House for Sale

This house for sale was posted on Seward Swap this evening. It caught my eye as the first house that Elaine and I owned and where we lived from 1951 till 1956. It was also the first house my parents lived in after living with Dad's parents for a few months. We sold the place to Elaine's parents in 1956 and they owned it as a rental property until 1983.  The large garage has been an addition during the past few years along with other improvements. We made some major improvements during the years we owned the property. We built on a bathroom  and connected up with the sewer in the back alley. I dug it by hand and had to go nearly 13 feet deep. We also took out the old brick chimney and installed a gas floor furnace. We had it wired and a fuse box installed. The cupboards look new but similar to what we had built.

This was  Elaine and our oldest son and the trench I had dug to connect to the sewer. It must have taken at least 10 days to get it dug. I recall Elaine's Dad coming in from the farm to help at least one day. I have shuddered since then when hearing of trenches in Hastings Clay soil caving in and trapping people. That thought never entered my mind while in the process. I remember the plumbers from Rupp Hardware laying the tile in the bottom of the trench complaining that the trench was almost too narrow for them to work in.