Clean Up, Siding, and An Unexpected Guest

Yes, it's time again for the Sunday Show! The show where we present, for your reading and viewing pleasure, all the awesome and wonderful things that happened around the house on Sunday! You may have thought we were off the air - but yesterday unexpectedly kicked off the spring season of the Sunday Show in ways never thought possible.

We were up at our usual early hour on Sunday. And, inspired by a Saturday burn by our neighbor up the hill, (and not to mention my stick-gathering of two weeks ago) Mike went downtown at 9am and got a burn permit. Needless to say, we were burninating by before 10am. Awesome.

Shortly after the fire was self sufficient, Mike went about moving stuff in the yard. The camper - back to the gravel driveway. Those old logs - pushed down the hill with the skid steere. One lawn tractor - gave to a neighbor. Snowmobile - on the side of the garage, cover on. Junk - loaded in the truck for the dump. Sweet.

Although I must admit, this after photo doesn't look like much. But it looked a lot worse before. Additionally, Mike considered the grading project. He'll need to get himself a bigger machine, that's for sure. He estimated about an 18 inch difference from the garage addition to the edge of the hill. Plus, this nasty bit you see in the bottom third of this photo? All that has to be cut off as well. I'll be prodding Mike this week to remind him to source out a machine he can borrow on the cheap/free. Sounds like a plan.

And if you think that's all we've got on this edition of the Sunday Show - well, you're wrong! Around 12:30pm, Timmy and Richard came over and got right to work finishing the siding. Mudroom/Kitchen Side - done. (Save for a bit of trim and trim-painting.)

It's all one cohesive side! Imagine that.... Mike also cleaned up that side driveway whatever-you-want-to-call-it area. We had a buncha dirt piles there from snow plowing and sanding over the winter. Plus, we had our garage doors stored there on saw-horses. No more. Mike moved those, dug out the dirt, and put in some pea stone from the gravel driveway to fill in. Sigh of unexpected relief. I'll be prodding Mike some more to schedule his friend for garage door installation as soon as this upcoming weekend.

The last little triangle of siding up on top? (There on the right.) Oh yeah, it's done. Trim's back up. All is well with the world of siding.

If you simplify all and everything - you could call our siding half done. But, as Mike is quick to point out, the left hand side of the house is barren - no windows (save for an octagonal one yet to be installed), no doors, no additions, no porch, no nada. And without any of those strange cuts and jags, it will be quick work to side the left. (Not to mention less wasteful as well.) We're so much more then halfway there.

Nearing the end of the Sunday Show, Timmy made us a materials list for another upcoming Sunday Show. And believe it or not, it's not going to pinch my pockets too too badly.

Wrap for the last of the porch posts
Two more railings and a stair rail
Misc trim - and not much of it

Weather permitting, I will be prodding Mike to order everything on Friday. (Lotta prodding going on this week.)

Now it's time for the most Unexpected thing to ever happen on the Sunday Show. And I Missed It. MISSED IT! I'm so pissed. Ken Thompson stopped by. Name ring a bell? As in, just a couple weeks ago I was talking about Mr. and Mrs Robert Thompson, previous owners? And how the strange coincidence of my friend Christine having visited Mrs. Thompson caused me to reconsider all the unanswered questions about my house in my own mind??

And the dude shows up and Mike gives him the grand tour and I'm not there. Oh, I was livid.

Needless to say, he was impressed. Surprised that the bathroom had gone basically unchanged. Loved the kitchen, loved the tile. He did tell Mike in regards to the yard that they dug out a huge hill in order to build the garage. They dug it out and pushed it down the hill in back. It used to be just one giant hill in back of the house. And the family had always wanted to renovate, but didn't have the means to do what we did.

He said he usually has to go to the Cape for something every couple months. Mike encouraged him to stop by at any time, and I hope he does.

After that, Mike cleaned up the gravel driveway with the leaf blower.

And that's all we have time for this week on the Sunday Show! If you can't tell, I'm just giddy with excitement. Everything all of a sudden seems so close and easy again. If we can get that garage door installed next weekend.... If we can get the last posts trimmed and the last railings up next weekend.... If we can grade the backyard the weekend after that....

It's never that easy though, is it?

Strange Coincidence?

Things about my house's past totally freak me out. Things about my house's previous owners freak me out. Way back when we first bought the house, I even purchased this book from the historical society: Bournedale the forgotten village, which recounts the story of the families of Bournedale, including the man who built our house.

But I haven't been able to stop thinking about what happened Monday night.

My zumba/belly dance instructor Christine came to pick me up for an African dance class we were going to together. But when I hopped in her car, she said, "I think I've been to one of your neighbor's houses... maybe 10 years ago when I did meals on wheels. Is there an old lady that lives over there?"

She gestured to my neighbor's house.

"Not for a long time," I replied. "The owner of that house just recently passed away maybe 6 months ago." Then something struck me.

"Mrs. Thompson?" I asked.

"YES! That was it."

I gasped. That was my house. That was the previous owner, who had outlived her husband and died just previous to us purchasing the house. Of course she'd never recognize the house in its present state... plus it was dark outside. "That was my house," I said in disbelief.

"I only went there once, but I was in there talking to the woman for over an hour," Christine went on. "Then as I was leaving, the VNA nurse came in and told me, 'If you want to come here, you have to come all the time - every day. You can't let her down.' So I didn't go back." She frowned. "I just couldn't make that commitment."

It seems like a very small coincidence. I mean, Bourne is a small town. But still... I couldn't stop thinking about it. "You have to come in - do you mind?" I asked Christine on our way home after the class. "We've done so much work... you won't believe it."

To expect someone to remember a house they were in for an hour 10 years after the fact is a bit of a stretch, but I couldn't help it. She had remembered being there, after all. And when we went in she couldn't recognize a thing until I prompted her... "and this room was covered in wood paneling..."

"Yes, and it was very dark!"

Of course Mrs Thompson would have never given her the grand tour, but I certainly did. I couldn't help myself. And I just yacked and yacked away about this and that, before and after. At the end of the tour I remembered I had a "before" picture of the outside of the house hanging up in the living room. I pulled it down and showed her.

"That was it. Oh my god."

I thought about it long after Christine had gone. It doesn't creep me out as much as it just amazes me. The prior life of the house I live in. I wish I had access to more pictures... stories... something. I'd probably seem psycho trying to hunt them down from the Thompson kids. (They had three boys who no longer live in the area.) I have so many questions....

Why is there only one garage door? Why was the chimney cut off and walled off? How did you survive with three boys and no washer/dryer? What was the condition of the house like when you renovated it in 1955? What was the bathroom like before it was pink and green? And who picked out those colors? Who's idea was it to stick a clock over the hole in the kitchen wall? Where did you keep your towels? When did you stop burying your trash? Or did you.... What was up with all those dang tires in the backyard? I don't even know what the Thompsons look like.

I had forgotten about all these questions until I talked to Christine.