Old Stuff – Page 5 – This Old House 2

The Wonder Years

This afternoon my daughter and I traveled across the Connecticut River to visit a tack shop. As we drove through Moodus, we passed the old 4-H Camp that I attended with my cousins when I was 13 and 14 years old. It looks exactly the same. I was immediately drawn back in time… a weird but wonderful feeling.

All those years ago I was a suburban girl living with my family on Staten Island and I cherished my summertime visits with my Connecticut country cousins and their horses. Two summers in a row we went to camp, bringing their trusty appaloosa horse, “Apple” with me. Those weeks are among the best of my teen years, I remember them like it was yesterday and to this day I’m grateful for the experience.

Not much has changed there in … 32 years.

Holy crow.

32 years ago.

32.

Some of those memories…

Singing Johnny Appleseed at the morning breakfast call…

Those weaved potholders…

making tiled hot plates…

Archery..

twizzlers and caramel creams at the camp store…

BUG JUICE! (koolaid)

Reflections night..

(the entire camp sits around a big fireand sings camp songs…)

the crushes…

and the anquish of saying goodbye at the weeks end.

I’m in the middle of the bunch.. the girl with the very dark hair and a tube top being pulled by the boy I had a crush on.. Billy Rule. He was a smart*ss. About the tube top…. I had not much of anything to put IN it… but they were all the rage back then. (Hey, it was 1979 or so… you remember, don’t you. I bet you even had a few).

The camp handed out news letters every friday… and that week, after the thursday night dance… the front page header was… “INVASION OF THE TUBE TOP TWIRPS”. Um… that would be us.

Saturday Junk Hunting

We’ve just returned from a ride to the Putnam, CT Antiques Mall

for a little junk hunting. For more info about the area, click here…

Brought the manchild, but he was less than thrilled

due to the dose of poison ivy his face is sporting.

We picked up cannolis and scones from Victoria Station as a consolation prize.

I am proud to tell you we came home with nothing but those pastries.

No kidding. You know, there’s just so much STUFF

I’m willing to keep up after, and I have finally realized

that every time I bring home STUFF, no matter how good the

bargain, it’s just one more thing I have to find a place for, dust,

frett over, or forget about until it gets in the way.

I think I just heard a hushed Amen from the mancave.

Anyway, there was some neat STUFF that I almost

woulda taken home if the prices were better.

LOVE this quilt, look at the work!

But the price tag was $475. – not happening, but oh, did I love it so.

Would have loved this too, but where to put it…and another dust collector.

When did I decide to get so practical? Another Senior moment?

Loved this truck too… but do you see that price tag? $250.

It was behind glass, sorry for the blurr.

I would have bought this in a heartbeat for my Fairy Garden project this summer…

but not for $75.00.

Loved this, no place to put it.

ADORED this whole little kitchen set up…

how perfect for a little lake house…

or the back porch!!! Alas, kinda pricey.

If you can’t read the fine print, a 1907 $5 note, for $70.

I love the beautiful colors of the broaches, pins, jewelry…

It’s clear the slow economy hasn’t brought down the prices much.

Once it was determined we didn’t need anything there today…

we did what we do best after junk hunting.

As we were leaving Victorias Station bakery and cafe, I noticed half the town had their pink boxes in hand.

My Happy Camper. This is his good side.

The sky has been blustery and sometimes grey today,

snow flurries here and there… and bright sunny blue too.

You know the saying…

If you don’t like the weather in New England,

just wait a few minutes and it’ll change.

rocks

Connecticut has lots of them. Take a walk in the woods almost anywhere in the state and you will find remnants of the old stone walls, when Connecticut was mostly farmland and the rocks found abundantly in the soil were used as fencing for livestock.

This Old House has many walls surrounding the fields and along the road. Mike is Type A squared, if you know what I mean… and so the crumbling old walls drive him nutz. It’s important to me that we don’t ever sterilize this place, as I am much more bohemian than he… so I have fought against rebuilding them all. However, with the expertise of Steve, (who long time readers of this blog will remember as the guy who rebuilt all our fireplaces and chimneys and foundation and porch floor)… the stone walls surrounding the fields are getting put back together the way they were 100 years ago… and that’s OK by me as long as we’re keeping it authentic.

This morning after a winter hiatus, Steve returned with his side-kick, Cooper… and will finish the front roadside wall. This is a section already completed by Steve a few years back…

and this is the section across the driveway he’ll be taking down and putting back up.
It was a portion of wall that someone had re-done in the past forty years or so,
but not in keeping with everything else.

I think Mike actually loses sleep when things don’t line up.

Every now and again I notice just how very ugly all those power lines are overhead.

Some day perhaps they’ll all be underground. Not here, yet.

Coop could care less about symetry…

Hey, whatever puts milkbones on the table, says he.

Speaking of rocks… my little perennial rock garden at the side door is starting to shape up.

During this winter that wasn’t a winter

I’ve been able to walk Ben at the beach more often,

and I’ve gathered treasures along the way to fill it in.

It’s a beautiful day here in Connecticut.

Last year at this time we were buried in snow and many had no power.

Life*is*Good

I hope you’ll take the time to get out and enjoy it some.

Well that sucks

Because I was over the moon in love with the house of decrepitute on the water in the post below, I did further research last night, and learned it is already on deposit. *sigh* Not only that…. the taxes on the old girl as she stands right now, are $18,000. annually. Once we renovated, the value would go up and our taxes per year would be somewhere in the mid $20K’s… That’s just not do-able unless we win some major lottery in the coming year. So , for now, our seaside fixer-upper remains a pipe dream.

The sad thing is not really that it’s out of our league… what I find disheartening is many of these homes which have been on the Connecticut Shoreline for over 100 years, are being torn down and in their place, bigger and in some cases tacky residences are being put back up. The old trees around them come down too. We are the rare exception that prefer to renovate and keep the old house standing….and to be fair, that’s probably because M has the ability to do so. What’s worse – to the average middle class family?… it will never be feasible again to have a second home or even ONLY home.. on the water for summer family enjoyment. This is a dream that was far more attainable 30-40 years ago. Nowadays, even if you can afford the purchase price, the taxes will kill you instead.

I am going to follow the house’s progress, and will report back to you exactly what the soon-to-be owner does with her. Do you think maybe, if it turns out to be a tear-down (likely)…. they’ll let me have the purple glass door knobs? I just might ask. If I do, I’ll make one of them a give-away on the blog.

Another Grand Old Dame

This 1890 beach house here in Connecticut has been for sale for some time. It’s not abandoned, but severely neglected and only occasionally visited by the owner. We heard it was on deposit when we first inquired last year, but it is for sale once again at a drastically reduced price. I wonder if Hurricane Irene has something to do with that. She sits right on the water with a high seawall, no room for expansion, as the houses on either side are right up next to it. Mike is going to look into whether it can be salvaged as is… a girl can dream, you know.

We walked around the outside only, M wanting to determine if the house is sound before pestering the realtor. The pics are taken through glass, a bit rude, but there are similar pics online, so, hopefully no offense.
I love the old fireplace. We’d sandblast it to get the paint off and bring it back to its original face.

This New York Times, sitting on a table at the window is dated July 25, 1979.

Not crazy about the very bulky, busy seawall…

if we ever had the chance, I would want to soften it somehow.

I bet you’ve fallen for her too 🙂

Red & White

Old School

We ventured over to Parmelee Farm on this coooooold afternoon (I asked for this, didn’t I – just hush) to see the progress on the old Pine Orchard School house reconstruction. The school house was given to the farm by a generous resident and the Historical Society paid to have it moved to it’s current site, where it is in the process of being rebuilt. Originally constructed in 1853 by W. E. Dickinson, Pine Orchard was one of several one-room school houses in the area, operating with approx. 15 students per school until 1948, when all were deemed economically unsound and were closed and sold as private property.

Pine Orchard School in 1948

Pine Orchard Class of 1941

Excerpt by town historian Tom Lentz– The schools then, as now, accounted for a major portion of the town budget. In 1901/1902, the expenses for the Pine Orchard School were $282.80. Wood, kindling, etc. accounted for $10.00, furniture and labor for $55.80, and teacher’s wages for the remainder. The total expenses for all the schools was $2,232.99 amounting to 45.3% of the total town budget of $4,928.07.

Expenses increased in the following years although the number of students did not change significantly. The expenses for the Pine Orchard School in 1921/1922 were as follows:

C. H. French, labor 3.50
L. D. Parmelee, labor 1.25
lock, sash bolts, and repairs on clock 6.10
Martha Buhrer, teacher’s wages 1,000.00
C. H. French, fuel 28.00
Francis Catala, kindling fires 2.50
Mrs. T. B. Perkins, clock, halyards and broom 4.05
Total 1,045.40

Thanks to the restorative collaboration of many, Pine Orchard School House lives again…

Cottage Charm

Not far from here is a summer colony of tiny cottages, nestled on the edges of Hammonasset State Park and Beach. For many years it’s been a summer retreat for families – affordable, walking distance to the water and close to everything else as well. I googled, and a 4 bedroom 1 bath cottage can be yours for $69,000! I don’t know what this one is going for.

That’s a bargain!…Considering just down the road a hop, skip and jump you can buy a Mansion, see below, on the very same strip of sand and water for $7,000,000. or so… if you’re so inclined.

Most of the little cottages are seasonal ~ however as I drove through yesterday I noticed several were decorated for Christmas with cars in the driveway.

Here’s what sticks out as I drive between the two ends of the spectrum… those mansions are beautiful, but they lack a certain charm that you will only find in small beloved cottages, those little touches that make even a passer-by smile. I think it’s in the pride of ownership. I think….If you don’t have tons of money at your disposal, you’re more appreciative of the things you do have… the good fortune to be able to share a little cottage with your family and friends for the purpose of respite.. good times.. togetherness with like-minded people.

It’s been a dreary windy grey week so far…

I’m ready for snow.

(did I say that?)

This place is for sale. It’s on that stretch where the mansions begin.

It’s seasonal also…and $69,000. won’t buy the spit of land its 1 car garage sits on.

I do love it, though. Reminds me of an Andrew Wyeth painting….

Answers to the Grey Mare questions…

1. It’s a doorbell ringer! You pull the knob out and it pulls a cord that rings a bell! No electricity required. Some of you knew this!.. I’m impressed.

2. A shutter dog, or holder. Most of you knew this 🙂

The owners of the property that the abandoned house sits on want it removed. So.. there would not be a refurbishment right there on the spot. This means, the BONES of the house would be used again somewhere else.. as we did here with this old house. Our house sat here on this spot, but we dismantled it and moved it back 40 feet off the road. The frame of the grey mare, which is still in great shape 200 years later… the mantels, the stone foundation and fireplaces, the wide planks you see in the walls… all good. The “fluff” of the house is shot. So, the plan would be to take the house down, having Jeff and his crew once again dismantle and number the pieces, and store them in a trailer until a suitable location can be found to put her back up again. Jeff and Mike will go take a look again this week and perhaps make a decision. Otherwise, I’m afraid she’ll be a goner, and that’s just sad. What a beautiful old girl, can’t imagine how she could have been left to rot for all these years..right on a main road too, in plain sight!

We did find two previous occupants on the premises… a cat’s remains in the old kitchen and a moldy mouse. You’re welcome.