lower than the state flag... a big no no. I think it's in the wrong flag pole hole. The American flag should always fly higher than any other flag.

Now that that's out of the way...

A familiar image of StoneGable... I can take this without telephone lines.

This picture was taken standing on the edge of the side yard.

I think it gives a good size perspective of our home.

We light up the gable at night... can you see the little box on the porch roof. It is a floodlight.

The stone on the bottom half of our home is Pennsylvania limestone. It is the bedrock of Lancaster county! When we drilled our well we went through 400 ft of limestone. It makes our water dreadfully hard but also very delicious!

StoneGable is a modern farmhouse inspired home.  We sit in the middle of farmfields. We thought a farmhouse inspired home would suite this land best.

The main part of our home has a foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, eating area (breakfast room), family room and powder room... all downstairs.

Upstairs it has 4 bedroom and two full baths.

The secondary part of our home holds my study (see the second door) a laundry room and a bathroom.  We also have a second set of stairs going to the guest suite.

Over the garage is a guest suite and a full bath.  The gable over the garage is in the guest suite.

Part of our basement is finished and the rest is not. Someday I am going to turn the finished part of the basement into a sewing and craft room... someday! It has a fabulous "toy closet", just perfect for holding all my supplies. When the children were young the finished basement was where they would hang out with their friend!

This is the side porch.  We can access it from the living room. I must remind Bobby to hand our second American flag from it.  

StoneGable has a big big wrap porch on three sides. We make good use of this living area!

Here is the front porch ready for rocking, StoneGable iced tea and a conversation.

This summer's big outdoor job will be sanding and restaining our mahogany porch floor.

It's windy here at StoneGable. Even this morning there is a little breeze. We sit high up on the land... sorta on a crest of a hill, although our property is pretty flat.

When I first stepped foot onto this land I knew it would be our home. You just know some things!

 The view is marvelous... if you like farmland views!

We call the side yard the "croquet lawn".  When we first planted the trees they looked so small... now they are tall and sturdy. The tree in the foreground is a sugar maple and the tree flanking the croquet lawn are red maples.

You can see our neighbors barn in the background between the trees and the side porch.

Here is a better picture of the farm...

Our land is rich in history.

 The land we live on was originally settled 

by the Shawnee and Susquehannock Indians.

It was then granted to William Penn in 1681 and named Pennsylvania or Penn's Woods.

 This land was part of the original land (Lancaster Co.) settled by Hans Herr in 1708. It was considered the western front of Pennsylvania at that time. The original Hans Herr house is not more than 2 miles from us. It is a Lancaster county and national treasure.

One of Hans Herr's direct descendants lives in the farm below. We bought our land from him. As far as I know this land has belonged to the Herr family until we bought it.

All the land around us is state ag preserved. It can never be used for anything other than farming.  We will always have our bucolic view!

I love the view from the front porch.  It is always changing... the field is fallow so far this year. Last year it held neat rows of tall corn. Corn is my favorite crop! It makes all kinds of wonderful sounds when the wind blows through it! Do you know that on hot summer days you can actually hear the corn growing. It sorta pops!

I put three pictures together to give a glimpse of what we see when we are having coffee and rocking on the front porch.

StoneGable gets it's name from the center stone gable on our home.

We had a name plate engraved for the gable... this is an old Lancaster Co. tradition.   When the gable  is lit up at night you can read the name plate!

I always say, "StoneGable is a home that wraps it's arms around your heart". 

StoneGable is not only a home but a lifestyle. It's easy and earthy and friendly and slow and large and full of life and laughter.

StoneGable's front door is always open to friends... old and new!

This summer, I hope to bring you other unseen views of StoneGable and more of it's history.

OPEN HOUSE PARTY