Be it ever so humble...

[kcm.MN]

Puzzle: https://jigex.com/fVZkh

 

[Richard G.]

Very nice old home like many around here many years ago.

 

[SweetFeet]

My dream house: the big porch, the trim on the porch, the half-round kind of a turret thing, and peaks in the roof (we have no peaks). Love it!!!

 

[ADB-Ia]

Looks like the next door neighbor's house when I was a kid. We tore the house down for the lumber when the owner was going to just burn it down. Kind of a shame but it had become home to honey bees and raccoons and it needed to come down. Along with LOTS of good lumber we got about 100 gallons of honey out of the walls. I hated when Dad would send us over to work on it. He would say - you guys ought to love this job. You are good at tearing things up.

 

[Steve@Advance]

Reminds me of the old farm house at a dairy I used to do some work for.

Beautiful house, neglected on the outside, but inside still had all the varnished wood work.

The owner of the dairy lived in the house, his wife hated it, too much to keep clean, and the flies from
the dairy. She finally convinced her husband they need to move... Into a doublewide.

The house sat empty for several years and then one day it was gone. Sad.

 

[SweetFeet]

Great story. Cool you reclaimed the lumber.

 

[ADB-Ia]

It really bothered my dad to tear it down. It was the house/farm my parents rented when first married. Dad refinished the hardwood floors throughout the house (he swore he'd never do that again). Their first three kids were born there. Those early years memories are sweet. After living there for seven years, they moved a half mile down the road to a better farm where they lived till they retired. They left a grand house with electricity and indoor plumbing to go to a big old square farmhouse with no electricity (until about two years later) and an outhouse (until about ten years later). And six more kids - I'm number seven of nine. A trip down memory lane.

 

[Richard G.]

What part of Iowa are you in?
We have traveled some out there.

 

[ADB-Ia]

We live north of Oskaloosa, in Mahaska county. About right in the middle of the southeast quarter of the state. US Highway 63 (north/south) and US Highway 92 (east/west) run through Oskaloosa.

 

[Richard G.]

We have been to Wellman a few times to a friends farm that has been in his family since the 1800's.

 

[ADB-Ia]

My brother pastored a church in Wellman for several years. A couple of his kids graduated from Mid Prairie high school there. I would go through Wellman on my way to the ArtsWay dealer in Kalona back in my feed grinding days.

 

[SweetFeet]

Ohhh, I can see why it was hard for your dad to tear down that house.

Sounds a bit like the story of my parents... sold their nice house in a small town to buy an old family farm with no indoor plumbing. Outhouse was by the granary - I remember using it. I must have been 4 or 5 when dad put a bathroom in our house. I was the only kid born after they moved to the farm.

 

[gene bender]

i LIVE IN A HOUSE 9mi north of WELLMAN in a house built during Civil War walnut frame two story can see the axe marks making the pieces square in the basement limestone wall in east wall of basement rest of walls was replaced with cement block i early 40s square nails on the siding

 

[big tee]

Gods' Country!!!----Tee

 

[ADB-Ia]

You are closer to the field of dreams than I am - Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa!

 

[Richard G.]

This family lives 3 or 4 miles north of Wellman.
He runs a big machine shop on his farm.