Sunday, May 17, 2009

Part 4h - House and Land


RAISIN'

HOUSE AND LAND

Remodeling, Land, Garage and Delco

Since we got the house, we have reworked the front bathroom, installed a shower and papered the walls. Also, we turned the old, dark wood paneling and cabinets into a "white kitchen," with new refrigerator and stove.

After we decided to move back up here, we did some major remodeling to the house. We had the whole house rewired, insulated, the plumbing updated, added a 22 foot by 24 foot room to the back of the house, expanded the back bathroom, installed a new roof and vinyl siding and had a new, whole house HVAC system installed.
I also plan to do some rework in the shop and tractor shed areas. I guess, if you stop dreaming, you kinda stop living, as there'll be nothing else to think about to while your time away!

JoAnne and I bought the 3 1/2 acre strip between our West boundary, behind the barn, to the dirt road a few of years ago. We had all the timber removed to pay for it, and I'm hoping to get it to where I can plant pasture grass on it. I fenced it into the "Patch" that abuts the yard along the North and West sides.

Back to older times…

There were three buildings to the South of the house. The garage was built for one car at the left (East) side and almost enough room to park a car in the right side, except for the fact there was only a 3 foot walk-thru door on that side. In the right back side and corner was the Delco, 32-volt generator that charged-up 16, two-volt, glass-encased storage batteries.

The Delco (generator) originally would crank itself when the charge in the batteries was discharged to a certain point. All that had to be done to it was keep gasoline and engine oil in it. But as time went by, the coil that pulled the starting contact began to fail, so the engine had to be started by using the starter button. Also, Daddy had whittled a small wedge that had to be slid into the coil's contact to keep it in while running. If the contact opened, while the engine was running, or the engine would "run away." If the lights in the house started to get too dim, somebody had to go out and crank the Delco and run it until the lights got good and bright.


There was a small chicken coop on the back side of the garage, but I never saw anything in there as the exhaust from the Delco discharged into that coop.?.?

Along the West wall of the garage, on the outside, was the woodshed. That's where all the stove wood was stacked after all the splitting was finished.





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