We’re a group of six bloggers who are sharing peeks into our homes and our lives, etc. Be sure to check them all out. This is our latest edition and this month our “Where Bloggers Live” is Just Like Home – other places in our lives that felt like home.
Easy answer for me – and I’ve already written a pretty long post about it back in January 2019. Called ‘the old house’ in my adulthood it was home to several generations before me – and my grandparents home in my childhood. My mother and I lived there during WWII when my Dad was in the Navy and my parents built their home next door (well, as next door as you get in the country).
It did have electricity (after a fashion) in my lifetime but no indoor plumbing. I really hated the outhouse.
I have a painting hanging over my fireplace of the old house. It was done by a local artist who happened to drive by one day and snapped a picture. She told them she had painted two scenes, one fall and one spring. Neither are totally accurate – perhaps she didn’t get the best photo. The addition on the left side of the house is not the correct size and the well porch was left off – but close enough to know is was our house.
My parents were at a local art show back in the 1970’s and she had the fall scene displayed. My Dad was astounded and immediately bought the painting. She told them about the other one and when we moved back to Alabama my mother looked up the artist and bought the spring one for me (the best present she ever gave me). #1 son has the fall scene – mine is prettier 🙂
My family lived there for several months when my #3 son was born. Then it was uninhabited from 1963 until it became mine in the 1980’s and burned shortly afterwards. It was out in the country (way out in those days) and vandals were numerous. The gorgeous old wood, door frames and mantles burned quickly. Chuck had plans to redo it so we could live in it. It would have been a massive undertaking, but I would have loved every minute.
My home is a little southwest from where the old house sat but on the same property. I still miss it!
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Em at Dust and Doghair
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Iris at Iris Originals Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
It looks like a beautiful house! What a shame it burned down, but so nice you had so much history there and that you could get the beautiful paintings!
Hope that your week is going well 🙂
Thanks Mica – it truly was a beautiful house in it’s day. I’m so thankful to have the painting.
Iris
Oh, Iris…what a story, what a home. How precious that house was to have been home to multiple generations of your family. What a dear Chuck was to have dreamed of refurbishing it so you could return to living there. Is the house remaining in any shape at all or did it burn down completely? I am thinking something must have remained after the fire if Chuck aspired to rebuilding it. What treasures to have paintings of your old home, even if they aren’t perfectly accurate. Glad you got the spring painting. The prettier one!!
The house burned to the ground, the only thing left were the fireplaces and the front brick columns – all of which we had to have taken down. The fireplaces were made of huge stones that would have killed someone if they had fallen. I do have wonderful memories and so blessed to have the painting.
Iris
What a beautiful house and story, Iris! I’m so sorry the old house burned. What an incredible loss for you and your family. It’s such a gift, though, that your family has the paintings.
The paintings are truly a blessing. I’m so happy that I have them (#1 son has the fall one).
Iris
I can’t even imagine having the house burned down like that. I remember our house (when I was a kid) being burglarized and it was an awful feeling. But to have paintings of it?? That’s so cool.
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
When it burned I was sad, mad and extremely frustrated. I’m so thankful for the painting.
Iris
What great memories! I especially love that you have the painting of the house. I always wanted to have paintings done of my three “adult” homes cuz they were so sweet. But…like so many things, you put it off and then the moment/opportunity has passed.
Bettye
https://fashionschlub.com
I love my painting, and am so thankful that I have it. And, I truly have wonderful memories.
Iris
I remember reading your original post and feeling so sad and kind of angry that a place with so much meaning and history would be destroyed by vandals. It must have felt like losing a family member.
It looked like such a gracious place to cradle your family history. What a heavenly coincidence that your parents happened upon the painting, and that you have it to treasure.
It was sad, frustrating, and made me angry. It still makes me feel that way sometimes, but I’m SO thankful for that painting.
Iris