Moving Right Along,,,,, The Hall Way!!!!!!

Finally, we've gotten to the hall way.  By choice this was to be our last inside project because the hall way was the 26' storage room that stored everything in.  Literally, golf clubs, pictures, tables, chairs, you name it and it was there.  The hall way was about 26' long, approximately 5' wide and very dark when the Sun Room door was closed.  It was so dark and depressing we actually never took a picture of it in all its glory.

Just so you know, in the older days homes were built with basically the sleeping rooms and bath room (if one was actually inside the home) and often the parlor  were built separately from the cooking side of the house.  This house was similar but not totally constructed that way.  We have what appears to be two front doors side by side.  One enters the living room, the other enters a bed room.  The living room, dining room and kitchen are on one side of the house and two bedrooms, the sleeping room and the bath room is on the other side of the house.  Both sides are connected with a long hallway down the middle of the house.

Anyway, we've completed the hallway and it has just opened up the entire house just as we expected.   We had to repair the ceiling, paint the "pond green" paneling, and install our flooring.  It was worth every minute of labor and effort.  .

A view from the bathroom area looking back towards the sun room shows off the value add of the hallway.

Looking back from the sun room towards the bathroom and master bedroom is equally appealing.

 This view is from the master bedroom looking into the hallway.  The door on the right is from the dining room.  We mentioned earlier that we were moving the washer and dryer to the mud room and you can see why now.  We will be building another closet where the washer and dryer are here and gain a lot of storage space while removing the laundry equipment from view.

Finally a view from the bathroom into the hallway and dining room really ties all of this house together.

We are excited, this is the final major interior project for the remodel.  Its taken 16 months of a lot of work and planning.  While we have more to do, the end IS in sight.  We'll be doing final touch up projects on the interior but boy are we blessed to have this much done.

Thanks Donald and Kay and everybody else that's helped.

Won't be long till we have the "Open House" and we really look forward to that.

Mud Room Make Over

This old house has everything you can imagine.  The entrance to the back of the house is through what once was a porch and eventually got enclosed.  The area was simply an entry where you could take off your boots, coats, caps and store your guns.  We have always called it a "Mud Room" and it is one of the best part of the house as far as we're concerned.  You don't have to track mud, chicken *&%$$, snow or bugs into the house by coming in back here.

The room was not insulated and was just pine planks with a plank floor due to its evolvement and construction.  So, we decided to re-cover withe walls with pine planks.  The wood was milled from trees that had fallen on the farm for several years.  When the fellow came with his sawmill Donald had it cut to 1'X8"X16" boards.  We had to stack the boards in the barn with "slats" between the layers of boards in order to let the wood "air dry".  The drying took about 2 to 2 1/2 months but the wood turned out great.

We then planed each board, cut it to dimension and installed the planks to create a true plank paneling appearance.   By the way, we also hung "15# tar paper" on the walls before we installed the planks for additional insulation.  The tar paper was also put down covering the floor before the sub floor plywood was laid. Below is the original appearance of the room and some of the steps we took along the way.

The original room was kind of a mess as you can see 

We used this for storage but the appearance needed some improvements.

The wood just totally changed the appearance of this room and we haven't even treated the wood yet.  We were able to move the wiring and conceal the outlets and make the room totally acceptable in looks.

We will eventually move our washer and dryer to this wall and make more room in our hall way that we are working as we speak.  This will allows us to build another closet in the hall and get the washer and dryer back where it is out of site where it should be.

We also were able to build a closet in this mud room (below).  With this close and the one we'll gain in the hallway, we'll have enough closet space for storing all our "junk".   (Just what we need)

One of the things we marvel at and really enjoy is that this wood was just a fallen tree several months ago.  This wood was cut, (fell) milled, planed, fit and installed all from something a lot of people just burn or throw away.  Amazing,,,,,

The hallway is next so, stay tuned......

Love Them Figs,,,,,,,

I tell you what, it just keeps getting better and better down here on Curry Road.  Seems like every week somebody calls and says "if you want some................ come on over and help yourself."

We've been blessed with peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, peaches, blue berries, corn, garlic, etc.


Now, we've even got some Figs.   Man, just how good can it get?

 These are tree ripe, soft, sweet, plentiful figs on trees maintained and carefully watched by Mike and Neda McLean here in Rye.   They are large and firm and make the best jam and sauces you can imagine.

There are two trees and they are loaded.  The Mcleans are just wonderful people and share.  Their yard is a beautiful display of flowers, fruit trees and tropical plants that are ever blooming and  ever producing fruit.

Mike loves his yard and it shows.  While here in Rye he is constantly watering, edging and generally making his place look like a Souther Living garden area.














Neda is the support staff for old Mike and I think she may be in charge of planning and definitely supervision.





This particular day, Neda had just finished canning about 12 bushels of crowder peas.  Both Neda and Mike are long time residents of the area and also enjoy time in the "city".  


We just can't get enough of this country and area.

You come on down and see us soon, we'll share as well.

Thanks Mike and Neda, the figs are already in the jars.

Bob and Mary Ellen's Fourth Of July Pool Party and Bash

Bob and Mary Ellen Nesbitt are two people that have more fun or create more fun that you can imagine.
Bob and Mary Ellen spent their productive years (business years anyway) as event planners and organizers for the Professional Bowling Association union cooperative or what ever.  Anyway, they are masters at hosting and leading the way to fun and joy.    This party is really a "front" for a family reunion of several families of Marry Ellen's side all originally from Rye.  Lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.

Bob is a wounded combat veteran of the Korean war era.   Bob has a gift of welcoming people and just has a ball kidding and joking.   Bob is from New York (yep,,,, YANKEE) but he's 
probably been reborn to be a redneck like the rest of us.  ( I don't think he has changed his car oil on a Walmart parking lot yet, but other than that,,,,he's close)

Mary Ellen now is a "trip".  Never at a loss of or for words, can say anything and "get away with it" and is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.   Pretty good cook and hostess also.  This was a pool party so Marry Ellen had on TWO cover ups....... just to be safe.

Bob and Mary Ellen's house is custom built with a large enclosed great room that can handle a crowd of 30 easily.  That lets two families occupy the same room without a out and out fist fight!?   No, really they all love each other and have known each other for XXX years.

 Jane is seen here enjoying the company and food in the great "Great" room.  Donald Curry is in the back of the room standing and visiting with most likely one of his "First Cousins".  He has about 50 I think.

All of these people are family members and have been together for over 4 generations

The new pool is just to the left of this picture but was  not too busy on this day, since the food line was still open. 

Thanks to Kay and Donald's friends, we have met some great people that enjoy life and are great citizens.  What better way to spend a Fourth of July?

PS  Kay was in Little Rock due to her older sister Gail Johnson having been taken by ambulance to the hospital due to heart problems.  We will update that in the next blog.

We're Almost Done With The West Side,,,,,

Well, after many hours of scrapping, caulking, nailing, painting, cutting moulding and just plain ole hard work we think we are making progress on the Sleeping Room on the west end of the house.  The ceiling and walls are "plank, tongue and grooved bead board".  That means that each board some 90 years ago was installed perfectly in line and square.  Guess what, over a period of 90 years they get loose, some decay and most sag.  Give a little help of decay in the ceiling from previous roof leaks and you've got a project.   We used many man hours and a large amount of caulk tubes but the ceiling turned out pretty good, or at least we think so.  The color is a "beige" but Jane calls it something else.

The walls were also in need of a lot of tender loving care but they finished in pretty good shape as far as we're concerned.  Just keep in mind that if you ever have to paint bead board, it requires almost twice as much paint since you have to force the paint down into each groove and cover the sides of the grooves as well.  A large "1/2" nap " roller is a good start but expect to put a lot of brush strokes with lots of pressure to get the coverage you will want.

We also installed the oak laminate flooring and it just finished the room the way we had hoped.  The white moulding and wood work will set the room off even more.  

We had to take a break during this project for the Annual Bob and Marry Ellen Nesbit Fourth of July Bash so, come back and see what else we have completed real soon, ya hear?

We're Moving On Up To The West Side,,,,,Oopppps

Well the old song was moving on up to the east side but we're moving on up to the west side of this great ole house.  Yep, the Sleep Room-Sleep Porch special place.  Below you can see it was a bit of a mess even from the outside but what an opportunity.

I imagine you don't remember but we had to remove all the west windows and replace the bottom sills due to rot.  It took all of us and a lot of "tractor machine" help as well but we got it rebuilt and replaced in almost exactly the same situation as Mr. WG had built back in the 20's.

Once we got the windows rebuilt and back in place we had to work on the other rooms and we have been awaiting the chance to get to this great ole room and remodel the entire section of the house.  The picture below was after the windows were replaced and after Jane had spent weeks cleaning out the old bird, mouse and Bat, (yes I said Bat) stuff.  But remember, Boy What An Opportunity.

Jane and I both have used the old room as a work shop all winter and it became a "catch all" for anything left over or waiting to be used.  What a mess.  Jane did get her kitchen tiles painted out here and  it was out of the cold and rain.  Thank you Jesus.

Just so you can see the "before" situation the picture below is an idea of the condition of the ceiling before we started our make over.  The entire room is made of "bead board" tongue and grooved plank.  The wood was installed over 90 years ago and its moved, changed in size and endured many coats of paint and less than perfect maintenance.  Since we were going to make this our main living area we took extra precaution to resurface the ceiling as best we could.  We actually put 16 tubes of caulking on the ceiling filling the bead board groves and trying to realign the boards to the original appearance.

Below is the finished surface area and I think we got it.  At least Mr. Donald has signed off on it and Kay has yet to see it and give a thumbs up or down.  The ceiling will be a focal point of the room and the house and it should last forever. 

The walls were in about as bad of shape as the ceiling but not quite.  The leaking roof had taken its toll on the ceiling but the walls were in a bit better shape.  However, we still had to caulk and nail many of the bead boards and try to close the gaps and fill in the openings to try to get the appearance the house once had.  The following picture is our starting point on the walls.

From the two previous pictures you can begin to see the great color that Jane picked out for the room.  It grows on me and I am beginning to really get into it.  Its a Sunshine Yellow, Green or something, Sherwin Williams mixed it for us and I thought boy this bad when I opened the first can of paint.  But, as usual the color will grab you and its perfect for the "Sun Room, Sleeping Porch" effect that we want to have.  The picture below will give some idea of the new paint. (By the way, this is the wall we plan to install several exterior boards from Uncle Cokes house.  We have to wait till the snakes leave the Coke house so we can get in there and get the boards.  Neat huh?)

Looks pretty good with the white trim and the new light oak floor will really bring out the entire room
The final picture below is another view of the partially completed room.  As of today, after over 50 man hours we have finished the ceiling, walls and some of the wood work trim.  Hopefully we finish the remaining wood work trim and then lay the new floors next week.

Boy are we grateful for the opportunity and the chance to help recreate the great old house to its original glory.

Stay tuned for more updates on the completed room.   That leaves the hallway and the "mud room" as the final rooms and then,,,,,,rest,,,,ahhhhhhh rest.

Ya'll come,,, we'll leave the light on for you......

Esau's Corn,,,,, No Kidding

There's a place just outside of Dumas AR that grows the most wonderful sweet corn in the world.  When you eat it on the cob, all you have to do is get it a little warm and add a little salt.  Its the best thing you've ever eaten, or at least we think it is.

The entire thing is a process and its the same every year.   Their fields are all irrigated and the corn stalks are treaded like movie stars I'm guessing.  They have to be happy stalks to make this sweet of corn.

Once your inside the process moves pretty quickly and the entire process is over less than 15 minutes.  Give you name and time and they give you your corn sacks. 

You have to call and order your sacks of corn in April or sooner if possible and you get a day and a time to come and pick up your corn.  Yep,,,,,be on time and come with the money because if you don't someone else will get your corn.

We got ours and we have it in the freezer waiting for you to come and enjoy, so come on down.