Work Begins - The Trails

The house, originally located on FM 954 in the Warrenton area, seven and a half miles from our property. The home was once owned by Henry and Florence Plueckhahn of Carmine. Edwin and Etta Eilers rented the home in the 1940s. We bought the house from Ruth (Oetken) Roecker in 1992 (her parents had purchased the house and land where the house stood). The year we bought the house was so rainy the house mover, Vernon Yoakum was unable to move it for another year! Mr. Yoakum thought the original section of the home was built in the 1860s. The evidence of its age are the old bead board walls, long leaf pine floors, hand hewn / pegged support beans and ‘crazy glass’ windows.

Oct. 93 Randy is standing with the house, the house is ready to be moved. The porch has been taken off the house because it will be moved seperately.

Oct. 11, 93: Moving along Round Top Road which is a gravel road at this time and it is just wide enough for the house.

Nov. 93: The house has been put in place on the in ground concrete footing, blocks are added to level the house. Betty is taking a look at all the work that needs to be done on the old house.

June 94: sanding and more sanding Betty with her five inch electric Mykita sander, she is starting on the entry hall of the old house.

Nov. 94: water blasting the old paint We tried to scrape and sand the old outside paint off but the only thing that worked was a 32 hundred psi water blasting machine.

Nov. 94: second day and it is taking shape Second day of digging the pond, Buddy Mach and his son are starting to give shape to the pond. The pond is only about four feet deep at this point.

Nov. 94: visitor to see the finished Pond The pond and the driveway are both finished. Betty goes to greet Ted and Sandy who have come over to see what has been done. As you can see all the pond needs now is rain water and lots of it.

Nov. 94: entrance to Property Betty is standing at the entrance of the property. We did not use the old driveway, this is a brand new entrace to the property, you can see part of the pond in the background.

Nov. 94: living room has been sanded Betty, Mike Hanlen and Randy are in the living room taking nails out of the boards that use to be the wall between the living room and the entryway. Betty has completely sanded this room.

Jan. 95: back porch goes on The back porch is finally being built, thanks to Gene Cordes. Gene is the carpenter and Randy is only helping. We needed a back porch to have a place to store items and have a place for our washer and dryer.

Jan. 95: old room gets face lift The inside walls of the bathroom were rotten so Randy and Betty put ship-lap on top of the old bathroom walls.

Feb. 95 ladies and paint While the guys were outside building the front porch the ladies were on the inside paining every room in the house. The painters: Mary Patterson, Sandy Reed, Sandra Ruggs, Cheryl Travis, Betty Melton, Terry Benner. Wow these ladies did a great job, it would have taken Betty and I weeks to paint all that they did in two days.

Feb. 95: front porch The floor framing is going in. Randy has set the support blocks before the Amish Weekend started but all the men worked on the building the front porch. Here you can see David Benner hammering, Mike Hanlen holding the hanger frame for David. Ben Travis in the red cap, little boy is Austin Benner.

Feb. 95: header goes up Second day, the guys need help from the girls to raise the header for the roof of the front porch. Having this Amish Weekend gave Betty and me a huge boost in finishing the house.

Feb. 95: first night Amish dinner Amish Weekend rules are the host supplies all the food for the weekend workers. This means two lunches and two dinners. After working all day we are ready to eat: Pictured L to R: David Benner holding Austin Benner, Chris Travis, Gary Patterson, Peaches Ryan, Sandy Reed, and Sandra Ruggs looking over her shoulder.

Feb. 95: second night dinner Two full days of work by our good friends. We are back at the Travis's home for another good dinner. L to R: Ted Reed with big smile, Sandy Reed, Cheryl Travis in the corner, Betty Melton talking to Mike Hanlen, Terry Benner with her eyes closed and Sandra Ruggs taking a bite. Our good friends helped us tremendously.

Amish Weekend got us over the hump of seeing a light at the end of a long renovation tunnel. We could see results, and this gave us strength to finish.

Mar. 95: sanding and more sanding The floors have been sanded with a big belt sander by Frank Schoble. Betty has to go to every room and finish sanding next to the wall where the big sander can not reach.

Apr. 95: pond water As you can see, the pond is starting to fill up in April. We have had plenty of rain in this month and the pond is looking good. The color is because of all the fresh soil running into the pond.

Apr. 95: roof and paint Randy and Gerald Ruggs are putting the porch roof rafters on while Betty, Sandra Ruggs, and Karah are painting the bathroom cabinets.

Apr. 95: porch roof Half of the porch roof has been put on by Randy and Gerald Ruggs. Take notice, in the fore ground of this picture on the left site is the transplanted Water Oak tree. It is only one and a half inch in diameter.

Work Begins

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