At the time the brown shingled three-room house had been erected in the midst of acres of plum trees, it was near the end of the 19th century. The small rectangular shaped building, home for the hired hand, was evenly portioned in half lengthwise with the kitchen and bedroom on one side and the combined dining and living room on the other. The only source of heat was a wood stove located near the inner wall of the living room.
It wasn't until some time in the first trimester of the 20th century that there was an unheated bathroom and an adjoining utility room built on to the end of the bedroom. In the middle of that century, after much of the land in the area had been planted in strawberries, hops, and other crops, the hired hand moved on and a family of four moved in and made three-fourths of the small attic into bedroom spaces for the children and then covered some of the rough wooden floors with linoleum.
Each window in the home was adorned inside with a roll-up blind and a sheer, white ruffled priscilla curtain, which offered a degree of privacy and also beauty.
nice.
ReplyDelete(enjoyed your description as I've always found it difficult to convey the 'feel' of an old house, the floor plan being relatively simple, I read in this Six that the reasons for the improvement (along with those improvements) very much add to the picture of the place.)
I'm glad the description was clear. I have not driven by the place for a few years. I'm almost afraid to now, as I heard that they might tear it down and build a new home on the site.
DeleteGlad you could make it Pat :)
ReplyDeleteMy comment echoes Clark's somewhat. You have this cool ability to simply describe, or describe simply, a place or thing or scene. I could definitely picture the hire'd hand's house and for sure love that it was built amidst acres of plum trees!
I admit I had to look up Priscilla curtains but come to find out I knew exactly what they looked like, just didn't know what they were called :)
Thanks. One doesn't hear the term Priscilla curtains much now, but they can still be bought or made.
DeleteI love the charm of old places and tend to wonder about the families that lived there, what they did and how they interacted in such small and basic spaces, and yet they somehow managed, perhaps better than we do with our larger homes and more disconnected lives now. You did a beautiful job of sharing the aging of this house, how it changed to fit it's occupants, and what they did to improve it. I can see those curtains in the windows. I still love curtains, though they seem to be coming a thing of the past.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Perhaps curtains are becoming more a thing of the past in some homes because the windows are so much larger, and there are so many more of them.
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