Hello all. Please visit my blog  for my take on living in Dublin, GA and what it is like to restore a 137 year old house, the oldest in town, The Capt Hardy Smith House. Be sure to visit my blog often as I devote most of my time there. http://livingindublinga.blogspot.com/

Yesterday, I enjoyed my first St Patrick's Parade and Festival as an offical Dublin, Laurens county resident. Not to mention yesterday was the first offical day of Spring as well. After looking in the front yard as a reminder of spring, there were bee mounds everywhere! They looked like little mole or groundhog mounds! I actually saw a couple of bees coming out of their little holes. Time to put up the window screens and apply the sunscreen lotion so I can play in the dirt at the Capt Hardy Smith House.

It appeared that the St Patricks Parade and Festival traffic was heavier, the parade longer and the crowd larger than last year. It weather seemed warmer too. Beautiful blue skies with light winds dominated the day without a cloud in sight at least not until later in the afternoon did the clouds start to creep in. There was something for everyone to enjoy at the parade and festival yesterday. The parade was nearly 2 hours long and I enjoyed every minute of it despite the resulting mild sunburn I got. The festival food was delicious.  It is amazing how people can come together, be creative and sell things so unique and beautiful. Seeing Hummingbird feeders and Windchimes made out of bottles were a pretty clever idea. The solar path lights with adorning motifs that were made from wood were quite interesting to look at as well. So I had the unique perspective to see both events and not have to walk more than two blocks from my home to enjoy it.

Check out my blog: [email protected] for a complete narrative and pictoral of the St Patricks Parade and festival from my point of view.

I am very fortunate to live at the Capt Hardy Smith House, the oldest home in Dublin and have easy access to alot of activities that this beautiful little town has to offer. My one year anniversary as a Dublin resident is April 30th. I am beginning to settle in more and more. The trips to my former hometown of Alpharetta, GA don't seem as appealing given the slower pace and the geniune southern hospitality that is more prevalent here in Dublin. Since living at the house, alot of work has been completed. All the work in the masterbedroom took nearly three months to complete. It is so beautiful now. I spend alot of time in there :) Waking up every morning with a ceiling fan attached to a 14' ceiling spinning above my head  and a beautiful fireplace makes it all the time and effort worthwhile. Our new bathroom is nearly complete, with just a little touch up painting to do. Our central air and heating has been working perfectly to keep us warm this past winter and so far, no glitches in our electricity throughout the house. One of our guest bedrooms is completely renovated and furnished. We have a functional, working kitchen and stairs have been built in the back part of the house to utilize storage space above the kitchen.

Working on the Capt Hardy Smith House has been a labor of love. I have been given the priviledge of choosing the colors and lights for the house. I have been whisked from apartment living to living in such a beautiful, historic home. What an amazing change. Next on the horizon of never ending projects at the Hardy Smith House will focus on the yard. About 150 or so Oconee River rocks have been found in the basement area in the back part of the house. They are all stacked outside of where they were found and will be put to use for perimeter fencing and other projects. As I took at closer look at the rocks, I noticed many of them have fossilized sea shells embedded within them. Alot of them even looked like fossilized sea reef. I did a little research on the Oconee River and those rocks came from the Atlantic Ocean millions of years of ago from sea life, clay, sand, mud sediment mixing together to form these ancient rocks. Pretty cool stuff. During the unearthing of the river rocks, old bottles in various sizes, shapes and colors, most of which pre or post date the early 1900s were found. A silver lipstick holder, a silver pin with a monogram initial, a medicine bottle with a silver spoon, some marbles, chunks of coal were also found. The Capt Hardy Smith House dig excavation continues with excitement. Check out my blog and the official Capt Hardy Smith blog link which can be found by scrolling to near the bottom of my blogspot page for narrative and pictures of what was found.

As I settle back into my daily routine at the Capt Hardy Smith house and life in Dublin, it is almost as if I never left home to begin with.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I am counting down to 'Super Saturday' which is when the St Patrick's Parade and Festival is scheduled to commence. This will be my first St Patrick's Parade and Festival celebration as an offical resident of Dublin, GA. I came to the event last year but I have a special sense of pride in knowing I am now an offical resident of Laurens county. I mark my one year anniversary as resident of Dublin on April 30th.

Now, for the the latest developments at the Capt Hardy Smith house. The last entry stated, 'the stairs will be built'. The stairs have been built and the space above the rooms in the back of the house have been fully utilized. We now have, relatively speaking, a workable kitchen. We are able to cook and use the oven, microwave to cook our meals and sit comfortably at our table to enjoy our meals. We are in the process of preparing to install cabinetry to begin the next phase of the kitchen renovation project. Temporary yet strong laminate flooring has been installed in the kitchen. We plan to tile it at a later time. We have to do alot of major projects on the house in stages because there is so much work to do. It is time to replace the air filter. So we are waiting for someone to come out to replace it and to show us how to do it as well.

The bathroom is over 95% complete. Just 2 coats of tan trim in the crown molding and the ceiling need to be painted. We have had to postpone painting due to other projects. I have already put up pictures and other things on the walls to make the bathroom look 'homey'. The utility room is working beautifully and long showers are a wonderful luxury we take advantage of every day. Check out: [email protected] for the most recent pictures of the bathroom. The linen cabinet is FINALLY done...Well, almost! I want to paint a design on the front of the doors. I am researching my options. I have spring type arrangement of flowers adorning the top of the cabinet. 

Once tax season is over for John, we plan to resume painting on the interior of the house where we left off. Once we get to a satisfactory point in that project, we then will begin to beautify the property with a new bed of grass, flowers, trees and bushes. For the last two months or so, John has been unearthing river rocks in the basement in the back part of the house that perhaps Captain Smith planned to use in additional construction projects. These rocks have been buried for over 100 years. So far John has recovered over 100 of these heavy and huge rocks. We plan to build  perimeter fencing around the property using these rocks for the base and split rail fencing to complete the project. We have one very large dead tree in the back yard that John will be cutting down next month and another smaller tree that needs to come down. There is another tree next to the large one that is dying and will probably have to come down next season. Look forward to burning that wood in our fireplaces.

So please continue to visit my blog here or my blogspot.com entries for the latest developments at the Capt Hardy Smith House. Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of this week.

Another rainy, cold day in Dublin. Got out and ran errands. Just driving around town in the rain, alot of ponding on roads and yards. The ground is so saturated with rain from previous weather events that I did not even go and see what our 'underground pool' in the back part of the house looks like. The rain was resistant today, so pumping out the water would just re-accumulate. We had to endure two weekends of cold weather before the heating and air installation were complete. Now, that we have central heat, we are very comfortable and happy at the Capt. Hardy Smith house. 

We went out for some pasta at Johnny's New York Pizza, a restaurant on the west side of town on Bellevue ave. The restaurant walls had familar poster pictures of 'Gone With The Wind' and 'The Wizard Of Oz'. We finally found a place where I can get my pasta fix in Dublin. I was having pasta withdraw since moving here in April. The food was excellent and so was the service. We will be returning for future meals. Since we don't have a working kitchen yet, we go out alot for our meals.

Tomorrow, the stairs for the storage in the back part of the house will be built. A competing home improvement store will secure the last part our of lighting needs. That competing store is not located in Dublin. Once we secure the purchase of the last of our lighting/ceiling fan fixtures, the electrician can install all the fixtures we have in the next few days.  The Capt. Hardy Smith House will really light up. I am so excited. What a transformation this house is undergoing. Once we get to a point where the house is ready to welcome visitors, a Open House will be announced. Thank you in advance for your patience.

We went to the local 'Piggly Wiggly' store tonight. I remember 'Piggly Wiggly' from the 70s. When I first moved to Dublin, I told John, I got to buy a 'Piggly Wiggly' t-shirt. I liked my first t-shirt so much I had to buy another one. I plan to turn heads by wearing it where people never heard of it. A great conversation starter :) John purchased a 4 bottle pack of 'Frostie' rootbeer. I have never heard of it before. Truly unique.  

It is getting late and time to retire. Thanks for reading my blog today. Continue to visit for what I am up and with the house.

My name is Elizabeth Fortner. I have been a resident of Dublin, GA since April 30, 2009. I live in the historic Capt Hardy Smith house in downtown Dublin. This beautiful 136 year old house was spared from demolition a little over 2 years ago when John C Hall, Jr, CPA, of Atlanta, GA purchased it. Over the past two years, the house has undergone a series of transformations. The house went from drab to strikingly beautiful. I have been fortunate enough to see the house undergo a major interior renovation which is still in progress. The house now has central air/heat and a new bathroom (complete with claw bathtub, pedestal sink, shower, utility room for a washer/dryer)with a custom made linen cabinet. The 1" white porcelain hexagon tiles set the mood for a beautiful 1920s look.

Since I moved to Dublin, my living arrangements at the Capt Hardy Smith house have been challenging at best. Now, I am living in the 21st century, complete with most of all modern amenities. The next stage of the interior renovation will focus on the back part of the house. The house is separated into two main sections by a breezway with a working well. The back part of the house has a kitchen and another room, which used to be a formal dining room, I believe. Above those two rooms, will be used for storage. Stairs will have to be built in order to utilitze that space.

The masterbedroom is 95% complete. Crown molding needs to be added/painted and the baseboard trim finished/painted. The office, is about 90% complete. Crown molding needs to be added along with priming/painting. One of the upstairs guest bedrooms WAS 100% completed, until the electricians came in and destroyed the floorboards to drill the holes for the outlets. Now, John has to go back in that room, repaint the affected areas and apply another coat of polyurethene to the floors. The front/upstairs hallway and the walls along the stairs has a beautiful shade of pastel/pale yellow paint. Interesting we chose a certain shade of yellow because when John was sanding one of the upstairs walls, he discovered a previous occupant of the house used a similar shade of yellow that we chose. We decided, lets paint the walls yellow. Just one coat is on the walls now. We plan to add another coat and add a beautiful cucumber green to the upstairs hall in places to break up the color scheme. The bannister is nantucket blue with white trim on the rails.

By the way, the house is constructed of all tongue in groove, hardwood- beadboard pine. It feels hard as a rock to the touch. You don't find beadboard of this quality today. The entire house is has all hardwood floors which we plan to preserve. Even the unusually loud sonic boom of yesterday, which came from a stray fighter jet that went out of its designated test flight path, originated from Warner Robins AFB, prompted John to call them. The noise shook the house, rattled the windows, rattled my nerves and panicked my dog. Luckily, nothing cracked. We were especially worried about the windows.  

As we approach Christmas, the house is aglow with beautiful white icicle lights, white candle lights in the windows adorned with red bows for a unique look. The bushes, one on either side of the house, have white lights on them. I call it my gingerbread house. This is the first time I have been able to decorate a home, that was actually a home and not an apartment, aside from my parents home. I am very thankful to be living in this beautiful, historic home.

I have another blog, called livingindublinGA.blogspot.com that I have been using prior to the discovery of this channel. Whatever I don't post here, be sure to check that blog and scroll to the bottom of the main page and click on other blogs I am following that pertain to Dublin and the Hardy Smith House.

Thanks for reading my blog and please check back for updates. I also welcome any feedback pertaining to accuracy of my entries as I have only been a resident of Dublin since April, so I am learning about the wonderful, exciting community.