Sometimes I love this house...

Turns out that this area we live in has roots.

And history.

And a bunch of people who love this little dirt road in the middle of the city.

Turns out that the people who built this house (with hand tools and elbow grease) live less than a mile up this exact same road.

One of our neighbors still walks the mall with them, and asked them to stop by.

Dave and I were thrilled to meet them and learn more about our Love Shack.

They gave us local history, some copied pictures, and the history of our little abode.

They were excited to see the old house. They were also delighted to see our addition. It was a lot of fun talking to them. The only regret I have is that I didn't take a picture of them in front of the house.

Anyway, after their visit I asked them for the pictures digitally for a photo book of our project (read: ordeal). Their son just sent these to me yesterday, and I thought I'd share.

The Love Shack was originally built in 1948. The land was purchased for $700, and the house itself was a house kit purchased from a store called Herpolshiemer's for $4000. The kit contained everything necessary to complete the house- except for the hand tools. Flooring, wiring, windows, nails, etc.

The original siding was half-lap logs standing vertically next to each other. There was a loft area over the bedrooms where her sister (or aunt, can't remember) stayed. The couple had one child in this house, but had another before they moved out.

Here's a picture of the completed little house:

This is a side view- and if you look at the picture on my left side bar, you can see that it is no longer bare land. A lot of things have changed in the past 60 years! That road to the right of the house is the main road that our street is off of (for those of you local to the area, you know which road I'm talking about). Today, you can't even see that road from my kitchen window.

In 1950, they added the back addition. It was originally two separate rooms- one bedroom and one sun room full of windows. Later, the windows were replaced by drywall and it became another bedroom. Below is a picture of the guys working with a saw, hammer and nails. Isn't it awesome!?!?!?

(BTW, that window that they're on top of used to be my "bedroom" window for 4 years.)

This couple is awesome! He was the original band director for the school district we live in. Believe it or not, he STILL plays in a band today (every Thursday)! Some of the workers above were his jazz band mates. I think that's just too cool. He also served during the Korean War.

Our visit was brief (at least for Dave and I). We could have talked to them all night, but I think they were getting tired after a full day. Dave was excited to tell him about all the things he's discovered crawling around under the house, and I loved talking to her about raising a family in "close quarters." They commended us for doing our project debt free which made Dave and I proud.

This house is really putting some really neat people in our path.

So, yes....

sometimes I love this house.