the house that daddy built... (part 2)

...back to the story of the house... when momma and daddy sold their home and moved to Idaho a couple they knew bought it from them... that was almost 60 years ago... That house, that daddy built, is located in the area that Princess Bride and Sir Knight are moving to, so that is one of the reasons we searched it out and stopped by to see it... (I also went to both cemeteries where my grandparents and other relatives are buried...) Daddy and momma had taken me by to see it many years ago when I had driven them down for an aunt's funeral... That was when they had moved back to Arizona and they lived near where we live now... When I was in the area a couple weeks ago and discovered that this same family still lives in the house... (well the matriarch of the family still lives in it. She is a widow now, and needs a little help, but is surprisingly spry for 88...) and heard from my cousin that lives in the old family home my grandfather built, that she loves visitors, I could not resist at least trying to visit. The property originally belonged to grandpa, I believe... so PB and I decided to stop and take a picture of the house, then the next day we went by to see the house, SK was even a good sport and went with us...

The couple that purchased the house from daddy and momma added on to the back of the house (though even that addition was done about 50 years ago...) today it is larger than the original floor plan, and they raised their family of 6 children in it...

Over the years they maintained the house superbly... I consider it to have beautiful style... It is built of block, mortar and stucco, common for that area and time when there was no air conditioning, and long hot days of hard work and family farms to be tended besides a job and house...

Another cousin, as we were talking about this house... explained to me that gables on the front of such homes were something of a trademark for grandfather in that small town... and that many of the old homes there with gables were either designed or built by my grandfather... That was a fun bit of information to learn... but the greatest part was to be allowed to walk through the home and visit with the woman that has lovingly tended the home all these years...

This sweet lady was so gracious and kind... she guided us through... told us the history of certain things that happened there as her family was growing up... She talked about knowing my dad's family for as long as she could remember... told us stories of watching daddy build the house and lay the floor boards... She talked about how much she wanted the home when they discovered it was for sale, partly because it's backyard touched grandparents back yard... Everyone loved my grandparents and they were surrogate aunt/uncle or grandparents to many that weren't their own natural family members... Maybe that is where I get that piece of my personality from...?

The arched entry and front matching arched window were original to the home. We were told that the front bedroom window had once matched, but had to be replaced, many years ago and a traditional window was put in it's place. A car port was also added, when the back rooms were built. But the inside of the home is amazingly well preserved in mostly it's original state... The original rounded ceiling joints, bull nosed door jams, doors/door knobs, kitchen cabinets and many other features are still there... The floors were replaced some years ago, because of wear and unevenness... but the rooms definitely have their original 30-40's style home feel... Even the minor water seepage that was pointed out was something that evidently took many years to show up... and would be easily fixed... It was probably the result of the house needing new shingles, not a structural issue...

The cool thing is that this house was built by my dad... as far as I know it's the only house he built from the ground up. After that momma and daddy bought homes that they remodeled, sometimes quite extensively...

....but this was the house that daddy built...