room is the stove room, and that in a german house is the living room, dining room, family room, workroom. we have our spinning wheels in there. that is the main room in the house. the parents' bedroom is off the so-called counter room, the parents bedroom, so basically three rooms in the main part of the house. originally, george bowman, the man who built this house, here in virginia the way to acquire title to a property in the 18th century, one would venture down here. most folks from pennsylvania, not everybody, and they would meet with the county surveyor. the surveyor was certified by the college of william and mary and had quite a bit of power because if that surveyor thought you might not be of the proper ilk to live in the area, you probably would not find any property. he would assign you a guide, and you would go out and look at property that would be available for purchase, and a lot of the area in this part of western virginia was in large tracts of land. to the north this was given to , lord fairfax, and the tracks south of that, but huge holdings. and those members of the a