How About This New Front Porch

We finally got back around to the front porch in our projects.  Our entire process was to work on and complete this remodeling project based on our required needs and our most desired wants.  As you may remember we started with the bathroom, because, well our priorities were arranged to take care of the daily issues and needs.  (Duh!)  Then we moved on to the living room, dining room and kitchen, again our priority needs.   Recently we posted the sun room completion and that was really one of our most desired "wants'.   Finally, we have gotten to another of our "wants", the front porch.

Now we can have a party on the front porch.  We enjoy sitting on this porch each morning at sunrise and evening at sunset.  Its the best place in the world to start a day and finishing a day.  Really, if we do this everyday, we never have a bad day.

We still have a few things to do to get the finished look we want but there is plenty of room for everybody to come and sit with us and enjoy the moment.  We will be completing the walkway and steps in the next few days but we're so proud of this part we wanted to show it.  We'll actually pour a semicircle platform where the step is located now and then add a brick step to get up on the porch.

We also have two swings on the porch and that makes a real good space even better.

Winter's coming, deer season is around the corner and thanksgiving is not that far away.  Come see us and we'll see that you have plenty to eat.

(PS  How bout them Cardinals?)

Fall In Cleveland and Bradley County

Fall evidently comes to south Arkansas just two days before winter.  The temps down here are still in the 90's and upper 80's in the daytime and 60's in the evenings.  But, fall is normally for the time for state fairs and museum openings, etc.  This past week Jane and I visited the Bradley County Museum to see what we could find.

The museum is in the old Dr. John Wilson Martin house, 200 Ash Street Warren AR.   Dr. Martin was one of the first doctors in the area and was involved with the establishment of Warren as a community for logging and some farming.  The house is beautiful old home and very well refinished on the outside.   The design was representative of the more affluent class of life in its time.  Two story with porches on the first and second floors, a "T" type design with the cooking area in the back of the home with room designed for food storage adjacent to the cooking (and most often eating) areas.   The floors and ceilings were all hardwood construction and they are still in fairly good condition.  All materials are from local production of beautiful hardwoods and pine woods.  We wish there were more facts and information about the place and its history but the visit was very interesting and enjoyable.

One of the more interesting pieces in the museum was a device that ladies apparently had to use to get their hair "fixed" in the olden days.  

 This device was about six feet tall and looked like the execution device in a federal prison.  The main power came into a "tree" of off shooting lines with huge "paper clip" ends that were clamped onto the ladies curls.  Electricity or current traveled through the lines and heated the clamps.  Keep in mind the lady sat down under the center of this thing and had all of about 240 volts of power running to her hair (and within inches of her brain).

The closeup will give you a better of an idea about the beauty parlor of the early years.

I know the person that invented this machine was proud but,,,, I think it could have been more adaptable to the armies of eastern european disciplines.

The staff was very helpful and allowed us to freely walk and enjoy the museum.  There were various pictures and artifacts to enjoy and we wish there would have been more information about those items for us to enjoy and share.

Another reason to come and visit us, we'll take you to this museum and several others one in the area.

Great history in the area.

Come see us

Sun Room, Sun Porch, Sleeping Room (whatever) update

We have been waiting to get into this room for over a year and a half and as you may can tell we're really enjoying the finishing touches.  Jane has had a chance to do a little decorating but there is more to come.

The weather cooled off to high 70's or low 80's during the day and upper 50's during the evening hours the very day we began to occupy the sun room.  Boy has it been perfect, no A/C no heat just the normal weather and beautiful sunsets.

Thought you might like to see some more of the improvements we've made just in time for TV football time.

 The room is 18.5' X 17' so its spacious enough to have plenty of room.

The ceiling is original as the wall is and both are tongue and groove bead board.  We were able to save all of the walls and ceiling with a little hard work and paint.

Loving it, we're blessed, come on down and visit us, we'll keep the light on for you.

The Long Awaited "Sun Porch"

Well, we've finally gotten to the back of the house in the remodeling and are we excited.  One of the major reasons we have been so excited about being allowed to remodel this ole house was the expectations of getting the Sun Porch Room completed.

As you may know, the Sun Porch was sometimes called a "Sleeping Porch" in olden days.  The room is on the south and west corner of the house and that's where the primary winds come from.  In the days before air conditioners people would line the walls with windows and open them up in the summer to enjoy the summer breezes and sleep in comfort.


As you may remember we had some pictures of the sun room with the windows being replaced.  This was one of the first things we did when we got here because the old room was in such bad shape we were afraid that we'd loose the windows and the room.   We had to remove all the windows on the west end of the house, rebuild the sash board and most of the windows and put them back in place.




Took all of us as you may remember, including Kay to help get them back in place and re-installed.  We put off any more restoration of the room as we worked from the front of the house to the back taking care of the bath, kitchen and bedrooms as our initial priorities.

We used this room for our work area and store room for about 14 months until we could get the other rooms completed.  This was Jane's painting room, my sawing and framing room and storage for everything we could get in there during the past winter.

For most of the time the room was not heated or cooled while we used it for the storage and work area. 

We, we haven't finished the room totally yet, but, we've got it cooled, heated, the flooring down, the ceiling repaired and all of this is painted.  We just finished installing our wall mounted TV and got some furniture moving in.  Couldn't wait to "show it off".   We'll do more and write about it later but we can finally see some progress and closure to the room.  

The room is a bright green with all white wood work and floor is Oak laminate. This shows a few of the west windows and the door opening from the "mud room" and back door.

The couch-ottoman and chairs were given by Donna (thanks again) and the glass table came from the "River" property that Donald and Kay add for several years.  This view is the southwest corner looking from the TV wall.

This view is coming in from the hall way and the front of the house.  There are more doors in this house than Chin's in a Chinese phone book!  But,,,,, we use every one of them, doors that is, not Chin's.

Once again, we have to say how blessed we are for the opportunity and the experience.  Again, come see us and enjoy with us.

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.