I can’t believe it’s been since June of 2023 since I last sat down to write something personal, but life has been crazy. Work led me down the path of 6-day work weeks with 12-13 hour days to get auto insurance out the door; this, combined with getting my place on the market, well, life had very little downtime, and when it happened, there was no creativity left or desire to write.
But new things are happening, exciting things!
I remember living on the mining claim; it was 4th grade, and I was reading this book about a girl who’d moved into this big old house. The house had a dumbwaiter where she hid and rode it up and down, and then there was this attic where she found this cool old chest with these old forgotten things in.
I never wanted the castle, never wanted it all shiny and new, never wanted whitewashed. My soul has always craved character, where the Alice in me can jump down the rabbit hole to the next adventure and live in a Wonderland I designed. This is a 2,800 Square Foot well updated Wonderland with a solid structure to play and design with.
Well, in the last few weeks, that’s happened. A home in Alexandria has been on the market for a few months. I could not figure out what kept drawing me to the house, so I put it on the list, took it off it, and put it back on the list. Although I adore Alexandria, my inner soul, with all the chaos, wanted to be somewhere in a log home on 5-10 acres with no one within sight.
Well, my place finally sold, and another person had put the house under contingent offer as I waited for my subjects to be removed in January. Then, on the magic day of my subject removal, and I could begin house shopping, I came right back to the Alexandria house as it was available again; I compared it to the others, the flips, the ones so appealing to the eyes of many, ones near the lake, the ones where everything had been done to them.
I asked the real estate agent if we could get the information on it, and let’s do a walk-through; the more I looked at the home, the more I fell in love with it. I could see the love that had been put into the home, the care of the owners over the years, the craftsman touches on the transom, the amazing rockwork in the chimney, and so much beauty in the home. It even came with a 24×24 garage for Darren.
I asked for a few days to think it over, as I wanted to do a big of digging on the home to see if it was haunted; what was the history of it? Luckily I have a few contacts in the area that I reached out to, and it turns out it is the oldest house in Alexandria, and under those walls is the original log structure built around 1826. This sealed it, I wanted the home, as it is a perfect fit for the genealogy and history I’m doing in the area, and it’s almost as if Zilpha and Matlock led me to it.
So we put an offer in on it, and after a few days, it was accepted., then the inspection was completed today, and overall the home is in really good shape for its age. There are a few things I need to discuss with Robin it in the morning, and we are waiting for the Radon Test to be completed, so it’s not a fully done deal. But things are going well.
With any luck, by April, I’ll be shipping my bar, jukebox, and other things down to their new home. Then, I’ll start work on the blank canvas I’ll have there. I already know what I want to do with the kitchen, but for the other rooms downstairs, I will work on keeping them as close to the original structure as possible.
Enjoy the pictures of the home as it is now; if all goes well, I’ll be able to soon start sharing the plans and the work as it progresses in scraping and repainting the outside windows, working with the wood in the home, furniture shopping and restoring the pieces I choose.
I look forward to hosting my friends there and fulfilling my Wonderland fantasy over the coming years as I further dig into the history of DeKalb, and my ancestors in the surrounding areas and continue to tell their story.
I am truly lucky to be here in my life and thankful to Darren for supporting this and a job that is okay with me working remotely. I know it was more then luck and a lot of hard work, the right choices, sacrifices, and long hours, but I’m still grateful to be here.
PS.. when you visit, look for hidden Alice easter eggs in the home, as you know they will be somewhere in every room…
Trix's Trax 