NOT THE END...JUST THE BEGINNING!

I have a lump in my throat as I post these before and after pictures.  It's been so much fun from start to finish...I can't believe we are living in the house!  Sometimes it seemed like we would never be finished, and at other times I couldn't believe how fast things were moving.  It seems like everyone in Commerce, Texas knows about the restoration of the Knight house.  People in neighboring communities are even talking about it.  Complete strangers stop and ask to see what we've done--and we say "yes, come on in!"
The house is finished, but we haven't begun the landscaping yet.  That's another huge undertaking!  When all is finished, I'll post the final pictures.
Our future plans include using the barn as a bed and breakfast/event venue.  We also plan to offer the grounds for weddings. (remember the wedding steps?)
So, really, even though the house is completed, it's just the beginning for us!

To all the Knight descendants--Please, come to see us!  We want you to see the house where so many memories were made that are a part of your history.  We think you will be proud.  Thanks again for helping with the research.  We treasure all the articles and pictures you shared.  Our scrapbook is overflowing!
We're making our family's memories now, and we want you to know that we think about the ones that were here before us.  We are in possession of the historical marker.  I'll let everyone know when the ceremony will be.  We had originally planned to have it this fall, but we would like to have our landscaping finished, so we might have to postpone for a little while.

Below are various pix of the house that I didn't have a before picture of.  To see all the before and after pictures, look at all the posts again.  I went back and added the after pictures beside the first ones.

Addie Lou's room-upstairs

music room

Grandkids room

dining room

den

WINDING DOWN...

We are in countdown mode!  We've been busy these last few weeks getting last minute things taken care of.  Finally, we have about a week until we move in.  Rick has worked some long hours lately trying to get everything finished.  This will be the last post until we move in.  When we are all set up in the house, I will post before and after pictures.

 Go way back to the beginning pictures and you will see the old front porch.  We put these decorative pieces back in to match the old ones. 

We just call these the wedding steps.  Beautiful place to get married, don't you think?

Music Room-Above the mantel are 2 of the old window weights and the track from the pocket doors.

All fireplaces now have brick surrounds and hearths.

Rick designed the showers.  They are made of pea gravel!  The shelves are made from flagstone.

 
Showers are complete!  Wait 'til you see the seat and shelves Rick made for the showers!

Been waiting for three years to be able to see through to the next lot!  Work has begun on my mom's lot next door.  This creek was nothing but a tangled mess of brush and trash. 

I can't wait to show you the final pictures.  You won't believe your eyes!  What a lucky girl I am to have a man who would do all this for me!  We should have been charging for tours!  Every day people slow down to look.  Many of them stop and ask to see the inside, which I gladly show them.  It is truly a transformation!

PAINT!

It looks amazing!  As our grandson, Jack, would say, It's pank!"  The cut-in work took a while, but all the walls are now covered.  It looks really great next to the stained trim!

The rust colored cabinet will be antiqued.

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS

Stormy weather hits Commerce.  Again.  Rick and I woke up at 3am listening to a torrential downpour and strong winds.  The painter had been working inside the house, so we were worried that he had left some windows open.  Rick went to check it out.  When he came back to the barn, he said, "Well, we didn't have any open windows, but we do have a tree on our house!" 

Needless to say, this was not a treerific situation to be in at 3am!

There was very little damage to the house, just some to the porch cornice and roof.  Thank goodness it didn't break our beautiful, antique stained glass window that's on this side.  Our neighbor, Lavelle,  brought over his backhoe and lifted the weight of the tree off the house, while Rick began work with the chainsaw.  I took this next picture with my eyes closed, because it was scary to watch!! :/

Notice the part of the tree that's still upright?  That's the rotten part (literally and figuratively).  We've been talking about cutting that part off for a couple of weeks, before it fell onto the driveway.  Of course, the living part of the tree is the part that fell. :(  Lots of trouble, but it could have been much worse!

SNEAK PEAK....

The painter has been hard at work for a couple of weeks.  The inside trim is completely finished and looks amazing!  The lift you see in the picture is borrowed and must go back to its owner in 2 weeks, so the painter is taking advantage and painting the highest parts of the house while we still have it.  The gable is grayish-green and looks great with the white trim (and the "K").  The rest of the house will be a lighter version of this green.

I can hardly wait to turn the lights on in the parlor at night, get in my truck and drive in front of our house to look at our front door!  This picture doesn't do it justice.

I also hope to  open this door and find some Knight descendants on the other side!

This is the antique window above the landing that leads upstairs.  We bought it a few years ago, hoping it would fit somewhere someday.  And so it did! 

You can see how beautiful the stained trim is!  The balusters will be painted white and finials will be added to each newel post.

Our finials are made from bun feet (for furniture).

Everything old is new again... Remember how these huge pocket doors were painted white?  Now, they are back to beautiful!  We've used the same guy for years, when we've needed something stripped and refinished.  He always does wonderful work.  He actually just stripped these for us.  Our painter stained them when he did the rest of the woodwork.  

We used the pocket doors upstairs with the tracks on the outside.

Rick finished these stairs today.  Look at the ceiling of the back porch.  That's the original siding from the house.  The steps going straight off the back porch are going to be round.  

Totally unrelated to house restoration, but cute nonetheless.

Chevy.

A PLACE FOR DAYDREAMING...

A couple of Knight descendants told us that there used to be window seats in the parlor.  We put one in on the left side of the front door.  I chose not to put one in on both sides, because I have some furniture that I want to put on the other side.  I can imagine Leita or Myrtle or one of the other sisters sitting at the window and watching for their beau!

Completed window seat!  This is the best way to see the transom over the front door.  In case you can't read backwards, it says Horse Apple Hill.

                                                                                          

VIST THE OLD COUNTRY STORE...

We used some of the original siding from the house to put around our pantry door.  A rusty tin roof will go over the door, a wooden screen door will be the entry, and an old light will go beside the door.  I just couldn't wait for it to be completely finished, so you'll have to check back to see the finished product. ;o)

Wouldn't you like to shop here?  Maybe I need an old pickle barrel sitting beside the door! (with a checkerboard on top)

OK, I know you're saying to yourself, "Isn't that a level board beside the door?  Wonder why they didn't use it?"  It's just an optical illusion-it's really all on the level!  I think the photographer might have been a little out of level.

Pantry Complete!  The bottom of the screen door is an advertising plaque for a screen door company.

WHEW!! DIDN'T KNOW "WEATHER" OR NOT ...

...our house would still be standing, after yesterday!  Lots of tornadoes in our area!  Commerce missed the destruction, but surrounding areas weren't so lucky.  We hope everyone is safe and sound!

Our concrete workers set up the driveway to be poured and were working on the sidewalks, when the bad weather blew in.  Fortunately, the heavy rains didn't mess much up and we should be pouring the concrete soon.  Below are pix of the forms awaiting concrete.

This is the south side of the house.  The boarded up area is the back porch.  Rick enclosed it while the trim material is being stored there.  He didn't want it to get wet.
The sidewalk goes around the entire house, so it will serve as border for the landscaping, too.

I took this picture from the road looking toward the carport.  I wonder what John and Ella Knight would think about all this concrete?  Betty Knight Wallace has told me that they would often get stuck when they were visiting her grandparents during the rainy season.  She remembers her family's vehicle being pulled out of the mud on the road in front of the house.  We've made some nice progress in the last hundred years since this old house was built, haven't we?

Next, you'll see a picture of the underpinning.  It makes everything look neat and clean!  The porches still haven't been floored yet.  The material has been ordered, but Rick is going to lay it all out to dry when we get it.  It's treated lumber and it tends to shrink after it dries out, so he didn't want to build it right away then have cracks in it.  It might be a while before we can actually walk on something besides plywood.

Rick attached the mantles this past weekend.  They look amazing!  Craigslist is great-most of the time!  We saw the ad for one of the mantles a couple of years ago, so we headed off to Dallas.  When we got there, the man had another mantle that had already been stripped, but looked pretty bad.  We bought it anyway, 'cause it was cheap.  Rick sanded and refinished it, and it looks as good as new.

 This is the one in the music room that Rick refinished.

 This is the one in the parlor that we went to buy, originally.  Picture doesn't do it justice.  It's huge and made of tiger oak.

Those are two of our trim guys.  They are really good at what they do.

This is the dining room.  We already had this mantle in another house-just brought it with us.

Ebay find!

ALL THE TRIMMINGS...

Our trim crew has been working for a little over a week now, and things are looking beautiful! They are really talented.   For a while, when it was just sheet rocked, it seemed like a new house-not a 100 year old house.  Now that the trim is around the windows and doors, it looks like its old self-only better!  We put the exact same kind of trim back that was there originally.  Check out the following pictures...

This is the "girls sleeping porch" on the west side.  You can see the beautiful trim around the windows and doors.  The double doors are to the laundry room, and the other door is to the elevator.  The bottom of that door is not complete yet, because the blocks have not come in yet.

My laundry room is upstairs.  I can walk right around the corner and put up the clothes!

MMM, MMM, MMM! Can't wait to cook in this kitchen...

We had these made from quarter sawn oak, or tiger oak.  That is the same kind of wood that lots of antique furniture is made of.  You know what I'm talking about?  It's striped, sort of.  When the stain is applied, it really brings out the differences in the wood.  Granite tops are being made for the kitchen and the bathroom tops.

First meal in the new kitchen was ham, green beans and mashed potatoes!

 

Speaking of the bathrooms....

This vanity was made to look like an antique chifferobe.  The door on the left will be the linen, and the sink will go over the door on the right side.  It's made out of tiger oak, also.  We could have just used an actual antique piece, but we didn't want to have to deal with the drawers for the next 50 years.  Old furniture drawers just don't move freely like new drawers.
The next is a picture of the vanity for the master bathroom.  It's also made to look old--notice the claw feet.

 

The knobs and pulls are Bakelite.

HISTORICAL MARKER UPDATE

The Texas Historical Commission has sent the wording for the marker to be approved!
Knight descendants --If you haven't read it in the email I sent, please read it here.  Let me know if any changes need to be made.  According to the information I have, everything is correct, although it's not worded as eloquently as I would like.  I guess the Commission must cut out all the "flowery" wording in order to get more info onto the plaque.  I've heard from a couple of you already, and I appreciate it!

The inscription reads....

JOHN T. KNIGHT

JOHN THOMAS KNIGHT (1861-1959), BORN IN WINNSBORO, MOVED TO COMMERCE IN 1878.  HE MARRIED ELLA VIRGINIA CARTER IN 1893, AND THE COUPLE RAISED NINE CHILDREN IN THEIR HOME ON MANGUM STREET.  JOHN WAS A PROMINENT CIVIC AND BUSINESS LEADER.  HE WAS A MEMBER AND PRESIDENT OF THE SCHOOL BOARD FROM 1900-36.  WITH HIS BROTHER, THOMAS, HE OPERATED KNIGHT BROTHERS GROCERY.  HE WAS PRESIDENT OF FARMERS STATE BANK AND DIRECTOR OF FIRST NATIONAL BANK.  JOHN HELPED BRING MAY COLLEGE (NOW TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-COMMERCE) FROM COOPER.  HE WAS AN EXTENSIVE AREA LAND OWNER AND OWNER AND STOCKHOLDER OF LOCAL BUSINESSES.  A MEMBER OF THE MASONIC LODGE FOR 62 YEARS, HE ALSO RAISED CATTLE AND COTTON.  JOHN AND HIS FAMILY MADE MANY LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEIR COMMUNITY.

INSULATION....IT'S A WRAP!

See the yellow foam between the studs?  The insulation is complete-under the floor, in the attic, and in the walls.  

 This is the "every day" living room.  Rick is going to build the mantel to look like an antique one.  The box you see above the fireplace is for the TV, and the mantel will be built around it.

I have one picture from a Knight descendant that shows just a little piece of the original mantel in this room.  It was beautiful.  All the original mantles were removed and replaced with brick surrounds at some point.  I can't wait to see the fireplaces when we put our antique mantels on them!

Tape, bed, and texture is on tap for this week.  Rick will also be putting the plywood on the outside, so siding will be going on before you know it!

TV in-just waiting on our gas logs--and cold weather.