That is one amazing home ! That would be my dream home. I think those older homes had far more personality and warmth than the newer cold looking modern homes. I love that reading room door.

Marilyn....Your house is a work of art! Love it!

Talk about personality! I love it, Marilyn.

OH Marilyn, I do love what you both have done with that house. It is just lovely, and shows what a good eye you have for vintage stuff. Congratulations for a job well done, (Jody too) and thanks bunches for sharing your adventure and beautiful work.

The reading room window was at an auction. The auction was going to last two nights. I went with a friend and saw the window and I really liked it. At the end of the auction, the auctioneer asked if there were any requests. I could have requested it and got it really cheap because since no one else requested it, and only a handful of people were left there, as a courtesy, they wouldn't have bid it way up. Believe it or not....I used to be very shy and I didn't request it.

The next night, my husband and I were eating out and I was telling him about the window....how much I loved it and how I wished I'd requested it. I said it would really be neat in a bathroom....because a lot of people call the bathroom, "the reading room". He said, "Do you want to go back and get it?" I said, no....it was too far and it was raining and it was already 8 pm and the auction started at 7.

He said, come on, let's go!

We were at Baybrook Mall...which is south of Houston. The auction was in Conroe...which is far, far north of Houston. And it was pouring down rain. And I was pregnant....due any time. But we drove to Conroe and when we got there, there wasn't even any place to park. So many people there. So he let me out in front and he went down the road to park. I went in the back...and the window was still there. It was standing room only...no place to sit. My husband came in from parking the car and went in the back to look at it. A minute or so later, the window came up. He had given the kid working there, five dollars to bring it up. Seemed like everyone in the place wanted it and the bidding was fast and furious. My husband said to me, "Bid!!" I said no, it was going for too much. He said, "We drove all the way over here, buy the #^%&@*# thing!" So I bought it for $200 which I believe it is easily worth...at least now, but I probably could have gotten it for $35 if I had requested it the night before. It was a very sweet thing for him to do, but he has done a lot of nice things for me....like he moved a concrete water trough that is 10' x 4' and 6" thick here for me. It was my favorite thing at our old place which had been a dairy. I grew miniature waterlilies in it.

You sure did breath new life into that home! it's beautiful, marilyn!

Wonderfully sweet story about the window. I just love it!

Oh...you found it!!! Thank you! I still think it's amazing...from the old falling down house to the finished product. You made a miracle!!! :-) I love it!

Beautiful, just beautiful! You've got a great hubby too, getting your window for you and moving the trough. Thanks for sharing. :)

Thanks for the interesting story and pictures.

Here is the trough. Plus, he found three more troughs for me....none this big, and moved them here too.

I have always wanted to see your house . What an amazing transformation ! I love that window and the story.

Gorgeous Marilyn........

I love the house and the window story! That china hutch or sideboard in picture 2 is beautiful!

We planned to move it to the dining room and strip and stain it, but it wouldn't work out due to the placement of the windows, so we moved it to the other side of the room, and took out the partition that was behind it, and enlarged the kitchen. It kitchen is still too small and too narrow. Plus, there are four doors....one that goes to a pass thru that connects to the center hall, and used to be the second bathroom and is now my utility room, a door to the dining room, a door to the pantry/mud room and a door to the sun porch. So the refrigerator had to go to the pantry, which is 10 x 10. The only place to put it in the kitchen was opposite the stove. There is an island that sort of divides the kitchen and gives more counter space, but even so, it is too narrow for the stove and refrigerator to be opposite each other. I am using a modern stove now but I have a 1949 Maytag stove that I want to use. It is in good shape but need to get it checked over. There is a place in Houston that restores old stoves....and will take it there. I don't know if we will ever finish the house. We moved and remodeled a house in 1978, when we were in our 30's. Being in our 70's now....it is taking forever to get everything done. I have a bookcase that I want to be moved and built into the hall. It is wide enough and the bookcase is a little on the narrow side. I'd like to use all my cupboards, etc. but I don't think I will be able to use them all. I have quite a few.......more than 20!

I hear ya on things taking forever to get done. We are DIYers too and those sort of projects always get put on the long term list. We have too many short term needs to get to them. We ripped out the master shower two years ago because of a leaky pan. We are still using the guest shower :-) I think we got over our head with replacement because of all of the damage from the leaky shower, (drywall and framing as well as the concrete foundation had to be replaced) we are scared to commit to a plan. We feel the need to completely waterproof the shower (overkill).

You moved your house! I am in awe. I love watching those shows where they move houses. How far was the move?

I gather you're still working on it. Are you living in it as you go along?

What an amazing house!

Minus the move...we are in the final ??? phases of something very similar. Yes, even the falling out between my DH and me. Ours is brick, and with the exception of the re-pointing and the new water and electrical services, everything has been DIY. We've been 6 years and it still isn't done. It looks like you've made tremendous progress and have a wonderful foundation to work with. I'm so glad you were able to get the entry hall light. The man that wanted the lower price didn't deserve it!

Wow! What an adventure. Thank you for sharing your story and pictures. I love "watching" things develop. Is it finished?

We are living in it. The house was originally brick and water had gotten behind them, and rotted the boards. We replaced those and put Hardiplank siding on it. It was moved about 15 miles to us but it had been moved much farther when it was first moved to the house mover's lot. About 50 miles, I'd guess. The house mover had a storage lot, and I just happened to have to drive by it every day when I went to take care of Ken. I used to stop and go in and closr the cabinet doors because people would go in, open them and leave them open. Had no idea it would ever belong to me...just didn't want them to warp. Finally they boarded the door shut...as you can see in the first picture. Hurricane Ike came and blew the door open and that is when I got interested in trying to buy it and found out the guy who had bought it was in prison. My husband was away on the tow boat so told me to get a friend of ours, a retired contractor, to go look at it and see if the house could be saved. Did that. He said the house could be saved but not to waste any time because it was a dire situation the longer it sat there, cut in half.

Thanks for the stories and pictures. How interesting is that!!

I'd love to see pictures of your completed porch.

It's a mess right now. It has hard wood flooring stacked on it. We got the flooring out of two houses that were going to be torn down, to patch the floor in the house where it was cut in half and the living room by the door where the floor had rotted out. When they moved the house the first time and took the bricks off, they also removed a porch that it had. They tarped it but after sitting there for 8 years, the tarp blew off and it rained in and rotted out all the front flooring of the living room. We are also putting it in the sun porch, but plan to do a painted floor in there. That isn't finished either...about 3/4 done, so all the furniture is kind of pushed to the sides. Jody will have some time off this winter...so if he will stay healthy...which sort of looks doubtful right now because he is sick and won't go to the doctor until he is almost dead....we can finish putting the flooring down.

That is amazing. What an adventure indeed.

My dream is to find a very small, neglected Tudor cottage and move it to my orchard. I've had the floor plans in my head for eons.

Thanks so much for sharing your pictures, Marilyn! I like the paw feet better than the claw feet too. We have done a lot of fixing up over the years. Not here so much but maybe 20 years ago we bought a big brick two story school building. Several of us worked seven days a week for a year to get it ready to open and then it still did not get the basement and the second floor finished. Hard work. Hope you can get Jody to see a doctor. Better safe than sorry.

Sue

Gosh, Marilyn, you are the Queen of Preservation: People, animals, plants, even houses! Do you ever take 'time off'?

I will remember your precious window when I excuse myself to visit the "Reading Room". (Jody was pretty smart to give a pregnant lady what she craved!)

Thanks for sharing your journey with this house. I just love the salvaged windows, cabinets and light fixtures, especially the one you waited for and paid $50! Are you doing an unfitted kitchen by chance?

I wanted to but even after taking out the partition between the kitchen and the room with the glassed in cupboard, my kitchen is still small. We turned that cupboard around and it is on the opposite end of the room from the sink but with 4 doors in the kitchen, severely limited the wall space. We took the door off of the adjoining mud room, pantry and so the refrigerator is in there. May end up taking out the sink that is in there...don't really need that extra sink. I just wanted to use one of the old sinks I have. We had to have an island in order to have work and counter space. So it juts out from one wall. It was an old work bench that I found discarded by the road.

Oh how I would love to see your house and the whole property. I do hope you get everything accomplished that you want to get done and I pray that Jody stays healthy. You too.

I've been wondering for a couple of years now whether you had moved in and I'm glad to know you have. :) What a fabulous house and kudos to you for bringing it back to life! I'm sorry your husband isn't feeling well once a month--maybe you'd better kidnap him to get him to the doctor. It's probably a good thing that he will have some time off soon, so he can rest up. You're an amazing woman, Marilyn.

What an amazing project. Thank you for sharing your adventure.

I really like your house. It has character

Thank you for sharing. I'm going to take my time and drink in all those photos!

My goodness! You are a wonder, Marilyn.

Marilyn, what a fantastic venture. Thank you for sharing that, my husband and I sat here going through the pics and were amazed that you accomplished this feat. I'd love to see it through to the finale.

Oh, wow! Words fail me.......I don't know how you could leave that place without regret.

That's right, Irma. I can't. That is why I have been paralyzed by indecision and have waited two months to contact a realtor to sell this place. I don't want to regret the decision. We have some money coming and we can fix the house. We need to do so much more work on the entire place though...so that is mostly why I want to sell it. I know it sounds crazy to move the house, but fixing the house is easy compared to everything else we need to do here. Actually, we could fix it easier there than we can here. I guess we will just have to take a chance and trust that it will work out.

What everyone else said. To paraphrase you are a Wonder, creative and indomitable. Plus you are heroic in your abilities and efforts towards animals. You teach us all a thing or two about using what you are able to obtain. You ought to do a book or have someone help you write a book with lots of pictures. I certainly would buy and read such a book. tell us when it comes out :-)

I love old houses. I guess that's because in part that I grew up in an old, sturdy house built about 1900. It had lots of oak inside--doors, floors, wainscoting, mirrored oak closet doors, built in buffet and china cupboards, lovely storage cupboard in my closet, beamed dining room ceiling, built in leaded glass bookcases beside the fire place, tall windows framed with oak trim, a laundry chute from the upstairs bathroom to the basement.

You really cleaned up that old house nicely. It looks great, now. What an improvement.