The Day I Took Down The Wall
No, not the Berlin Wall, nor was it some kind of wall in my own mind. It was a wall inside of our house that I wanted down before the carpeting.
We had been married for eleven years when we bought our second house. It had three bedrooms, one-and-a half baths, a huge sandstone fireplace that reached to the top of the vaulted ceiling and opened to both the family room and living room.
This house had a closet in each bedroom, a floor to ceiling linen closet in the hall, and built in drawers beside the sliding doors in the master bedroom closet. The entry hallway closet was large enough to hold all of our winter coats, the kitchen was loaded with cabinets, the range top was set in a tiled counter-top that faced the family room, and the built-in oven was copper. We had an entire acre with a fence around the back portion for horses. There was a three car carport, and two outside rooms under the carport roof.
One outside room was for the washer and dryer, although I did not have a dryer and used the space for the wheelbarrow, spade, and other garden tools. The other small room off the carport held Lanny’s extra tools, saws, and horse equipment until several years later he built a barn.
The floor plan was an open concept for seeing from the kitchen into the family/dining room, and from the kitchen door to the front door. It made the seventeen hundred square foot home seem larger than it was.
There were two things that spoiled the perfection of this spacious new home. The west wall of the family room had a nineteen fifties built in seating done in blond wood and orange vinyl. The entry at the front door had a cinder block half-wall topped with pine boards painted white and another pine board topping it, but did not extend to the ceiling. The boards were set at a slanted angle to allow a view into the living room. On the living room side you could see the unit had been cemented into the floor and had a raised cinder block box to hold real plants.
Like one of humorists of the day put it, I have a fungus thumb, but only for indoor plants. My outside garden, rose bed, and cacti gardens were beautiful. Oh, did I mention, that the pine boards were weeping sap? I have no idea where they procured that lumber in Phoenix that had not dried out, and neither did my carpenter husband. I wanted that monstrosity out of there. Lanny, of course, kept promising, but he always had something else to do when he was home.
We had moved in during the month of November. The activities of starting the children in a new school, PTA, joining a new church and the women’s group there, the onslaught of the holiday season, my parents spending the winter in Phoenix before returning to Iowa, and visits from friends to see our new place seemed to take up most of our time.
By spring, I had decided what carpeting and vinyl flooring I wanted in our “new” home, but our finances weren't quite ready. Lanny did take out the built in seating and we bought a Spanish type sofa (or at least what was called Spanish) to replace it.
As fall neared and carpeting was in the budget, I wanted that entryway horror gone. As usual, Lanny kept promising. We had been there almost two years, when I looked at that wall one morning after the children had gone to school and went out to his tool room. There it was: his sledge hammer. By this time, Lanny was a finish carpenter and the finish foreman for one of the Phoenix companies. A sledge hammer really wasn't a tool he used at work.
It took almost all morning to knock out all the blocks and lumber. Before lunch, I carried out the lumber. I do not remember what I ate for lunch. Afterward, I began carrying out the debris. I hadn't gotten very far when our nine-year-old son returned from school.
I still remember him standing there, wide-eyed and holding the kitchen door open. Finally he said, “You really did it this time, Mom.”
He did help me carry out the rest of the debris.
Our daughter had stopped at a friend’s place, but both she and my husband were home before long.
Lanny just shook his head. “I guess I’d better smooth it all down for when you buy the carpet," was all he said.
Yes, it was smooth the day they brought in the beautiful blue carpet for the living room and hall. The rest of the house was carpeted and new vinyl went down in the family room, kitchen and bathrooms. Oh, yes, it may have been the first time he called me, “Scary Mari,” when he told others about what I did.
We had been married for eleven years when we bought our second house. It had three bedrooms, one-and-a half baths, a huge sandstone fireplace that reached to the top of the vaulted ceiling and opened to both the family room and living room.
This house had a closet in each bedroom, a floor to ceiling linen closet in the hall, and built in drawers beside the sliding doors in the master bedroom closet. The entry hallway closet was large enough to hold all of our winter coats, the kitchen was loaded with cabinets, the range top was set in a tiled counter-top that faced the family room, and the built-in oven was copper. We had an entire acre with a fence around the back portion for horses. There was a three car carport, and two outside rooms under the carport roof.
One outside room was for the washer and dryer, although I did not have a dryer and used the space for the wheelbarrow, spade, and other garden tools. The other small room off the carport held Lanny’s extra tools, saws, and horse equipment until several years later he built a barn.
The floor plan was an open concept for seeing from the kitchen into the family/dining room, and from the kitchen door to the front door. It made the seventeen hundred square foot home seem larger than it was.
There were two things that spoiled the perfection of this spacious new home. The west wall of the family room had a nineteen fifties built in seating done in blond wood and orange vinyl. The entry at the front door had a cinder block half-wall topped with pine boards painted white and another pine board topping it, but did not extend to the ceiling. The boards were set at a slanted angle to allow a view into the living room. On the living room side you could see the unit had been cemented into the floor and had a raised cinder block box to hold real plants.
Like one of humorists of the day put it, I have a fungus thumb, but only for indoor plants. My outside garden, rose bed, and cacti gardens were beautiful. Oh, did I mention, that the pine boards were weeping sap? I have no idea where they procured that lumber in Phoenix that had not dried out, and neither did my carpenter husband. I wanted that monstrosity out of there. Lanny, of course, kept promising, but he always had something else to do when he was home.
We had moved in during the month of November. The activities of starting the children in a new school, PTA, joining a new church and the women’s group there, the onslaught of the holiday season, my parents spending the winter in Phoenix before returning to Iowa, and visits from friends to see our new place seemed to take up most of our time.
By spring, I had decided what carpeting and vinyl flooring I wanted in our “new” home, but our finances weren't quite ready. Lanny did take out the built in seating and we bought a Spanish type sofa (or at least what was called Spanish) to replace it.
As fall neared and carpeting was in the budget, I wanted that entryway horror gone. As usual, Lanny kept promising. We had been there almost two years, when I looked at that wall one morning after the children had gone to school and went out to his tool room. There it was: his sledge hammer. By this time, Lanny was a finish carpenter and the finish foreman for one of the Phoenix companies. A sledge hammer really wasn't a tool he used at work.
It took almost all morning to knock out all the blocks and lumber. Before lunch, I carried out the lumber. I do not remember what I ate for lunch. Afterward, I began carrying out the debris. I hadn't gotten very far when our nine-year-old son returned from school.
I still remember him standing there, wide-eyed and holding the kitchen door open. Finally he said, “You really did it this time, Mom.”
He did help me carry out the rest of the debris.
Our daughter had stopped at a friend’s place, but both she and my husband were home before long.
Lanny just shook his head. “I guess I’d better smooth it all down for when you buy the carpet," was all he said.
Yes, it was smooth the day they brought in the beautiful blue carpet for the living room and hall. The rest of the house was carpeted and new vinyl went down in the family room, kitchen and bathrooms. Oh, yes, it may have been the first time he called me, “Scary Mari,” when he told others about what I did.
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