In two weeks this yellow house on Chincoteague Island will be ours, for better or for worse. It's a "grand" house as far as Chincoteague goes, last lived in by "Woose" Reed, a successful fisherman and town poet. He moved there in 1962 after the house he had been living in was flooded in the Good Friday flood. The story goes that this was one of the few houses that didn't have water on the first floor. I know it's on high ground because it's only two houses from my recent studio, across the street from the only supermarket on the island. It has not been decorated since Woose moved in and downstairs each room has some style of orange carpet, the woodwork is turquoise; upstairs is a collection of linoleum, but also a long claw foot tub. It needs lots of work but its bones are good and I look forward to creating a clean, simple environment in which to host guests and create. And for the next year, we'll be living there while our other house is renovated. Who knows what will come out of The Yellow House: quilts, jewelry, photography, textiles, maybe even some poetry.
Detail of the original front door
The "Poet's Room" an upstairs closet with room for a chair and a desk