 |
| Stone House - Photo by Rebekah Pascoe |
Years ago I fell in love with a 100+year-old farm house. I had never
been in it but when I saw it sitting on the hill, set back from the road,
nestled in trees, I imagined my family living there. One day as we
drove by I noticed there were no curtains in the windows and wondered if
it was available to rent? Upon further inquiry, we learned that it was and
rented it on the spot, sight unseen.
When we got the
keys and were able to get inside we found that the condition of the house was pretty awful.
Its original pine board floors were scratched and dull. Interior doors
were broken. Every wall was drab, dirty, full of nail holes, and looked as if they hadn't
been painted in 20-years. An old dirty rug, that kicked up dust when you
walked on it was tacked to the floor in the dining-room. The wall
behind the stove was so grease-splattered that it required the use an
electric sander to get it off. Needless to say, when I entered the
house I was overwhelmed. I walked around the rooms saying to myself, "What have you done?"
After the initial shock wore off, I began to take a critical look at the house. Its bones were good. Straight walls, original floors, oak bannister, original wainscoting in the kitchen, two fireplaces, newer windows, and the views... they were stunning!
So, I set off to work. Scrub, scrape, paint, wallpaper, and more paint, paint, paint! My goal one afternoon was to paint the interior of the entry closet. To prepare the walls, I had to scrape through layers of wallpaper (who wallpapers the inside of a closet?!). Oh, how purely tedious and mind-numbing such a job! Scrape, scrape, scrape ... finally I reached the bottom layer. What I discovered there was a lovey rose-colored floral wallpaper and I immediately felt transported back to the time when this house was built. Who was the lady who choose this wallpaper? I thought of how proud she must have been of her home on the hill at the edge of town with its oak stairwell and gleaming pine floors. I thought of how cozy her home may have felt after she hung this warm-colored paper. Did she and her family sit each evening reading in front of the marble fireplace? Who knew that such a drudge job would result in a wave of nostalgia, a taste of romance, and such inspiration?
 | |
| Up On the Farm - Rebekah Pascoe |
In the following years, I continued my work in redeeming that dilapidated farm-house. The old floors were sanded and polished till they shone like honey; the walls were painted, wall-papered and hand-stenciled; every corner of every closet gleamed with fresh white paint; the doors were straightened; and that old house regained its stature.
A home once again ... the dining room housed family and friends for Sunday dinners, the aroma of home-made soups wafted through the kitchen, colorful flowers spilled out of their boxes on the porch, and a young mother sat in the living room each evening reading to her children, a boy and a girl, one at each side snuggled up against her.
During the years that I lived there, I often thought of that first lady ... of the connection that I felt to her. My hope was that she would have been proud of the work that I did to the house that we both called home.
In that closet, I left a small swatch of the rose-colored wallpaper in her honor.
"It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home." - Anonymous
 |
| Seen Better Days - photo by Rebekah Pascoe |
