Nut House Update

Some days you feel like a nut and some days you don’t.  Today . . we didn’t!  We’re not quite where we need to be yet.  Vince wants to be out of the city; away from close neighbors; away from rules and regulations of subdivisions and city ordinances but he’s never lived way out in the country.  He likes some of the things he complains most about.  The rules and restrictions of the city are what keep neighbors from storing old vehicles in their front yard — every vehicle owned by all their ancestors.  Why is it that this is the 2nd piece of 40 acres of land we’ve looked at where the house was built right on a corner and the trashiest of lots was right next door?  Yep, this one had one neighbor!  And they had probably one acre and on that acre were maybe 4 old junky campers with people living in them and probably at least 15 old cars sitting around.  Maybe that’s the best these people can afford and I’m surely not looking down on them but I don’t really want to live next door to them.

I suppose it’s my tender heart and appreciation for the work that went into this place that makes me want it so badly.

The old man was a true tree farmer.  He grafted and came up with new types of walnuts.  The room where he worked was full of ribbons.  I wish I had taken a picture.  There were honestly thousands of ribbons.  Each of the 970+ trees had a tag on it with everything a nut tree expert would need to know.  It made me very sad to know that when he died, the whole operation stopped and has sat there idle for 3 years.  All the work he did, all the knowledge in his head — gone when he left this earth.  As I was expressing those thoughts to Vince on the way home, he said . . it’s going to be the same with your quilts when you’re gone.  Not really!  My quilts are not living, growing, producing things.  Those trees need someone to care for them and love them like Mr. Lane loved and cared for them.  The trees were gorgeous!  Another nut farmer has been taking care of them and harvesting the nuts and they will continue doing that after the property is sold if the new owners wish.  There’s an apple orchard up the road that’s going to end up the same way as this nut farm.

This kitchen!  Everyone has their idea of the perfect kitchen.  This is my idea of the perfect kitchen.  I could hardly walk away from it.  The window you’re seeing straight ahead has about a  14″ deep marble slap for the window seal.  The perfect place for pies to sit to cool.  The cabinets are solid walnut from . . you guessed it . . Mr. Lane’s walnut trees.  The paneling is all from his trees.  The house is truly in perfect shape. It’s clean and nothing is wrong with it.  Someone could move right in today!  I would have wanted to strip wall paper and paint, change out a few light fixtures and rip up all the carpet and put all tile.  None of that is work we would have done ourselves so it would be a piece of cake to get it ready for us to move into.

But . . the problems – as in most 80’s era homes, the master bath was tiny.  Just a shower and toilet.  We like a huge shower.  I could live without the big, jetted tub but I don’t want to live without a big shower.  We had hoped the master bath would have a tub and a little more space and we would have removed the tub and made it into a big shower.  There’s no inexpensive way to do that in this master bath.

The biggest problem is that the basement is very chopped up.  There’s one room where the longarm would fit but I couldn’t sew or store my fabric in there.  It’s not a full basement so I would had to have taken up the entire basement with my sewing and not left any room for Vince to have an office at home . . which he needs.

On the way home, Vince said “If something happened to me, would you stay there alone?”  No . . we both know I wouldn’t.  It’s taken these people 3 years to sell this house (and it still isn’t sold) and we don’t want to be in the position of having something no one else wants when we’re trying to get rid of it.  Who the heck knows what to do when you get this age!

The coolest thing . .

They have this built in stereo system and the entire house has surround sound!  Amazing for an 80’s house.  Like every other appliance in the house, there are all the manuals and receipts for everything.

It was so hard to walk away since I loved that kitchen and wanted so badly to see Mr. Lane’s legacy continue with that nut farm but . . we cannot.  The house just doesn’t work for us and Vince has no interest in becoming a nut farmer.  Grapes  . . . maybe!  🙂

For now . . we’ll continue to think about what to do.