The is about a guy and how he renovated a derelict home and the original couple that came by and visited their old home. Three posts.
Found it to be interesting.
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Robin Shannon
Have you ever had previous or original owners of the house that you live in, come back and try to visit their old home? Did you feel inconvenienced or intruded upon? How much did you allow them to explore? How did they act?
Have you ever had previous or original owners of the house that you live in, come back and try to visit their old home? Did you feel inco...
In 2009 I bought a derelict old house! It had not been lived in for 15 years. The roof had been eaten out by termites and had fallen in over part of the property. It was really a knock-down proposition. But I loved the old stone walls and I felt with a lot of effort, I could bring this old lady back to life again!
I was coming home one day around lunch time and there was a woman in the street taking photos of the front of our property. I pulled in the driveway, into the garage and got out of the car. The woman with the camera came up the driveway and said to me….
“My name is Elizabeth Tape, my father Ron and mother June built this house in 1952. I spent my first 12 years in this house and they were some of the nicest times of my life. So every time I come back to Mt Barker I come around to have a look at the old house. I have seen a few things changing lately and I thought I would take a few photos to show Dad”!
My first reaction was….”My God, is he still alive?”………She said yes both of them were still alive but, June had dementia and Ron was in very poor health and on oxygen all the time.
I invited Elizabeth in to see the changes we had made to the house. She took lots of photos and said, “Oh I wish Dad could see what you have done here!” I said he was always welcome to visit if he felt up to it.
Three months went by and I never heard anything further and thought the old guy must have passed on! Then, one Sunday morning a couple of cars pulled up out the front, containing the entire family…..they had all come to see the old house. My God, Ron was so frail and weak, but his eyes just beamed as I showed him through the place and what we had done with it.
He told me, the two of them had spent the first 18 months on the grass out the front of the property chipping the stone that would go into the wall construction by hand, with nothing but an old combing hammer. I didn’t want to belittle Ron and June’s work but, there were times when I seriously wondered how big a challenge I had taken on, but I persevered! Now, listening to Ron talk with such passion, I am so glad I did.
At one point where I put in a doorway in the stone wall, I put in a perspex panel to show the way Ron and June had built the house, I wanted it to look like what archaeological restorers do in an ancient dig, and when Ron saw it he started to cry, because I had included behind the perspex the very combing hammer they used all those years ago which had been left on the property.
They built the house like a medieval fort and threw all the stone bits and rubbish in the large perimeter wall cavity.
Ron told me all about his dreams when he built the house and how proud they both were when they could move the family in.
June, as I said, had dementia and had no idea where she was or what they were doing there, it was all just foreign to her until I showed them what I had done with the old sheds up the back of the block. I relocated an old wood stove from what is now our guest cottage (which they lived in while they built the main house) up to my workshop, as I felt it was a bit good to just throw away.
As soon as June saw the stove she went into an uncontrolled state of excitement….pointing to it she kept saying, “That’s my stove, that’s my stove” over and over again! That was the only thing on the property she recognised!
We had a lovely couple of hours with Ron and June and the rest of the family and, having them here gave me a renewed feeling of vigor. I wanted to honour what Ron had built and everything I have done here since I have done with Ron at my shoulder, hoping that he approves!
He’s gone……..but neither we or this house will forget him. Thanks Stefan for the question!
Cheers……Rob
DIT 3: I am amazed that something I have loved for the last decade should suddenly get me 10,000 up-votes in the course of 25 hours! At the risk of undoing the good work this post gained me, here are a few photos that showed the property transformation…..
Purchase day…..don’t you always love the way gloomy winter days bring out the worst in a photographed subject!
A few months later……
Two years later…..
And now….today!
And the rear of the main house as it was……
and once again a year later….
and that cottage they lived in while they built the house. The flue sticking out through the tiles was connected to June’s stove……
I have loved every moment of this …..I don’t know quite what to call it! It’s not a project, it’s not a redevelopment , it’s the re-birthing of a great idea.
Ron, I am still at it mate!
Cheers……Rob
My feeling is, we are the product of who we are! Sounds a silly statement but, think about it for a minute! Aggressive people have aggressive dogs. Petrol heads have outrageous cars. Rules are for those who break them. Loud arrogant people ride the noisiest motorbikes. The way we act is an extension of our personality!
Nice people are attracted to nice things and this is where a site like Quora shines, it brings nice people together to speak with a communal voice. In all the comment that this answer has generated there has been only one critical one.
Thanks to all of you, thanks for being nice people….and thank God there are so many of you!
Cheers……Rob
EDIT: July27 2020.
