Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Welcome To My Humble Abode

I'm not sure if I've ever told you that our house started life out in the country but it did. In 1934 it was moved into town and set on a new foundation and more rooms added on to it. I've always known that the house had been moved to town but I never knew just where it had been and for some reason thought it was on land somewhere north of town. Last Saturday I found out I was wrong.

My husband and I took the dogs for a run in a field south of town, one we have run the dogs in numerous times, and, as we walked, he casually mentioned that the old foundation for our house was "over there" to the right of us. Since I had believed the house had been on land north of town I was stunned to hear this. I'd run the dogs in this field for many, many years and all that time I had been within walking distance of my house's original location. He then asked me if I wanted to go look at it. I told I'd wait until the next day as I wanted to take photos and did not have my camera with me. Sunday we, the dogs, and my camera went back to the field and walked over to were our house once stood. I was even more surprised to learn that the foundation was right next to the road we drove on to get to where we parked our truck. I had driven by this farm site hundreds of times and never once noticed it.

As we walked around I could tell the house had been tiny. What had once been a farm house that sheltered a family of six was now the living/dining room of our house. A man who grew up in the house told us it had been divided into two rooms. The room on the north end of the house had been the living room/kitchen. The room to the south had been subdivided into two bedrooms. His parents slept in one of the bedrooms and two of his brothers slept in the other. He and another brother slept in the basement. The house had a well in the northeast corner of the basement which was connected to the water pump by the kitchen sink. It had no bathroom and probably no electricity. Life and people were tougher back then.


A view of the foundation from the hill behind it. The road runs north/south. North is to the left.



Me, standing inside the basement with the hill behind me. That pile of concrete in front of me is what is left of the front steps.


My husband lying down inside the foundation.



A view of the foundation from the northwest corner.

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