| backyard traveler |
lived in this house. She was a winder
in the mill; she was a dressmaker, and
the kids remembered playing with the
buttons when they would visit. We
made this table, button clocks and
little button trays.”
It’s the story of the house that
inspires the design; Calvin’s wife and
mother interviewed family members
for the behind-the-house story. In this
case, no one that lived in the house
was alive, so it was the great-granddaughters
who provided the background
to the design. Old photographs
provided an insight into the
color scheme and trim.
“We used all new exterior doors, but
the original doors on the home are upstairs
84 LAKE OCONEE LIVING | FALL 2021
in the attic,” states Reyes. Every
home has a theme, and each room “is
full of Easter eggs and every piece of
décor was chosen for a purpose,” he
continues. Furniture was hand-picked
or hand-made. “The mirror was made
from spindles found in the company
store, as were the cut-offs, which is
now a table. The wallpaper in both
bedrooms is original to the house.”
There are old mills bags protected
and framed in glass; ceiling tiles
and tin tiles; a bed headboard made
from the mill owner’s privacy fence;
original wooden floors and staircases;
quilts covering walls, telling Mandy
Lynn’s story; even a barn-rail from the
Badcock Insane Asylum in Columbia,
TOP ROW,
LEFT TO
RIGHT): A
spool of thread
found in the
company store;
the guest book at
House No. 12; a
mailing label found
at the company
store.
BOTTOM
ROW, LEFT
TO RIGHT:
A Bible covered
with dust at the
company store;
visitors examine
elements of the
mill village.
South Carolina.
“The house is
beautiful,” says
Reyes, “but I
tell people it’s
just a bunch
of wood stacked together with nails.
What inspires me is watching the
residents family members who stop
in their tracks at the front before
they even walk in the house. They
have this emotional response when
they remember something from their
childhood. That is what inspires you to
do more.”
Each home contains two units, both
continuing the story of those who
called the house home. “I knew I