Bringing it Back to Life, Part 3 - Inside Prior to Demo

The point of my blogging about the house is to get the story down for the family. I plan on showing my grandmother what I've written and have her add or delete anything needed. I've asked other family members to write down their memories of the house and the family members who lived there as well. I want every detail, "lest we forget."

That being said, you may want to return to previous posts where I've added another picture or two or little tidbits that I've discovered. I'll try not to backtrack from here on out though.

On the agenda this week is to borrow all the pictures my dad and his wife, Mackie, took along the way and copy them for my collection.

In the meantime, how about a look at the inside of the house before demolition started?

After my aunt and uncle moved out, they did rent the house a couple of times. We all know that can be bad or good depending on your tenants. Basically though, the house needed an overhaul of huge proportion in order for it to survive and remain a family landmark.

The layout of the house I remember looked like this: (Sorry for the blurriness.)



The day demo was to start, I went down to help pull up carpets and also to take pictures. Wow! Let me just say, there was never a shortage of dogs who also shared the house, and the carpets had some more odor! Floors were rotting, it was filthy, and lots of junk was left behind by previous renters. I personally wondered how on earth my dad was ever going to manage such an undertaking. I might have been too overwhelmed after that first day and called it quits, but not my dad.

My dad and his brother looking over the hallway. Masks were certainly a necessity!


This bedroom is now part of the new kitchen.

This photo was taken from the oldest part of the house, the dining room, straight through to the front door.

Here you see how the plaster was done originally in the house.


This is the front bedroom. I'll have some more detailed photos of the original ceiling in this room, but it's beautiful! The straps that held a quilting frame long ago still hang there. The door you see in this photo now leads into a new bathroom.

The fireplace in the living room. The brick was added sometime in the 1970s and then the wood stove later.



All of the carpets were taken up, and the cabinets in the hallway were taken down. Both sides of the hall were lined with cabinets similar to this one, all added in the 1970s.



Here's the kitchen as it was. This is in the very back room of the house and for now is still this way. It's in the oldest part of the house that my dad has done nothing with yet. I think I mentioned, he may not be able to save the older rooms.

Basically after that day, my dad moved in. He knew once he began bringing in his tools, saws, and supplies that he would need to be there so nothing was stolen or ransacked once he started working. He worked during the day and into the evening and then after a trip up to my grandmother's house for a shower and dinner, he would go back to the house to sleep. I'm not sure how he decided what to do first or how he did anything without sketches, but he had everything in his head just how he wanted it to be. Just wait...