House Progression
Saturday March 1st 2008 was an historic day of sorts: we got our master bedroom back! Barry came over to help move “all the stuff” into the room. Saturday night, for the first time in 26 months, we slept in our bedroom the way it was BEFORE the flood… Except this master bedroom is bigger and nicer! Boy, did we sleep! Twelve hours and fifteen minutes no less!
… H… S…!!! I can say this word! There looks wonderful! Better you and Ellen going to church and make fresh urs marriage.and being just married for that room! I love it and I am happy to see that. I know u and Ellen doing great! I’m so happy to know it. Sleep tight with Ellen in wonderful place where u and Ellen are done! Kisses hugs all goodness be with you and Ellen…
“Now for the trim” it was said… So off to the shop we went to see what could be used of the salvaged walnut trim. All but some small pieces could be saved and after some more walnut was ripped to two and a half inches width, both the old and the new
were passed through the shaper. Once there were three coats of finish on all the pieces one would be hard pressed to distinguish the salvaged trim from the new. Now to put it in place! The area below the stained glass window looks sort of “naked and vacant”. For now a small walnut table will sit there, but in due time the walnut dresser that has to be made yet will replace it. After the dresser is completed, Ellen’s walnut roll top desk will be made and then Ellen’s walnut bedroom suit, thirty-five years in the making, will be done...
Twenty-six months after we lost our comfortable and cozy “little house on the Wabash”, we have a new house and, with the completion of the downstairs, we have our life back. All of the downstairs of the new house is now officially done! OK, OK, already…. A few more pieces of trim, a threshold here and there, but HEY!) We can feel “home” again. Even though the downstairs is only 156 square feet larger than the old house, the place looks HUGE and spacious. The old house had been a patchwork of “add-ons” to “add-ons” and even though it was very comfortable and cozy, it WAS on the small side. The new house, which was after all designed from scratch, was laid out much more efficient and thus became a much more open and spacious living environment. Thanks to Earl’s know-how and expertise, the upstairs too is a lot bigger and spacious then originally planned. We will finish that upstairs as the spirit moves us and time allows. Not like we have nothing to do on the compound: the guesthouse needs to be dismantled, the old house needs to come down and Ellen has to get ready for the spring nursery deliveries. The upstairs can wait awhile! Now that the house is somewhat under control we can devote some of our time to doing what we really would like to do. When Mother Nature so rudely interrupted our lives 26 months ago we DID have a life! I was busy re-writing the teacher’s manual “Of Clay, Glazes and Kilns” and Ellen was busy in her studio creating a beautiful ring for a client and dear family friend. A large, white gold ring with a forged, hammered band and a linear design of gold pieces surrounding a rectangular green bloodstone. Prior to the flood Ellen had cut and polished the bloodstone and had made the bezel. She was about to forge the band when Mother Nature broke up the creative juice flow and replaced it with an extreme water flow…Now that the downstairs is practically finished and we “have our life back”, we can once again do what we enjoyed doing BEFORE the flood. So Ellen is back in the studio working on Ed’s ring and I’m at the computer revising the manual if not working in the studio or the cabinet shop. Life’s good and getting better! Again…
By comparison with the old house, the foyer of the new house is huge! The space available cries out for a nice cabinet. Since Ellen needs a place to store and show of her “pretties”, hubby is building a display cabinet that will do justice to her Waterford crystal and her Havilland china and will look right at home in the foyer. Made out of red oak, the cabinet will have two drawers, two large glass doors and five or six adjustable shelves. Forty inches wide, sixteen inches deep and eighty-four inches tall the breakfront will almost hit the ceiling… If the ordered specialty hardware comes in Ellen’s birthday present might just be ready by her birthday, March 11th …
Well…the best laid plans of mice and men…. I ordered the hardware (solid brass knobs and full length piano hinges) “eons” ago, but when the 11th arrived all I could offer Ellen for her birthday was a half finished cabinet. Prior to her birthday I did manage to move it into the house all by myself. I used the old brain, tipping and sliding expertise and years of experience to move the cabinet from the finishing room onto the garage floor, and then into the pick up truck. Drove the truck onto the house ramp, lined the tailgate up with the front door and “presto” one cabinet in place! The day AFTER Ellen’s birthday the
hardware arrived, by suppertime it was installed and Ellen could “load’er up”! The new house is now REALLY feeling like home! The picture at left above shows what one sees when one enters the front door. The large “kimchi” pot holds the umbrellas and canes and next to that the chair Ellen bought for MY birthday. It’s where I sit to take off my muddy shoes and slip on those wonderful shearling house slippers, visible on the picture at right that were also a birthday present. Ellen’s birthday present, the china cabinet, “makes” the foyer and Ellen finally has a proper place to show off her ”pretties”. We would like to lay our hands on a narrower rug for the hallway; the present one is just too wide and also covers up one of the floor registers. A small matter that will be resolved at a later date. What did I say about “life’s good and getting better”?
Thank You Lord!