The Walton House--Continued

In the garage, I can still see all the boots we had, ranging from tinys to adults.  I had it covered for boots at any age, any size.  

There were a lot of boots.

And bike helmets.

 

 

 

The hard, wooden basement stairs that every one of our kids tumbled down.  Since Gary actually witnessed Sam going down, he quickly put up the tubular bars as a railing.

 

The growth chart on the door trim of the basement.  I considered recreating it at our current house.

Plenty of open space to play Sharks and Minnows now.  Except it was never this open and clean when we lived there when it was filled with train tracks and Lego's and fire trucks and baby dolls and dress up clothes and tractors.  And stamping stuff.  And books.  How could I ever forget all those books? 

Finishing the basement was a big project for us and was ongoing for years it seems.  I remember freaking out over the carpet Gary brought home for it.  It was four or five different colors/patterns of carpet squares that he got for a deal and I could not imagine what he was thinking and how would we ever make this into a suitable looking place with that kind of craziness.  It turned out rather cool, I will admit.  We used the different colors to define different “rooms” of the basement, including the partial checkerboard as a play area. 

Here’s the new radon mitigation system that again is money spent for something I get no pleasure from at all. 

Phooey on that whole concept.

  

This nightlight will burn perpetually from now to eternity (or until the bulb burns out) in honor of the night Grant, about 8 years old, slept-walked downstairs into the pitch black basement and then woke up there in complete total darkness, not knowing anything about where he was.  He yelled for his parents that were soundly asleep in their bed, two stories up and out of ear shot.  Finally, he felt the distinct tubular railings, figured out where he was, and made it upstairs to save himself. 

The dining room that used to have white carpet that didn’t remain white for long with four little kids eating in there every meal, every day.  I never did tackle the wallpaper in this room, the only room that I didn’t actually. 

 

 

Little boys will throw Matchbox cars into ceiling fans. 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack’s room door had a lock high up and a childproof doorknob on the outside.  He really didn’t like the sibs getting into his room.

Caroline’s room.  It was the smallest, but so awesome since it was all pink and yellow.  Thank you, Grandma Barbara.

In her closet, there was an access panel to the bathroom plumbing. Early in the marriage we had a memorable Valentine’s Day where we had a leak and started working at tearing out the entire shower of the master bath.  I wondered why we didn’t just go at it from this access thing, but didn’t say anything because I didn’t think (at that time) there could possibly be a better alternative solution that I could think of that Gary hadn’t.  This little bugger taught me to just speak up.     

The laundry chute I loved and now miss.

Our master bedroom window.  I had two little, little boys and going out to a store or any kind of shopping was really not easy.  I saw an ad for a designer consultant that would come to your house, so I had her come.  Looking back, I’m thinking now the scope of the job was probably not quite what she was used to since all I had her do was come up with a blind and curtain rod for this one window, but this is my custom ordered wooden window blinds and curtain rod.   

The spot in our bedroom, but not the original carpet, where again early in our marriage I shook an open (didn’t know that part) bottle of bright red fingernail polish and it left stringy stripes of polish on the before mentioned white carpet.  Even before kids, white carpet was a bad idea.  I will never forget Gary asking me “Why do you wear that stuff anyway?”  I never polished my nails again, except for the rare occasion of going to something really special like a wedding.

Oak, oak, and more oak in this house.  Bathroom vanity.

 

The fanciest towel bars I had ever seen, I bought at Burlington Coat Factory.  In addition to oak, oak, and more oak, this house was brassy, brassier, and brassiest. Oh, the kids’ tub where many a naked bottom and bubble mingled.

The shower doors from hard water hell that I spent countless hours trying to clean, totally unsuccessfully despite all the good advice you can find on the Internet.

 

 

The stairs also known as the kids’ indoor playground.  There was maniacal giggling by toddlers throwing balls up and down, sliding things down the banister, bodies sliding down either on the bottom, the belly, or on some object.  Lots of fun on these stairs.  Too bad the tile at the bottom was so hard.

 

Entry way and main floor bathroom had this tile, so easy to clean, and I will forever be a big fan of tile.

The wallpaper I chose for the kitchen during the re-do and the cubbies/backpack holder Gary built.  Looking back, I think I should have skipped the floral.  Unlike the golden monkey wallpaper of the main floor bathroom!  I didn’t snap any pictures, but that wallpaper was the best on Earth and I still love it and it looked so awesome for a bathroom.

I bought these knobs for the laundry room doors because I was impressed with their heavy weight.   Gary got a lot of making-fun-of mileage out of that considering once they were bolted onto the door, you can’t tell if they weigh a half an ounce or half a pound.   

 

My kitchen window view was not bad at all, until Scooter came along and I had to see him and his messes.  Seriously, it was a great backyard.

Oh, I loved this kitchen re-do we tackled over the span of a couple of years.  Loved the granite, the slate, the window trim, the new ceiling (de-popcorned), the outlet covers, the under cabinet lighting, everything.  I so wish I had my big roomy Walton kitchen at the new place.  A most excellent kitchen.

  Strips of wet carpet yesterday out drying in the sun and the most familiar sight, Gary’s truck in the driveway.  Ok, sappy/corny warning:  One of the best sounds I remember from the years in the house, besides the kids’ happy laughing, was the sound of the garage door lifting because I knew that meant Gary was home. 

This is the door in the garage; this side is still  painted the original dark brown that the front door was when we first moved in. 

The house was so dark and definitely needed some energy and light and life back in 1997.  I painted and we eventually brought in four beaming little beings that seemed to fill the whole house with warmth. 

Walton House, we will miss you, and thanks for all the memories.  

.

The Walton House (smile)

We bought our first home in 1997, this one, when we had been married just a few months.  Funny thing is, the first time I drove past it, I knew I wasn’t interested in the house given, I guess, the look of it in the winter?  There was water collected on one part of the driveway and Gary and I both wanted no part of that house.  (???)  The second time I drove past it, though, I decided it deserved a further look.  Once we got inside, I think we knew right then and there that we wanted to buy it.  And we’ve had no regrets on that decision at all. 

Today I walked through with my camera to say goodbye to the place and it did rouse some nostalgia.  We had some wonderful things happen at that house. 

It was a four bedroom cul-de-sac house built in the mid 80’s.  Perfect for what we hoped would become a nice sizable family.  We slept on the floor in this exact spot in front of the fireplace in the family room the first night we owned the place.  Except then it had yucky old dog hair smelling carpet.  I vividly remember lying there with Gary, looking at the view through the kitchen to the dining room from this spot in the family room (~65 feet in length), thinking, oh my, what have we done buying such a big house.   

It didn’t take long for us to start making it our own place.  There were no trees whatsoever in the nearly an acre yard.  The previous owners weren’t outdoor people, we gathered.  We planted and replanted saplings that just never seemed to take off in the clay soil or if they did grow, the deer munched them down.  Finally, we were successful in getting  stand of wind-breaking pines and spruces.  Amazing to see the size of them now. 

In less than two years, Baby Jack came along and something had to be done with the west side exposure.  The summer sun was so intense that I didn’t even want to take him outside in the backyard.  Gary, with help from his mom and dad, built this pergola.  Originally I planted morning glories and tried another plant, coffee bean or something, that produced long brown pods of seeds but neither gave us the coverage I wanted.  I tried to plant shoots from our neighbor’s  vine, but they wouldn’t take so finally I bought two little spindly  trumpet vines from Wal Mart and they have turned into this.   Gary just trimmed the vines this week for his last time ever.  I don’t think he will ever allow anymore trumpet vine given all the years he had to deal with keeping it out of the gutters and all, but I loved all the hummingbird action and especially all the wonderful shade it provided.

We, I’m sure with parental help again, laid a sidewalk and patio with pavers Gary bought for a steal from a company in Wood River.  I remember his truck being loaded down so heavy with loads of these that I thought the springs might break.  I also remember not approving of his pattern with the different colors of the pavers but you know, they all look the same color anymore. 

This spot is from when Miss Caroline got into some pink paint and trotted her footprints all across the sidewalk.  That’s been six years or so and it really hasn’t faded or worn off much.   I also remember the little slices of paver Mr. Persnickety cut to give the walk a perfectly lined edge but soon they were swallowed up by the grass that just didn’t respect his boundaries.  

Almost two years later, Jack was joined by Baby Grant and a fence was a necessity for this mama’s sanity.  Again, you can just assume Grandma and Grandpa Gill were here helping us because yep, they were.  From now on, each project that’s mentioned, you can assume they were here.  Grandma would watch the kids and Grandpa would build, dig, hammer, whatever, but sometimes Grandma did that part, too.  Jack would drop Matchbox cars into the post holes as soon as they were dug.  Cars would have to be cleaned out before the posts could go in.  Once the boards were up, he drove his cars along the horizontal boards.  The kids didn’t take long to figure out they could unlock the gate so we had some complicated chain thing on that did keep them foiled until a certain age.  That fence was a great thing.

Soon after, we needed a playground.  Gary designed it himself and built it all, using some really large bolts.  Haha, inside joke.   He bought gobs of stuff at a factory auction one time and ended up with so many of these huge bolts that he set up a spot at the Belleville Flea Market and finally unloaded them all.  They would have been useful in so many other projects over the years that now he wishes he still had them.  We bought the slides of course, but otherwise, Gary constructed all the rest.  Grant and  Jack spent countless hours playing in the gravel here, and climbing up this little ladder to the top of the twisty slide.  All four kids wore several years of life off the bottoms of their britches on that twisty slide. One of their favorite summer things was to put the hose at the top to make the bumpy slide a water slide.  They flew down that as fast as lightning and eventually they’d have quite a mud pit formed at the bottom. 

Little lightweight Sam would fly off the end so rocketing fast, it about threw him into the brick of the house.

When Gary started building the playground, he asked me if he should angle the boards off; I had no idea and said it was fine as is, but you know, it did look a lot better so he finished it that way.  I think he thought he might go back and take off those original boards and cut them but never did.  We were kinda busy.   The highest level was to have a roof but that was another thing that we put off and then the kids grew to be tall enough that a roof wasn’t gonna work out too well afterall. 

 

Back to our shade less yard, my grandma gave us little volunteer fast-growing maples she pulled from her yard and let me tell you, these things have made some excellent backyard shade.  Here you can see this one’s recent growth has uprooted the brick that used to be be nowhere near it.  Trees and kids have a thing about growing so fast you sometimes can’t believe your eyes.

 

This is the fork of the silver maple Gary brought home to me to make amends for the original tree he weed eated down, twice I think.  One spring I watched a nest in the fork of this tree go from holding eggs to little hatchlings.  Gary will never let me forget the final time I peered into the nest and freaked out the baby birds who took a leap out of the nest prematurely.  They were wobble-walking around the yard, unable to fly and the mom came dive bombing me and squawking all afternoon.  I ended up in tears bawling and sobbing like a crazy woman the rest of the day (ok, maybe week) knowing that I had done that to the bird family.  Being a mom myself, I couldn’t help but feel the stress of that mama bird. 

Here’s the same tree with the now flattened area in the foreground that was formerly “the hill”, the  berm that became a favorite playing spot for the kids and was created out of the dirt that was excavated for the patio.  Rather than haul it all the way back to the field, it got dumped in the yard and was intentionally made into a fun play place.  I will say though more than one person wondered just who we had buried there.

This is the former site of my little garden, where the dirt of the hill eventually ended up.  That was the Mother’s Day my kids will never forget.  All this mom wanted as a gift was a raised garden bed. Well, maybe a beautiful fountain too but mostly a garden.  The kids will tell you it was the worst day of their life, having to work outside all day long at it.  Not kidding, they still crab about it.  Gary and I took it out this summer while the house was for sale and just let the grass come in so it could be mowed easily.  Unfortunately for all the kids’ labor, the only things worthwhile that that garden (or I) ever produced were cucumbers out of the wazoo and monster sunflowers. 

Wow, I’ve only covered the yard so far.  I think I better divide this up so watch for more following on the Walton house, next, the interior.

Vacation Finally!—Day 1

 

Things were working out fairly smoothly for us. The renters in the Walton house moved out mid-July and we have buyers with a contract on the house (yeehaw!) to be closed on in August. That seemed to work out perfectly. Even better, the buyers were eager to get into the house, so they proposed this week to move up the closing date from August 15 to the 5th. That was a welcomed idea for us since it meant we would be able to get out from the burden of owning two homes a little sooner. We’ve had enough of it after more than a year. It did, however, put a rush on us to get things in place before we left on our long- awaited vacation. We’ve had multiple unexpected hoops to jump through in the past week following the home inspection since it turned up radon in the house along with evidence of some past termite activity on a wall of the garage, so it’s been particularly challenging getting the right people to do what we needed in a short time frame, but we felt successful at being able to get those things arranged and done so we could take off.

Today was the day we signed what papers we could for the sale and our realtor would cover the rest for us on the actual closing day. Easy peasy. Just sign the papers and then we will be on our way...on our way to two nights in Nashville at the fabulously cushy Opryland hotel before we headed on to Florida for sun and beach and fun and family and relaxation. Relaxation is what we are in need of the most.

Can I just add planning for and packing for six of us to be gone to five different destinations over the span of two weeks travelling in a jam packed mini van would have been challenging enough without all this house stuff thrown in? Not crabbing, just facting.

So anyway, we finished our paper signing appointment with the title company this morning and decided to swing by the Walton house for a little goodbye, just Gary and I, a final walk through since we would no longer have access, we would no longer own it!, once we returned from our vacation. We have fifteen really important years of our life tied into that place.

So glad we decided to let our sentimental sides steer us that way.

We walked in and immediately heard the sound of running water. I thought a faucet must have been left on in the kitchen somehow. We’d had the radon guy in the day before and the termite guy earlier that morning, so somehow they musta left water running.

No, it was the ice maker water line coming up through the kitchen floor that was pouring water like it was a faucet. Gary ran down to the basement to shut off the water supply. It didn’t look too bad on the kitchen floor. There was standing water, but the whole kitchen was not flooded. Turns out, that’s only because all the water had gone down through the floor to the basement. The hole under the cook stove left from our former down-draft stove made a pretty good drain for the water to run down for what might have been up to three hours.

Gary had taken out the fridge that morning and capped off the ice maker line, but it apparently didn’t hold.

Right away I told Gary to go next door to get a wet vac from our neighbors and in case you don’t know it, we had the best neighbors on Walton.  I miss them so much.  The street was full of true neighbors that were always right there to offer friendliness and help any time it was needed.  They let us borrow anything they had.  Eggs, boxes of Jello, muscles to lift heavy things, come-along tools, anything.  From Day One, they welcomed us into the neighborhood, onto their street.

They were all original to the street when it was built.  We were the newcomers, the outsiders transplanted in, but still they welcomed home all our new babies. They laughed with and enjoyed our kids like they were their own grandchildren.  All that on top of the best people you’d ever want to live by.  That was one hard thing to give up when we decided to move.

So here we are, knocking again on a dependable neighbor’s door.

We started to clean up the water with the borrowed wet vac, but we had absolutely nothing else since the house was completely vacant. Not even a paper towel. Gary left me running the shop vac while he went home to get a mop, buckets, fans, another shop vac, anything that would help, not to mention new parts for capping off the line. 

As the water was still cascading down from the basement ceiling like a moderately heavy rain, I knew this job was beyond what we could handle.  Also, just  picture me shop vac’ing in this soppy carpet mess wearing my flowy summer dress and heels since I was supposed to be on, hello?, vacation. 

It was finally my chance to WWKWW.

I called a disaster service at random and the guy could come in two hours. I let it be known that I was to be leaving on a long awaited vacation and he needed to be coming right now. Funny how assertive meek Diane can be when her vacation plans are looking wrecked. He got there in about one hour.
He and another guy vacuumed out water and set up huge air mover fans and dehumidifiers. Kitchen cabinets had to be moved which meant breaking the grout that welded the granite countertop to the slate back splash. The stove, even the huge pantry cabinet, had to be moved out.

Suffice it to say the two times we have had a need for a claim to our homeowners’ insurance at this house, I have cringed when remembering we have a $1000 deductible. The previous time was in 1999 when we had to get half a roof replaced and the bill was $950. Doh!  The estimate for today’s doings was far more than I ever expected and you know, I guess we should be glad we are only stuck with a $1000 part of that bill, but still, that’s a $1000 spent on nothing that I got any ounce of enjoyment from.  Au contraire.

One good thing is that I have such a smart and persnickety? (not sure exactly what word to use) husband that insisted on installing the Pergo flooring himself back then, like a crazy man obsessed with gluing absolutely each and every joint when the stuff was suppose to be easy, just click and snap together. All that effort may be what saves us from having to replace the whole floor. We hope. 

(Edit:  It did!!  No damage what so ever after the three days of turbo fan equipment and dehumidifiers running, drying all the carpet and drywall and flooring out.  The insurance adjuster called us in Florida thinking she’d been Punk’d when she went in the house and couldn’t even tell there had been an ounce of water around. Apparently, my randomly picked clean up company was a great one.)

We spent the entire day dealing with the water mess and so anywho, here’s to Day 1 of our vacation.

So yeah, while there all day, I had plenty of time to do my reminiscing about all the memories the Walton house holds for us, but I can safely say I don’t think this water one will be amongst the good ones.

Next post: How the Walton House Makes Me Smile

MusicMonday—New Chilis Tune Finally

The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie was actually released last Monday so here I am a week behind but that’s ok.  It gave me a week longer to form an opinion.  But really, my opinion now a week later is exactly the same as the first listen.  

First off, as a serious RHCP fan, I have been waiting for this a long time.  Their last album was in 2006 so all of us were overdue for some new Chilis music.  Plus, without my favorite guitar man John Frusciante in the mix, I didn’t know how it would go, but knowing new member Josh Klinghoffer had been Chili-involved for several years and good, collaborating friends with John, I was very optimistic.

I heard the song.  I loved it at the start.  Right away I was compelled to jump up and dance real jerky smooth.  I like that in music, when it makes you have to move. 

[I saw an interview with Anthony where he said he played this song from his car on his driveway and hopped out and danced with a tree.   I totally get that.] 

My impressions:  I LOVE the cowbell.  Love Chad’s part overall.  Good job as always, Chad.

OK with Josh’s guitar (well, except one part, to be discussed).

Flea, well, I always love Flea’s bass lines.  Who doesn’t?  I think it is the main draw of this song actually.  That and the cowbell. 

Like the lyrics (“I want to rock you like the 80’s”, a rhyme for memorabilia and describing someone’s body as a delicious piece of vinyl—were my too cool faves) and especially Anthony’s free flowing towards the ending.  I always like when he does that.  Sometime I’ll have to share with you my top 3 Anthony free flow verses. 

What I don’t like is the chorus.  : (   That’s kinda a major part. 

Heeeeeey now, we’ve got to make it rain somehow. 

She told me to and showed me what to do.

Oh Maggie makes it in her cloud.

The music (Josh’s guitar) and singing here reminds me of some old Saturday morning cartoon from my childhood with people dressed up in bad bear costumes.  I don’t know if that even existed but that’s what it makes me think of.  Singing bears of the 70’s riding around in a dune buggy.  That is not that cool and I don’t want that image in my head with a Chili’s song.  So I just emphasize the beginning, the outro, and the other non-chorus parts. 

Other than that hokey chorus, I like the new Chilis and can’t wait for more coming at the end of August. 

Guess What We Did Today

Sweated a lot, for one.

It was close to 100 degrees out there today (for how many days in a row now?).  Gary’s shirt and jeans are hanging funny because they are totally wet from sweat.  Makes for really nice laundry conditions, you can imagine.

 

He decided he wanted to cut wood today with his new chainsaw.  Again.  He’s been doing this almost everyday since he got it.  He has said more than a few times that he really likes his new saw.  I believe it.  Yesterday we cut up the cherry tree that had split at the Walton house.  Today it was a big maple out in the woods here at Rosie.

See the puddles of sweat at his feet?  He’s standing here sharpening the chain so he can hop right out of bed tomorrow to go have more fun with his Husqy.

 

Except today when we were working it was 3:00.  Isn’t that like still the peak period for heat and sun in the day?  I’m thinking I’ve heard them say a time or two on TV that that’s when you should avoid strenuous activity.  

Somehow I’m supposed to enjoy the wood cutting in July as much as him.  I think I can honestly say I don’t.

 

Well, this is what we produced in a couple of hours, yet to split and stack.  Maybe we’ll do that part in September.  That’s what I vote for anyway.

 

You know Gary was working way harder than me.  He was running the saw, picking up the really huge pieces, driving the Gator up and down the hill. 

And look!  He’s the one smiling the biggest.  Nut. 

(And for some reason he was calling me Bjorn. ???)