The house

My dream house has always been a long Ranch filled with atomic age elegance and don't forget the intercom and glam pool in back. On the other hand I have always loved the pre-war bungalows with voluptuous porches and don't forget the built in phone niche in the hallway. Then again I do love the understated post-war honeymoon cottages with hardwood floors, intricate crown molding and matching shutters and screen door.

So pick an era already! I have fallen in love with our home. I was first introduced to it in 2003 and thought my husband had to be The One, because in addition to all the other reasons, he had picked out a house I'd always pictured myself in. Though I love Ranch homes, I can't quite see myself in one for long. But I adore the older homes from the 40s. They were the first homes I ever liked as a kid. I remember them in Del Rio all having hardwood floors, pink tiled bathrooms and glass door knobs.

The house is a post-war honeymoon cottage. A twenty one year old vet back from WWII built our home. He was single and decided to purchase a lot in a new development that was once part of the old Wilder farm. He picked a lot near the creek because it reminded him of his childhood home in Elgin. His family had a farm by a creek. Before the war he had helped his father build roofs and thought he'd design and build his own home. With the help of family members, he constructed a simple five room abode with hardwood floors, a back porch and hip roof on pier and beam. The design was based on his parent's home which was built in 1929. It was a much smaller version of their home. In fact he used the old tiles they had leftover from their bathroom in his own. His mother told him to leave the kitchen a bit spacious to attract a wife. So he made the kitchen nearly as large as the room that he hoped would be the nursery one day. It took him a year to complete the house and it was 1949. He built the shed/garage after the house was built because he bought a new car the summer of 1950. He would park his car in the garage every night without fail.

During this time he had been working and going to night school to learn to service appliances. He would mostly repair washateria equipment and there was one located where Roomservice is now. Mr Taylor never found a wife while he lived in our house and not much is known of him once he moved. On Friday and Saturday evenings he'd have some friends, cousins and his two brothers over for card games and beer.

He sold the house to a young , newly married couple in 1954. They closed up the porch and created a small utility room. They had a baby girl and painted her room yellow and their room a pale, mint green. They lived in our house until 1966. During this time some cement was poured in the garage and seeped out of the frame and into the driveway creating a mess that held until recently when it was broken up and thrown out. It was around 1966-1967 that the house began to get passed around and used as a rental until my husband bought it. The records show that it was sold just about every other year if not every year.

In the backyard I have dug up old marbles, vintage toys, parts to a 1956 Nash Ambassador, and found some cute old hair rollers and hairpins. Inside the garage were short notes and numbers and dates written on the wood slats. When living in the present, coming upon the past this way is always a reminder that time passes quickly. The glass marble and plastic toy will outlast us all.