This is the story of a house. It is not a huge house, it is not a fancy house, and it is certainly not a happy house. It was once a happy house. It has been a happy house many times over the long years that it has been here. The house has raised several families, watched them born, seen them grow, and in a couple of cases seen them die.
I said that this is the story of a house, but you can't tell the story of a house without telling a story of people as well. They are interwoven, or at least they should be. Almost anyone who knows me knows that I am a country mouse not a city mouse. I don't like living in the city, I actually feel physically ill when I am forced to. I am a much happier person when I am living away from the urbanity of the world, and for the past 2 years I have been actively looking for a way to pick up my belongings and my studio and moving them to the country. This effort has been slightly hampered by the fact a lot of the people that I like to refer to as the "more money than sense" crowd have been driving up the prices of rural property so that they can build their luxury super-bunkers in preparation for the end of the world. After much thought and soul searching I decided that yes I could live in a small town and so I began look there as well.
About months ago I came across a posting online about a house in small town Iowa for a reasonably low price which had suffered a "small" fire and needed a "little" tlc. It was interesting enough that I looked at the ad a couple of times and gave some serious thought as to what kind of offer I could make, but as it was still outside of my budget I didn't go any farther than that. Except since the ad continued to show up every couple of days I would keep going back to it and looking again. About a month ago the price on it was dropped to just at the top end of my budget and I began to give it some serious thought, but again I didn't go any further than that as it would completely prohibit me from being able to do any work on it until I was able to build up some savings.
Three weeks ago all of that changed when the term "or best offer" was added to the ad. This could completely change the playing field. Would they accept a lower offer? Could I offer a term of interest in the pottery business? After some very serious thought I decided to get in touch with them and see if I could drive up and take a look at it. I got in touch with the owner and made arrangements to drive up and look at the house later in the week.
When I got there and met with the woman who owned the house I kind of got a weird feeling, not quite dread but definitely a feeling of caution. We drove to the house and looked around the outside while she told me about some of her personal history and her history of the house I looked hard at the house. It seemed to be in rougher condition than I originally thought, BUT the house was structurally in good condition. The bones were okay. Older yes but still in good condition...
We then went into the house and to be completely honest my very first reaction was "NO, this is completely unsuitable for my needs". I would have to do to much work just to make the house habitable. I would have left right then but it had been a 4 hour drive and I should at least go through the motions of looking at the house.
This is going to be difficult to describe but I am going to anyway. Sometime during the process of going through the house I stopped seeing the reasons why the house wouldn't work and started seeing the ways that it would. Let me tell you, this was not an easy process but (and this is where it gets vague) it was like the house itself was telling me its story. The damage from the "small" fire was pretty extensive. The owner had left all of the trash in the house after it had been soaked down by the fire brigade (doesn't that sound cooler than fire department). Everywhere I saw the damage and trash the house pointed out that yes there was smoke damage on the wall and a lot of the plaster had been ripped down, but look the oak framing underneath was still in really solid shape. When I saw how scratched and damaged the wood floors were the house told me that they would sand out and look like the "distressed" look that people are paying big bucks for. In addition there was no sign at all anywhere that the roof was leaking, and is in fact in amazing shape. When I worried that there was no fixtures left in the house, the house reassured me that it was just less stuff that I would have to tear out anyway and I could re-plumb everything the way that I wanted.
For every reason that I could come up with that there was no way to make it work the house had an answer for me as to why it would work.
I like animals, in fact on of my previous jobs had been working at the animal shelter with special needs dogs. Those dogs that for various reasons were difficult to place in homes because of behavioral issues. I must confess that I was good at this job. I mention this because the house struck the same chord with me. It was like the dog at the pound, the previous owner mistreated it. They beat it, they neglected it, and when it didn't do what they wanted it to, they abandoned it. These are some of the hardest dogs to place in homes because they often have lost faith in humanity, they are quick to snap at people, not because they are mean dogs, but because letting people close is very often painful. They are also some of the easiest dogs to bring around since with a lot of love and a lot of patience they will come around, and once they do and they give themselves to someone they are ridiculously loyal and loving. This house is the same thing, it has been abused, neglected, and abandoned by the previous owner. But before that it has known love, it has known caring. It was a proud house, it sheltered the families that lived there through the good times and the bad times. It wants to be again, and with a lot of love, and a lot of patience it will be again.
But... was I the one to do it? This is the question that I spent most of the drive back to the big city thinking about. I knew that I had the skills to do the job, and I knew that with a little pushing I could handle the labor that would be involved. In the end the question really came down to one thing. Was I willing to give up a large portion of my life to doing right by the house, could I give it the love it needed and at the same time honor what the house had been and at the same time make it something that it could be proud of in this day and age. I realized that I didn't really have a choice, that I had to try. (No Yoda jokes please).
So this is the story of a house. It is not a huge house, it is not a fancy house, and it is not a happy house. It was once a happy house and it wants to be again, and after 116 years it is still a proud house. The house stands in the middle of the yard and screams out " I am still standing, I am still standing and will continue to do so". Who am I to argue with that kind of determination.
So this is the story of a house. The story of the ups, the story of the downs, and the journey of a neglected house becoming a once again happy home.
This is the story of New Moon House.
As you look at these pictures try to remember that I have already had these reactions, first hand. This journey is not about the past, journeys never are. The past is exactly that, past. This is a journey about new beginnings, about finding a new way in the world. About being proud of who you are and what you become.
During this journey I will tell the story of exactly how I am bring New Moon House back into the world as a home to be proud of, and along the way I will do it in a way in which that is ecologically and financially responsible.
This is the garage that I will be staying in while I working on New Moon house. It is already insulated and truthfully won't take much in the way of work to make it habitable.
So I welcome everyone to join me for story time. I can promise that it will be an adventure, a drama, a love story, a horror story, and maybe a little of science fiction and fantasy tossed in to boot. And it will be entertaining.
Oh yeah and there may be pirates!!!
