Our New Old House » previous owners

Unburied Treasure

Kelli — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 13:45:22 +0000

This week I’ve been taking off the wallpaper in the back bedroom. Yeah, this wallpaper:

And behind the door I uncovered some pencil marks. It took me a minute to figure out what they were. See if you can tell:

Give up? It’s a child’s height and weight and the dates! The dates being from 1944 and 1945 and the height and weight matching the size of a five or six year old, I figured it must be my friend Judy, who lived in our house until the summer of 1945. She was six when they moved up the street to a bigger house.

Just below the measurements was another set of pencil marks:

Judy must have been practicing her numbers. (Sorry that picture came out blurry.)

I finished working on that room with a big smile on my face. Pictures of the back bedroom to come soon.

Our New Old House is coming up roses!

Kelli — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:01:09 +0000

Well, two to be exact, and one’s actually at our OTHER new old house. But you want pictures, so here you go.

This is a small rose bush I planted last spring. It didn’t bloom then, but this year it mustered up enough energy to give me one beautiful red bud. I haven’t done as well as I should at keeping pests off it, so unfortunately the flower got eaten by a grasshopper soon after this picture was taken, but I did get a good sniff of the blossom and it was magnificent! Think of old fashioned rose perfume.

The second rose bush is at our house in Clear Lake. My grandparents built the house in the 60s and at some point planted this rose bush. I have no idea how old this rose bush is, but it’s been around as long as I can remember, and when we bought the house, it was still going strong. It’s had rough years and this year I was worried about it, but with a little care and pruning it came back like it always does. I’m so proud of this little rose bush! And caring for it is one of the ways I continue to feel connected to my grandparents. These flowers have a creamy, almost vanilla scent, kind of like butter cream frosting.

Serious lock on a silly gate

Kelli — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:52:29 +0000

Here’s the back gate in my back yard. It’s in the middle of an incomplete fence which is not going to keep anyone out of anything. But it is heavily fortified against anyone who’d try to wrestle it open through the trees that have grown up through it. I guess the previous owners thought a heavy chain and padlock were necessary for the protection of the weeds in the back yard.

We’re going to tear this gate and fence out at some point anyway, so I wasn’t worried that I couldn’t find the key to that lock. But one day I was going down the basement stairs and the light was just right and something caught my eye:

It’s a Master brand key. I haven’t taken it down to see if it fits the lock yet, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

[tags]yardwork, previous owners, photos[/tags]

Family photos at Our New Old House

Kelli — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:49:48 +0000

This is Mr. Louis Halden and his wife, Delta in the early 1940s. They lived in our house from 1941 to 1946. Their daughter, Judy, has been corresponding with me about the house and was very kind to send pictures. This picture was taken in our back yard. You can see my neighbor’s house in the background. Aren’t they a nice looking couple?

Here’s Judy as a little girl playing near our front steps.

Judy and her dad, Louis in our backyard. That’s our house behind them.

Here’s Judy a little older in our backyard again. I believe the garage in the background belongs to our house.

Check back for some more pictures from the neighborhood soon.

[tags]photos, old photos, 1940s [/tags]

Our New Old House as a Young House

Kelli — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:37:34 +0000

1941

[tags] old photos, 1940s [/tags]

Drawn from memory after 60 years

Kelli — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:29:52 +0000

The lady who lived in my house as a little girl sent me a letter with a floorplan she drew from memory. She moved out of our house when she was six years old or so and it’s amazing how much detail she remembers. Her drawing is practically to scale and nearly all the locations of doors, windows, and other details are accurate. If you click on the image below it will take you to my Flickr account, where I’ve added some notes to the image listing the little inaccuracies. But for our purposes here, you can pretty much think of this as the current floorplan of our house. I’ve never gotten around to drawing one myself, so this one’s as good as any. I’m so grateful for her generosity in sharing all this with me!

[tags] previous owner, floorplan [/tags]

Previous resident comes through, and how!

Kelli — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:15:26 +0000

I received a lovely letter this week from the lady who lived in my house as a little girl. She included pictures, which are awesome, and also a sketch of how the house was laid out when she lived here. I was amazed at how accurate her memory of the house is 60 years after she moved out at age six. She got every detail right except the closets around the bathroom and the phone stand in the hallway. She also has lots of really sweet memories about living there as a child. When I get my scanner hooked up I’ll scan the photos and her drawing of the interior layout to share.

[tags] previous owners[/tags]