Deck Ready for Warm Weather Entertaining

 

We ordered this picnic table from Tree Top Products which markets to parks and businesses. It was delivered on a very large truck that had to have a lift gate because we didn't have a fork lift to take it off the truck. (Extra cost too!)  It is quite heavy and well made. Assembly was required.

 We bought the 9 ft umbrella from Home Depot along with the chairs you see in the background.  Once we get a grill we'll be ready to entertain on the deck. 

I think a gathering of our neighbors for a BBQ will be in our future.

 

Artwork courtesy of Granddaughter #1.

A Walk through The Breakers

 

The Breakers - come in for a visit.

Enter the Great Hall first.

Look up and up!

The Grand Staircase - a favorite of children in the family who slid down on silver trays probably on the steps not the bannisters.

I had Dan pose so you could get a sense of the height of the place.

Enter the Breakfast Room

or the Billiard Room

A little conversation place I suppose.

Pass on to other rooms to sit and enjoy yourself.

Wait, here's someone working to keep the dust away.

The Library with Cornelius on the wall

and his desk?

Travel upstairs not by the grand staircase but a second one (there's also a third one for servants).

Immense bathrooms.  That large looking urinal is a sitz bath for long carriage or horseback rides.

Mirrors on every wall.

A peek out the window to see who's arriving.

One of the more than 40 plus bedrooms.

Here's the ocean from the Loggia.

Down the servant stairs to the kitchen set in a separate wing of the house to avoid the spread of fires.  The kitchen is several rooms.

This second room contains all the dishes (2 floors of them) and a silverware safe.

Here's where the food was plated and served.

Disclaimer: these photos don't do justice to the grandeur of this place.  You'll just have to see it to believe it.

Ceilings of The Breakers

Visiting The Breakers built by Cornelius Vanderbilt requires that you must look up. 

The Great Hall, your first exposure to grandeur is 50 ft x 50 ft x 50 ft. The ceiling is well decorated including a painting of the sky.

Here's looking up under a chandelier.

The skylight on the ceiling of the 2nd floor Gallery.

The ceiling on the second floor Loggia is painted to resemble canopies stretched over the sky.

Below is the library ceiling - coffered.

The Dining Room

Ceiling of the Music Room.

Below the ceiling the the Billiards Room with a chandelier so weighty it's tied into the structure of the house.

I believe below is the Morning Room.

My neck is stiff from looking up!

Of course it was all for show.  None of the bedrooms had ceilings decorated like this.