ONLINE JOURNAL
These journal entries track our progress as we undertake our adventure of restoring this very old home. The main reason for keeping this journal on the web is that we have found that there are very few resources (books or websites) that follow all of the trials and tribulations of restoring an old home...from start to finish.
January 2, 2000
Another work day today. We continued pulling vines at the back corner of the cemetery and cut down two more trees. Unfortunately, the bigger of the two trees is still standing upright, even though it's not longer attached to the ground. It's being held in place by vines about 25 feet up that run to a neighboring cedar and magnolia...acting like guy wires. Oh well. We called it a day and left it standing there. -- Bill
January 9, 2000
Returned to Enon Hall today to find the tree now leaning precariously backwards over the graveyard wall. Bringing the tree down without it coming down on the wall was a tricky prospect. I started by cutting off more branches and then used the minivan to pull the trunk...dragging the tree safely down and away from the wall so I could finish cutting it up. We've worked on this one corner of the cemetery for 4 weekends now...but it's almost done. -- Bill
January 26, 2000
Today we received the sad news that Mr. Hayden passed away last night. He was 96. We will miss him greatly on our visits to Enon Hall. He was always very supportive of our efforts around the house and welcomed our passion for the old place. And, of course, we are eternally grateful that he entrusted us with his home of thirty years...enough to sell us the home when it wasn't even on the market. And enough to accept us as the new owners while he continued to live there. On several occassions he asked me to let him know if he was doing anything we "didn't like" or if he was getting in our way. I tried my best to explain that while on paper we owned the house...this was still his home. It was he who should let us know if we were getting in his way. But quite the opposite, Mr. Hayden seemed to enjoy the new buzz around the house and welcomed the small dent that we have been able to make so far. We are so thankful that he was so lucid at his age (on one occassion he called for me at my office and announced to the person who answered the phone, "This is Russell Hayden and I'm very old!") because he was able to tell us so much about the house and contribute solid advice related to our projects. Every visit with Mr. Hayden ended with him asking me, "Is there anything you want to ask me?" Most of the time, I did have a question or two that I had been meaning to ask. "What did this used to be like?" "What happened to...?" I have no doubt that we will have all sorts of questions that we'd love to ask Mr. Hayden as we really get into the restoration of Enon Hall. Mr. Hayden was an old school gentleman. We will miss him. -- Bill
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