First of all, I apologize for some of the pictures. We found out later that the camera had got stuck on an undesired setting. The ISO was set at 1600 (not auto) and the resolution has been reduced to 2M rather than 10M. I have reduced the quality for the purposes of putting them on the web, but the originals aren’t nearly up to my standards for quality.
OK, so on our vacation to Maryland, Jenn and I stopped by the ole' stomping grounds. I have previously posted a satellite image of Elkshire under its new ownership so it was nice to go and see the changes in person. While we were driving down the driveway Jenn had some reservation about the owners allowing us to look around. After we slowly drove down the driveway, looking at all the changes, we parked in the new road circle that integrates quite nicely with the fruit trees and the front lawn. One of the new owners, Mike, came out to greet us. Once I told him my name his eyes lit up and a big grin appeared on his face. I introduced Jenn and told him that I was showing her where I grew up. I asked him if it would be ok to show Jenn around, making sure to assure him we would be very respectful. He said "of course" and even took the time out of his day to personally show us everything he had changed/added. He genuinely seemed very eager and proud to show us everything, we could tell that my opinion really mattered to him. I can't tell you what a good feeling the place had and how all the changes fit it perfectly. There were so many little things that stuck out but what struck me was how so many of the little things that mattered we either unchanged or integrated into the new look. For example: the ladder that lead up to the loft in the barn, the one with the missing bottom rung so that Aileen wouldn't climb up and hurt herself. Well, he heavily modified the barn and the loft but kept that ladder. He removed it and integrated it into the new loft. He put hinges on the top where it attached to the loft and modified the bottom so that when it swung up flush against the wall, the bottom would fold up flush with the ground. The was only one example of his attention to detail. He is a woodworker so all the additions and changes to the barn he did himself. Boy did it look gorgeous. As you can see in the pictures there are 6 stalls in the barn with a central tack room.
Outside where the old parking lot area was, he had built his woodshop. Jenn and I were pretty impressed, it was nicely ticked in there by the woods and looked very inviting. I could try to go into the detail about some of the landscaping changes but I will allow the pictures to speak for themselves. I did really like the brass handrail that they installed along the stone steps leading from the side of the house to the front. You can see it clearly in the pictures. They had made some trails that lead into the woods, I know that Mummy will probably hate that idea and I wouldn’t have done it myself but it wasn’t too bad. They were not too wide or intrusive. All the electric fencing was replaced with nice split rail. The fields had shelters in all of them and the northwestern most field (number 1 I think mummy called it) had an oval , dirt training pen in it. It looked very nice. Another little detail that I liked was what they did to the well cover in the front yard. They piled a bunch of stones all around it, you can see it in one of the pictures. (by the way, all the stone they added in the landscaping was all collected from the property, not bought, so it all fit in nicely.) They huge evergreen tree right by the house had to be cut down because it was getting way too big. They kept the stump and built some very nice landscaping around it. They liked the fire pit idea, but they moved the location down closer to the woods. Near where Bear’s old dog run was…you can see it in the pictures. They renamed the farm Red Fern because that was one of Laurie’s favorite books "Where the Red Fern Grows" The little groove of birch trees is turning out to be a very good idea, they put a little sign there with the name of the farm there.
His wife was on a conference call when we arrived but he told us that when she was done, he’d take us inside. I choose not to take pictures of the inside (if seemed that it may come off as a little weird or disrespectful.) However, I can describe the changes. Aileen’s room and Anne’s room no longer existed as rooms. He had knocked down all the walls and expanded the entire upstairs into one huge great room (except the master bedroom of course.) Jenn and I both thought it really, really looked good. It made an already big room into an even bigger one. It felt so cozy and warm. They kept the little woodstove in the middle and even improved the chimney to a safer one that remained cool to the touch. They expanded the island in the kitchen and expanded the whole kitchen down half-way into the old dining area. They sealed off the door to the bathroom and made a doorway to that bathroom in the master bedroom. Keep in mind during this tour he is just filling our heads with stories and information on why he choose to do things and what he loved about the house that he kept. They loved the door to the downstairs, they called it the “Hobbit Door.” I showed them the marks on the central support pillar where all our measurements still remained. They had no idea those were there and were so tickled that I told them. The downstairs looked almost the same. They kept all the bookshelves. They replaced the woodstove downstairs.
I can’t say enough how good it felt to see the place. Of course there was a little part of me that was sad but the vast majority of me was so proud of what they had done. They took our home and made it their home, so much of the character that makes the place what it is remains and yet they made it feel like a new place…it feels like a lot of love and affection has been put into it. It’s staggering how much Mike has done and how well he’s done it. It’s obvious how much they love the place. They were so proud to show it off to someone whom they probably felt would be one the biggest critics. I was happy to tell them that I loved what they had done.
