Then I guess Marion started getting restless and wanted something
to do so he started working at the Golf Course, supposedly part
time, and then like so many other things it turned into full time
while we were here. I started playing Bridge with the same group
that I had played with before too, and everything seemed to be
really great, being here and being with our family and old friends.
We also started looking for a place on Fall Creek because we
had always wanted to live on the Creek.
We didn't find anything because there aren't that many places
available and then one day I was riding my bike around town and
rode down Northwest Drive
and saw the little brick house that is on the corner of our lot.
I thought Horace Tunes had owned it a long time ago but didn't
know if he still did. Anyway when I got home, I called him and
ask him if he still owned it and he did. Then I asked him if
he would be interested in selling it and he said "Yes".
I was so excited. At that Marion was in the hospital in traction
with his back so I called him. I had asked Horace what he wanted
for the place, he told me and I told him Marion was in the hospital
but that we would probably take it. (This is another example
of our famous planning ahead). When I called Marion, to say that
he was less than thrilled is putting it mildly, especially since
he was in a lot of pain and we had just moved into the place we
had. To make a long story short we decided to buy it even though
we didn't know for sure what we were going to do with it but it
was on the Creek and that was what we had always wanted.
While were in Florida the next Winter we began thinking that we
were not really contributing much to Society the way we were living
so we began thinking a lot more about coming back here and not
going to Florida so much because I was becoming very homesick
and lonesome when were there and I think Marion was too. Marion
started drawing house plans for the place we might build someday
on the lot we had bought and the more we thought about it the
more we knew we wanted to come back here. When he had the house
plans completed, we put our place on the market and we sold it
in a very short time so we started packing the things that we
wanted to bring back here with us.
We did something we said we would never do, we rented a UHaul
and pulled it back to Pendleton. It really was no big problem
except once we got off the interstate and then had an awful time
getting back on. We could see it but it was one of those things
that you could see the road but you couldn't get to it.
We got a builder, Rex Frazee, he looked over the plans that Marion
had drawn and he said he could build it from them so that is the
house we are now living in. He started, or at least had the footing
in on Mother's Day of 1977 and we moved on July 6. 1977. It certainly
went a lot faster than we ever believed it could. We were thinking
it probably be ready to move into about Labor Day. Rex talked
so slow that we thought he would also work slow but that certainly
was not the case.
We finished all the woodwork in the yard at the other house and
had woodwork everyplace. I made all of the curtains for the house.
We also cleaned up the building site because Rex didn't like
a messy workplace. When it came time to the finishing he told
me what the allowance would be for carpet, light fixtures, etc
so it fell to me to go pick out all of this stuff. When it came
to the carpet I just couldn't see how we could be satisfied with
the price range he quoted me. We had heard of other people going
to Georgia and saving a lot of money. He said we could borrow
his van and go there so we packed up one morning and left here
about 2:30 A.M and drove to Dalton. We went to a carpet outlet
recommended to us, picked out the carpet we wanted, they had it
all ready to load the next morning at 7:00 and we started back
home.
I was at the site every day because I just couldn't wait until
we moved to the Creek. One day I got to looking around and it
seemed to me that it was getting close to being finished so I
asked Rex how much longer it was going to take and he very slowly
said he thought about Friday. I went into complete panic because
here it was just the last of June and we were thinking Labor Day.
We had really not much of anything ready to move because we had
been doing woodwork and all of the other extra things that building
required. I remember the last day they worked here finishing
up there were 13 workmen here doing different things. The carpet
we had brought back was lying in big rolls in the living room.
We had no garage to put things so it was quite a feat to finish
it, but lo and behold, by that evening it was ready except for
the carpet laying, and we had a man to do that. He worked all
weekend and it was the weekend of the Fourth of July weekend but
he worked anyway because he could see how anxious we were to move
in.
We have made several changes since we moved. We closed in the
porch that faced the creek, added a deck, built a garage, paved
the driveway and redecorated several times. It has been a very
interesting and beautiful place to live. I'm sure it is the only
place that the Grandchildren remember us living.
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