Summer is here

It's the end of May, and school is OUT! It's Summer, time to really start working on the house. Austin and Ellen join us and we start priming the walls in the morning room, hanging anaglyptic wallpaper on the ceiling of the kitchen, pulling up the kitchen floor to reveal that not only do we need new flooring, but we need a new subfloor! We got a lot started, but it will be quite a while before we see any real progress or actually return to do any work. I thought during the Summer we would get so much done, but Austin and Ashton both have Summer jobs, so school starts again and all that's been done is having the house pressure washed. Which turns out was a huge waste of money! Oh well... Getting workers has turned out to be harder than I ever imagined!

Ghosts?

I know everybody is wanting to know, Do We Have GHOSTS?? YES! During the first months that we bought the house and during our first visits, we had several encounters. The first night I stayed ALONE in the house, I slept ( or at least tried to) in a recliner in the middle of the room with a very small t.v. that I had borrowed, sitting on a small table in front of me. Lulu, our dog, was right by my side on the floor. About 2a.m. in the morning I hear her in another bedroom growling in a low growl that I've never heard her do before. All of the hair along her backbone was standing straight up! This happened every time she was there ALWAYS at 2a.m., in the morning. On another occassion I was sleeping in the room where Lulu was and there was a lamp on the table next to the bed and I felt something pass between me and the light. Lulu doesn't go with us every time and on an occassion when she wasn't there we had shut our bedroom door, at 2a.m. one of the blinds in our room FLEW off the window, I guess they didn't like us closing our door! Ellen our son Austin's girlfriend was sleeping one night and felt someone sit on the bed next to her, and our daughter Ashton ( her room is the most haunted room) felt the presence of a man pacing back and forth all night in her room. Needless to say she will not sleep alone when she is there!

We also had a few months when everytime we went to the house there were bats!! The first one was dead on the floor, but that night we had been out and when we entered the house there was a bat FLYING around! Mark and Austin chased it into a garbage bag and released it outside. Ellen and I were laying on the kitchen floor! On another occasssion we were eating lunch in the dining room ( we had not shared these bat stories with Ashton, afraid that she would not visit the house again) and Ashton was sitting eating and looked at the window and said "What's That?" and Yes, it was a bat hanging upside down from the curtains!! haha..... We found several more dead ones, one I kept in a jar! I finally had had enough and thought I'd talk to the ghosts and see if they could help....I'm NOT kidding. So I sat down in the most haunted room upstairs and explained to them how much I loved the house and really didn't mind them being there, but could they please help get rid of the bats......I'm NOT kidding when I tell you we have not had a bat since!!!!

Easter

For Easter weekend Marks parents joined us in Port Gibson. The flowers in the yard were blooming ( which is always a great surprise to see what is actually planted ), but unfortunately it was quite cold and we were not prepared for that! We walked to one of the cemeteries in town and took pictures, played games and also celebrated Austins Birthday.

House Cleaning

The next day we started the cleaning. We scrubbed the kitchen, and pulled down all the yucky drapes and threw out the dirty rugs ( don't worry none were old or valuable). It started to feel like ours. We left after a few days returning two weeks later for the Heritage Festival. During the festival there are local tours of homes and graveyards, horse and buggy rides, a venison cook-off, music and artists. There is also a 5K run that goes right past our house. We cheered them on from our porch! Fun....

Moving Out

March 14, 2007. The day after we closed on the house the moving van showed up to remove the previous owners belongings ( including over 200 huge rubbermaid containers). We negotiated to keep most of the furniture in the house, which was FABULOUS! Austin was a great help - he sat on the porch and kept up with the comings and goings of the day, and also had time to write a poem which perfectly describes how we feel about the house.

Leaves fall down from tall, aged oaks,

moving truck brings questions from folks.

Are ya'll coming or going? Are there things for sale?

But to us, it's not the furniture, it's the house that's the tale.

When you buy a house this old, many will ask "why?",

but it represents a way of life, a time that's since gone by.

Hospitality and charm, all the South has to give,

this is what this home is, and how we want to live.

As we scrub, clean and build, restoring Heath to her prime,

we're not just healing the surface, we're skipping back in time.

So when you see that soft green manor, and oaks so tall and twirled,

know that this is our retreat, from the busy life of the world.

Let's get up to date...

On March 13, 2007 ( after many months of negotiations) we purchased the Heath House...Yeah! I wanted to have a blog to be able to share the changes and progress as it is being made....so now that's it's up and running I need to start at the beginning to bring you up to date.