inside & out

Here is our old stone home. She doesn't let all the fuss & feathers around her disturb her peace.
Above Grandma Jean's front door and tucked under the pressure-treated wood that supports the front porch is a white marble plaque. It is engraved with the date 1843.

I was first thrilled and then puzzled at this discovery. I mean, this is not the type of town that has marble plaque over the doors. We are a humble bunch of dwellings.

As far as I can figure, ours is the only house with such a regal thing.

Then I ran across an interesting tidbit in an old Madrid newspaper that illumined me. Originally, the ground floor apartment was a stone-cutter's shop. Its main business was carving headstones. Many of the beautiful stones that grace the cemetery down the street were fashioned here. Fancy that!

One can assume that a stray piece of white marble was put into service as a date-marker.

Across the street, we have new sidewalks! I resisted the temptation to scrawl my name into the wet cement. If I had done so, I could claim I was merely carrying on the stone-cutter's tradition.

The Big Project, as I affectionately call it, is coming along nicely. Here, Bill and his brother John seem to be taking a you-tube break. Hey, whatever it takes to get them through the day, I say!

We have windows galore. Almost every one of them has a river view. But don't confuse that bright blue of the tarp in the yard for the river.

From the outside, one can get the bigger picture. These sunny and relatively warm November days have given the guys opportunity to finish shingling the roof!

-and I say YAY to that!