Two More Days!!!

Dear Family,

We hope that you had a Merry Christmas! It was our "off year" but we did get together with 3 of the 4 families for lunch on Saturday. We had Nicks family with us from El Paso, it was good for them to be with family. Nick called from Afghanistan and was a little homesick (for some reason)? That is our third son, he is in the Air Force and this is his second deployment.

Anyway...enough about our Christmas. We heard from the agent that the bank will be out of the office until the 28th. They got our last offer and said that the docs all look good...so we might know before the new year! We will still have to do the inspections and I hope that Mark won't be around when they are done. He says that the only reason he is willing to do another restoration is to keep it in the family, he was hoping that he could give it to me for Christmas! I don't think that he wanted to do any shopping! He is a keeper!

Have a Happy New Year and we will keep those of you that are interested updated!

Lots of Love,
Shelley

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33 Minutes On Hold

Hi Family,

Yesterday Mark spent 33 minutes on hold with the bank that holds that loan of Grandma's house. He decided to hang up and when he called back the recording said that the office was closed.

We wanted to give you an update. Not much news. We wish that we had used a different agent. We have to call her to get any updates. She finally gave us the banks phone number and the contact person so we could make some calls. The bank is doing another appraisal and if it comes in $10,000 less then our offer would do.

Getting a little discouraged, but not giving up. I won't admit that my Dad was right when he told "me that I was crazy for wanting to get the house back in the family."

I have tired to make contact with the previous generation (the Abel's). But like Charlotte "Munns" (Aunt Lotties daughter) Grandma's sister, reminded me that many of those cousins are deceased. So it looks like if the house is to be saved it is up to this generation.

I would appreciate any comments from you if you think this is worth pursuing or if you have any questions.

This is getting to be that busy time of year, but all I want for Christmas is to make this happen and to have our son come home safe from Afghanistan! Maybe, I should go sit on Santa's lap and ask him for it!

Have a good day.

Lots of Love,
Shelley

Wouldn't It Be Lovely....to see Grandma's yard look like this again?

Hi Family,

Each time I drive past Grandma's house (almost every day lately) I think of how beautiful she and her yard where.  In the fall, when I was in elementary school, I walked and would stop and pick a beautiful blue Morning Glory that grew up the power pole.  I would smell it and look at it all the way to school. 

We can all probably remember seeing Grandma on her knees either planting flowers, in the vegtable garden, or weeding.  I  remember when she would be irrigating and I would run to the wading pool to see if it was filled with water (not apricots)!

Can you remember the Ferris wheel filled with geraniums, the steel wheelbarrow brimming with flowers? I sure do, I  broke my new front tooth off playing tag with some of you (in the dark of course).  The rock garden was always blooming with splendid plants.  Everyone admired the gorgeous begonias under her bedroom window.  I know that she loved her yard and the beauty of flowers.   

What traditions can you recall? Remember our Thanksgivings at Grandma's home? We were all gathered wall-to-wall.  It was fun sitting on the wooden plank held by two chairs - that was the next step after the kids' table.  Our family still lights the lemon extract-soaked, sugar cubes and places them on our miniture plum pudding.  This is a tradition that I  hope my children and grandchildren will continue. 

At this special time of the year, I want to tell you all how grateful I am for each of you.  We are so blessed to have this wonderful family.  I am also grateful for those that have gone before us.  Our heritage is so rich.  Thank you all for the precious memories!

Please let me know if you have any ideas to save Grandma's house.  I would love to hear from you. I have received one comment and so appreciated her words of encouragement and support.

We hadn't heard from the Realtor about our last offer...we are hoping that it hasn't been sold.  Let's all get creative and think of a way to keep it in the family!

I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by those you love.

With Love,

Shelley

P.S.

Please send me any of your families' emails so that they can be part of this effort.  And thanks for sharing this blog with your family.

Where Have All These Children Gone?

(click to enlarge and read names)

Are you in this photo? We were wondering if any of you have talked to your siblings or parents about saving part of our heritage (the home)?

Also we're looking for a list to contact all of the Able cousins. It seems that at the last Abel reunion (held in Pleasant Grove) the descendent count was close to 1000. If you have their emails or addresses, we would greatly appreciate you sending them on to us. Also, if any of you know who put that reunion together we would appreciate knowing. We think that it might have been Grandma's family.

We Are Making Another Offer!

Hi Family,

We are in the process of making another offer. Keep your fingers crossed, we are going to need all the help we can get from this side as well as the other side!

In reading Grandma H's book on the last page she shares her testimony of her love for each of us and for her hopes. She also quotes ..." live so that we will see our family chain unbroken". This is a quote from Grandma Abel, the inspiration behind this home being built. (See picture above of Mary E. Abel & George E. Abel)

Some keep trying to tell me that the house is only brick and mortar. But it was a haven for many of us where we learned many lessons as we watched our grandmother live her life in this home. A home that she made a bit of heaven on earth for so many.

Please pass this on to all your family.

With Love,
Shelley

Grandma's bedroom...they have tried to enclose the bathroom (they extended the bedroom out to enclose the hallway) ...can't say it was an improvement!

OK, guess where this is? The door goes out to the "green house" and you are standing in the enclosed carport/family room. The green house is in really bad shape, including part of the roof missing!


Here is the kitchen. This has been changed, even since the new cupboards were added by Grandma, but overall pretty close to when she was alive. It would be nice to restore this to "look" like the original 1890's kitchen but include a "few modern conveniences".

Hunsaker Home

Hunsaker Home

Have you seen our Grandma's house lately? It is for sale...again. I wanted to start this blog and see what kind of interest there is to keep it in the family. After all...somebody once said, "May we always live so that our family chain is not broken." While her home is just "brick and mortar" it is still the source of so much of who we are as individuals AND as a family.

I spent several days looking at the property - inside and out. It is in a bank-owned "short sell" and so we made an offer. However, the bank didn't accept the offer.

CURRENT SITUATION: The house and yard are in sad conditions. Bad of course that old "brick and mortar" is filled with great memories...and going back into the yard and home the memories started flowing! I fell in love with the home all over again, but realistically, well, it is a bunch of old brick and mortar. As a reality check, I had Mark (my husband - an engineer and general contractor) perform some inspections. He found many problems and did the cost analysis to get it restored! Well, we made another offer (detailing many of the problems) and the bank again rejected it! If any of you have had "short sell" experience, you know the process...slow and painful! However, the agents we started to work with have not been too motivated to move things forward, so we are looking for some additional help.

HISTORY: I am sure that most of you know the story of the home. It was built by our Great Grandma Abel while her husband was on a mission. They had the lot before he left for his mission. They had two children. Great Grandma Abel worked and others helped her build the home. When Great Grandpa came home, they went for a walk and he saw the house and said "You had to sell the lot to keep me on my mission." She smiled and said "No" it is our house. WOW...what a story and some wonderful history. Eventually, Grandma Hunsaker and her children moved in with Grandpa and Grandma Abel in the fall of 1937. There were so many significant events that happened in that home: births, birthday celebrations, reunions, traditions, quilts, flowers, Christmas candy, holidays, etc.

IDEAS & PLANS: We have some ideas and would welcome any of your input or ideas. If any of you are interested in buying the home...let us know so we aren't "competing"!!! A summary of our plans include:

1. Rent it for a year or two and start cleaning up the yard.
2. Year 2 or 3 go in and start restoring.
3. Start a VRBO..."Vacation Rental By Owner"...and then you can come when you are in Utah (or Utah County) and enjoy those memories and share those with the next generation.
4. Have an annual" Hunsaker" reunion each year!
5. If there is enough interest, we would create an LLC and "sell" equity positions that would take the property in a different direction...however,
6. If we buy it on our own, we will live in it by year 5, and still have it open for family to visit and use the yard for family functions, weddings, reunions, etc.

I will attach the pictures that we took when we looked at it in August.

WHAT TO DO: Please pass this Blog on to anyone in the family. If you have any photos you would like to share, please email them to me ( shellwalk@gmail.com ) . Thanks and love to all.

Have you seen Grandma's house lately?

This is a view of the enclosed carport/family room. The old driveway has had some hardscaping added, but needs some real help. The door on the right is now the side entrance into the house.













North side of house. Landscaping is overgrown and underwatered. They did not hook up to the "new" pressurized irrigation and the irrigation shares were sold when the house was sold.











North side living room window. A new AC condensor is right behind the aspen...another addition to the yard! The aspens are something we would remove.















Front porch...the concrete (thanks Uncle Ted), foundation and brick are all in really good shape for being over 100 years old.













East/front view. Upstairs windows have been replaced with vinyl, but sills, frames, soffit, facia need some TLC.