No doubt I’ve mentioned at some point on this here blog that winning and losing aren’t really important to my goals (which may surprise anyone who ever played board games with me in my past). But nonetheless, I declare today a win all around (other than my exercise routine, which has suffered due to too much sitting and chatting). And it’s all thanks to all my friends and contacts in little old Cameron, Texas.
First
Snazzy stripey.
I got to sleep in and then had a fine time getting beautiful new navy and sparkle nails. I wanted something wintry, and you know, dark blue matches every outfit I have, since I usually have on blue jeans. Still not sure why I like fun nails so much, but I just do.
It’s one of my girly things, I guess. That and all those rings, huh?
Second
We’re thinking the vultures were looking over at the Hermit Haus, thinking how dead its rentals were.
After lunch, Mandi and I stopped by the Central Avenue Bistro again, because Mandi craved their Caesar salad so much. I had a light soup, which was good, but not as spectacular as the white chicken chili yesterday, which was loaded with chicken. Anyway, that’s beside the point. The winning came when we followed up on yesterday’s conversation with my friend Jenecia, who said her husband really wanted to come see the Hermit Haus to potentially rent it. OH BOY.
With all the stuff going on with Hearts Homes and Hands, we’d had to let publicizing the Hermit Haus as an event venue slide, so all we have is a couple of board meetings and the Master Naturalist class going on. We really want to make enough money to cover the building’s expenses.
I’m pretty stoked about working on the 1905 Pope Residence in Cameron. When they said it was brick, none of us had a clue that it meant the brick is on interior walls as well as exterior walls! Every time the crew picks up a hammer to knock something else off, we find another treasure.
The door’s open because people are working in there! You certainly can’t tell what color the brick is from the exterior, since everything is tan, tan, tan.
Brickly Beauty
I’ve been loving the exposed brick on the house, though. You can’t see what it looks like from the outside, because it has all been painted, as you can see above. But inside is a different story. Here’s my favorite image:
There’s a lot going on here!
This is the brick that is above what was once a back door on the house. There is a lovely arch above the door made by some very interesting bricks of a variety of colors and quite non-uniform size. Note that some of the bricks have glaze on the ends.
Above that are the regular bricks that made the walls of the house. They are certainly not uniform, either! Even at that time, bricks were made in uniform molds and imprented with manufacturer names, but I don’t see any of that here.
And it looks like some work will need to be done by a mason in some spots. As I gaze at these quirky pieces of clay that have held up this building a LONG time, I think about what it must have been like making bricks in the blazing hot Texas sun. Did they make them nearby or bring them in? I’m thinking I might be able to find out if I study the 1906 maps some more.
The window that goes out into the entry hallway.
Now, in this picture you see the bricks from farther away. You can see how they did the window frames, too. Note that there is a border a few feet up from the floor. That goes all around the house. Was it decorative or functional? Do I have to go find a book about bricks? I love how irregular the bricks are and how there are a whole bunch of dark brown ones in one spot. (By the way, those are original floors, too, and Cody has a source for similar wood to fix areas that are damaged! Wow!)
Oooh, aah. All the prettiness in one spot.
Though the brickwork is irregular, they made all these beautiful arches throughout the house. We’re also going to whip that stained glass back into shape!
Final glimpse.
I think it’s interesting that these two doors are not beautiful arches, but are instead normally sized doors. I could just look at all these different brick shapes and textures all day. Hmm, if I’m lucky maybe the room that will be MY future office will end up this good, too.
We can’t be sure if we can take all the walls down to brick. If we find a lot of damage, we might have to plaster it again. That’s just one more thing to discover as we renovate this place!
PS: don’t worry, I’ll have more things to write “deep thoughts” about later. I’ve been so busy working and attending meetings that there’s no time to think.
While this is my personal and ranch blog, I just can’t resist sharing something we are doing in one of our businesses, Hearts Homes and Hands, which is a personal assistance service for Milam and surrounding counties.
We just opened the business, and are currently sharing the lovely old church building where we run a real estate business and host meetings/events. It’s fine, but not terribly accessible for people dealing with physical handicaps, and we’re a bit cramped.
The old Pope residence, most recently the Taylor residence.
So, we were pretty excited when we were finally able to close on this amazing old house with a cool history. We’d bought it from a really great family that was having trouble keeping up with the payments, due to family illnesses and other issues. We were happy to help out and even more happy to finally own the first brick home built in the city of Cameron, in 1905.
Here’s where the Pope family are buried, in the old part of Cameron’s main cemetery. Mandi and I searched for this last year.
The house was originally owned by a doctor Pope and his family, who were beloved in the city’s early years. Their piano-teacher daughter lived there until the late 1950s, using the bottom floor as a boarding house for income.
This hazardous staircase is gone!
Many changes had happened to the house over 115 years, and when we got it, there was a lot of paneling, wallpaper, and interesting interior changes. The biggest change was when the previous owners hired a contractor to install a staircase. It wasn’t exactly safe. (The house had an exterior staircase, since the upstairs started out as a home and the downstairs a doctor’s office, then a boarding house for many years.)
I have been too busy getting things DONE to get any of my writing tasks done. No complaints there! I have things to write about in all my work blogs now.
One Old House
Yesterday was a lot of fun and messy as hell. Anita had a home inspection scheduled at the cute little house she’s buying from us in Cameron. We took that opportunity to clean up what was left in the house, which has been waiting for TLC for four years.
You can barely see them, but we put decorations in front of the Nash house.
So , we moved lots of bags of things the family of the first owner didn’t want. We removed furniture that wasn’t fixable. We cleaned mildew off furniture we want to keep.
The clean stuff we are keeping and a cleaner living room floor.
My most odious task was sweeping up the baking soda the folks who sold us the house had put down to deal with the odors. Whew. That was dusty.
The Hermits' Rest 