Wilnert part 1

I don’t know how many Wilnerts there are in Norway, but this is the only one I ever knew.

He owned this place, where my daughter and her family (which includes us) live now. The state took the place for payment for nursing home care for both Wilnert and his wife. It came up for sale then.

Daughter asked me to look at it. I had my friend David with me. The gable was straight, the eves did not sag, both signs of a solid skeleton of a house. Inside was beyond disaster. Wilnert’s false teeth were on the kitchen table. Junk was stacked everywhere. The toilet had not been cleaned in decades.

The basement was dark and not deep and the floor was dirt. The inspector for the loan company rejected the foundation. So the house was jacked up a tad, a deeper basement was dug, a concrete floor poured, and finally foundation walls.

Meanwhile the house was held up with a lot of small posts. It looked like it was held by toothpicks. But in time it was all in place and the house had a solid foundation. The upstairs had walls removed, and doors moved. Finally I came in with wide wood trim (sort of Craftsman style) and ceramic tile. We set the kitchen cabinets and put the tops on.

That was 10 years ago, give or take a bit. The house was built with a large space that was designated as the place for us to live. Miriam had just been diagnosed with AD, and we had no idea how fast or how soon we would need different living arrangements.

In time the space became a storage room/craft/sewing room. The house is on a couple acres of ground and there are several out buildings, but nothing you would store much in, unless everything was carefully encapsulated.

So, today I began clearing out one of the buildings. It has wood leaning against the walls. Some short pieces and some 12 and 14 feet long.

More on the subject next time.