An Old House That Needs Love
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Someone asked what I’m most excited about, and I’d have to say I’m excited about giving an old house some much needed love.
Kendra will get Mamie power washed to bring the luster back to the pearl she was named for. The exterior walls will be painted.
I’ll plant flowers around the porch so she will look like she’s wearing a fancy dress with ruffles.
Mamie will no longer shrink back from the curb just because she’s seen better days. She will sit on that piece of land with pride, representing the entirety of her 103 years.
This old house is going to look like a million bucks. She will shimmer and sparkle under the sun and glow in the moonlight because it’s her time to shine.
All Things Craftsman-Style Homes:
I’ve been doing research into all things pertaining to Craftsman houses. Whoever built her went from an idea to building a structure that has lasted all these years. I want to stay within the confines of this architectural history.
Craftsman houses are typically single-story structures. They place a strong emphasis on handcrafted details as well as having an organic connection to nature.
My daughter, due to her love of old houses, restored Mamie. She walked into this house and saw that it was falling apart. The kitchen didn’t have a ceiling. She paid $20,000+ in 2015 and it was her very first flip house.
A larger house just around the corner is for sale and currently priced at $600,000.
Nothing Is Perfect:
Kendra keeps reminding me that she was still learning with this first flip. Things aren’t perfect, she said. The floors aren’t level and the house is wonky. I told her that perfection is not necessary.
She slowly resurrected this old house. Now Mamie just needs a paint job as the icing on the cake.
Whoever built this house had no real inkling of the times ahead. The years they would not live to see. The advent of electronics and all the conveniences we’ve grown accustomed to to make our lives simpler. Imagine how different their lives were!
I read that Craftsman house exterior colors are typically based on nature and the surrounding environment. Oh, don’t you know those words really speak to me!
Nature will smile on Mamie once again. Flowers and plants will frame her walls. I envision rocking chairs on the porch to watch people passing by.
There are many good things in store for you, Miss Mamie. Lots of things. You will be a place of pride again and not feel like the ugliest duckling on the block.
A House Built To Last:
Whoever completed this house obviously built it to last. Mamie has seen many families passing through. She’s been the receptacle of both happiness and grief, and retained the echo of children’s laughter.
She has withstood the mighty Oklahoma winds that come sweeping down the plains. Suffered with a family or families during the Great Depression. She stood soundly during World War II and the Dust Bowl. And just shrugged it all off like a coat when spring arrived.
Historical Highlights For 1921:
I looked up some of the historical highlights for 1921, the year Mamie came to life:
- Warren G. Harding became president: Harding was inaugurated in 1921.
- William Howard Taft became Chief Justice
- Franklin Roosevelt contracted polio
- Tulsa Race Massacre: A race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma destroyed a thriving Black neighborhood.
- Nobel Prize: Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the photoelectric effect.
- Insulin discovered: Canadian surgeon Dr. Frederick Banting and medical student Charles Best isolated insulin for the first time.
- Dishwasher introduced: The dishwasher was introduced in 1921.
The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of Tulsa’s most significant events. The Greenwood District was recognized nationally for its affluent African American community. In June 1921, a series of events nearly destroyed the entire Greenwood area.
Twenty-four hours after the violence erupted, it ceased. Thirty-five city blocks lay in charred ruins and more than 800 people were treated for injuries. Historians now believe as many as 300 people may have died.
I read that Jim Crow, jealousy, white supremacy, and land lust all played roles in leading up to the destruction and loss of life in 1921. In 2001, an official Race Riot Commission was organized to review the details of the event. But it took 80 years to make it happen.
A Bunch Of Old Hippies:
Kendra said to me on Sunday: “You’ll be among a bunch of old hippies.”
“Well,” I said. “Then I should fit right in.”
The distance between the Earth and the moon illustrates the immensity of love. My promise is that Mamie will be loved and cared for.
The love you have for Mamie will change the lives of both of you!! so happy you have plans to complete her transformation and your own among the “Hippies”. Best wishes for all of the neighborhood as you bring life back to Mamie.
You’re an amazing lady. Mamie has found her star.
What a lovely post. It made my day. Be still my heart someone who thinks of homes as I do. So very enchanting and I can’t wait to see the love you will give her. If only more people would see a home such as this. Homes that have a history. Not new, not cookie cutter. Oh how I’d love a home with real history. A real pride of ownership. In AZ I don’t see pride of ownership, just a revolving door.
It looks wonderful and lots of great ideas! I wonder how you will be able to get around with all those steps, if you have to use your rollater again??? Maybe with the steps, you’ll need to use crutches to get up and down which are not to hard to use. You haven’t mention much about your ankle and how it’s doing, so I hope and assume it’s better? I sure hope so!! So much to look forward to with this new (old) home. Your plans to dress her up sound wonderful, and I know she’ll shine once you are done with her! Marilyn
I’m so thrilled for you and Kendra that this is working out so good. Now if your apt would just let you out of the lease early that would be great. I think you will
have some sleepless nights this winter thinking about your spring planting. Hopefully Scott will be able to pry himself away from
Betty and bring your Japanese maple over. I just moved one I bought this spring and it was doing awful. The sun was scorching it bad. So I took a utility cart and pulled it up
on that and wheeled it to the back of the house to my shady porch. BUT couldn’t lift it up as it was so heavy in the pot. Finally waited for cooler weather and just lifted it out of the pot and got the planter up in the porch and sat it back in. It is so happy now and so am I❣️
Your home is most likely a kit house from Sears (Crafstman brand). Here is a link to the various kits sold in the 1920’s. My grandparents home was a Sears home. They paid $1100 for it in 1920. Sears provided homes for thousands of people in the time they made these kits!
https://www.vintag.es/2019/02/sears-catalog-homes.html
It will be fun making it look so pretty and loved. It will be nice to see all you do.
I can’t wait!
Cool information! I am sure that you will have a blast putting your mark on her! I can’t wait to see what you do!
I can’t wait to see what I do either. I try to figure it out in my head, but I don’t have the measurements of the rooms.
I am excited for you. Cannot wait to see what you are going to do with your house. Your kitty is going to love all of those rooms.
I think Ivy will also love scooting her toys around on the hardwood floor too, like she used to.
I am so happy for you, Ivy, and Mamie! Your very own home sanctuary in which to live and thrive. Hope you will share all the love you pour into making this old house your home sweet home. I cannot wait to read about it all.
Roberta Raineri
I plan to share every bit of it.
First I want to tell you how I love those petunias! So gorgeous and full!
Second I am so happy you will have a porch to sit outside on and enjoy the nice days of Oklahoma weather. (I lived 3 different places in Oklahoma and I know how hot it can get! The last place I lived was Bartlesville, just up the road from you. (smile)
What fun you will have making this house a home for you and Ivy. Thanks for including your readers on your new adventure!
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had a big front porch.
We had a 1925 Craftsman bungalow for about 20 years on brick paved and tree lined street in a small town in Florida. We restored the house and tried to make everything as authentic as we could. We now live in an 1880 house in the mountains in North Carolina. Yes, we have wonky floors that sit on a boulders. It’s hard for me to understand why people teardown old houses to build new ones. However, our first house was built by high school students in a construction class.
They tear down houses here all the time to get the land that’s underneath.
Oh, Brenda, I am soooo excited for you. Looking forward to you turning this little gem into your cozy home. It will be so much fun watching the progress as you transform Mamie into the ‘bell of the ball’ where you and Miss Ivy can relax and have good dream filled nights.
Mamie is the perfect kind of house to make cozy.
Congratulations!
Thanks!
I love your vision, and hearing about all your plans. I can’t wait for you to move! I wish I were closer. I’d come help you pack. Someday, if walls could talk, your lovely Mamie will have lots of stories about you and Miss Ivy too, to add to all of the other stories she could tell… if she could talk!
If only! I imagine she’d have quite some tales to tell us.
I know you will make Miss Mamie beautiful. I’m looking forward to following her wonderful transition thru your post. No doubt about it, inside and out, she’ll be the belle of the ball.
I sure will try to make her shine!
Brenda, what a joyful article….your love of Mamie is shining through. Can’t wait to see how you transform this lovely lady into a gorgeous, warm, welcoming home.for you and Ivy……I hope you can bring your loved plants to the new garden…..looks like peaceful days are ahead of you , with fun decorating challenges…..
I’m hoping Kendra’s boyfriend and maybe one of her workers can take my Japanese Maple tree. It’s been put in a bigger pot and is really heavy.
I hope you will be able to move all of your potted plants to Mamie. I know how it hurt when you had to leave so many of your beautiful plants behind at the former apartment. I have no doubt that you will turn Mamie into a “stop the car!” house on the block once you get to planting and decorating the porch out front. I hope you will consider having a big house warming party and invite all the friends you have made at the apartment complex. And then think about occasional yard parties out back when summer comes along again. Oh my gosh, just saw something hilarious outside – one of the chipmunks chasing a squirrel up the big arborvitae in the back yard – must have stolen a nut! You may see things like this out of your patio doors soon.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a chipmunk! I’m hoping to take some of the plants. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to move earlier. Because by January they will all have died back.
I am so happy for you Brenda, you will finally have a home to call your own! You can decorate as you please and not have to worry about management telling you that you are doing something wrong! Love all your ideas for Mamie!
I hope to turn her into a blooming flower.
Its still a rental, so there will be a landlord even if it is her daughter. I say this with kindness but truth that there are limitations. (I am a landlord to my son so I’m aware of the cautionary tale of love, rent, and family.)
AMEN…
It is lovely reading about your joy for this house. It seems to be the lift you need after enduring unpleasantries for much too long. You and Miss Ivy will find daily pleasures in the charming and soon-to-be even prettier Miss Marnie!
Oops… meant Miss *Mamie, not Marnie!
I’m so relieved that I can go someplace and not feel afraid of these people here. Because most of the people are just that: afraid.
I can’t imagine being afraid all the time. That has to be a terrible feeling at this stage of life. I’m sure you will be very happy in your own space. Happy for you Brenda and can’t wait to see how you will decorate it with all your stuff.
What a perfect answer! I’m excited for you and can’t wait to see Mamie in all her glory!
She will be given whatever talents I have to give her.
I am so happy for you and sweet Ivy, I’m sure you will have many happy days in your NEW Old home! She is a beauty just waiting for her new family to move in.
I just wonder how many new families have walked up those steps in the past 103 years?
I am so excited for you. this is the perfect house for you. Is there a washer/dryer hookup?
and is there a basement and a garage?
There is a full-sized washer and dryer in the little laundry room. I forgot to add the photo earlier. But it’s up there now.
I’m so excited for you and this sweet, old house. To have someone to make her shine again.
I can’t wait to see what you do to her. Have you picked out the colors you’ll paint the outside? It’s true Craftsman homes should sport earthy colors. They’re my favorite. Mission type furniture too. I think you’ll have a good time making her shine. She needs your landscaping touch. Kudos to your daughter for doing a fantastic job on the inside. Glad she lives old houses too!
Haven’t quite figured out the paint colors yet. Kendra is going to meet with the painter I think the first of next week. Today after she meets with contractors for her other houses, she’s going to Lowe’s to get a grab bar for the tub and a few other things.
I have been following you since you lived in Texas. Each house has become cozy and loved. I am excited to see what you do here. I know it will be wonderful! Your homes are always filled with love.
I’ve always loved all houses, particularly old houses. Growing up, we were poor and lived in very small homes. But I recall wanting to do something with houses when I grew up.
I asked you that particular question — thank you so much for responding. Miss Mamie is definitely going to be the bell of the ball. Just watch her strutting her stuff.
I can’t wait to watch you decorating outside and the wall in the house. Don’t forget to have fun – soon you’ll be able to relax and enjoy your surroundings
Yes, I remembered it was you. I’m having fun just thinking about it!
Just a little reminder – when something is said to be perfect then I personally think it’s overrated. She’s been waiting for you, Brenda. Be friends and enjoy each other. You’re going to be perfect for each other. Soon you’ll discover the big smile on your face. Don’t question how you feel just enjoy.
One final thought – I’m coming over after you’re settled so we can play Jacks on the big front porch.