Home Sweet Home

 

Meys family home circa 1960

Can you believe the things you come across on facebook???  This picture is part of a much larger aerial view of Alloueze.  The house right in the middle of the pic is in fact my family home, a few years after it was built, (circa 1958) by my Grandparents.  Four generations of Meys' have lived in this home, and my father ended up paying for it three times.

My Dad actually lived with and was the main support for his parents until he was married in his mid thirties.  So when I say my Grandparents built, well, my Dad footed a large part of that bill.  Then in '68 he took out a loan and bought the house from them, and they built another smaller one on the lot next door.  Then in the early eighties my parents took out a second mortgage to re-side and put new windows on the house.  His death in the early nineties paid off the house in full.

 Dad always claimed that he planted every tree in that yard. He dug them up from the woods and brought them home, for the most part.  I never believed him....... well.......... guess he wasn't kidding!  At one point there were probably thirty trees in the yard, mostly in back.  Mine was a birch, I think Jerry's was the apple, which were both lost to the garage in '87.  Kate's is a HUGE tree that you can't put your arms around, and David's is a weeping birch.  Those two still stand today.  I know this, because the house is still in our family, my brother Jerry bought it after Mom passed away in '04.

I found this picture in my baby book, so it is circa '69, or pretty much how it looked when my parents bought it from Grandma and Grandpa Meys.

Here's the house in 1979.  Yes, that's me on the steps.  By then there were a few trees, and tons of flowers.  I looked through every album I have last night and this was the only house pic I found from that time.  I know I have others, but they are in a box buried in the closet.  Note the large tire on the right side of the pic.  It was filled with flowers.  My Dad loved "kitchy" things, lawn ornaments, etc.  I, do not.  We also had a tire like that one in the back to use as a sandbox. (Which on the other hand was awesome!)  In this pic the house still has the original windows, and the original siding, which was actually roofing material.  The insulation wasn't good, and it was cold, damn cold, sleeping upstairs!  Speaking of which, the upstairs was not finished off by the builder.  My Dad and a friend built the entire upstairs bedroom, closets, and hallway in approximately '74.  Jerry and I slept up there until Kate was old enough, then it became "the girls room".

This picture is from 1983.  In the summertime my parents had the house re-sided, new windows put in, and more insulation added. (yea!)  That front window leaked from then on.......  It's a shame that you cant really see all of the lawn ornaments.  You also can't see the brick cross that my dad built and filled with roses.  It's where the white flamingo and the pinwheel flower are, although he must not have put the rose bushes in yet.  People would drive by from all over and stop to look at those roses.  Around this time my Dad also finished off part of the basement to make a family room.  It has a built in bar on one side, and a built in stereo on the other.  My friends and I spent a lot of time hanging out there. 

Here is the house on 7-27-13

I was in the neighborhood for a funeral, and thought I would grab a recent shot of the house, that now belongs to my brother Jerry and his family.  It's nice to still be able to gather there as a family sometimes, because no matter what, it will always be home. ♥