I awoke with humming in my ears. The room was still dark, but I could see light coming in around the drapes and the humming had to be Louise in the bathroom. She never quits. I crawled up and sat on the edge of the bed, scratched all the necessary places and tried to decide if I wanted to brave the john now, or wait until Louise went back upstairs. "I hear you scratchin' out there." Came the musical voice of Louise. "Long night, Romeo?" How can she always be so cheerful in the morning? I pondered to myself. "It was." I grumbled, "What time is it?" "Right close to 2:30 in the afternoon and you ain't got so much as a lick in yet today. You gonna spend the rest of the day in the bedstead, or are you going to get out of it so I can make it up?" She was always so damned pushy, I just get home after a hard night of playing music, and two wild females afterwards, and here she was trying to throw me out of my own bed just so she can make it up. There ought to be some kind of a law passed against this kind of treatment. As I stood to make the trek across the room to the facilities, I was bathed in daylight as Louise pulled the drapes open.
I took a long shower and let the water run on me for a few minutes and then put on a pair of old cutoffs and went up to the kitchen to see if I could con Louise out of something to eat. After coffee and some homemade spoon bread, I decided to spend a short while working on my term paper for the Good Ms. Stone.
I descended the stairs to the studio, and stood just inside the door looking across the studio. This room is really quite a place. It measures forty by seventy five feet and has floor to ceiling windows and the entry door down one short wall facing the river. The stairway door to upstairs is directly across from the entry door. This room houses my sound studio and a kitchenette area with a breakfast type bar, and a lounging area with three big overstuffed sofas and three cocktail tables. Large, colorful, stuffed pillows were all over the place. The walls are dark slab cypress planking, rough-cut and standing vertically. The ceilings are ten feet high, and bear heavy cedar beams spaced about four feet apart crossways, with Spanish style rough textured plaster between. The ceilings above had been sound proofed to keep the loud music from disturbing the occupants upstairs, namely my father and Louise. The floor was carpeted with very thick burgundy plush carpet, which also aided in the sound deadening. In the center of the wall farthest from the stairway is the door into the bedroom suite. This room is twenty eight by thirty six feet and is also paneled in plank cypress with the beamed ceilings. On the right, facing the river are two six foot wide floor to ceiling windows, twelve feet apart with the king sized, walnut four-poster soft-side waterbed between them.
To the far left, across the room, is what I call 'The Great Lake'. A huge rockslide of large stones, many over a foot in diameter, cascades form ceiling to floor, for about eighteen feet left to right, into a Kidney shaped concrete pool in the floor. The pool runs the width of the stones and is from six feet to ten feet across on opposite ends, and is three feet deep at the deep end. The left end of the stone pile extends into the bathing area and closes in one end of the sunken Jacuzzi tub. I have large koi and goldfish in the pool. The water is pumped up almost to the top of the rock pile and when the pump is turned on, the water flows down over the rocks and into the pool. The stones are all mortared in place and the whole effect is most interesting. I enjoy the sound of the running water when I sleep and often let the water run all night. Dad thought I was nuts when I proposed the waterfall and pond, but after we spent nearly a year of evenings and weekends building it together, he conceded that it was a real nice piece of work. It is planted with many climbing type vines and plants, with spotlights and underwater lighting adding to the effect.
The bathroom extends to the left and the whole room is carpeted with the same carpet as the studio. Heavy walnut dressers, chests, and nightstands and two big leather chairs complete the décor. At the right end of the rockslide, a doorway leads into a study. This is where I do my schoolwork. This room is sixteen by eighteen feet and has floor to ceiling book shelves on the far wall, a large desk with a credenza to the left, two leather chairs facing the desk and a small bar with a little refrigerator to the right of the door. On the right end, facing the river, are two tall, narrow windows, and a door that exits outside. I prefer to study in this room because it's always quiet here. Behind the desk, in the left corner, is another door that leads into a cavernous cellar area under one of the bedroom wings of the house. This basement is very large and is used to store lumber and building materials which are used for the constant repairs that are required on a house of this size and age. A complete woodworking shop is also housed in this cellar. Another huge basement room extends under the third wing of the house. It is used mostly for storage. A large mechanical room separates the two basements and houses the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems, along with a power generator, which is used if the power goes off during storms, and the filter equipment for the swimming pool.
The whole main floor was decorated like a great medieval castle. Heavy draperies, cover the windows, massive wood furniture and paintings with huge, scrawling frames, adorned each room. Hammered wrought iron chandeliers hang from the high ceilings, and Persian carpets cover the heavy planked floors. Large candelabras sit here and there throughout the many huge rooms and you almost feel like one of King Arthur's Knights when you are here. The four bedroom suites, each with three rooms are also decorated in the same manner. Tapestries can be found hanging throughout the house. There are also ten fireplaces throughout the house.
