My Symphony

(William Henry Channing, 1810-1884)

To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable
and wealthy, not rich;
to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly;
to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages,
with an open heart;
to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,
await occasions, hurry never.

In a word,
to let the spiritual, unbidden, and unconscious

grow up through the commonplace.

This is to be
my symphony.

~

(Kind of says it all. - J.)

Home Home Home.

This is where we are now - a 1921 Craftsman style "builder's bungalow" in Louisville, Kentucky. It was a sad place when we first bought it. The previous owner, "Miss W.", had inherited it from her parents, had retired to live there, and had lived in a nursing home for a year when she passed away at age 94. In the 33 years that she owned it, she apparently kept the outside spotless - but did absolutely nothing inside. Having very little family, she left the house, contents, and most of her estate to the Salvation Army. (That's who we bought the house from.)

She apparently lived in only three rooms - the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen - all on the back side of the house. When we first saw it, the front 2/3 of the house and the upstairs had been sealed off. The wallpaper was hanging in strips, the plumbing was so old there was zero water pressure, and the dirt everywhere was incredible. Plaster was cracking, floors upstairs were incredibly out-of-level, and there was evidence of water damage in the upstairs front dormer (now our bedroom). First floor hallway was painted a dingy 1950's green, and there was a six-inch-wide strip of dirt on the walls, waist-high, where Miss W. had braced her hand on the wall while she walked from kitchen to bathroom to bedroom.

There were still pieces of coal in the coal bin, even though the old coal-fired furnace had long since been replaced with a forced-air unit. And, according to a neighbor who held Miss W's power-of-attorney, Miss W died a millionaire.

All in all, it was a sad, sad house.

First of All...

To start with, here we are! Me, with my sweet hubby Tom (taken Dec 2009)... We married on 7/27/91 and bought our current house in December of 1992. For 9 months we lived in a tiny apartment while we tore out plumbing, walls, ceilings, and the entire second floor (OURSELVES)... and gradually started putting it all back. We contracted out for plumbing and drywall, but Tom has done most of the rest of the work himself. His Dad and Uncle Bill helped for the initial rounds but are in their 80's now. I've helped some, but Renovating isn't one of my major skills! I have tried to keep the "crew" fed, clothed, and as tranquil as I can...

If it will ever quit raining here, I'm going to take an outside picture of the house to post next.

Time to Fly - with a little help!

Starting a new blog, What Fun! I'm putting this one out here for any of my new FlyChat friends to see, especially the ones who don't want to be on Facebook. I plan to post pictures of works-in-progress and any helpful or inspirational stuff I find along the way.

That's the plan, anyway! We'll see how it "Flies"... :-)