Grounds

Pool

We learned a LOT when we installed the pool at our farm house in Virginia - mostly, what NOT to do. So, we "dove" into this project with a very clear idea of what we wanted and how we wanted it done. First, we wanted a gunite pool. Our pool in Virginia is vinyl lined: faster and a lot less expensive to install, but not nearly as worry free and "automatic" as we would like. We are constantly worrying that a dog or deer will fall into the pool and slash the liner, and the water draining out; it happened once in VA.

So, here's the pool dug and framed with the rebar cage. The gravel base is just starting to be spread.


Here's the concrete shell being pumped in and spread. A 2" layer of finish plaster is hand troweled over this. We used an "emerald black" RiverRock finish that has a lot of small white, beige and tan aggregate and pebbles in a black base. It looks natural and obscures the bottom so that you really can't tell how deep the pool is. NO DIVING! We wanted it to look like a reflecting pool when we weren't using it.
The pipes and outlets on the right are the two lights, the automatic filler, and the automatic overflow. The water is constantly kept at the proper level.

And, we knew that as we aged - yes, we ARE getting OLD - that we may not be able to continue to run as much as we'd like, so we wanted the option of swimming laps. We decided on a 15' x 60' pool with a depth of 3.5 feet in the shallow end to 6.5 feet in the deep end. Two things we learned at the farm that we DID want is the pool relatively close to the main house and a salt system. When we are at the farm we use the pool constantly, and having it just out the back door is a huge plus. So, at Nocturne we placed the pool 15 feet from the edge of the new deck. We also installed a salt system that converts salt in the water to chlorine. You can't detect salt or chlorine in the water, and it doesn't bother you skin, eyes, hair, etc. It feels like pure, clean water. There are four jets on each side of the pool, and we can control everything (lights, pumps, jets) remotely. The decking is a concrete brick paver and the gray coping is a tumbled concrete paver. We used concrete instead of brick as concrete stays a lot cooler than brick. The palm trees were dug out of the woods about 30 miles south of here the morning the are planted. We planted them 4' in the ground so that stakes and supports wouldn't be needed. There's also an automatic sprinkler system that covers the sodded area of the yard. We'll expand it as we add to the landscaping.

The pool is done, and we were able to swim up until late October. The water temperature stayed between 78 and 84 degrees until then. We'll be interested to see how much the temperature fluctuates over the winter.

Exterior Wood Work Restoration

Painting

Fence and Driveway

The property has 1000 feet of road frontage but had an awkward, sharp-angled entry from a front corner of the property. In order to make entering the property easier, and to make the entrance and drive a bit more formal, we decided to relocate the entrance and re-route part of the driveway. This required having the city come and add a new culvert and curb cut that was more centered in the front of the property. Additionally, we decided to fence the 900ft of road frontage. We put a double gate at the main entrance and single gates at the entrances to the circular drive to the Party House. Afterward, we found the 1970's renovation plan for the house and it included re-routing the driveway to almost exactly the same location. We wanted a substantial fence - and we got one. The boards are 2"x8" and the posts are 4"x6". The contractor had these custom milled and are "true" to size. This fence would hold an elephant! The fence is stained white to match the trim color of the house.

The gate at the main entrance is automated and has an call box which contacts the Maint House, Guest House, Party House or our phones when a visitor arrives and allows us to "buzz" them in.

The finished product.

Electrical Upgrades

One of the first things we had to address was upgrading the electrical service to the houses and the other buildings. With the new air conditioning units, the pool equipment, and Brett's "necessary" kitchen appliances, we had to put in a 400 AMP service. Since we were having to have additional electrical cables installed, we decided to have all of the wires (electrical, telephone, and cable) put under ground. Now we don't have the web of wires crisscrossing through the air and trees. And, we won't lose service if the daily thunderstorms bring down tree limbs. We just haved to remember where all of the cables were buried.

Poor little blind Willie fell into this trench and was halfway to the guest house before we could catch up with her.

History

The Henry Gray Turner House, “Nocturne”, was constructed in 1892 on 150 acres of land in Quitman Georgia. The house is sited at the end of a quarter-mile driveway amid a grove of hundred year old live oaks, hickory and magnolia trees. Nocturne was built for Mr. Turner from plans produced by the architectural firm Munn and Company of New York City. The original blueprints, hand drawn on vellum, were discovered in the attic, and hang in the house. The construction contractor was T.J. Darling of Waycross, GA.

Henry Gray Turner was born in 1839 in North Carolina, attended the University of Virginia and moved to Quitman in 1857 to be Headmaster of Piscola Academy, a private boys' school in Brooks County, Georgia. He remained Headmaster until 1861 when he left to fight in the Civil War with the Savannah Volunteer Guards. He eventually became captain of a company of North Carolinians and led his men at Mechanicsville, Chancelorsville and Gettysburg. At Gettysburg he was wounded, left for dead, and eventually captured. He was imprisoned for 18 months and in 1864 was discharged and sent to Richmond as a disabled soldier unfit for military service. He slowly made his way back to Quitman where he married. He was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1865, served in the Georgia State House of Representatives from 1874-1878, and was a member of the US House of Rep from 1880-1896. At the time, he was named one of the 6 greatest men in Congress and served as Chairman of the Committee on Elections and on the Ways and Means Committee. In 1903 Turner was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court. He died soon after on June 9, 1904. When his widow died in1911, their bachelor son S. Morton Turner inherited the house and lived there until his death in 1960.

The house is approximately 6,000 square feet in size and most all of the original details remain. Some unique exterior elements are the paired cigar columns on pedestals surrounding the porch and supporting the large pediment over the main entrance, the metal scrollwork, swags and garlands in the porch pediment and balcony entablature, and the grouped modillion blocks over the windows. The interior has 13 foot ceilings on the first floor and twelve foot ceilings on the second floor, narrow crown and picture moldings, five sets of double pocket doors, eight corner fireplaces with original mantles, fireplaces in the entrance hall and kitchen, a built-in curly pine mirrored sideboard in the dining room, two full height walk-out windows, and full transoms over all hinged doors, including the doors to all closets. There are working speaking tubes from several areas of the house to the kitchen, and an original bathroom on the second floor contains all of its original fixtures including the toilet, sink and zinc covered copper bathtub.

Since being built, only minor changes have been made to the original floor plan. A back porch has been converted to a bathroom and sun porch and the fifth second floor bedroom has been converted into a bathroom, dressing room and closet. The original electrical system has been replaced and central heat and air have been added to each floor. The woodwork has never been painted, and the old dirty and discolored shellac finish has been removed to reveal beautiful mellow pine.

The grounds now consist of twenty-five acres planted with live oaks, hickory, magnolias, and palms. When Turner built his home, he removed all of the native pine trees and replaced them with live oak, hickory, and magnolia, which was an unusual landscape for this part of the country. His idea was to transplant the surroundings of his youth in NC to his new home in South Georgia. Other structures on the property include the original smokehouse, a later carriage house, a large party house, a barn, and a two bedroom guest house created from two original servants’ houses. The house and grounds were placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 2, 1980, for their significance in historic architecture, landscape design, and political and judicial history.

Regarding Henry Gray Turner’s later years at Nocturne, an editorial in the Atlanta Journal stated:

Here is a man passing a tranquil existence with his family and his library. Every morning he looks with satisfaction upon his beautiful trees. A visit to Mr. Turner in his home is a privilege and recalls the lines of Goldsmith:

“How blest it is to end in shades like these a life of labor with an age of ease.”