Little Piece of History

There’s been a few cool finds in our remodeling process. In addition to some old handmade nails (I forgot to take a photo!), Lane found this gem tucked into the upstairs floor when he was cutting the hole for our dining room light. Yep, you’re seeing that right—it’s a newspaper clipping from December 9, 1873. What’s even cooler is that he found it on December 12, 2023, almost exactly 150 years after it was printed! It got us thinking, was our house truly built in 1892, or is it even older than the county knows?

I’m slowly digging into the history of this house and have been finding some mind-blowing facts, like how this house is indeed older than our title says (yes, I have proof) and that someone famous once stayed here! I will share all of that once I have gathered enough to create a post.

With the age of this house, my uncle is certain we have a couple old “outers,” as he calls them (a much nicer name for an outhouse). There’s also an old well underneath the addition portion of the house. My uncle is planning to do some digging to see what sorts of treasures he might find buried in each of them. He said many people used to throw old bottles and all sorts of things into the outers. Who knows, maybe we’ll strike it rich! I won’t hold my breath on that, but I’m certain we’ll find some cool treasures to display at least.

Sign from Beyond

About six months before we moved, while busy finishing projects, listing our home for sale, and packing boxes, Lane received a surprise phone call. It was an old family friend who was a signmaker by trade. Rick told Lane that right after The Fire in late 2017, his dad had taken a piece of our burned fence to him and asked that he make a sign with our last name, but David never made it back to pick up the finished sign.

When David took his own life in 2020, Rick wasn’t sure how to approach us with this invaluable treasure, but he knew we would want to have it. That was why he’d taken so long to reach out. Unfortunately, the timing wasn’t great since Rick’s shop was an hour and a half away and we were barely keeping pace with daily living and preparing for our big move. We assured him that we definitely wanted the sign and would figure out how to get it as soon as we were able.

Luckily for us, just before Christmastime 2023, my parents happened to be camping near Rick’s shop. We were able to coordinate everyone so they could go pick it up on our behalf. My parents were also planning come up to visit us over Christmas, so they could even deliver it to us.

This sign was an incredibly special Christmas gift from beyond. In life, David was always more than happy to get his hands dirty and help us tackle our home projects. His absence was definitely not unnoticed with our latest move and all the work Lane has been putting into the house and the property. Now with this sign hanging proudly in our living room, we can feel David’s presence once more.

Although devastating, traumas like the fire and losing David remind us how strong and resilient we can be when circumstances require it. Just like this burned piece of fencing, our traumas leave a permanent mark upon us, but they do not completely destroy us unless we let them. Instead of succumbing to the darkness, we can choose to make something beautiful from the pain and rise from the ashes to new life, just like this sign. And that is what we are doing with our fresh start in our new town.

To-Do List

We still have several big projects to complete on our old farmhouse, but it will be a while before we can get them all done, whether due to time, money, or weather.

In the summer, we hope to repaint the exterior a natural soft green color like our previous home. We also need to replace nearly all of our windows due to leakage, broken springs, missing screens, or to upgrade from the old aluminum style. We’d like to redo the perimeter fencing in the front as well, using H-braces and hog panels for a farmy theme.

The interior will eventually need all new trim and baseboard, which will then need to be painted. We also just measured for all new interior doors since the old ones were in poor shape and soaked with animal urine. We opted to go heavy on the barn door style, as it fits both our needs of adding doors to narrow openings and the old farmhouse style of the house. We need to fix the upper part of the stairs, add shelves to my office closet and the upstairs hall closet, and finish unpacking and organizing in several places. And as I’ve mentioned a few times by now, our master bedroom will be the final room to be completed—so far, it hasn’t been touched except to store boxes and the doors we just ordered.

Besides an eventual total remodel of the kitchen, we also hope to one day get a wood fireplace and place it in the corner of the living room, though that would be another very expensive project. Currently, we have a gas fireplace that sits in an awkward position next to our dining table. Although gas fireplaces are convenient and easy to use (I loved having one in our previous home), with the wetter weather we have up here, the dry heat of a wood stove is way more beneficial to keeping mold at bay. Because the fireplace and space heaters are our only source of heat in this old house, we’ve also been looking into getting a couple ductless mini-splits systems to place in the master bedroom and the girls’ bedroom.

And of course, there are always other little and big things that pop up with homeownership—the list is never truly complete, but it’s worth it!

Thank you for following along on our journey to our new hometown. It has been a truly magical journey for all of us and it already feels like home.