House Remodel

In ‘54 or ‘55, mom and dad decided to enlarge the house. When we moved into the house it was rectangular in plan. Looking from the front, on the left side were mom and dad’s bedroom and behind that the bedroom Terry and I shared. On the right was the living room with the kitchen behind. Between the kitchen and my room was the small bathroom.

The remodel was to the left side of the house. Dad added two feet to the front of their bedroom and two feet to the entire left side of the house. It was a pretty massive undertaking, but dad was confident he could do it.

He worked with one of the guys from the church, Claude Clark. He was a draftsman and he drew up the plans. More on him and his family later…

The actual construction must have occurred in late spring, summer or early fall when the temperatures were OK and there was a dry spell forecast.

Dad, Uncle Gordon, Mr Clark and several other of dad’s Mason friends and church friends actually did the work. In a relatively short time they ripped off half of the front of the house and the entire side and a bunch of the roof. They lengthened the floor joists and changed the roof design to add the forward facing gable. Then they framed in the changes and got the place weather tight.

My job was to stay out of the way.

Once the place was weather tight, the intense work stopped and mom and dad worked afternoons and on weekends to finish the inside. I think the inside work took a couple of intense months and the kitchen redo may have lingered for a couple of years.

It turned out pretty darn well for an inexpensive, postwar house.

Another comment on the house. This house was on blocks not a slab. So beneath ones feet was a one inch floorboard and then air. When a ‘blue norther’ blew in, the cold air surrounded the house including the floor and dang it was cold to walk on.

When we first moved into the house heat was provided by stand alone gas heaters. On cold winter nights the heaters were extinguished and we covered up and tried to stay warm. I recall that it was pretty cold when we got up in the morning.

The house was totally uninsulated and the heat loss through the walls, ceiling and floor was tremendous. During the remodel, dad added a forced air gas heater in the wall between the living room and the kitchen. It had a thermostat and could safely be left on overnight. This kept these two rooms pretty comfortable overnight, but it was still cold waking up in the bedroom.

During the same rework to put in the heater, dad added a picture window in the living room.

He was a heck of a handy guy with construction.

About Christmas ‘59 I got an electric blanket. What a gift to have a warm bed to sleep in regardless of how cold it was outside.