First Week!

Well, we've been here one week today! We're very happy to be here and feel quite at home, which is a good thing! There is of course, as lot of work to be done ... but we're o.k. with that as we have a L O N G time to do it in, if the Good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, as my daddy would have said!
Mr. Paul is as happy as a pig in dirt with his x-box on line and working incredibly well!!!! All thanks to David for patiently consulting and instructing over the phone. Thank goodness for good friends! We've set up a couple of things that are functional for necessities. One being the kitchen, before I started scraping the "popcorn" off of the walls to get it back to normal drywall. Now the kitchen is a big dusty mess ... but the walls are going to be beautiful! Also, our angel is hanging in our front room to keep us safe and sound. As you might be able to see, things are in disarray... boxes everywhere ... lamps in random places ... but in another couple of years, it'll all be ok! :-) I was also hoping you could tell how high the ceilings are from the view here ... they are either 10 or 12 feet ... we're still working on figuring that out! We found a claw foot tub at a roadside antique shoppe yesterday for our "new" bathroom, so we've begun the accumulation process for the house. I'm so full of great ideas ... hope I don't run out of energy first, or wear Paul out with projects before it's done. Yesterday he spent hours removing carpet strips and bits of green shag carpet from the staircase. Then after the scrubbing, it just looks amazing! The wood under the paint is just gorgeous ... can't wait to get to that part! If you look at the picture of Paul above, the staircase is to his right. The area where he is sitting is destined to be the office so I'll be working simultaneously in it and the kitchen. There's enough variation that I won't be bored!!! I'm just hoping the kitchen drywall part gets finished before we have to endure much more of the dust! Y I K!!! Paul also fixed all the screens on the side porch so the kitties can now actually go outside where it's safe for them. Although ... I did find them on the front porch once yesterday looking very "guilty" for being there. They came back in with no problem, but that motivated us to get the porch set up ... little stinkers! We had someone (Steve and Bunny, I think) stop by yesterday saying he used to play here in the late 60's and early 70's when his grandmother and grandfather owned the place. He was apparently a part of the "Jobe" family who originally built the house. The signature is even on the foundationn of the house in the crawl space, dated 1929. Oh, the crawl space is actually pretty much a walk in closet type thing with part of the earth in the form of a mountain inside. It has several signatures of people who've built and added onto this house, historic novelty, I suppose. Every where we go in Elk Park there is someone with a story of how they played in our basement as a child, or their son grew up playing in the basement. It would've been a very fun place to have been as a kid, and I can so imagine playing Raiders of the Lost Ark down there! Hopefully our grand children will get the benefit of adventure seeking. The Jobe family sold to the Davis family sometime in the early 70's apparently, and we bought if from the Davis family. So ... I'm sure there will be more "dropping by" to visit their old homestead. It's fun to have history with the house ... and of course, Paul knows every one of the details! (especially the details involved with the Tweetsie Railroad history ~ which this house was a part of also) The view above is what we see when we look out the kitchen window! Isn't it gorgeous! The leaves are so vivid in color now that it is a true gift! Just wanted to share it with you all. Unfortunately, you can't really see the golds the way we see them in real time. They're magnificent! They're calling for snow coming this week. We'll see, but you can tell in the clouds that something's brewing! Until next time, be well and be happy. Paul & Cheri