Restoring Irving Gill's "Williams House"

Crime Scene Investigators

June 29, 2005

Last Saturday after a very long day of moving in appliances and taking copious amounts of trash to the dump, Sander returned the moving truck to Bakersfield.  He ran a few more errands, had dinner with my father, and was scheduled to arrive back home at 10:30 p.m.  At about 10:30 he called home to report that the road was closed at Fountain Springs, just 18 miles away (and the only reasonable way to get home).  He heard that there was a major traffic accident, someone was taken to the hospital, and the road had been closed for over an hour already.  They expected the road to be closed for some time.  Poor Sander decided he was tired enough for a hotel room after such a long day of moving.  He headed to Porterville.  No vacancies.  None in Lindsay, none in Exeter.  Nearly an hour later he found himself in Visalia.

Old House in Ducor

June 27, 2005

There is an old house in Ducor, just east of the railroad tracks and just south of the main road, that I have admired over the years.  Ducor is south of Porterville on highway 65.  The house looked like it had not been lived in for a while and I lamented its fate.  It is probably not more than about 800 square feet but it has a great look and looks very well built.  Every time I drove by I admired it and also hoped that it would not be abandoned.     

Return to the Mothership

June 21, 2005

Today I traveled to Pasadena for a business meeting and took advantage of the opportunity to look at exterior paint colors.  We cruised through Pasadena’s Bungalow Heaven and other historic areas enjoying the hard work of the residents.  We have bantered back and forth here about paint colors – some darker shades of green with various accent colors, lighter shades of tan with various accents.  In the end, I realized what I really want is a painted house.  We have so many choices and, at this point, are only tied into the roof color and, of course, the color of the vinyl windows.  I am sure we will pick a great color combination by paint time in the spring.  I just look forward to having beams that aren’t rotting and that are fresh and clean, whatever color they happen to be.  Really, I am finding that I am not at all worried about paint colors.  I have every confidence that we will pick a good combination.  And anything that looks clean will be a good thing.