Hello Summer Time

Well, several new things to mention so I'll get at it.

First we have added two new pages to the blog.  "Curry Road Memories,,,,," and "Food Travel and Humor" is the other new one.  You can find the link to them just under the introduction to the blog and just above the most recent post.   These are added to encourage followers and family to contribute to the blog and let us share in your knowledge and fun.  In the beginning, just send me the story or whatever in an email and I'll post it and give the proper credits  Eventually, we hope to be able to allow other people to post but we're not quite there yet.  

On to the remodeling, we have solved the issue of too much sun coming in on the sun room.  (Sounds like a country song don't it?)  The sun room faces due west and after about 2:30 in the afternoon until after sunset we just got so much sun we couldn't use the room even as our current work area.  The brightness was almost blinding plus the heat was really bad.  So,,,,,

We built new screens and covered them with a product called Coolaroo Snap Shade Screen Product.  Lowes carries the product but you can order it directly or find it at many other home improvement stores and hardware stores.  Its not cheap but its worth the improvement as you will see in the pictures.   We became familiar with this product while Rving since this is the product RV companies use to make sunshades in RVs.

We have seen a tremendous improvement in the visual aspect since we can see out but no one can see in.

 The picture to the left will demonstrate how the normal covered windows still let in bright sunshine while the windows on the right are covered with the sun shade screen.

 This picture gives a idea of how clear the view out is from the room.  We wanted to be able to see the beautiful pastures, woods and animals without impairing our view.  Additionally, I have measured about a 30 degree fall in temperature in the sunshine period of the day.  Thats remarkable and does what we wanted.

From the outside, the windows look a little like a drug dealers car but, hey, nobody back here but Bambi, Porky, Rockin Robin and well you know.

This will save us cooling money in the summer and  when we finally get the sun room remodeled we can enjoy all of the best view with reduced heat in the summer and hail protection when the storms come thru.






Don't forget to go the Curry Road Memories page and send us some info, we're ready to share all we can

New Page For Collecting Old Stories and History

We're moving on up!!!!!

No, really, we have added a new page or pages to the blog.  If you notice just below the first picture on the blog home page a listing for "Home" {thats where you are now} and one called "Curry Road Memories,,,,"    If you click on the Curry Road Memories link you will be taken to a new page that will have a lot of history, fun stories, sad stories, and just facts about the Curry Road home and the people that have grown up in or around the old place.

You can still stay on the Home page and click on the different "posts" shown on the left hand margin of the page or you can go to the Memories page and see those posts.

We hope to add other pages as we go including food, travel and humor so stay tuned and enjoy.

Finally,,,, We've Got History Info!!!!!!

Well, we finally found some good resources for the history of this old house and we know you will find it entertaining and very interesting.  I'm going to try to introduce these resources to you and I probably will get a little of it wrong, but we are so excited about the new information that I'll come back and correct any errors in the lines of family members, but,,,,,

Unfortunately, Mrs Juanita Curry, wife of Mr. Royce Curry, son of Mr. W.G. Curry passed away.  Her funeral was today and we offer our condolences to Mr. Curry and all of his family.  As is often the case this funeral was the reason for most of Mrs Juanita's family to come back for the services.   Many of the family came by to see their old home and pay respect to the family and family history they all enjoyed here in the old Curry house.

Mr. Emmet Green Curry built this old house in 1929 and Mr. W.G. Curry eventually owned this old house where he and his wife, Miss Erma, lived here for many years.  Mr. W.G. (uncle G to some) and Miss Erma were the center of many of the family "get togethers" and many kids grew up here or within a half a mile of this old house and many other old homesteads.  We heard so many old stories that we are actually in "over load" but we have been promised written input, pictures and recounts of many tales of the past from several family members.


Approximately 100 yards to the south of the Curry home lived the Cope family.  The senior Copes' were sisters and/or brothers of the Curry family and Jerrilyn (Cope) Bulloch, Dorthty (Cope) Brighton and David Cope were brother and sisters and younger children and actually grew up here on this farm and their adjacent farm.  The picture below is of (left to right)  Jerrilyn, David, Dot Cope and Robert Donald Curry.  Jerrilyn currently lives in Huntsville, TX, David lives in Helena, AR and Dot lives in Mt Pleasant, TX.  Robert Donald owns the house and he and Kay have commissioned the restoration and live here on Curry Road.

Jerrilyn has man old pictures and items that she has promised to share with us so we post them on the blog, so look forward to hearing more from her.  David and Dot have more stories than we will ever be able to post but we're going to try.

Just to start with, we took Dot into the front bedroom and guess what?   She quickly stated that she was born in this very room just ,,,,,,,, a few years ago.   Is that neat or what?  We asked her to pick her place int he bedroom and let us take her picture, thats her below.

David has many stories to remember about the place and wonderful love of W.G and Erma and the great history of this old place.

We're going to really enjoy these stories and we want to include them for all to read and remember.

Again, if I get a name wrong or a relation wrong, we'll correct that for sure. We are just so excited to have such a resource for the complete story we want to build and share for all.

Thanks to the Copes for coming into the restoration life and stories that this Old House olds.

Anyone else that has some stories that can be shared will be welcomed and will help us make a complete recap of the history of this great old house.  So,,,,,,, get connected and let's go.

Thought you might want to see the progress

 Well, here is the window treatment.













The lighting and the colors are really working for us.  At least for our taste!






Doesn't this make you want to come and visit with us and have a glass of friendship wine?

We're Back

Well, we've been very busy.  Its been a long winter time with snow and cold weather and all that regular stuff.  But,,,,, we've been completely consumed with the KITCHEN.

We figure we'll spend most of our "real time" in the kitchen so we've spent a lot of time and effort in the restoration.  We decided, after much deliberation and struggling, to ceramic tile the counter tops and to build an island and to tile it also.  While we were at it, we decided to put a high "back splash" of the tile around all of the counter tops.  Eventually we decided to tile the east wall of the kitchen to help integrate the lighted accent box and to balance the entire wall.

 The island is large, 5'x42" and was built to be "moveable"around the area.  The tile was accented with a set of smaller tile in the middle that would eventually be the accent on the wall.  Lots of time but, hey, its were we live, right?

As with any remodeling project of an older home, nothing is square or plumb.  So when we finally got to tiling the wall we had to draw all kinds of level lines and plum lines and ?? anyway, it looked crazy for a while.




Anyway, we finally completed the wall, the accent box and it turned out pretty good as far as we are concerned.  The box has rope lights inside the box and we installed pendent lights over the cook top.

We liked the color of the box so much that we decided to install a "shelf" along the entire north wall of the kitchen.  We built the shelf out of wood cut and milled on the farm and the support hinges are built in a replica of the exterior roof hinges or support brackets.  The cornice board was added to accent the large kitchen windows and we have since installed pendent lights just like the lights under the accent box above.  Just to make a "show", we added rope lights on the top of shelf to help accent the "tin look" ceiling we worked so hard to install.

Spring is passing and summer is here so more to follow. We just wanted you all to know that we are still working and its just getting better (as far as we're concerned)

Stay tuned, we'll catch up on the work and the info as we now have more time to blog.

Come see us,,,,, God Bless

Well, Two Posts In One Day, Tells You How Cold It Is Outside

Guilt has won out and we're back for our second post for the day.
You're probably getting tired of hearing about the kitchen but we've got more exciting news.

Yep, we laid the flooring and now we have the ceiling and the floor completed.  (Almost, except for the quarter round on the floor)

The flooring really makes a difference and we are enjoying the view.  We put a lot of insulation down under the flooring to make the kitchen a little more warmer in the winter.  It worked and we're warm and pretty in the kitchen now.  (Actually, the house is, not necessarily me and Jane.)

The flooring actually help improve the lighting in the kitchen.  (although this picture does not indicate it)

We were going to put ceramic tile down in the kitchen but to keep the flow from the dining room to the kitchen we switched to the flooring.

The combined effort for color and decor is getting there.  You can see the moulding, ceiling tile, display cabinet and wall colors are beginning to come together.

We are starting on building or locating the correct sized island/cabinet for the kitchen.  We think we will build it ourselves since we cannot find the design we're looking for.  So,  that is next and then the counter tops and some more cabinet or shelf work for the walls.

We have had a lot of help and supervision from the group.   Donald and Kay both had to be called for some help in the kitchen effort and we appreciate their assistance.

We also had some good help from the local "supervisors"  Pink, White, Bud and Mama

 Pink and White supervising

"Bud" and Mama, just hanging

More to follow, we're moving into the hall for flooring and the 2nd bedroom for ceiling, flooring and wall work and should finish up in the "Sun Room" for spring.  We are really looking forward to the Sun Room work and enjoying the view this summer.

Thanks again for following and thanks to Donald and Kay for the opportunity.

 

Man its been five weeks since our last post!!!!!! Too Much Time!!!!

We can't believe that its been five weeks since our last post.  Time is flying by and we're getting more and more done but still not fast enough for everybody's desires.

The winter is here and its been colder than,,,,,, well pretty cold and lots of snow and ice and more snow and more rain and ice.  Anyway,,,, here's what we've been doing.

We have concentrated on the kitchen and its been a fun but lots of labor and some frustration.  And, as usual we always start on the ceiling and work to the floor.  (We stabilized the floor underneath this summer so we don't have to worry about that now.)

We decided to try to make the ceiling appear to be tin but we didn't want to actually put tin on the ceiling.  So, we located a series of vinyl ceiling tile made by Armstrong that could be painted.  Jane painted each tile three times!  First with a sage green, then she blotted each tile with a red and finally she glazed each tile with a gold glaze.  (200 of them buggers)  

We think the tiles turned out perfect.  The walls of the kitchen are yellow so the green and red accent colors gave us the effect we were looking for.  The gold glaze provided a "glare" or tin look when the lights shine on the ceiling.  



While Jane was painting the tiles I was busy preparing the old ceiling.  The old ceiling wall board was so old and fragile that we didn't think the tile would adhere to the ceiling.  So, we put 1and 1/4" lattice boards on the ceiling to fit the placement of the tiles.  This was time consuming but boy are we glad we did it.





Next we had to make "square".  As y0u may know in older homes, especially ones that are 100 years old, nothing is square or plumb anymore.  So we spent about a half a day trying to get square for our first ceiling tile.   This turned out to be a waste of time as were several other instructions in the tile box.  Its best to start on a wall and work to the other wall in an older home.  You can always cut the last row of tiles to fit the last wall covered.  Believe me, this is the better way, I don't care what Armstrong or DYI says.[Image][Image] After a long two or three days, several marriage counselor meetings and some serious praying, we were able to start the application process.  Guess what the strips were in the wrong place and had to be moved along the way.   Go figure!


















 Finally,  we got to the final, little bitty, pain in the neck tile.  Jane had to claim victory and proclaim,,,,,,,,, well, never mind.   Notice the pole with the towel, well thats how we glued the last three small tiles in place since the wood strips would not fit there either.  It worked so there.

Not being satisfied with the previous work, we decided to do another thing or two to accent the kitchen.  We actually were running out of tiles and didn't want to buy another expensive box so we built a display cabinet to cover the area we were short of ceiling tiles for.  (don't worry about the grammar)

This little beauty only took two days to finish which was a snap compared to the ceiling tiles.

We will have "rope lights" on the inside and halogen lights in the bottom to provide lighting on the cook top so it turned out pretty good.  You'll see this again in another post with the moulding and more finished.  It gives a good transition from the ceiling to the wall and ties them together.


I'm tired just writing about this work so I think I'll take a little break and come back with another post later on today.  With the weather here, I'm afraid I'll loose the post if I don't post it now.  


Come back shortly, We'll have more to review.