From as early as I can remember, and for as long as my grandparents lived on the McCurdy farm, there was a black safe on one side of my grandparents’ bed. Grandpa C.R. used it as his nightstand; on top there were two ashtrays overflowing with his Masonic pins, tie tacks, cufflinks, and spare change. Right in the corner, sat a double picture frame, holding two 8×10 black and white portraits. My grandpa was on the left and my Grandma Helen’s portrait was on the right, they must have been taken in the early 50s.

Those photos fascinated me. My grandpa’s eyes danced and his smiled beamed. In sharp black and white contrast, you could see his posture was perfect as he posed in a light grey suit, looking straight at the camera. My grandma’s shot was also a typical 1950s headshot: she glanced to her right, as if looking at grandpa in the next frame. Her eyes steady, her smiled relaxed, and her hair appeared perfect, as always.

I remember often being underfoot when my grandma was vacuuming the dark rust colored carpet in that room. I was probably only seven or eight. A long central vacuum hose in toe, she caught every imperfection in the carpet. She wore her typical summer cleaning outfit – a short-sleeved white button down shirt and bright colored Capri pants. When she stopped to move the vacuum to another room, I asked about her photo.

She stopped and stood up straight, her eyes looking at something far away in the distance, a faint smile on her face. She laughed quietly. Then she told me the story of the day Grandpa came home from his two years of service in the Army overseas, where he spent most of his time in Germany.

Grandma Helen and another Army wife traveled to pick up their husbands near the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Once they arrived there were people everywhere, just as you might imagine. One young man in uniform was walking past her in all of the chaos and he stopped.

“Are you Dick McCurdy’s girl?”

Grandma smiled and said, “Yes.”

The soldier laughed and said he recognized her from the photo my grandpa had up in his locker. That black and white picture with my grandma gazing over her left shoulder, the one that sat framed on the safe.

Once they reunited the two couples traveled home together through Minnesota. They stopped in a small town where Grandma and Grandpa’s travel companions snapped another one of my favorite photos of all time: There stands my grandpa with a huge smile, and my grandma with her trademark “are you really going to take my picture” smile. I love their expressions, but I also love how the photographer captured my grandma’s reflection in the storefront window of a quant small town. It adds another layer to the beautiful moment that was frozen in time, on a very happy day.

Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words. And when those people are no longer with you on this earth, those photos – and the stories – are worth even more.

These lessons really suck…don’t listen to me. – Becky

I would really feel awkward if I lived in a meth house in a historic district. – Sarah

Oh crap – there are the houses again. – Lisa

I think it’s telling when there are safety glasses sitting next to the coffee pot. – Sarah
Yeah, like maybe you’re making the coffee too strong. – Terry

Go down this street – I don’t think alleys are appropriate. – Kelly

Party like it’s 1893. – Lisa

I couldn’t do it — I would blow my false teeth out of my mouth. – Grandma Faye

Here’s what the flooring project looks like:

That leads us to the little situation of the hallway, which has mint green textured paneling, mint green trim around the window and doors, and built in storage benches built with plywood that is now starting to smell. I’m sorry, but those benches and the paneling just had to go.

We were already living in a construction zone and the two neighborhood contractors had been to our house checking things out a few times a week (they have gutted and refinished their own houses and are looking for another project). They had big ideas for us, including a drywall project in the hallway and a new stair railing, but they said first we had to pull all that paneling down.

So I started with removing those benches using a hammer. There were many pieces, some of the nails were half an inch long – other nails seemed like they were four inches long – but the benches really did deconstruct quickly.

Just as I pulled the back of the built-in bench off of the wall, I saw a big stack of papers fall to the ground. Then I was intrigued. As I looked through the papers I found that they were bank ledgers from the late 1940s and copies of checks. The names on the papers were consistent with the name of a former owner, but the interesting thing is the checks also had the business name of Royal Jewelers on them. That jewelry store is still in business in downtown Fargo and it’s where we go to handle our jewelry maintenance. Pretty cool, right?

I was still thinking of those papers as I pulled out the second bench and wouldn’t you know it, the same exact thing happened – more papers slid to the ground. But this time, when I peeked over the debris I saw small colored photographs. Now this was getting really exciting!

This was the envelope with the small photos that we found.

We had always wondered what our house looked like years ago, and staring back at me was a 2×2 inch colored photo of a woman standing near the corner of our house, a clear view of the side of the house and the garage, and a vintage looking car parked in the driveway. There were also small colored photos of the Royal Jewelers sign. Next to the photos I found a small envelope postmarked Sept. 1949; someone had mailed these photos from St. Paul after a visit to Fargo.

Later Terry and I looked closer at all of these finds. The copies of checks told a story of their own: milk delivery to the home, what church the family attended, the charities they donated to, and the price of items in 1949. We also found a receipt for two taffeta twin comforters, which is interesting because when we had the bedroom floors refinished we found bedpost markings for two twin beds – one on each side of the room’s window.

We called Royal Jewelers and talked to the owner, Richard. When we told him what we found he knew the family right away – his father worked for them. We set up an appointment next week to drop off the items and especially the photos for Richard to check out. I wonder if he’s seen the photos of the outside of his store from 1949?

We will find out.

Let me explain.

The upper level of our story and ¾ home has interesting textured paneling. Not only is it textured, but it covers all of the walls and the ceiling in the hallway. Oh, and it’s painted mint green, along with the beautiful historic trim that frames the window and door frames.

We just had the window in the hallway replaced and so the trim would have to be painted to cover up some of the blemishes that happened during the replacement. What a great excuse to take some time to paint the mint green trim back to its glorious white!

Do you know how many shades of “white” there are when it comes to paint? There are enough to make your head spin. I propped up many different shades of paint chips against the window frame: warm whites and cool whites and stared at them for weeks, but I just couldn’t make this decision on my own.

I have a wonderful friend who is an interior designer and when I struggle to choose paint colors she brings over paint decks from every brand available, then quickly and easily chooses the perfect color. I would have called her right away but I wasn’t really in a hurry to get everything rolling.

That changed one day last week; all of a sudden I had to pick that paint color. I needed a little break from all of the writing and I thought painting the trim would be a perfect time out.

I decided to stop wavering in my decision making process and I just picked a white. It was called “Silent White” and of course the associate at my favorite hardware store talked me into saving money by buying a gallon of it. I figured I had a lot of trim to paint.

In my rush to get this project started I neglected to think about using a heavy-duty paint primer to cover that mint green. Nope. Instead I got five coats into the white paint and thought, “Wow, this isn’t really working the greatest.” Also as I was painting I noticed that the white seemed really bright. I talked myself out of that thought, rationalizing that anything lighter than the mint green was going to look different and take time to get used to.

Let me tell you, white on the trim does look a lot better. However, I now recognize that it’s not quite the right white. My designer friend returned my phone call about an hour too late but assured me that she had the perfect trim color picked out and that I could just consider those multiple coats of white as a primer.

As usual, my husband makes jokes about another situation where my lack of patience shines. Just as we were about to drift off to sleep that night, he commented that the trim in the hallway was so bright that it was glowing in the dark.

A glowing home update? I guess so.

The quotations that appear from Lisa and Kelly are brought to you courtesy of a trip to Sioux Falls, S.D. You're welcome.

I will brush my teeth – one of us has to. – Lisa

I told you that you were funny just to cover up the fact that I maimed your birthday cake. – Lisa putting words in Kelly’s mouth

Waldo was the original hipster. – Kelly

They can’t see past their own crazy. – Lisa

She walks like a piece of bent spaghetti. My sister calls her “The Recliner.” – Grandma Faye.

They are so wrong. – Husband
What? – Sarah
They said a watched pot never boils! – Husband

They’ll be taking off in that parking lot like a bee. – Grandma Faye
I thought you were going to say ‘bat out of hell’. – Sarah
I know – I changed it. – Grandma Faye

How do you wash your beard? – Sarah
With your toothbrush. – Husband

You have to have it your way, don’t you Maple? You’re like the Burger King of puppies. – Husband

Which one made you laugh out loud?