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| Old House Gets Facelift | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| by Sam Crenshaw | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The old house referred to in the title of this "Cotton Patch" column is the same one which I have immortalized for years after we purchased it in 1972 when it was 107 years old. You may recall, it is made of heart-pine wood—rough-hewn—and it has never seen a coat of paint. Our first look at the old house caused a metamorphosis to change Sheila from her city-bred self to "Mother Walton" of the old hit television show. No matter that there were long cracks in the floors allowing us to see the ground underneath the house, no closets to speak of, and only one electric light bulb in each room, suspended from the twelve-foot-high ceiling wire with a string which was used to turn on the "Edison Invention." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Many of you will recall the story as one in my book, "Stories From the Cotton Patch," in which Sheila kept saying the old house had possibilities, and I kept protesting until I talked her into buying the place. Many great old stories have come from our 33 years of ownership. Remodeling everything about the house on the inside, we never touched the outside. The exception to that was turning the old dog run between the main house and the original kitchen—a necessity in the early days in case of a fire—into bedrooms at first, and later into offices after our children grew longer in the tooth and moved away. (Author’s note to young readers: Ask Grandparents what a dog run was.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sheila & Sam circa 1964 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| After all these years, we decided to put into action the building of a screen porch in front—you know, one where you can invite folks to come on up and set a spell—and not be worried with mosquitoes, gnats, wasps and horse flies. As my youngest granddaughter, Kim says, "Paw Paw, We are gonna set up there and laugh at the mosquitoes." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| When we first purchased the modern-day equivalent of an antique house, we were only 35-years-old. You do the math and you can see that screening a porch was not a small undertaking for a couple of geezers like us, uh make that one geezer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The work ethic for both of us was still there, if not the energy level we had as younger would-be country folks. We started in March when the weather was still pleasant and we finished it in June, and we are both proud of our accomplishment. At Sheila’s insistence, we spared no cost, treated lumber, heavy lattice for decoration and for the protection against little folks who might accidentally lean against the screen. We even put an indoor-outdoor carpet down for class and practicality. We’ve already used it for eating breakfast, watermelons, listening to the crickets and frogs into the evening, rocking and swinging as we cooled off from the oppressive heat of the day.
Now, I’m not through, yet. However, it is more difficult for me to convince Sheila of what I think will be the finishing touch to our front lawn. Have you ever seen the beauty of white automobile tires buried halfway into the ground, just to improve the appearance of a house. Now, that is a thing of countryside beauty. |
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| copyright © 2006 Sam Crenshaw | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If you enjoyed this column, you should read If I Only had the Energy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| contact Sam at sam@samcrenshaw.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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