WELL..NOW THAT'S A DEEP SUBJECT!

The main floor of the house had a covered back porch that served as the main eating area for the Knight family for every day meals.  Betty Knight Wallace told about the huge table that was on this porch and how she was a little scared to eat there because a cistern was right behind the table.  She was afraid she would fall in.  Obviously the cat you see in the bottom of this cistern (right side) knew nothing about this story!
The cat story... Two different fraternities lived in our house at one time and had converted this back porch into a second kitchen.  After years of leaking plumbing, the floor was rotten.  We discovered the cistern after tearing out the floor.  Unfortunately, the cat discovered it the hard way.  After borrowing a 20' ladder from the hardware store (the cistern was that deep and at least 10' in diameter!), much chasing, and a little hand biting, we finally got the cat out.  Haven't seen him since.

The cistern was capped with a concrete cover at first.

More pix of the back porch/kitchen/mess...

Rick is working on our breakfast nook table.  He's making it from one of the original doors in the house.

The porch will be our breakfast area in about 9 months!

 And so it is!



WERE YOU RAISED IN A BARN?

We were spending so much time in Commerce working on the property that we decided to buy the lot and barn next door to live in while we restored the house.  The Knights built the barn in 1924 after their first one burned. They reused some of the lumber, and some of the floor boards in the loft still have charred places on them.  Once again, we found ourselves doing major clean-up on the grounds before we could start repairing the barn, but the end result was well worth the trouble.

 Chad and Rick

This was after much clean-up had already been done.  As you can see we inherited a bus and an old car that had to be removed.

The barn had sunk down into the ground so much in some areas that it had to be jacked up about 2 feet!

Bois d' arc blocks are awesome!  Even though they had sunk into the ground, they weren't rotten!

Good-bye bois d' arc, hello concrete!

Our living area and a bedroom are in the loft.  We covered some "foot-sized" holes with license plates, so our grandkids wouldn't break a leg.  Our 2 year old grandson was a little leery about walking around in the loft.  He would step over every crack.

Obviously, there is good soil around a barn for growing things!  Must be the 100 year old manure.

Home, sweet home...for now.

...in the loft

  main floor bedroom

Our kids can really say yes to that proverbial question!

Were you raised in a barn?

CLEANING... A LOT...

We've estimated that we hauled off at least 60 dump trailers full of debris from the property.  That doesn't even include the stuff from the demolition of the interior of the house!  Here are just a few pix from the outside clean-up.

 

just one of the outbuildings

   we tore down

 

got really tired of hauling

        these away

This was Lorene Gray's house, located directly behind the big house.  She took care of the Knights for many years.

ALONG THE WAY...

We've been blessed with new friends, because of a house!  We've even been lucky enough to meet a few in person.  The following picture is of Betty and David Wallace and their daughter and son-in-law.  Betty is the daughter of Homer Knight.  Homer was one of John and Ella's nine children. 
Thanks to every Knight descendant who has shared stories and pictures!  You've made the house come alive for us.  We call each room by the names you associate with them, so when you see pictures of the inside of the house labeled with captions like "Addie Lou's room" or "the music room" or "the little red room", you'll know we were paying attention!!

Front: David, Betty, me, Becky

Back: Rick, Richard

south side of house

The Knight Family

John and Ella with 3 of their children are on the far right.

The house in the background belongs to Susan and John Knight, Sr.

Following is an excerpt from Cow Hill Bits and Pieces by Otha Spencer, so all can see how today's project actually began in the 1800's.

IN THE BEGINNING...

   

In 2009, after 30 years of marriage to a custom home builder and 8 brand new homes, we finally found "my" dream house!

Notice the "my"part!   ;o)

My wonderful husband finally gave in to restoring an old house - and what a lot of restoring this will be!!

The house was built in 1914 by John and Ella Knight, one of the earliest and most influential families in Commerce, TX.

One of the first things we did (after months of clearing the property of outbuildings, debris, trees and brush, and just plain old trash) was pick the house up off its bois d' arc blocks and move it further back on the property.  We put concrete piers and beams in place so the house would have a solid foundation.  This was amazing to watch!  There were many passers-by and neighbors who stopped to watch, too.  The Greenville Herald Banner featured the move in an article written by Brad Keller. 

....mobile home

After the concrete foundation was in place, the moving truck had to pull the house up an incline to put it in place.  Imagine watching your house tilting backward with nothing holding it but a truck with a wench on it!  I had to close my eyes a few times, especially when the truck's front wheels came off the ground!  When it was finally in place on its new foundation, it was beautifully straight and level.  Thanks to Northcutt House Movers for a job well done!

The only casualty was the mimosa tree we had been babying.  We moved it from behind the house to another area, being so careful not to break any limbs or shock it too much.  We had to water it with buckets of water from our neighbors house, since we had no water yet.  (thanks Gary and Carolyn)  During the entire move, the workers were very careful not to run over it with their equipment.  Alas, at the very end of the day, when they were loading their equipment up to leave, it happened.  The top of it was completely snapped off, but don't dismay!  It came back out the next spring and is thriving.

Our tree has had an uneventful year!  Nobody ran over it and it is thriving!

By the way, this is how I knew this was supposed to be our house.  Of course the "K" in the gable stood for Knight, but I like to think it stands for Kelley.