Homes w/Soul

Thank you for the comments on my last post. 

The Dog's Mother - Kudos to your daughter! I am discovering more and more of her generation truly appreciate the craftsmanship which went into the old houses.

Mittens - I love to hear stories about people who have lovingly restored these glorious homes. Hubby and I have always been on the 'other end' of the house restoration - we restore the house and then end up selling it and moving on to the next one. This is the first time we have owned a house which has already been restored (at least 95%). There are some things we wish to do to give it that "POP". We want to restore the gingerbread around the front eave, upgrade the front porch light, new picket fence. 
All minor details. But then, The Devil is in the Details......

What's Up With Those Houses?

When Cripple Creek was built, the original part of the town was built on the hillsides so as not to disturb the valuable pasture land along the creek bottom. That was just in case the gold strike didn't 'pan out' .  
And just like developers today, the land planners of yesterday wanted to get as many homes and people into as little space as possible. So homes were built extremely close to each other. So close, that sometimes the roofs would hang over each other.  Making it very difficult to paint between the houses (probably a chore for the children).

Building houses this close together was fairly common in old mountain mining towns. And created a unique set of problems, besides the painting and maintenance, you can hear the neighbors. Their alarm clock. Their phone. Their...well...you get the idea. The picture below is between my house and the neighbor's. I'm just glad I have nice neighbors. Hope they say the same about us! There is enough room between our homes that a grown person can walk. 

Of course, that means any windows that face this space could potentially open onto the neighbor's window. Like our bedroom which opens onto our neighbor's bedroom window. The green seen through the window is my neighbor's house.

And while we do have some breathing room on the west side of our house, this wasn't always the case. There used to be a boarding house next door - situated on what is now my side lawn. I can't even begin to imagine .....

Her Name

Our home is next door to a large Victorian home which is owned by the City of Cripple Creek. It is used as housing for the actors, actresses and stage crew for the local repertory theater, The Butte Theater.

The house is only inhabited 6 months out of the year. So it is almost like not having neighbors. This year's crew has been fun and our dogs have greatly enjoyed the extra hands which so eagerly reach over the fence to pet them. 

View of The Victorian Lady from my side yard

The house is gorgeous, with leaded windows and all sorts of detail work. It was built in 1898 by a Charles N. Miller. The house has been named The Victorian Lady. 

Well, not wanting our lovely home to feel left out, hubby named our house The Painted Lady. While the name may reference the "Women of the Night', it is in no way derogatory. The women who worked the bordellos were often kind hearted and generous. And very much misunderstood. But that is all for another post...

And Now For the Magick...

What better post to make on Friday, the 13th? 

But one about magick. 

When we went looking for our new home, it was mid-summer and the real estate market was in prime 'sales' season. Houses were not lasting long on the market. Anywhere. We knew we would have to act quickly when we found a place we liked. We didn't want to live in town nor out on the eastern plains. So to the mountains we went. We looked at a lot of places. But we kept gravitating back to Cripple Creek. 

The Painted Lady

We made an offer on a cute, newly remodeled home built in the early 1900's. But someone else had put in a bid at the same time. They got the house. So back to looking we went. This time we decided on a house only a block from the first one. We wondered why no one had snatched it up. It had been on the market for 5 months. It had been remodeled in 2000 and was nice inside and out. There was a fenced yard, nice flower beds, and needed next to no work done on it.  We decided The Painted Lady had been waiting for us.  

Viola a.k.a. Johnny Jump Up

Upon closer inspection of the yard around our new home, I discovered an abundance of violas. They were growing everywhere! Violas belong to the Violet family. And I have found that the homes we have lived in where 'magick' was afoot, there were always violets or violas growing. Interestingly, Violets are associated with death and rebirth. Very much like what we were going through - a symbolic death and rebirth. A new life in a new home.

Violets

And herbs were growing wherever they had a mind to grow. The flower beds, the parking area in back, even surviving the constant nibbling in the front flower beds (outside the fence). I have yarrow, comfrey, horseradish, chives, mint, and probably several others I haven't discovered as yet.  And by the old fashioned mailbox near the bottom of the steps is a very large clump of white sage. 

Fox across the street

Animals are frequent visitors. The first night we were in our new home, Hubby went out to the truck after dark to get something when he was run over by a very robust raccoon. And when I say, "Run Over", I mean literally. Hubby had turned to close the door of the truck when a raccoon ran into his leg. Thinking it was a dog or cat, Hubby reached down to pet it and turned his flashlight on the animal, only to be quite surprised to see the nocturnal wanderer. Deer have come to my back fence to partake of the trees and bushes I had in pots. A fox sits across the street almost every evening, staring at our dogs in the yard.

Almost like a faery tale, but this time there are no trolls or ogres. 

Next week, I will post about the enchantment of the area and how our house got her name. 

Winds of Change

This year has seen a lot of wind in this area. Crazy, strong winds! At least two of the storms brought us wind over 70 mph - that's hurricane force winds! 

Many Indigenous cultures believe that the wind is the Creator talking - that the wind will blow when a person is trying to be told something. Well, I should have been listening harder because those winds were telling us that change was in our future.

We've moved. But this time the move was into our own house. Not on our property in the mountains but very close by. In the quaint and quirky little town of Cripple Creek.

The Town of Cripple Creek as seen at the overlook

A lovely Victorian House chose us to come live within its walls. (I swear there was a bit of magick involved, but I will expand upon that in later posts - gotta have something else to write about)

Welcome to The Painted Lady.

Yes, that's a white pocket fence that you see. The house was built in 1900 and still has many of the original features - doors, transoms, wood molding, brass light fixtures and the gorgeous fireplace with the original firebox. Though it burned coal not wood.

Front entry with original doors

Dining Room with original light fixture

In the coming weeks, I will share things about our new home, the town, and the 'neighbors' who live around us.

Click on the pictures to enlarge and see details.