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.