FAMILY HOME IMPROVEMENTS

 

After Nola was born, our house again seemed a bit crowded, so after much talking and planning, somehow we got in contact with a contractor (not local) and decided to enlarge the basement and add twelve feet to the south side of our house. It was 1963 and Nola was now three years old and had to be watched so she wouldn’t fall in the big hole in the ground.

This was a big project! Since we now had rural water we could have a bathroom! What a luxury. The addition included a small living room, bathroom, closet for jackets and work clothes and hallway to the front and only door. There were also steps to the basement.

This building project lasted all of the summer. The house was raised and a partial basement was put in place. The house was standing on a rock foundation and the basement was a dirt floor with access only from the outside. Why didn’t we do the entire basement? I had planned over and over the various floor plans of the addition. The bathroom had cabinets on one wall and stool and cabinet sink (vanity) on the other. There was even a clothes chute to the basement for dirty clothes! My inventive husband built an enclosure for holding the clothes. Wow! No more carrying dirty clothes downstairs. I really appreciated that.

He also built a shower stall in one corner of the new basement; cement blocks made the third wall. He knew I like to “keep things” so he built a storage cabinet on the opposite wall. A neighbor helped him enclose the southeast corner into a bedroom and more storage shelves under the steps. I needed the storage space for the canned veggies and fruit. The new basement also had a gas stove, freezer, sink and shower with running water and a drain. What could be better? The extra stove was especially helpful when cooking for threshers, hay makers, etc.

Did I mention a new furnace? The old oil burner heater that had to be taken down and put up each season was a chore no one missed. A year or so later an air conditioner was installed. It replaced the window conditioner we had that was very noisy. We were glad to be rid of that.

I was the lucky winner of a clothes dryer in 1973. The Lincoln-Union Electric Company had a contest or a drawing of some kind and I won the dryer. We replaced our old one with the new dryer.

Lots of big things happened during the year of 1963 including the deaths of Oma and Opa DeVries. Oma died March 18, 1963 and Opa died on September 10, 1963. This same year in April, Ken fell from the top of the stock racks on the truck and broke both wrists. This was painful for a 12-year-old. Not only did he have the broken bones but he also had to be fed and helped in other ways. He soon learned to do most everything himself. 1963 was an eventful year.