Much excitement!

Originally posted October 2008

Well, we just got home from spending four days at our new house! It is everything we had hoped it would be, and then some! We have investigated, speculated, and contemplated the entire house. We have measured all of the rooms, crawled under the house, and climbed into the attic. Ok, well I didn't actually do all that stuff, but Hershel and his brother did!

We mowed, raked, and clipped the overgrown unkempt yard. We hauled out several tubs of trash, and several more bags of junk that had been strewn throughout the yard. Our 'burn pile' is 10x10 and 10 feet high! My sister Jeani commented, "I can't believe you have this whole big house to work on, and you are worried about cleaning up the yard!" Yep, I'm a yard girl. Give me a cup of coffee and a pair of clippers, and I am totally in my element!

We had some wonderful special visitors on our first day! Being a Florida Master Gardener, I had called the DeKalb County Master Gardeners, and asked if there might be a MGardener or two that could come identify trees and shrubs for me. I was surprised to have four of the sweetest gals show up and walk the yard with me, identifying what I didn't recognize. I knew I should have written down their names, because now I don't remember them, but none the less, Harriett and her fellow Master Gardeners were full of information! It was a very enjoyable few hours, and I am looking forward to seeing their smiling faces again! THANK YOU, LADIES!!

Then we were visited by Jean and Kenneth, the parents of Teresa, a fellow Master Gardener from here in FL. Teresa was raised in nearby Fort Payne, and her parents now live in Mentone. Across the street, across a field and down a little hill, across the railroad tracks from our house, is a lumber mill. Kenneth's daddy used to be the foreman at the lumber mill across the railroad tracks, and Kenneth had lived on site at the lumber mill as a child! True Southern friendliness, we sure did enjoy the visit, and just loved learning more of the history of Valley Head and the first families. And Kenneth, if you read this, you asked if you "could help" -- Hershel said he would just love for you to come help him work on the house and share your skills and knowledge!

One of our neighbors, Faye, from "down the road" stopped by. Seems the locals are all talking about the 'folks from Florida' that bought the old house! Hope we've made a good impression!

Before we left home, I had gotten on the internet and snooped around for Valley Head history and information. I checked tax records to see who our neighbors were. One of our neighbors, John, published an article on Rootsweb, a genealogy site, on the Valley Head Mill property. Perfect! He knows about the history of Valley Head! So we went and introduced ourselves. We also had the pleasure of meeting his mother, a true Southern lady. Friday mid-afternoon, and she was dressed to the nines~ hair done, makeup carefully applied, and jewelry~ exactly what you would expect from a southern belle that is gracefully aging. They were full of information about the house and the local history, and it was such a pleasure to spend time listening to their stories. They were thrilled that someone had bought the 'grand old house' and wanted to restore it--they had been afraid someone would buy it and just rent it out, and let it slip further into disrepair.

John suggested that we go to the Town Hall and introduce ourselves to Marty, the Town Clerk. He said if anyone knew where pictures, stories, or histories were, it would be Marty - she knew just about everyone and everything there was to know about Valley Head. So Monday morning, we did just that! At first she seemed a bit "stand-offish" --you know, we were obviously strangers in her small town. When we told her we had bought the old green house, her face just lit up! She was full of questions about our plans. We chatted for a while, but then we had to leave and head back home.

About an hour towards home, Hershel's cell phone rang, and it was Marty. She said, "You know, I have the old piano that came out of that house, that belonged to the family that built our home, the Whites. It is in my sewing room, and I would love to get it out of there. If you would like to have it, I would love to give it to you! I'll keep it in my sewing room until you are ready for it, but I really think it belongs in that house once you are done renovating it."

I was stunned and excited! Almost speechless! There have been very few times in my life that I was speechless.
What a generous offer, we are honored. Here we were all worried that folks would consider us outsiders for a long time, and that we might have trouble fitting in. Maybe not, we are certainly thrilled with the kindness and excitement we have seen already!