Corner View: Music

Music to my ears is listening to Peyton tell me about her day

and tell me she made this picture for me.

It's picking up the phone to hear her say,

"Grandma, are you buying your house?"

She had remembered my reaction when she and I drove by the Victorian home

and I squealed in delight at the for sale sign.

It was she who waited patiently while I called the realtor to set up a viewing time.

And it was she who remembered to call the evening after the viewing

to ask me about my dream home.

She's eight.

 

Music to my ears is hearing Aaron jabber and sing in the car.

Also it's aswering the phone to hear him chattering to me.

Music to my ears is the laughter of my daughter holding one of the children

she always dreamed of having

and the laughter of that little girl in her arms.

Music to my ears is the joy erupting in laughter from my grandkids.

Join Francesca for more "music."

House Explanation

These first two photos show some of the best of this home.  I would love waking up and getting to pass by
this window on my way down to my morning coffee!

This window contributes so well to one of the warmest, most welcoming foyers I've seen in awhile.

But these show only the beauty---only what's so right about this home.

However, there is much wrong.

All the beautiful hanging light fixtures have pull strings attached.

Yes, even this lovely gem below.

You cannot flip a switch in any room to turn on a light.

The house needs all new electrical wiring.

They attempted to update the kitchen with a dishwasher but stuck it at the end of the long counter, adding another part of a counter (doesn't match well) and butting everything up too close to the door of a beautiful floor to ceiling wood pantry.  Getting into it is a physical acrobatic act.

You can't see the other side of this middle counter but it's open and is plywood.  The entire kitchen is a hodge podge of what seems to be "after thoughts" or half-hearted attempts to modernize which only result in making this room more of an eye sore, esp. compared to the rest of the house.  The entire kitchen needs to be redone---ENTIRE.

This is just a glimpse of some problems outside.  Most of the gutters are rotted or not connected to anything or both! Lots of shingles are missing on the roof.   Sooooo--new roof, major gutter repair. None of the windows upstairs have storms and some are in terrible shape: new windows.

One of the ornaments from the roof has been left to further deteriorate on the front porch.

The porch is rotted through not only on the floor but in the banisters and well---everywhere: whole new porch --- to fully restore  it to original beauty would be quite costly.

Other problems:

Needs insulation--there is none.

There are NO HEAT DUCTS upstairs---none---little electric heaters are used to

warm the huge rooms.

Installing air conditioning would not be nearly as problematic or costly as putting in heat upstairs--

we would have to do both.

Basement is ancient and damp and has some kind of beetle damage (supposedly as bad as termites).

New plumbing is needed.

Garage is caving in and would have to be torn down and a new one built.

A conservative estimate for repairing this dream Victorian home

with my husband doing most of the work

is

$100,000.00

on top of their deluded asking price of $150,000.00.

The yard is bigger than most Victorian settings in Barnesville,

but it is still small and we would have to build a privacy fence

 in order to have the dog I so want.

Across the street, hidden behind my car (in one of pics in a previous post)

is a house trailer.

There are no zoning laws in this town regarding house trailers.

So you could sink a half a million into a house only to have

a rental house trailer

end up next to you.

Nothing against house trailers---I just don't want one next door to a home

I've sunk a lot of money in.

Actually rentals are becoming a norm here in this town

and too many end up in disrepair.

We could end up with someone buying the house next to us

and turning it into a rental and the renters not taking care of it.

So these are the reasons why we won't be buying the dream house.

I'm now okay with it.

Mike said if he were 20 years younger, he might consider it,

but he's just not up to that kind of long term physical labor.

Since I see do not want to be a widow living in this home,

I choose my husband over the house.

So we continue to look.

For background on this house, scroll down to previous posts.

Corner View: Silly

Silly playing around makes for good memories.

For  my husband Mike's retirement party silliness was the theme---

well that and pork (Mike retired from a company that sold pork products).

I had to put this pic in after seeing Francesca's post on silly t-shirts.

For more "silliness" check out Francesca's Fuoriborgo

My Victorian Dream House

For those pics not already enlarged, simply click on them to enlarge them.

I grew up in a Victorian parsonage house across the street

from this house.

I grew up loving this house.

Every time I would go by in these past two years,

I would think

or say to Mike if we were together

that I wish this house would come up for sale.

Then one day I was driving back from a grandma/granddaughter shopping day,

and I saw the sign.

It was not there that morning when we left.

I cried out, "My house is for sale!  My house is for sale!"

I jarred Peyton awake from her nap.

"Grandma, what's wrong?"

Then I explained about this house

and how I dreamed of owning it one day.

I called the realtor when we arrived at my home

and set up an appt. for Labor Day; (it was the Sat. of that weekend.)

These windows are in the third floor
attic which is huge and tall and full of
possibilities.

This top window is high up on the front wall of the attic and there is no way to get to it.

But I told Mike I'd have to be able to look out of it and he said he'd have to build me a ladder.

 The porch is off the master bedroom
and a huge front upstairs foyer.

This is the front porch complete with
swing.

 This is an outside view of the stained
glass window on the landing of the staircase.  The other windows are:
upstairs bedrooms and another attic window.

This is part of the foyer.  I posted a close-up of the oval stained glass window in a previous post.

 And----This is the staircase that I've shown before.  The door opens into the dining room then into the kitchen.

This is the family room.  Behind the fireplace is a half-bath and laundry room.

 This is another view of this room---I had to show off the piano.

This is the side door that comes into the family room.  Note the leaded glass.

This is the dining room with a built-in china closet.

A view of the front parlor from the family room.

Looking into the hallway and up the staircase from the parlor or living room.

We had some fun figuring out this window.  We were on the back kitchen steps and could not figure out what we were looking at.  It turned out to be the pantry.

 Beautiful wood throughout.

Then we all three (Mike, the realtor, and I) halted abruptly when we came to the kitchen . It's not added on ---it's on the original foundation and it just---
doesn't -- fit.

 A view of the roof line of the back mudroom.

 Looking up North Chestnut Street-- one of the two main ways into and out of Barnesville.


 This is the other side of the street.

This is looking toward town.  The big funeral home is catty-corner from this house.

The stained glass windows are in the walk-in closet of my old room in the parsonage.

(For those of you not familiar with the word parsonage:

it is a parson's or minister's house and is owned by the church.)

My parents room is to the right.  My front windows are to the left.

My Grandpa Jarvis built in a vanity area for me under those beautiful windows.

The roof line is all messed up. 

When "they" (a committee) had the roof replaced,

they had the attic windows covered up

 and all the beautiful Victorian angles were removed.

It sickened me when I saw it and realized what had happened.

My dream house is directly across the street.

Someone else occupies the parsonage.

As for my dream house---right now it's a "No."

I will tell you the rest tomorrow.

(Hint: Though they have kept the woodwork and such looking good,

they have been negligent.)

I must go to bed.

Blessings and goodnight.

The house continued

Something to tease you!

This has been a crazy weekend: good but crazy.

Tomorrow evening,

I will post the rest of the photos of the house and the story behind it.

Where is this?

This past week I posted photos of this window on this staircase landing.

I've been asked about it.

This weekend, I will post more photos and tell you the story of this place--

a special story for me.

Check back on Saturday.

Corner View: Iconic

Laying on its side, it may not look familiar, but I like the wood grain against wood grain effect.

Upright it's more recognisable: a chalice---a cup for communion--the symbolic act

of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us humans.  It's an iconic symbol to many all over the world.

This was brought from Israel.  It's beautifully carved.

It was my father's and I cherish it even more

because my father was a devoted minister

who reached out in love to so many.

To many the cup of wine representing Christ's blood is

representative of Christ's love to the point of sacrifice on the cross, 

so that we might live.

Iconic sustenance.

For more iconic views, check out Fuoriborgo.

God's Promise and a Prayer

---------- God's Promise ---------

This is the message which we have heard from Him

and declare to you,

that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with Him,

and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light,

we have fellowship with one one another,

and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son

cleanses us from all sin.

I John 1: 5-7

Dear Lord,

You are the light of my life. 

Because You are unchanging,

Your light is constant no matter what is going on around me.

Help me to trust that the light You give me

 is just the amount I need for the step I'm on.

In Jesus' name I pray.

From a Stormie Omartian prayer book.

9-11 Display

 As I've stated in previous posts,
I took on the responsibility of
commemorating 9-11 at our high school.
The three girls who cut out the initial back ground paper and then cut out and arranged photos on it, unfortunately didn't open the glass doors to measure the inside of the display case.  I didn't think to check if they did; I assumed.
Never assume when dealing with teen-agers.

Enter two junior girls who took over the project when the others' study hall and lunch periods were over.
They realized the mistake.
They correctly measured and restarted
the project.  They had to cut out already pasted pics to now put on the new paper.  This was the resulting
arrangement laid out on a table in the library.  The background paper was already in the display case at this point.

Here are some close-ups.  I had a World Trade Center calendar that I had saved.  We used only one pic,
because I didn't want to cut up the calendar,
Our color printer at school is not working, so  I had to use my little one at home.  I was able to make a copy of the back of the calendar and the girls designed the string of pics you see here.  I liked their idea.

 I wanted all three areas hit that day to be covered.  Photos of the Pentagon
were the hardest for me to find .















This is the only black and white photo,
except for the newspaper covers.
A student handed this in as part of his English assignment in our computer lab, and I liked the "Never
Forget."
A blogger friend provided the quote that I glued on the bottom of the photo.

Due to starting over, the project ended up being completed

after school by me.

(I did not procrastinate.  I worked on this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

I did not get the 'go ahead' from the principal until Wed.)

One of the junior girls had newspapers at home of the day after.  Her father was in NYC on 9-11 and several days following it.  He bought four papers and they have kept them.  I only copied the front pages and they could not be in color because I had to use
the BIG printer at school to get a decent copy.

Part of the Flight 93 section.

This is something I cut out the following year from The Cincinnati Enquirer

and have kept.

These are more newspaper front pages bought and saved by the girl student's father.

The one paragraph is from a blogger friend from another country.

The article was on the front page of one of the newspapers.

Another blogger submitted this. 

 I apologize for the blurry pic, but I wanted to include it

because it goes so well with the following pic.

The entire song is on the bulletin board, but I only shot part of it.

This can still make me tear up when I hear it.

I wanted a blue background because it was such a beautiful day.

The junior girls came up with the idea of the clouds and writing a caption on them.

Another final photo.

I left at 9 PM Friday night, exhausted but glad I'd taken this on

and completed it.

It's not my most creative work, but with the time and material constraints,

I think it turned out well.

The kids and staff will see it as they walk in tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow morning at the moment the first tower was hit,

two senior girls will begin reading over the loud speaker.

I realize it is a day late, but a lot of schools are commemorating on Monday

out of necessity.

First read will be the short basic "Time Line"

beginning with the first plane hitting

and ending with Flight 93 plowing into a Pennsylvania field.

Then a verse and chorus from Allen Jackson's song will be read.

A moment of silence will follow.

A short poem will be read next.

The chorus of Lee Greenwood's "I'm Proud to be an American"

will be the final reading.

It will occur during the last ten minutes of first period.

I'm praying all goes well.

I taped one of the network's coverage of the ceremonies today

in order to show parts tomorrow in class.

I also DVRd it.

Overall, I thought the commemorations were well thought out

and excellent tributes to those we lost that day.

The families seeing their loved ones' names

on the wall of the World Trade Center

for the first time

was especially moving to me.

Thank you again, to those who wrote me their thoughts and responses

of that day.

Blessings.