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Beachcombing
by Jay Beeler
Frequent readers of this column will remember prior references to my wife’s childhood home in Conshohocken, Penna., just west of Philadelphia. Her step-father, Hank, who died in 2000, was responsible for the red shag carpet that covered the bathroom walls and linoleum serving as the bathtub shower walls. It was in that same bathroom that her mother died in 2006.
Last week my contractor nephew, Steve Honodel, and I rehabilitated the bathroom in preparation for selling the home, which was built in 1900 and purchased by my wife’s grandmother in 1927. Back in the early 1900s nobody had garages and everybody had outhouses. It was challenging to work around walls made from lathe and plaster, which more closely resembled crumbling mud.
Both Home Depot and Lowe’s were nearby to fulfill our every need. It was shocking to see dozens of Home Depot workers ready and willing to cater to the needs of contractors in the early morning hours. At one time I counted 11 employees within eyesight, but going back at 7 p.m. you’d be lucky to see one.
I’ll go back again in a few weeks to finish repairs and upgrading throughout, missing the new police chief’s swearing-in ceremony. Good luck to Jim McDonnell in his new journey. And good luck in working with the LBPOA, whose president called while I was back east. If you read my last column, it will be no surprise as to what that’s all about.
Washington, D.C., my hometown of Waynesboro, Penna. and Philadelphia were blanketed in 30-plus inches of snow before my arrival. I spent three hours creating a parking space for the rental car by chipping away at the ice and shoveling it onto the lawn surfaces. It might be good exercise, but it also serves as a reminder as to why Anita and I headed west at young ages.
Concurrent with the Winter Olympic Games I found myself qualifying for the vehicular downhill slalom after taking daughter Janet to a friend’s home in Philly. There the streets were caked in snow and ice with most cars trapped in their parking spaces. One deserves a gold medal for navigating those washboard-like streets.
Janet has been house sitting the Conshohocken home while pursuing fine art paintings and assisting with the preparation of Beachcomber advertisements. She also does graphic arts projects for our public relations and advertising clients. She’s made new friends in Philly and should have no problem finding new digs if and when the house is sold.
The older homes in that area typically sell in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. I find it very helpful to look up addresses at zillow.com to get an idea of what comparable homes are fetching. There’s an incentive for first-time homebuyers to purchase before the end of April and receive an $8,000 tax credit, so that’s why we figure it’s a good time to sell.
With the bulk of the work completed I headed west 140 miles to my boyhood home in Waynesboro to attend an 80th birthday party for aunt Phyllis Stouffer, the youngest and sole surviving sibling of my deceased mother’s two brothers and four sisters.
I was pleasantly surprised to find three cousins from the Helen (Stouffer) Kaiser family and three cousins from the Marie (Stouffer) Harne family in attendance as well. Many of us played together as youngsters and several were there that I’ve not seen for decades.
This was also an opportunity to see sister Margaret’s new home in Waynesboro, overlooking the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. The new digs offer significantly more storage space for a lifetime of accumulations for Margie and her significant other, Ed Bryner.
The pending marriage of my daughter, Mindy, in October will provide yet another opportunity to see many of the east coast and Seattle-based relatives. We’ll promise our guests that the ground will be free of snow and the bathrooms free of red, shag wall coverings.
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