" Barbara, the use of gray continues throughout the hall and throughout the mess and where's the logic here?"

" Well, the logic is, it shares up our beautiful collection of furniture, all these rich mahoganies."

" And also these beautiful architectural detail and it's been picked out in white. It just really pops the entire place."

" The gray really works in there."

" Yes, it does."

" Let's say hello to Virginia's first lady, Roxanne Gilmore. Tell us about this enormous silver punch bowl."

" Well, we're fortunate to have Virginia's battleship silver, which was commissioned in 1906 along with the battleship Virginia, is a part of our permanent collection. I came into the Mansion in 1958 when Governor Olman's wife discovered that it was in the storage and we're delighted to be able to put it on display for everyone to see."

" So, this is the punch bowl, but there's an entire service that once was on the battleship."

" There, there is. There's everything from a tea service to candle sticks. A humidor that's really just wonderful. And we have every piece of it I believe except for the key to the humidor."

" Oh, that's a shame. Now let me ask you a question, coz' in trying to deal with all these historic fabric, all these antiques, and still make the ballroom and all the other rooms usable in the year 2000. What was your logic? What are you doing in these rooms?"

" Well the logic was, we do have these beautiful stationary pieces that are quite formal, but as you can see we're getting to bring in our first of 2 pieces comfort was a pair of mats so that the family can here and enjoy it, have guest over."

" That the room will not be setup as a museum. We're missing a sofa and several other pieces to finish the set."

" But you will have the feeling of a drying room in here."

" Absolutely."

" On the rag, where people can sit and have coffee."

" Right."

" Okay. And what about the upstairs? The family's private apartment. Are things pretty much complete?"

" They are, although we had things again everything upstairs, we're still hanging pictures and you know beginning to feel comfortable when knowing how we want to live in it over the next 2 years."

" Part of the second floor still has two historic rooms, right. The Lafayette room?"

" That's right, and again those rooms on the front of the house we have tried to stay in their historic period. In the Lafayette bedroom, we reproduced some wallpaper that we found during the renovation that dates to the 1830s and we're very proud of that room."

" And then the private quarters?"

" The private quarters, we tried to make it accessible to a family and to look to the needs of many different kinds of families that might live here in the future. We we're able to add a family room and a kitchen, so that for family that wanted to be together and to have some special family time, they would have the ability to do that."

" Let's talk a little bit about some of the treasures that are here in the Mansion coz' I know that we have, well, like any old house after a couple of hundred years you accumulate a lot of stuffs."

" We do. And uh"

" You've get some Duncan fife furniture here."

" We do some beautiful Duncan fife furniture that that was given to the Mansion. We are very proud of it. I think that they are exquisite pieces. We have the sofa and a matching sofa as well."

" So, this is one of a pair fidic from the workshops of Duncan fife."

" Of Duncan fife."

" from the early 1800s in New York City. What do you supposed their worth?"

" About 600 dollars."

" Yeah."

" At least."

" Wow."

" But I think for us, to the people of Virginia, it's just the history of the pieces and the way all blend in the house that makes them special to us."

" Now, when I first toured the Mansion before the renovation before everything was moved out. I noticed there were great many gray large very dark paintings."

" Yeah."

" Things look a little it different now. What have you done in terms of hanging the collection?"

" Well, with the help of Virginia's State Library, we have been able to conserve a number of our paintings and to bring them back into the house. And what we hope was a very thoughtful and educational way to the people of Virginia."

" We see here Governor Alexander Spotswood, who was one of our colonial governors. We hope to return to the dining room a very exquisite portrait of Queen Elizabeth, which talks about our age of exploration and with the 400 anniversary of James Tan right around the corner. We're really excited to have her come back and be a part of our collection."

" _And then, on the opposite side of the ballroom, we have Nancy Astor, who became Lady Astor when she left Virginia, and went to England and became the first woman to served in the House of Commons and in Parliament. So these rooms really speak to the whole course of Virginia history."

" I like that."