Grandparents Houses

Journal Jar -- Describe your grandparents houses. Did you visit them often? Why or why not?
Both grandparents lived within 5 miles of our home so I visited both often ... I loved both sets so much.

Grandpa & Grandma Hank's home.  The entry was the back door that went into a washroom or mud room with a place to hang coats, and put boots, a bathroom went off one end so Grandpa could clean up before coming into the home, it was fairly large and I think had the freezer in it and cement flooring.  ( I hope Karen or someone will add more especially if I am wrong) from the entry you went through the kitchen, shaped like a hallway cupboards on both sides with fridge on one side, sink and stove and cupboards on the other, there was always a stool so we could climb up and help her and there was a candy jar in the cupboard that usually was offered, or cookies.  After the kitchen was a dinning room with stove and their favorite chairs, also the stairs to upstairs went off this room and the porch that was used for storage and then the living room, their bedroom went off from that room too (I went in there maybe once).  They had at least two couches, one that opened up into a bed for us to sleep over.  They also had a large lawn and yard with huge trees as you can see in the picture above.  The scary thing from their house was the old septic tank area just outside the backdoor....goose bushes grew along the fence right beside the dip in the dirt, I mention that because we did pick them but I was always told to stay away from the dip because we would fall through and sink out of sight in the old tank...I worried about that a lot.  They also always had cats, dogs, cows, chickens.  One favorite thing I remember was a little stairway hanging on a moon (not a good description) but it was on the wall in the living room with a few little ting glass animals on each step -- I must have been allowed to play with those on occasion to remember it so well.  They always watched Lawerence Welk show, otherwise I am not sure why they had the TV.  Upstairs was a mystery, I went up there maybe twice only enough to think it had treasures galore hidden up there. Always loved.

I just found a picture with the little stairway (I remembered better than I thought) you can see it to the right behind Grandpa and Grandma Hanks

I need to add a story about how Grandpa chose this farm.  (I probably have the specifics wrong)  He looked out of the train he was on going to a base or training during World War I.  He saw the area in Nampa Idaho and liked what he saw and decided that would be where he would settle when the war was over.  He did come back to the area with money in his pocket.  There were some wonderful farms available down by the river....such very lush good farms to pick from.  He took the decision to Father in Heaven and was directed away from those beautiful farms to a nice farm over on the north of town.  He was disappointed and some of the other guys bought the perfect farms, but he followed the promptings and purchased the other farm.  The depression hit shortly thereafter.  Almost no one could make the payments on a loan, so the lush farms were taken away.  (they lost the seed money and farm)  Grandpa however went to the lender who was an old farmer.  He didn't want the farm back so allowed Grandpa to pay what he could knowing that he would pay it all up as soon as things turned around.  It was always special to me to know my Grandpa believed and lived the gospel and was blessed for doing so.

Granddad and Grandma DeCoursey's was right next to ours until just before I was born and then it was moved up the road about a quarter of a mile.  I don't have a great picture of it so this will have to do. We entered through the back door into a mud room which had a window with a wonderful plant with little wax looking star flowers that we would eat the drips of sweetness off upon entry.  This room had linoleum and a sink to clean up in, also it had a fridge, coat hooks.  Then was the dining room and kitchen connected a nice set of windows by the table and entry to a backroom and then a wood stove on one side and the sink and cupboards on the other side.  She used the wood stove until the end.  I remember making cookies once with my cousin Dora and we had to mix by hand because there wasn't a mixer....good thing there was two of us so we could take turns.  Then you find the living room, there was a magic draw because it locked and you had to know how to open it to get fun stuff.  There was a piano over by the entrance (again the entrance was used for storage I think)  We never went in or out that way.  There must have been chairs and a couch in this room but I don't really remember.  The bathroom and bedroom exited off at the east end.  There was the room that exited off the kitchen and it had the stairs to the attic again I think I went up the narrow winding staircase once...only enough to feed the imagination.  They had a basement that they dug out so it had the washer in it and a shelf of dirt etc.  I didn't spend much time there.  Grandma used a wringer washer in my day, I don't actually know if she ever got an electric one.  They did get an electric stove but used the wood anyway, mostly.  They had a bit of lawn but mostly they had a garden with raspberries, blackcaps, blackberries and lots of roses.  It was great fun to hide in the yard but everything had thorns. 

 The picture above shows the 1930 homestead.  The one below shows one corner of the living room.

Julie bought and moved into the house after Grandma went to live with Aunt Florence...she put a new roof on it etc.  It is the only house still standing from my childhood.  I loved both homes and houses and sets of grandparents so much.  I was so lucky to have them so close.