#679 Construction Debris

So far, our home renovation project has generated a TON of construction debris!

For photographic evidence, here's a pile of 6 months of construction debris secreted away in our garage.  Recently, we had the joy of moving the debris (sheet rock scraps, plaster, lathe, kitchen ceramic floor tiles, plywood) out of our garage into a dumpster.

 

And we hauled away our metal construction debris to the local recycling shop.

The cash for the metal is, of course, welcome.

But the biggest reward of all is this spacious drive-in garage!

Yours in loving a good purge,
Mary

#678 Lighting the Ozarks Bungalow

Lighting is important and as we get older, we all need more.

So as you can imagine, lighting is a big topic of conversation around our home during remodeling projects.  Through the years, Kelly has built several stained glass lamps and back in 2001, he even built these rustic metal and mica wall sconces for our friend Joyce's cabin.

But for our Ozarks Bungalow renovation, Kelly does not need to build our lamps.  Instead, our friend Matthew discovered two perfect lamps at Charlottesville's Habitat Restore.  The Deschutes Chandelier sells for $950 at Rejuvenation Lighting, but Matthew purchases two for a tenth of the price and with much appreciation and celebration, we pick them up in Charlottesville earlier this year.     

Some modifications are needed, so Kelly shortens the over-long down-rod and turns the lamps up rather than down.  (I never did care to look at a bare bulb.)

 And Voila!  We now have a classic Craftsman chandelier hanging in our living room and our parlor.

Thank goodness for Matthew or Kelly may have been tempted to recreate this sled lamp.

Yours in appreciation of good lighting,
Mary

#677 Crane Creek to Ozarks Bungalow

We became the fifth owners of our 101-year-old Ozarks Bungalow when we purchased it in 2009 from the fourth owner - local celebrity Wayne Holmes.

"Wayne was salty, opinionated, rough-edged, and devoted to the things he held dear, which included his countryside, his stories, his family, Shakespeare, and good writing." - Steve Wiegenstein

Wayne also held dear the Ozarks Bungalow. In a captivating tale, he told us how he had always loved the house and one day, he just walked up to the front door and rang the door bell.  When the third owners answered, he offered to buy it on the spot and named his price.

Previously on this blog, we've told the story of how we came to own the Ozarks Bungalow: finding a For Sale sign in the yard via Google Street View from 1,000 miles away.  During the purchase process, we had the opportunity to meet Wayne and his lovely wife Mary Lou and hear first-hand their story of how they came to own it. Wayne was the consummate storyteller and we have a copy of his memoir Rocky Comfort to prove it. He passed away in September 2014 but not before he had the chance to live in his dream house and leave his mark upon it.

Wayne and Mary Lou had a country home along Crane Creek.  From there, they transplanted a variety of trees around the yard of the Ozarks Bungalow and installed a bent Osage Orange fence post at just the right angle to be used as a hand rail for the deck.

Wayne saved the green roof tiles from a building being demolished on his home campus of Drury University and reused them as a slate floor in the sun porch.  He added a pellet stove and created another living space to be used year round.  (This sun porch is perfect for our interim living room during our renovation.)

Wayne transported tons of rocks from Crane Creek in order to build a long (100 feet) rock wall along the west edge of the property.   

Wayne and Mary Lou placed a canning bucket along the rock wall to give us a lovely view from the kitchen window.

They also installed a canning bucket for a mailbox at their Crane Creek home.  I love that connection between the two properties.

Yours in appreciation of the great care taken of the Ozarks Bungalow through the years,
Mary

#676 Ozarks Bungalow flooring

A lot has been happening at our Ozarks Bungalow.

Lately, we've been focused on flooring.  In the photo below, the living room floor in the background had been covered with carpeting that we removed in August. Then there's a gap where the wall used to be and the kitchen flooring is in the foreground.

The kitchen floor was covered with tile and we removed that in February.

Underneath both of those floor coverings, we found tongue-in-groove 1.5-inch white oak and that's what we want to keep.  So in preparation for refinishing the living room and kitchen floors, Kelly has been installing new flooring to fill the gap between the two rooms.

Two-year-old Sam is a big help.  He especially likes to deliver nails from the nail box to Kelly's hand -

unless, of course, he's way too busy eating grapes.

Yours in flooring,
Mary

#675 Butterfield Overland Mail Route in Missouri

Five miles south of our home, the historic Butterfield Overland Mail Route meanders through the Missouri Ozarks and we are on a mission to find it!

The Butterfield Overland Mail Company held the US government contract for mail delivery between Saint Louis and San Francisco from 1857 to 1861.  Using stagecoaches, celerity wagons, and 139 horse relay stations along the route, the mail could be delivered nearly 3,000 miles in 25 days.

We knew parts of the old trail still existed, so we set out to find it.  Lucky for us, the route comes close to our home and there's a map guy in the family.

Sometimes the trail is easy to find - such as when the road is labeled "Butterfield Trail Road."  (I bet those stagecoach drivers would have loved a Garmin GPS!)  

Other sections of the trail, though, are not so easy to find.  But if you persevere, you will see some beautiful Missouri country and come closer to imagining what it might have been like to travel by stage 150 years ago.

Waterman Ormsby, a reporter for the New York Herald, was the only through passenger on the first coach to leave Saint Louis.  For his first-hand account of the 24-day trip beginning September 26, 1858, be sure to read:

Ormsby, Waterman Lilly, Lyle Henry Wright, and Josephine M. Bynum. 1942. The Butterfield overland mail. San Marino, Calif: The Huntington library. 

Yours in traveling by pretend-stagecoach through beautiful Missouri,
Mary

#674 Good fences make good neighbors

Spring came - as we knew it would - so we bounded out of the house and stayed there.

One thing that keeps us outdoors is rebuilding the fence.  The old fence was built in the 1980s two owners ago - we believe - so it is showing some age and is leaning quite a bit.  Most of all, we just don't think this style of dog-eared privacy fence is a good match for our Ozarks Bungalow.

We tear down about 40' of fence and then Kelly designs 2 fences, each mimicking an architectural detail of our house. We really want our new fence to connect with our home, to be beautiful on its own, and to be less aggressively private.  Kelly gets to work with his table saw, circular saw, speed square, and drill to reuse the old lumber and build a prototype of our favorite of the 2 designs.

The new fence is shorter than the old fence, has some horizontal accent lines, and has some windows at the top for a friendlier nod to the neighbors. We like the prototype and green light the project.

It's been a while since Kelly used a post-hole digger, but he still seems to enjoy it.

The three windows at the top of each fence panel are intended to mimic the three-over-one windows in the nearby sun porch.

  

So far, we've completed and installed about 25 feet of new-old fence.

Yours in building fences,
Mary

#673 Ozarks Bungalow Research via Social Media

As our Ozarks Bungalow research continues, we turn to social media to learn all we can about the history of our home.

Stories from Aurora is a Facebook group of about 1900 members.  Who better to ask? 

So last month, we posed the question, "what memories do you have of this 100-year-old house on College Street across from Oak Park?"

Here are some of our favorite responses:

I believe Mrs. O. E. Moore lived in this home. I remember visiting her in this home in the 50's. I in particular remember built in mirrored cabinets in the dining room. Sure hope I'm not leading you astray and thinking of Bob and Irene Moore's original home which was on Elliott. Beautiful picture of this home---it has been well cared for and loved thru the years. Enjoy!

I used to mow the lawn at that house for several years when Mrs. Moore lived there.... Took two and a half hours and paid $10. She built the house next door too and I had to do both.....Kept me skinny long time. She was always very nice to me. Time line 1971 to 1975

They always bought girl scout cookies from me.

It has kept its age very well, I've been in the house when the Moores lived there and they were very picky about the house. I thought the living room was odd and not very big with lots of doors all around. It was pretty with the fireplace going as you walked up the steps to the front door. I always enjoyed the room to the right, I think it was a study or a family room, it had lots of light shining in. But its still a beautiful home today. I didn't know it was that old however. Enjoy your stay in a landmark home.

Does the kitchen still have pink appliances? I had never seen pink before.

I walked and jumped all over the concrete wall around it while waiting for the bus every day! Still live just down the street!

One of Aurora's finest homes of the past. They don't build them like that any more.

That home should be on the National Registry. Also can you fit your car in the garage, its so narrow. Are the flower beds still there, Mrs. Moore was really picky with those and worked in them all the time.

I always loved that house. I cleaned for Mrs Moore in the late 70's. I thought the ceiling in the living room was awesome. Mrs Moore said she got the idea from Better Homes and Garden.

This is one of my favorite houses in Aurora!

I have been your neighbor for the last 9 years and have admired the simple elegance of the home.

I have looked at that house almost everyday since I was a small child. I have always loved how beautiful it is.

Yours in appreciating the benefits of crowd sourcing and the kind words of our neighbors,
Mary