Holiday Home Tour

Every two years, the Franklin Area Historical Society has a Holiday Home Tour where various historical homes and other buildings are open to the public.  We attended the one two years ago shortly after we moved in, and we decided it would be fun to have our home on the tour this year.  We had lots of fun decorating (I had a lot of fun shopping the after-Christmas sales last year), and we even splurged on someone to help do some deep cleaning before the big day.

On Saturday, December 4, 2021, the day had arrived.  We were the second stop because our house is right across from the Harding Museum, which is the headquarters of the FAHS and where the tour started.  We think we had about 150 people come through.  

Many of our friends and family have asked to see pictures of our house all decorated.  The pictures are in about the same order we showed the house.  The entry, front parlor, then upstairs to the bedrooms, back down to the library, dining room, and kitchen.

From the corner

The front porch
(without the garlands lit)

The Front Parlor

The Entry and Stairs

The Master Bedroom

The Family Room

(aka The Blue Room)

This is actually a bedroom that functions as our TV room because we didn't want a TV on the main floor. The door seen above connects it to the master bedroom.

The Girls' Room

The Boys' Room

We believe this was probably the maid's room.  One gentleman who came through grew up in this room.  After seeing it, his wife remarked: "He said he had a small bedroom, but I didn't realize it was that small."  Our boys have lots more room for their toys and stuff in the basement "dungeon."

The Upstairs Bathroom

I stumbled upon the fox painting on the closet at an antique store, and soon found other fox things.  Our youngest son told people to find 6 foxes in here.  You can only see 4 in the picture.  The other 2 are on a hand towel and a candleholder.

The Library

(aka The Back Parlor)

This is a great place to read a book or nap with a cat.  This has also been Ben's office during the pandemic.  The furniture was reversed, and his desk was where the tree is.  He used the Chinese screen as a back-drop to minimize backlight.  He is currently working in the basement and can't wait to get back into this lovely room when the holidays are over.

This view is through the pocket doors into the dining room.

The Dining Room

The Kitchen

People would exit back to the street through the door on the left you can barely see.  I'm grateful for a large modern kitchen in this beautiful historic home.  We feel so blessed to live here and to take care of this treasure for the future.

We hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!

Catch-up, Move to Ohio, Quarantine, Etc.

I haven't posted in forever.  Oops.  I can't possibly sum up 3 years in one post, but I will share the most exciting thing that has happened in the last few months.

For those of you who missed it, we are now living in Ohio.  Our move here was very eventful, but although our car didn't make, we all arrived in one piece. 

Our faithful silver van, after our accident in Nebraska.  They brought it to the
hotel for us to go through and get out what we could.

Miraculously, we had no broken bones or even stitches.  We rolled after losing control while towing a camp trailer.  We had great insurance coverage, so aside from some emotional trauma and inconvenience, we really can't complain.

Ben is loving his new job, and we still have moments of disbelief that we are living in such a beautiful Victorian home.

 A little over two weeks ago, schools were closed and Ben started working from home as part of the social distancing strategy for COVID-19.  Whether it was everyone being home all the time or wondering about the outside world, my stress level went through the roof.

I quickly learned that sewing and baking helped me cope.  I love to bake, but it's not so good to eat all the yummy things I make.  I have had a few sewing projects on my mind for the last year or so, and I have been able to work on them!  Their priority rose, my need to sew increased, and I also have a wonderful craft room with my sewing machine out all the time.  (It's in the enclosed balcony above the front door, so there is tons of light.)

I want to do a few posts about my sewing projects, which reminded me to pull up this old blog.

Dear Murphy...

Dear Murphy,

Not that it hasn't been a barrel of laughs with you visiting the last week or so, but I think it's time you found someone else to help out for the rest of the holidays.

I know it wasn't your idea to send my husband on a week-long business trip in December, but you sure have made his absence so much easier to bear.  I'm so thankful that we get to pay over a $1,000 (reimbursable, unfortunately) for a hotel right before Christmas.  Really, what else would I have done with that money this month?  You also worked so hard on my kitchen sink, making it drain very slowly.  You managed to do this not just once, but twice, culminating in a near-standstill after Ben had gone to California.  I enjoyed draining our portable dishwasher into ice cream buckets to dump into the toilet.

It was also a wonderful new experience to shop around for a wheelchair for Sunny.  It was so kind of you to swell her feet and ankles causing so much pain that she couldn't walk.  The subsequent visit to the DMV for a disabled placard was, in spite of tradition, actually a breeze.

Tuesday was St. Nicholas Day.  St. Nicholas stopped by and put candy and trinkets in our shoes. Thanks for encouraging Abel to wake me at 5:40 to tell me that a cat had thrown up on the floor.  I guess you wore yourself out with that effort because I missed your help for the next few hours.  I took K & S to get labs and got everyone to school in a timely manner.  I even had to get a several hours of work done by myself.  You weren't completely idle, however.  Thanks for telling Buster's teacher that he hasn't been doing nearly enough homework. I think it's great when he's up till 9:00 or so hitting the books.  Anything less just wouldn't be appropriate for a 3rd grader.

Wednesday morning you hid Missy's shoes that she needed for Show Choir performances at elementary schools.  How thoughtful!  She missed the bus, and I had to drive her across town to her middle school.  I'm sorry you didn't hide the mysterious black flats she found in her room.  A bit big, to be sure, but she got by wearing her sneakers with her skirt except while she was performing.  I did make it to my doctor appointment on time and even found a parking spot.

You must have gone to special effort that afternoon to make it so that everyone needed to be picked up at nearly the same time from 3 different locations.  Also, I wanted to make special mention of your help with Sunny's computer at coding club.  You made her first class so memorable by making it not work right.  Unfortunately, she was able to share a classmate's computer and work well in a team.

I'm grateful for the time change you encouraged for Young Women's.  I liked driving to the church at 6:30 to drop off at scouts, at 7:00 to drop off for YW, and 7:30 for scout pick-up.  I'm just sorry I don't live farther away from the church so it could have taken even more time.

Today you really did a fabulous job.  Missy's shoes were still missing, and she had another performance.  I drove her to school to chaperone.  There were 2 buses, as ordered, but somehow they sent enough seats for 115 elementary school kids, not middle schoolers.  Adding the wheelchair bus was a special touch.  It was great to have 3 kids packed to a seat with a huge gaping hole in the middle where no one could sit.  I only regret that you didn't do more to get me out of watching those 2 choir performances, but the phone call from Sunny was a great try.

As we arrived at the second school, I got that call from Sunny.  She informed me that her new kitty was out this morning, and when he came home, he was limping and evidently in great pain.  Upon my return home, it was such a pleasure loading the cat in the crate and taking him to the vet on Sunny's lap in her wheelchair.  It made my day to have more medical bills to pay.  Again, it's not good to have too much extra money laying around at Christmas time.

This evening, I feared you'd stay behind while I took the kids to my mom's house for dinner and decorating the Christmas tree.  I'm so glad you came, though.  Abel coming down with a fever was just the perfect touch to add to this week so far.  And really, you shouldn't have gone to the effort of injuring Sunny a little more so she couldn't even crawl very well anymore.  I fear you might have strained yourself.

So you see, as grateful as I am for all of your help, I really don't think I'll be needing it anymore.  Ben comes home tomorrow, and I'd hate for you to see him undo your hard work on our drain.

Merry Christmas!  And please let me know next time you plan an extended visit.

Sincerely,

Robin Kendrick

Fuzz Aldrin and the Big Bad Broom

The newest member of our family is an adorable 1-year-old cat we adopted.  Here, Kandy is trying to sweep the floor, but he is not making it easy for her!

HSP Update & GoFundMe

K & S are both feeling much better, and their labs are looking pretty good.  Sunny still copes with stomach pain on a daily basis, but at least she isn't walking around the house holding her stomach.  Unfortunately, the medical bills are still piling up.  We have done our best to manage them, but we just can't do any more!  So we have made the difficult decision to ask friends and family for a little bit of help to meet our obligations.  If you can help, please click on the GoFundMe link in the right side-bar.

I'd also love to work for the money!  If you know any friends or family that are looking to buy or sell a house, I'd be happy to help them.

Thank you!