Sentimental Sunday Thoughts

This Old House

        Wish I could remember the words. But this old house is soon to be no more.

    This old house was home from fall 1948 until Jan 10, 2011.  At that time it crossed over to being

a reminder of what we had, what we could have had and what we were denied.

This old house had it's timbers rocked and it's soul fulfilled many times over in it's life time.

We started with gutting the ancient newspapers, bottles, cans and debris out of the place. We then 

  had a huge bonfire to burn the contaminating remains of the contents.  No we did not roast marshmellows, 

but we did ask Dad if we could. As an adult I can surely understand why.

We then scrubbed cleaned and relayed linolium down on the floor in the three main rooms. We then put up 

plasterboard on the single walls that we stripped paper off of. We masked it and painted it and then started 

enjoy.

This Old House had a Kitchen with a front entry way up stairs and a wood burning stove we put in. No it did not

have a bathroom, completed, a space for one yes. The out house sat down front near the orchard. Dad put the 

  bathroom in first and redid the kitchen area second. He had cabinets made for the kitchen according to Mom's 

specifications. She was short and wanted them her height not store bought size. The sink was in a pantry 

out the back side of kitchen. On the other side of the room was a storage pantry you could reach opposite the

stairs to go to the finished off attic. I always thought the all wood finished off attic was the nicest place in the 

house until we got the rest of the house up to living conditions and modern.  

The home was built in the late 1800's. It's main beams were 10 X 12 runners very strong. No chinzing 

with 2 x4 or 4 x 4.  The original structure was very well built. As was the barn that was built before the house.

   The barn was build in 1854. It is chiseled on an side plank on the wall. I understand they lived in the barn until 

the home was built some years later. 

The house had a kitchen, a small 8 x 10 bed room and a small 10 X 12 living room. The bathroom area was  

8 X 8. The entry hall which we added a closet to and moved the stairs to go upstairs to was 10 X 8 or near that.

  We gained 3 feet in the kitchen area when the stairs were moved to the hall and traffic out of kitchen. We also 

gained floor space by closing off the old pantry doors when the new cabinets came in and we had a L shaped 

Kitchen w sink to work in. Dad built a storage area for the refrigerator with cabinets above. It kept our basic tools

  and additional needs before we built the back porch and bedroom on in 1952. There was an additional room on 

the south end of the house that my parents used as their bedroom and years later Dad  improved the size

and quality of that room hoping to put access to bathroom on north w wall. He had so many great plans.

Once his area was corrected and adjusted he moved the wall in the Living room out and made the tiny bedroom

my sis and I slept in all part of a master Living Room. We had a gas heater put in to heat the area, after they

stopped cooking with the gas, wood stove that heat the entire house. Nothing like good wood heat for warmth.

I missed the wood as did we all so before my graduation Dad had a fireplace put in for us to use. Of course this  was many years later, and the gas heater had been removed and Mom was cooking with an electric range in the

kitchen. The living room kept getting bigger and bigger. The wall between the living area and the kitchen area  was taken out some time after the gas heater went in and the wood stove went out. 

The gas heater heat the house for all purposes, though we did learn to run the oven and bake to add warmth on  cold days in the winter. We almost always baked in the morning to remove the chill. Once in a long while 

we could make dessert at night to ward the cold off. Bed time then was early nothing like today.

There was seldom a light to be seen after ten p m at night. I would use flash light and read upstairs in bed.

We were moved upstairs of course when the wall in the living room and bedroom came down. I loved the upstairs

, it was my oasis of escape. 

The house seen many changes. The exterior had a porch off the full front of it's structure. We could set out and 

watch the birds, the fireflies and the stars at night. Part of the porch was covered and part of it was open to the 

sky. I have  pictures I hope some where in boxes if those boxes arrived at my home. Alas I left two boxes 

of pictures setting on a chair and we never were asked to come back and get them.

Yes this house has seen many changes. In 1952 Dad and I and my Uncles and my cousins helped us to put up

the current back porch, bedroom, washroom area. Mom was expecting my brother Dale and we needed more 

space. 

Once it was completed we, Sis and I moved into the new bedroom on the north w corner of the house off the 

living room. Mom decided she did not want Dale out where noise would disturb his sleep so they stayed in the

bedroom in the back side of the house. The bathroom never did get moved out to the new space Dad made for it.

The porch area was used for washing, extra company with fold out beds, sleeping bags, canned storage was

along the south wall, several shelves of canned fruit and vegtables were on the walls. We canned meat also

for many years until Dad bought a freezer. We butchered our own meat and we processed it for storage.

After I grew up and left home Dad had a outside Butcher process the meat after we killed and hung it to process. We did this for many years after my first two children were born. 

When it was to hard on Dad to work in the mill and Mom to do the Ranch chores when my younger siblings 

grew up he stopped the raising of the meat and the processing of the good food. We always had a huge garden.

We shared our food with other family members whom lived in the city area, Mom's Sister, & Mom's cousin.

We shared/ swapped with Dad's sister and her family. 

My first cow ie calf came from my Uncle's Dairy (Ollimac Dairy). I recently posted a picture of myself and 

a calf at that dairy when I was younger and Dad worked for Uncle during the War. Sometime I will post a picture 

of Cupid if I can find one. She loved to open gates and eat raw baby pears (which made her very sick and 

required a Vet every year. We finally fenced the pear trees away from the cows. But milk from cows that 

have eaten pears is so yummy it's like pear juice almost.

This old House I am going to miss you and I am sure glad I was able to share time in your company.