I am sitting in my living room in Sherman, Texas. It is 10:35 and I need to write for 20 minutes. I have had a long, but good day seeing old friends and making at least one new one. Tomorrow, we will be up early so we can attend to business that needs to be done while we’re here on a very short visit. But tonight I sit in this living room and think, “Hmmm. This is a lovely place.”
I am looking at lace curtains, beautiful woodwork, three lovely reverse painted lamps, a pump organ and bench, two red velvet wing back chairs, a red velvet couch, a red, black and beige rug, a cypress table, a rocking chair with four spokes on each side, a lovely mantle with old tile, and several prints on the walls. I will not tell you all the little knickknacks that are placed on any of the surfaces, but suffice it to say, there are quite a few. The wallpaper is a muted green and beige print that is reminiscent of the 1930’s. The floors are a refinished pine. There are two sets of pocket doors in this room, but both are open at the moment. One opens into the front foyer; the other into the dining room.
It is quiet in this house and there is a sense of safety here. The house was built in 1894 and that age is communicated by how solid the house feels, as if it settled in a very long time ago with no intention of going anywhere despite years of neglect before we came along to renovate it. The man who built the house only lived in it a year or two, then the Lyon family bought it and lived here until 1949. After that, there has been a series of owners – some who made repairs and renovations – before it lay abandoned and derelict for far too many years. The owner prior to us stripped all the walls to the lathe and removed the floor in one room to replace a beam. That’s when we came in. Over several years, this house has been transformed. Now it is back to its original beauty with the addition of a completely finished upstairs, which never occurred before our ownership.
So, yes, this is love.
I am off to bed. I can hear Ray coming downstairs in search of where I am…
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