A House With History

So I've told you guys before how this little house of ours is like this conversational magnet. People stop several times a day to see what we're up to, compliment us on our hard work, or even to ask us if we want help. So nothing new when an older gentleman stopped Mathew the other day to chat about the house.
Except this wasn't your everyday visitor. This guy's family built this house!
He was in town for the big high school rival football game (because that's what all small town America folk seem to get excited about! lol) and his fellow alumni were invited to the game as the class of '52.  He doesn't live in our town anymore, but learned that we were renovating it & wanted to stop by.  (Editor's note: Matt just told me he drove all the way up from Virginia!  Did not know that.)

So Matt stopped what he was doing & talked with this man, Dick Johnson, for quite a while. He even took notes!  I hope I can decifer them well enough. Here's my best shot.

A man named John N. Gale (1838-1916) of a town called Hardwick, VT built the house in 1860. He had a woodworking shop & built furniture & cabinetry. He was married twice. His first wife, Anna P. Johnson, lived from 1839-1888. They were married for just 7 years before her passing. He then married Bessie Farrow-Higgins a year later. Bessie, a widower 15 years his junior, had one child from her previous marriage: Julia Belle Higgins (born in 1884).  John & Bessie had another son together, Lyman, in 1891.  Julia was this man's grandmother. He says she graduated from the Academy (where my kids will go to High School) in 1903, majoring in the classics, and she tutored him in Latin all the way through High School. (That is very cool for that time period!).  Also noteworthy, the 1900 census shows a Albert Gale listed as his son living in the house... Born in 1870!  Makes me wonder if there was another wife before Anna living with him when he originally built it... Hmm...)
Anyway, Julia married Bernard Albert Johnson, Dick's grandfather. (I'm not sure if he was any relation to Mr. Gale's first wife Anna). (Another editor's note: Matt says he asked & they were not related.)  Bernard ran a fine men's clothing store called Moore & Johnson which was known as the place in New England to buy men's clothing. John & Bessie sold the house to Julia & Bernard in 1913, just three years before John died. Julia died in 1941 according to Dick, and the city records show that the front 8 feet of the property were deeded to the city that year to build the bridge. Dicks dad, Clark Johnson, executor of Julia's estate, sold the house in 1974.

So that's what we know so far. Pretty cool, huh?  (It's okay if you don't think so.  But we do! LOL)  Matt got to sit & talk with an elderly man who says he spent every Thanksgiving & Christmas of his life in our house. He told Matt stories about how he'd go & visit grandma and how every Saturday night shed soak beans to cook in our kitchen. What a privilege!  How many people are blessed to have a home with such rich history, and how many people are so lucky to be able to talk with a man who made so many memories throughout his life in that home?  And then, have him give his blessing with everything we're doing to restore it!  Amazing. And I'm so sad I missed meeting him. I hope that once the house is complete we'll be able to invite him over for dinner sometime & he can tell us more stories. He's going to try to get us more pictures, and he directed us to good people to contact for maybe some more historical info. In the mean time, I did find this one picture online. It's a postcard from 1907, and juuuuuuuust immediately to the left of this picture is where our house is. So close! :/. But still cool!

As I finish typing here, it is early Monday morning. I'm sure you all have heard about hurricane Sandy heading our way. We expect it to hit tomorrow, maybe this evening, and as far inland as upstate NY. Logically, I can't imagine it being too bad where I live, but I've learned from experience not to underestimate big storms. ;). They're saying we should expect wind gusts up to 80 mph, so who knows!  I'll be sure to update you all as soon as it's over. Fingers crossed that our good luck in VT still stands! :)

New England Fall

I think Fall has always been my favorite time of year. But now that we live in the northeast?  Oh. My. Goodness. I can't even begin to tell you how gorgeous it is every year!  All of these trees and all of the colors across the mountains... Just breathtaking. And there's a couple week span each year where the colors really hit their peak and the state is at its most beautiful. It's one of the areas biggest tourist times too.  (Here they call those folks the "leaf peepers." He he!). But alas I'm not a tourist. I see this out of my own window every day, but I also have responsibilities.  Kids, full time job, you know. Life. It seemed like any day it was gorgeous & perfect for photos I was working, and when I was off I either had entirely too much to do, it was way too overcast for pictures (because it's mountains & the clouds actually cover up the landscape! Lol), or I didn't have my friggin camera with me!  Grr. Well then it rained a lot, the leaves fell, and I missed my chance. Bummer. :/. Next Fall I promise I will make it a point to take some better pics of the trees. I promise!

The view from my son's soccer practice.  Doesn't even do it justice...

But we definitely did take some time to enjoy this time of year. One afternoon, I was sick of looking at all of the leaves covering the driveway, & Mark wanted to earn some cash, so we went out to rake. Poor Mark ended up with a nosebleed about ten minutes into it (darn allergies!) but Natalie was loving being my big helper, so we kept going. Gavin didn't realize what fun it would be, so he chose to stay inside. Anyway, once we got the big pile all raked, Natalie couldn't wait to jump in & throw all of the leaves around again!  LoL

Then daddy came home & helped... Helped her play I mean! ;).

Mark finally felt better, & decided he wanted to be buried in the leaves.

Then Gavin came to his senses & finally decided to join us.

It was so fun!  I've never had so many leaves from one tree to work with!


And last week we headed out to the pumpkin patch. We ended up a little late to do the hay rides & all of that, but that's okay. We'll catch it next year. But we did have fun picking our pumpkins. All organic of course. Because Vermont's cool like that. ;)

Picking out their pumpkins

Always with the coffee in his hands!

My three cuties (who desperately needed haircuts but they're cute anyway! lol)

Our big helper! lol

So about this time last year, it had already snowed once, and it was certainly cold enough to stick. But even though they are calling for a super snowy winter this year, somehow the cold weather has held off. In fact this October has been just beautiful!  I happen to think that God is doing it just for us so we can get some more work done. ;). And Matt is taking full advantage. He's been getting so much done these past few weeks!  Lets see... Back room is all framed in, floor is rebuilt in our bathroom, all of the concrete work is complete, mud room walls are rebuilt, all of the windows are placed, back roof is almost done, trench is dug for electricity, fireplace is being built, basement stairs are being built, boiler & tank placed in the basement, driveway is clear of all of the tear out... And probably a lot more that I haven't listed!  So much progress!!

Our mudroom is back up!

Other side of the house, roof almost done on the back, ready for siding!

What will be our kitchen... yeah we've got a little work to do! lol

He's had countless people approach him asking if he needed help (lots of unemployment here unfortunately) and just recently he's agreed to give a couple of guys a try. I figure for the amount of pay they're asking for & the amount of time they're saving him by doing some of the tedious tasks, we're saving at least that much rent so it evens out!  For the most part it's been working out great. These guys work hard & don't complain & I think that's all Matt could ever ask for.  Now, fingers crossed that everything gets done enough outside & the electricity can get wired before the first snow so we can keep things rolling! :)

My little Natalie is FOUR!

I know every mom looks back on every birthday their kids have & says "where did the time go?"  But seriously!  Where did the time go?!?!  I feel like it was just last week that we were holding that tiny little baby girl in our arms, and now she's so big I can hardly carry her!

So her birthday was actually the 8th, but I had to work, like, constantly since then, so my apologies for the late post.  But here's some highlights of her birthday fun!

First, daddy treated her to some pretty pink roses & a Tangled balloon for his little princess.  

Cheese!

Momma had to follow suit in her typical neurotic style & make a ridiculous cake for just the five of us... (well the four of them, because I can't eat it! lol)  But she loved it anyway & that's all that matters! :)  Since I can't have a big family party for her like I did for the boys at this age, it's the least I could do!

In case you didn't know, those are characters from her favorite show, the Bubble Guppies!

While daddy was making her a special birthday dinner, we let her open her gifts from her Pa-Pa that came in the mail.  Cinderella & a homemade Hello Kitty blanket!  She was thrilled!

Poor girl had to stare at that package for two days! Like I've said before, I'm a mean mom! ;)

Happy Birthday to You...

"Hey Mom!  When you cut the cake, I want to eat Molly's head!" lol  Silly girl! ;)

Then it was time for presents from Mom & Dad & "her" boys!

She's not spoiled at alllll.... :/

She had a couple of favorite gifts.  Her big gift was her very own camera!  She always wants to steal mine, & I never want to give it up because, well, she's little & breaks things. ;)  So she got one she can go nuts with!

Well of *course* it's Hello Kitty!

This little girl tells me she wants to be a "doctor for kids" when she grows up.  Warms my heart! <3  So she got her very own baby doll complete with stethescope & syringe!  I don't think she's put it down since she got it!

Giving baby her medicine.  Too cute!

And, it is also noteworthy what she decided to name this baby.  The other day, I told her "love ya bunches!" and she was very confused.  She said, "Mom, why did you call me Bunches?"  I said, "no sweetie, that just means I love you a lot!"  Well she still thought that was pretty funny & has been calling me Bunches ever since.  Now, she says that's the name of her baby!  rotfl!  Love my silly girl!

Finally, one of the only things she actually asked for was some bubbles.  Not an easy task in October, but daddy found some cute ones, & she took them out for a spin the next day.

Such pure happiness right here! :)

 Not necessarily an eventful day, but we had a very happy girl & we all enjoyed celebrating her!

Hopefully we'll be off to the pumpkin patch this afternoon, so I hope to have a post of Fall Vermont Fun really soon!  Thanks to all of my faithful readers out there.  I'm up to 5,000 hits this afternoon!  Love you all! :)