My daughter blessed me with a large amount of craft supplies from a lady downsizing into a smaller house. It was enough that her car was filled with boxes and bags. So I headed west to take it off her hands. My ladies at a local nursing home are going to have a ball when I come in with the stamps and papers along with all the other goodies.
I left at the crack of dawn, as soon as it was light enough to see the deer easily.
Heading to have brunch with my grandson along very familiar roads, I made a game out of picking up the camera every hour to snap a picture out the windshield.
Obviously shooting through the window doesn't produce good results since I only got three pictures out of a 6 hour trip.
Lovely lunch with my grandson at the bowling alley. T Bears in San Angelo served me a yummy omelet with hash browns and toast. Perfect! After a too-short visit I headed on down the road to my daughter's and off we went to visit with a friend then out for dinner and for me to celebrate National Margarita Day.
The next morning started with a visit with a dear friend at her son's house...The House that Jack Built!
Everything from the floors to the ceilings to the - well everything has a story and is salvaged. It is one of the most fascinating places I have been and need to go back to finish the story.
I was greeted by Wodin, a big bad Rottie that sold out for a jelly bean. After I shared, he was a love bug and a half.
I said the house was built from reclaimed and salvaged materials. To begin with he salvaged a small cabin from a lady that asked in a quavering voice if he was going to tear it apart. He melted and looked her in the eye and said "No, mam, I am going to fix it up and live in it!" and he has kept that promise.
The cabin is 100 years old. and was brought to his lot on a trailer frame. The frame still has the tongue sticking out at you! :)
The cabin was not even close to being in this good of shape when he bought it. Hard work, a bit of sweat, and determination has made it a cozy home.
He is adding to it and putting on a second floor to the addition.
Since he had to take a wall down to connect with the new house, he hung a tarp that was a Popeye's billboard in a previous life. Works beautifully.
Not being a builder you will have to forgive my terminology...but these are savaged (see a trend going here?) trailer home frames that will be the support for the second floor. Jack, with the help of his mother and a small piece of machinery, raised these. And one fought back, swinging free and coming to rest on the floor of the living room to be. Thank goodness it chose the floor and not one of their thick skulls to land on!
Behind the chairs and that framework is the place the stairs will be. Double wide stairs with a padded wall at the bottom. :) Why? Kids with flattened cardboard boxes and double wide stairs requires the wall at the bottom be padded.
The kids also will have a secret location that they have to find, so I took no pictures of it. Jack's house makes me want to be a kid again. The above picture is the opening where the elevator will be...not just a plain ordinary elevator of course, this elevator will be a replica of Dr. Who's Tardis. It will also do double duty as an exit to the outside.
The hot tub will be moved around the corner to a atrium/sun room.
Already there is a garden...LOL....actually it does have a flower in it, and the bricks are to protect that flower, which is a beautiful red wildflower that Mama wants protected. In fact Jack had to reposition the front entrance so not to endanger this precious flower. When Mama speaks, sonny boy listens!
Inside everything is again salvaged and/or has a story behind it. Come on in, we'll be back outside in a little bit for some yummy finds.
A house with secrets hiding places, Tardis elevators and sledding stairs would surely come equipped with arcade games. See the picture behind the red game? That is one of three that are quite old and bought for a song. Unfortunately Jack's girlfriend had to carry them on the back of motorcycle to the nearest UPS Store. Think that has to be true love! Of course they were riding the bike to east Texas to look for a rottie puppy. Wonder where the puppy would have ridden had they found one.
Jack is a master at finding a bargain, as seen in a couple of his light fixtures. The chandelier was for sale for $25, so of course Jack started haggling them down to $20. Finally his buddy flopped down the $25 and said "let's go". Still a pretty light for $25 if not the great bargain that had been hoped for. Too bad Jack broke one of the "petals" and had to replace it, for a mere $200. He has two of these, each with 5 petals each. $25 isn't too bad after all.
He did pay twenty five for this one...twenty five CENTS!
Both as well as others in the house had to be rewired. Piece of cake. The painting on the the red and black was done by Jack, of course.
At one point in his life, Jack worked for a man on a regular basis (think it was landscaping). Anyway, this man had an anvil beside his patio. Jack instantly had anvil envy and asked about it. Apparently the man's wife didn't share his love of the anvil and made him take it out of her house. Jack told him that if ever he got rid of it he wanted it. The man told him that it wasn't going to happen. But then the man passed away and Jack was in the will not only for the anvil but for the stump it sat on...and Jack was a happy man.
There was so much other wonderful treasures and stories inside, but one that really fascinated me was Jack's chain mail and swords.
In the House that Jack Built is the chain mail that Jack built. He made the adult version on the left and the child's version down below. In the middle is a close up of the child's version. He handcrafted each link.
To get out of it the young model had to lean way forward and shimmy herself out with a little bit of help from Uncle Jack. She is 9 or 10 if that gives you a size idea.
I have no idea how the knights of yore went to battle in these things...they are HEAVY!! Even the child size would have a major impact on my body, but I guess one of those Excaliber type swords would have an impact too.
To go with the armor he had two swords, at least he showed me two, there might be more. The first one is, you guessed it, one he made. Out of a lawn mower blade!!!
The second one he bought. Because he liked it. Because it had every indication it was also hand made. Only Jack would have seen the imperfect stamping on the hilt, or the obvious hammering of the blade. He liked it, he bought it, he brought it home. Some time later he was watching a movie called "Pirates" and his quick eye caught a prop as a door was opened. Backing up the tape he checked it out and sure enough, it was his sword!
OK, like I said lots more to see, but I wanna show you what is lurking outside!!! Drooling here.
Very few words needed....I died and went to Heaven. Enjoy the views.
Not satisfied to building a house out of salvaged material, reading every word ever printed, making chain mail and scouting out treasure far and wide....he built and raced/races a truck.
Jack says this is what happens when a redneck gets drunk...
Hanging from the ceiling ...
Guess only one picture of a bike turned out...there are two hanging in there. This one he found on a trash heap, not sure where the sidecar came from.
This jewel is a fire extinguisher!! I think I might have trouble picking it up to put out a grease fire in the kitchen. Jack found it locally when he helped clean off a lot. He thinks it is from the 1950's.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is an abbreviated tour of The House That Jack Built...except for one last thing...that annoying thing, really and truly it is That Annoying Thing. Be smart and do not follow the link...but you have to, you just have to....
That Annoying Thing on You Tube
but don't stop at this one....watch them all.
The rest of the day was spent at the Home and Garden show at the Horseshoe Arena with friends of Trish and Bruce. They have such nice friends, just love these two!
Then we came home and got my granddoggie, Sophie the Wonderdog! And off we went to obedience training. We kind of messed up her puppy training with Trish needing to be here so much in 2013, so Sophie is retaking the class to solidify what she learned last year. She definitely is the star of the show and the best there...Grandma talk.
She is going to be a therapy dog, so is learning some tricks as she goes along. I couldn't decide if I liked the one with the tongue out or in, so being a typical Grandma, you get to see them both.
Going through her paces. Such a good girl.
Too soon it was time to head home, on past the wind farm and into the Texas hill country that I love so much.
Until next time, head on down those back roads, listen for the whispers - they have a lot to say!!
