I asked my children if they knew whose place this was? Shawn and Megan looked at it for awhile and then shook their heads. They had no idea. Josh knew I was digging out old pictures so his response didn't count. Jay looked at it for awhile and then said, "wow, that's our place! That is so cool. Where did you find this picture? I've never seen it."
This picture was taken in 1982, the year we first moved here. I have recently started going through old pictures (it is one of my goals for this year), and I came upon this treasure. I couldn't have even said that I had it. A few weeks ago, we were discussing and remembering how this place used to look and we commented that we wished we would have taken pictures, but I didn't think I had any. Imagine my delight when I found this. It's hard to believe that there were so many barns and sheds with this property. If you blow the picture up, you can even see the roof of a tiny chicken coop that sat behind the house. I think that was one of the first things we took down. I remember that the property was so filled with trees and bushes and stone walls (which housed snakes!) that there was hardly even any grass. Also the stream ran right through the back yard. It reminded me of a jungle. And there was white board fence everywhere!
You have to look closely to see Douts Hill Road. The white barn on the right of the picture is actually on the other side of the road. As you can see, behind it was a nice big corn field. Sadly, we had to sell the land for money as we had a hard time making ends meet when we first lived here. One of the first things the developer did was tear down the barn before he built the houses across the road from us. We have often wished that we could have hung on to those acres and kept it as farmland, but at the time, there didn't seem to be any other option and once we sold it, we couldn't go back and undo it.
We spent many hours (and a lot of money) transforming this place into what it is today. When I look at this old picture I realize just how far we have come. Honestly, when we first moved here, I hated this house and property. Everything about it was old and ugly and I wasn't sure we would ever be capable of or able to afford to fix it up. Improvements came slowly but surely and gradually it became a place that I was happy to call home. I'm not sure that I can say I ever fell in love with it, but over thirty-five years it has left me with many happy memories (sad ones too). I am grateful for this big, old house that watched over our family and listened to children laugh and cry and tell stories and provided all of us a haven that we could come home to and know that when we were within its walls we were safe and protected from the world outside.
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