#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

#672 Ozarks Bungalow Research

Research continues on the history of our Ozarks Bungalow.

Research is fun - no matter where you do it.  I especially love research at the library.  And I've been known to spend a lot of time searching online sources from home.  This time, though, our successful research started at the Hair Shed. 

Through my hair stylist, we are lucky to meet Margaret, a descendant of the family who owned the lot before our house was built.  Sadly, this grand Victorian house burned around 1910, four years before the 1914 construction of our bungalow.  Here's how it stood proudly on our corner lot in 1907.  

Hinchey, R. E., & Berninghaus, O. E. (1907). Aurora: Lawrence County Missouri. St. Louis, MO: Buxton & Skinner, Printers and Publishers.

Through Margaret and her friend Carol Ann, we are introduced to Betty, who lived in the Ozarks Bungalow in the 1930s.  Betty's grandparents, the second owners, purchased the house in 1930 and lived in it for 50 years.  Here's what the house looked like in 1937 while Betty was living here. 

Lawrence County Historical Society (Mo.). (1900). Lawrence County in pictures, 1937. Mt. Vernon, Mo.: Lawrence County Historical Society.

Betty stopped by last week to help us figure out the alterations made by her grandparents in their big 1958 renovation. We still haven't discovered the original floor plan, so we're thrilled to hear Betty's stories about the now nonexistent back door, the pocket door that may or may not be still inside the wall, and the back porch that was re-used for the expanded kitchen.  

Yours in researching our house and meeting our neighbors,
Mary

#671 Ozarks Bungalow featured in American Bungalow

After years of subscribing to American Bungalow, we now receive our copies in the mailbox at our very own Ozarks Bungalow.

The latest issue is of particular appeal.  For one thing, we love the wisteria on the cover.

And inside (on page 8 to be exact), we find our Ozarks Bungalow included in the family album:

We're excited to be included and we look forward to continuing our renovation documentation here in our blog.  To see only our posts about bungalow renovation, just click on the the bungalow label at the right.

Yours in being part of the bungalow family,
Mary

#670 Overhead Garage Door Returns Home

They just don't make them like this anymore.

Our Overhead Door opener Model H is is 60 years old, has been in constant use since the 1950s, and still works well.  

We decide to replace it in order to take advantage of the modern-day safety stops and remote controls. But what to do with our classic?   

We offer to donate it back to the installer, Overhead Door of Springfield, and they snap up our offer.  Soon our Model H will be getting the rest it deserves, in an exhibit at the Overhead Door district office in Kansas City. 

Yours in recycling,

Kelly