Back when we were looking at moving to Montana (Whitefish to be exact), we found Fresh Life Church, and pastor Levi Lusko. His messages really spoke to us, and we also felt a connection to him as he had also lost a child (his daughter Lenya died of an asthma attack). One of his most meaningful messages to us spoke of “little by little”, which was a message of patience and trust. We really felt led to this house, and we feel through the circumstances involved that we were meant to be here. We trust. We have patience. And we will need both. In heaping gobs. Taking care of this house in a way that honors its past will be a lifelong project, nothing to be rushed. This renovation will be best enjoyed and appreciated “little by little”.
With Allie having attended orientation this past week, and meeting a bunch of new friends with whom she’ll be attending UNH, we worried about her getting bored with weeks to go before move-in day. While she has some things on her calendar (flying back to Minneapolis for a few days to attend a concert, as well as to Colorado for a mission trip), Harrisville has fewer options for this city-dwelt teenage girl. No malls, no nail salons, coffee shops, no familiar places to hang out. There are a few antique shops, some good cafe/restaurants, and some hardware stores, but not much else. Which is appealing to those of us who want to step off the carnival ride that is today’s suburban/urban life, but I can see where it may be dreadfully boring for this teen girl. Then, in comes a few neighbors, a community, and some girls from Georgia. Our neighbor’s daughter has kids Allie’s age, and they had some visitors from Georgia, and they all connected right away. We have not seen Allie now for three days. They went kayaking in the pond down the hill, thrift-store shopping, climbed Mount Monadnock, had a 50’s theme party, dyed one of the girls hair, did henna tattoos on each other, watched scary movies, and just hung out being teenagers. We couldn’t be more thankful. We met up with them all at their church this past Sunday over in Keene, and fell in love with their church. We ended up sitting for over an hour after the service ended, talking to people, and even got some names of folks who may be resources for help on the restoration.
We still occasionally stop and realize that we’re actually HERE. We’re actually living our dream, taking care of this historic house. In an absolutely breathtaking location. While driving around running our errands, there are countless views of nature and history… mountains, lakes, rock walls, historic homes and buildings…. We’ve seen so much wildlife around the farm, from beautiful moths, birds, turkeys, the ground hogs that live in the rock walls in our back yard, the porcupines that stripped our pear trees behind the barn…. good with the bad I guess….
Everyone is so friendly and helpful, easily willing to lend a hand with whatever you need, expecting nothing in return. We’ve met so many lovely people- while cutting one of the trees blocking the road the other day (after the storm mentioned in our last post), we met a local woman who grew up in this house, and we hope to have her over soon to talk about her memories here, and show her what we’ve done so far to preserve her childhood home and its memories.
We are still working on the land- clearing brush, exposing the rock walls and boulders, and trimming up what needs to be trimmed. Our arborist (and friend) John is working to clear stumps in the yard, as well as the hillside below the house to open up the views to the pasture below, and hopefully expose some of the Wapack range to the east. We bartered our old dining set which was too large for our house with John, in exchange for some firewood. An excellent trade all around, and we are so happy another family will love the furniture which ours loved for so many years. We’ve met most of our neighbors, and are already trading house-watching duties while folks are away. We met a couple of ladies trying to find their way to a concert in town, gave directions,and one of them returned to bring us a basket of beautiful fresh-picked strawberries as a thank-you. They are delicious.
We’re still unpacking and sorting, and making headway making it look like we live here. We were able to set up the back parlor as our “living room”, and actually enjoyed a fire in its beautiful fireplace last night for the first time. This parlor would have been the more casual room, where the family would have “hung out”, as the other parlor, which is now our bedroom, has a more elegant fireplace, and would have likely been the formal parlor for entertaining guests. This back parlor is the room which still shows a section of Moses Eaton Jr’s original stenciling from the late 1830’s.
Jenny is working on painting the front closet and foyer, and while we originally intended to try to save the very old wallpaper in that room, we’ve found it’s not in as good a shape as we thought, so we’ll strip it, and find an historically suitable reproduction to put up. Most of the trim in the closet appears to be original, still showing the square hand-cut nails and horsehair plaster. Everywhere we look, we’re finding little treasures for the eyes. We’ll show more detail once we’re finished, and we can put up proper before-and-after photos.
That’s it for now. We’re going to finish up our morning coffee, take the pup for a walk down the road, and get busy. If we do just a little every day- little by little…
Thanks for coming along!
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