RECIPES & MEMORIES OF THE OLD LUMBERYARD RESTAURANT & BAKERY - MINERAL POINT, WI
PART 5
My husband is a scrapper and could sniff out usable items for the renovation and building of our home in the Old Lumberyard anywhere. While working on the 'living quarters' we initially walled off the last 24 feet of the building. It was a bit much maintaining an 80 ft. by 24 ft. space with 18 ft. ceilings while renovating. So, we decided to build a wall that would eventually become our atrium. We acquired some old doors and slate blackboards (which we later will use in the Restaurant/Bakery). They came from an old school in Rewey. A kind gentleman appeared at our lumberyard one day (we think we remember his name was Dennis) and, he gave/brought us a beautiful round window from a church in Mineral Point. Asked if we could use it. We said, of course and we were very appreciative. My husband pulled all of these parts and pieces together to make the wall/window/door between our living space and the atrium. To the round window, he added a sliding glass door - turned sideways underneath it. He also built in a large closet - and used one of the beautiful old school doors. A set of the beautiful old school doors were also used as the entry to the atrium. Improvements to this last 24 ft. (the atrium) would come later - after we finished the first 60 feet. After the kitchen, dining room and living room, Mort and crew built a beautiful loft and an amazing staircase up to what would become our bedroom with a large open bathroom (above the kitchen). We bought a big old jacuzzi (and installed it in the loft) from a motel that was closing and 16 sets of fixed upper window and lower awing window - which later went into the Tourist Cottage, the Restaurant and the end of the last 24 ft. of shed that we renovated.
Through a friend from Lands' End we found out about a wood burner (Yugo, I believe) for sale. We found out from this friend where this wood burner was located. It was at an old house on CTH Q - outside of Dodgeville. As we approached the house, that was described to us, I realized that it was the house that stood up on a hill that I had always wanted to drive up to - and Mort wouldn't let us (who cares about privacy, I just wanted to see this old weathered looking house on the hill - up close). As we drove up the long driveway, we could see that the house looked pretty rough - screen door falling off and holes in the roof. The guy who stepped outside when we arrived, had been identified to us as "Two Fingered Jim". He was the caregiver of this house and property which was owned by someone that lived in Madison. He had a long beard that he braided. I was intrigued & delighted and could hardly contain my excitement of the whole scene. And, Mort, was 'just Mort' - Hi Jim - I'm Mort - we're here to look at the wood burner. As the story goes, Jim rode a bike and one snowy winter day, fell into a ditch and lost three fingers to frostbite. He is also said to have walked his pig down to the mailbox each day. We found out that he lived in one room on the first floor of this spooky/interesting house. We bought the wood burner and loaded it into our truck. Mort installed it into our large space and because of the size of the lumber shed it served much more as a crackling fire to admire, rather than the heat source that we somehow anticipated. We eventually bought a ceiling mounted Infared tube heater, it was about 20 ft. long (like they use at big box hardware stores in their plant areas.) If you stood and faced it, it would warm your face and it would warm objects - so we felt it was a good thing rather than just blowing hot air into this big space.
QUICK STORY - as it turned out, a few years later - a surveyor friend of ours was subdividing some land that he had purchased on CTH Q - and we were interested in buying some land out in the country. One of the 40 acre pieces had an old house on it. We went out to see - and it was the old house where we purchased the wood burner. What a small, weird world. This house was meant to be ours to renovate. The house still had good bones, a concrete foundation and the sill plates were still in good condition. (8 x 8 oak beams). But, the dilemma was that the old house was not on the 40 acre parcel that we wanted. So, we asked for the lot lines to be changed to include the house and our friend obliged. Yeah - another old place for us to renovate while still working on the Old Lumberyard and building the Restaurant/Bakery and Storage Units (in the near future). Here's the old house on CTH Q when we bought it.....will show the after (in a future 'part') That's Mort - 'No Problem'. This was the old house that we first saw when we went to buy a used wood burner - only to end up buying it years later and completely renovating....
