Our Home Renovation

We’re currently in New Orleans on a disaster relief team. We left our house in good hands and headed down here on Sunday. Words cannot describe what we’ve seen, but it has been amazing being able to bring a bit of hope to people. Yesterday and today we completely gutted a house that was under 5 feet of water for 2 weeks - and we’re told that tomorrow we’ll be working at a house that’s in even worse shape. Anyway, just a quick note to let everyone know what we’re up to. We’re looking forward to sharing many of the incredible stories and photos that we have.

My parents live in a new(er) house - only 9 years old (compared to our 75+) and a couple days ago they started getting water in the basement. It coincided with the first major rain we’ve had in months, so they assumed that with a shop vac and a day or so, the water would be gone and then they could figure out what the problem was after they got back from vacation.

Well, 36 hours later, the water wasn’t showing any sign of slowing down and they were tired of emptying the 6 gallon shop vac every 15 minutes (literally - they probably emptied close to 200 gallons of water). So, I stopped by to see if I could find the source. I ripped out a section of drywall where the water seemed to be coming from - note: wet drywall is as messy as plaster, which I thought nothing could be messier than - and nothing. The wall was dry. So I went into the adjoining bathroom, took out a floor to ceiling cabinet, ripped out the drywall behind it and found where the water was coming from.

The water wasn’t just oozing or trickling in, it was pouring in - mud and all. Right around the hole where the water line comes into the house. So, we went outside, found approximately where the line was and dug out a few shovel-fulls. Instantly the holes we dug filled up with water. You gotta realize that Illinois has been in a drought for several months - water shouldn’t fill a hole that is only 8-10 inches deep. At that point, we pretty easily figured out that there was pressure behind the water and that it was coming from the water line that goes into the house.

We started by calling the water department. No answer. Same with every other non-emergency number that we could find. Apparently only 911 works on Saturday afternoons. So we called. 2 minutes later, the fire department arrives - real firemen were in the house! It was kinda cool, actually. They wanted to see the water and where it was coming in. They confirmed that it was indeed coming in from outside and appeared to not just be ground water. But they didn’t have the equipment to shut off the water. One of the firefighters, though, knew someone who knew someone who worked for the water department. 45 minutes later, he showed up and after fighting with the shutoff for 15 minutes, finally got the water shut off. We got the last of the water vacuumed up and felt like we had just won a big fight - it was quite a relief to not have water pouring in anymore.

Though we didn’t exactly enjoy the battle, it was comforting to know that things go wrong in new houses, too.

This past weekend, we went to Fort Wayne, Indiana to see the 2005 Illsley Place Home and Garden Tour (read more). Normally we wouldn’t drive almost 5 hours to see something like this. However, one of the homes was where my mom grew up - 1134 Illsley Place.

The house was built in 1926 and my great grandparents (VanArnam) bought it in 1930. My grandparents (Allen and Betty Simmons) were married in the living room and had their reception in the backyard in 1937. In 1952, when my great grandfather died, my grandparents (along with my mom and her brother and sisters) moved in and lived there until 1962.

It was cool to be able to see such a wide range of residential architecture from the early part of the 1900s. In the house next door, I noticed that there was a faucet in the upstairs bathroom labeled “Ice Water”. I couldn’t figure out what in the world it could possibly be. Then, however, in the basement, there was an old (original) water cooler. They really did have ice water “on tap” in the upstairs bathroom.

Several houses down was the house that my mom’s uncle built. It wasn’t open for the tour, but we talked to the current owner and she let us see the house. She told us that they had found a small rectangular hole in the floor of the dining room and couldn’t figure out what it was. It turns out that it was for a button on the floor that the head of the table would press to call the maid.

Illsley Place is a pretty cool street. It reminded me of the streets you see in movies, with huge trees, gorgeous old houses and kids safely playing in the street. In fact, every Memorial Day for over 60 years, the street is blocked off and the kids put on a parade. At Christmas, all the kids go caroling.

In the end, it wasn’t just the gorgeous old homes and gardens that we were impressed with, it was the community that existed in this block. Community that is so sought after in neighborhoods today.