House in Progress Diary

Eventually, life finds YOU...through the internet

Okay, before I launch into our very fun experience yesterday, I just want to give you a small visual update.

THIS room used to be FULL to the BRIM with things. And now, most things on the second floor have been researched, tagged, photographed and put in their proper temporary storage place. Either for sale or for keeping. We worked on this floor today. (click to make things larger):

What you are ALSO seeing (or NOT seeing) is the result of about 12 weeks of cleaning and recleaning (and recleaning). Trash. Rocks. Dust bunnies so large they looked like bird's nests. Pieces of plaster wall and ceiling. Twisted metal. String. So much dirt that the dog has been in HEAVEN. Dirt from the 1940's. Pieces of peeling paint. Slivers of glass. Dead bugs. Old mouse "party favors". Exhausting, painful-beyond-belief-when-you-are-allergic-to-dust-and-mites type cleaning. Much like the gerbil I had when I was ten.

Or hamster. Or whatever that was. When it would clean out its den and a HUGE pile of "stuff" would just be outside the door. I have felt like that gerbil. (No offense to gerbils or hamsters...we could have used a few and probably would be done with this room faster.) I think our garbagepeople think we are gerbils, too.

Anyway.

Yesterday, I checked my email and found a note in my inbox from someone whose nephew found our site when searching for genealogy information. Then I received TWO more notes from members of this same family!! We're pretty sure that THIS is the family that originally owned the house--this is mind-blowing type exciting! Turns out that the man who might have bought or built the house was from Denmark and was a builder! (Which explains the absolutely magnificent trim and built-in's). The previous owner's grandparents would have bought the house from this family during the Great Depression! We've written a few more notes...and now I am just letting it sink in. ALL of those NIGHTS when I laid awake, unable to sleep, wondering about the first inhabitants of the house. Who they were, where they were from, what they were like. And NOW...maybe....we might find out more about them!! This means SO much to us, especially as we are trying to restore as many things as we can and make the house beautiful again.

Now you are probably thinking: "J, don't be so naive. This could be ANYONE on the INTERNET playing with you. Those 3 notes could be from the same 7th grader in Phoenix, for example."

I'll admit, I was hesitant at first. But when the grandson of the man who may have been the first owner wrote to me, he included information about the house in the note that IS NOT ON THIS SITE. And that is pretty amazing.

So, eventually life does find you on the Internet. :)

p.s. We would just like to say "hello" to the different countries outside of the United States that are visting the site...we couldn't believe it when we checked the stats.

So (in order) hello Australia, Finland, Belgium, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark, Singapore, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, New Zealand, Brazil, Phillipines, Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, France, Sweden, Romania, Spain, the Russian Federation, Austria and South Africa!

This House in Progress supports world peace and a cleaner planet for all of us. Thanks for stopping by.

Posted by jeanne on August 24, 2003 at 12:39 AM