A Little Haus History....

Steve has been asking me what I am doing to celebrate the long 4th of July weekend. I had little to say because I spent a large portion of the weekend finding homes for the new items we received at our wedding showers, unpacking the stuff we have been storing upstairs and prepping for a garage sale. I know sounds pretty exciting....

But wait - haven't you already had other garage sales this year? Yes, that's correct we are on to the final sale - #3 in 2006. We have had a total of 7 garage sales in the last 4 years and donated many items to Goodwill, Amvets, and of course the Naperville garbage and recycling.

I have mentioned previously that the house has been in the family for 90 years....and it is starting to feel as though we have 90 years worth of stuff. I thought it would be appropriate to explain how this all came to be and whose stuff we are sorting through. I am missing many details, which we are hoping to piece together as we rehab the house, but here is what I have.

In 1916, Elizabeth (Houser) Hein and her husband Emil Hein moved into 108 North with their 2nd son Ernest A. Hein and his wife Elizabeth (Thiel) Hein. These are my great, great grandparents and my great grandparents. The house at the time was a 2 flat with the younger Heins living upstairs. My grandfather Ernest R. Hein was born in 1918. The upstairs has a kitchen, dining room, living room, master bedroom and bathroom. It also has a very small room which until recently I assumed was a closet. It was my grandpa's bedroom.

In a one year span (Oct 1935 - Aug 1936) - Elizabeth Houser Hein, Emil and Ernest A. Hein all passed. This left my grandfather who was 17 at the time as the man of the house with his mother. When he married my grandmother, Rose Koretke, in October 1946, they continued to live in the downstairs apartment and raised 2 daughers (my mom and aunt).

When my great grandmother Elizabeth passed in 1979 (I was 1), time stopped in the upstairs apartment. I can remember going upstairs as a child and playing with my cousin. He had a train set up there and I remember all of the rooms set up as if someone still lived there.

Over the next 20+ years, my grandmother used that space as extra storage. Very little of my great grandmothers things were gone through or removed.

The summer before my sophomore year of high school (1993), there was a fire in the downstairs kitchen. Although it was late at night ( I belive around 2am) both of my grandparents were awake and made it safely out of the house. The kitchen was completely remodeled and there was smoke damage on the first floor. The fire fighters said that the space between the kitchen ceiling and the upstairs floor (the master bedroom) saved them from more fire damage.

In June of 1998, my grandmother passed away after battling pancreatic cancer. She was under hospice care for the last few weeks and was able to stay in a hospital bed at the house.

My grandfather was very ademant about remaining in the house that he was born in. He did so until December of 2002. It is easy to see how tied to this house he was given the history of his family and all of the memories he had from raising his own children there as well.

It has been quite an interesting journey as we sort through all of the items that have been stored and used at the house. On more than a few occasions we have struggled to determine what a particular item was, why anyone wanted it or how it ended up never getting used (still in original packaging, unfinished craft projects and many clothes still with the tags on).

I am really excited to see what the next phase holds for this house as we continue to sort through its history and return it to a single-family home.

So - Steve that's what I have been up to the last few days (oh and a little shopping).