Storm thoughts

The power went out last night as a thunderstorm rumbled through town.

I was sitting in the parlor with the dogs. They were gnawing on big bone-shaped dog treats and Pete was sticking close to me because he's terrified of thunder and lightning.

And then everything went black.

It was a little surprising, since the storm we'd seen in the south on a dog walk a few minutes earlier didn't seem that close or that violent. I supposed lightning hit a transformer some miles away and the sudden imbalance caused our local power grid to fail. But I'm just guessing because I have only a sketchy understanding of how that stuff works.

So I sat in the dark with my dogs and looked out at the storm through the big arched living room window. With the exception of the occasional set of car headlights, I was seeing a thunderstorm exactly as it would have appeared to the original occupants of our house back in 1903. I don't know why, but it was a good feeling to see this old house with a slightly different perspective and to see, however dimly, how it looked and felt to that family a century ago.

It's a wonderful old house and even though I've cursed it as a "money pit," it remains one of the finest homes in this little town. Certainly, it's one of the best-built, since it was built by the man who owned the local sawmill. He had his pick of the best lumber and used it wisely for the structural and decorative components. When we moved in, the previous owner had carpeted the downstairs and her dog and cat had used the area as a toilet. We dragged the dripping carpet (ack!) to the curb, spent hours pulling the staples out of the floor and had the original quarter-sawn oak floors refinished by one of the best wood floor guys in central Indiana.

With this week's work to replace the stairway and upstairs carpet, we can say that none of the previous owner's ratty, animal-stained carpet remains in the house.

Despite that and the $30,000+ kitchen remodel, the new roof, new deck, hot tub, electrical service upgrades, porch repair and countless other improvements we've made, there are still lots of things to do here. But that's the nature of an old house. We're tried to remain true to the original style of the house, while bringing it up to date.

What this all adds up to is this: I'm looking forward to moving into our new home in Arkansas. I think it will be very comfortable and low maintenance and we'll have more time to do the things we really like to do.

But as Maria said the other day, we'll never again own a house with this much character and style. It was in its day, and maybe still is, a mansion by Thorntown standards and if the original owners can see us, I hope they think we did right by their house while it was in our care.