The Originals

I promised you readers a story on the original owners of this house and here I am delivering. We are the second owners of this house which seems pretty cool. It's had a cool history and is full of character.

This was the house when it was built. I don't know the exact date but there's a postcard with this picture of the house and March 18th, 1977 marked on the back.  That was 10 years before I was born. A lot of the lakes in Missouri are man-made. It was just rolling hills back then. So this house was also built before any lakes were created around it. It had no trees around it, a clean slate.  I love the brick of the house. 

Now to the owner's names. The husband was Richard "Dick" Greiner. He has quite an impressive history. Whoever cleaned the house after him and his wife's passing didn't do a great job. They left a lot of personal information behind which we uncovered, but that made my job easier in sharing his great history.

Richard Greiner, survivor of 35 WWII bombing missions over Europe and "Missing in Action" behind Russian lines for three weeks died December 27th, 2015, at the age of 90. Richard, loved for his endearing smiles, mischievous remarks and kind heart, was born in Beloit, Kansas, though he grew up in Ottawa. The only child of Elbert Greiner and Olive Lynch, Richard enjoyed loving and doting parents. After graduating from Ottawa High School and with great aspirations of becoming a pilot, Richard enlisted in the Army Air Corps, December 27th, 1943 at the age of 18. Though pilot positions were full by the time Richard completed basic training, he still encountered combat from air as a ball-turret gunner on the infamous B-17s. Stationed in Foggia, Italy, Richard flew with the 15th Air Force into Germany, Czechoslovakia and in Austria. In March of 1945 he completed his tour of required missions 38 days before Germany surrendered. With the war over, Richard returned to finish a college degree in 1953 in Ottawa University, he took about six years to graduate and eventually found his career in banking and worked his way up from cashier, loan officer to assistant Vice-President until taking a position as a bank examiner at the KC Federal Reserve bank which he held for 17 years until he retired. Retirement allowed Richard to do many "honey-do" projects, tinker, travel, listen to Stan Kenton jazz and enjoy his two (twin) grandsons. He enjoyed retelling his heroic adventures which eventually got his stories told by area newspapers.

His was a small family, it was Richard Greiner (born 10/02/1925), his wife Lou Ellen Greiner (born 12/13/1932), Pamela Ellen Greiner Loveland (his daughter and only child, born 10/15/1957), David (his son-in-law) and Simeon and Seth (his two twin grandsons). He loved fishing, listening to jazz, & roasting marshmallows with his family.

Apparently there was an estate sale when Lou Ellen passed away in 2017. They just auctioned off everything in the house and then it stood abandoned for two years before the bank put it up for auction in 2019. The Greiner's owned the property for 43 years more or less. It had working plumbing, electricity, everything is great, it just needs maintenance and a fresh up-do. I love how this home has so much character and history! 

Flowers Galore

I love gardening. I love flowers. I love anything to do with the outdoors and nature.

My grandmother loved gardening too. She had the greenest thumb. 

Anything she touched, grew big and tall.

I remember growing up my mother and grandmother tended to a big beautiful garden that lined all around the perimeter of our property. They grew the biggest vegetables, I would love watching all the different butterflies that would flutter around. It was a magical place. She had a healing touch.

Jeffrey bought this big beautiful home for us which sits on a gorgeous acre lot. There's so much potential in and out and around this house. The previous owner(s) did a great job with planting. The little old lady planted all types of flowers and shrubs and trees all over the property. This is our first summer in the house and my oh my are we seeing the fruit of her labor. I needed to make an entire post about the day lillies I think they are called. They line the main driveway and have been blooming since spring and continue to bloom all different colors. 

 I have never seen such beautiful colors! The one on the far left has an orange center, bright pink middle and peach outer. The one in the middle has such a vibrant inner yellow with a majestic red and the last on the right is a beautiful soft pink with purple and yellow. They bloom with such grace and flower in bunches! 

 Another beautiful arrangement, soft pink with a lime green inner. Vibrant orange that reminds me of a tropical place and white with lime green. God has created masterpieces in each and every flower Mash'Allah.

  I love purple flowers and lo and behold she planted a few of the royalty color. I love the white with the inner purple and the purple with the inner yellowish/green. The baby pink on the right is so pretty!

She planted another type of orange, yellow was so sunny and vibrant but bloomed only in the spring. I haven't seen it bloom again yet. The pink in the middle is a different kind lilly the way the petals are thinner. I wonder what they are all called specifically. I downloaded a plant app so hopefully I find out!

 This is the row of lillis that line the driveway. There are weeds starting to grow in and around it that I need to prune and thin out but overall for being abandoned for two years and the fact that I never water these (like ever) they bloom like crazy regardless! I'll be posting more pictures of the flowers that bloom as they bloom as the season continues! Wait till you see the lilac bushes that bloomed this spring! I wish I could bottle the scent it was absolutely amazing as well as gorgeous!!

The amazing lilac bushes! They bloomed out of nowhere this spring and continued to bloom until the hot summer hit. They smelled absolutely wonderful! Nature creates the BEST perfume! My favorite! 

 I forgot to mention these gorgeous beauties growing on the side of our house!

Hello New House!

Welcome to our home! 

We got lucky with this house I think. It was a HUD property, so bank owned. It had been sitting empty for about two years give or take. The history of the previous owners is fascinating. I will make a separate post about that after this one. The house was auctioned off and we won the bid! 

This is the front of the house. I wanted to make it extra large so you get a good look at it. It was built in 1976, it sits on 1 acre, backs to a lake, 3 car garage, 3 levels, 3 bedroom, 3 bath home. There were many things that drew us to this home. For me it sat on 1 acre, had a brick front and was NOT cookie cutter like 99% of the other homes. For Jeffrey, he wanted a 3 car garage house, with a basement that we could possible rent out at some point. Bonus perks is that the 3rd car garage is attached to the basement so that makes winters great.

This is our backyard. I love all the land we have, it stretches so far back! I would love to garden and have plants all the way to the second tree. A chicken coop in the middle of the yard and farther back seating with a firepit and room to run around and perhaps a splash pad if I can convince Jeff. In the meantime I'd like to clear out the smaller trees in the middle of the yard, now that it's summer the small trees completely block out views of the lake. They definitely need to be trimmed back or removed all together. 

This is the foyer or entryway as some call it. It is two story which is nice you don't normally see that in a lot of older homes. At least not in Missouri, this is common in Maryland. That yellow wallpaper I was not a fan of but it was extremely easy to peel away. One of Jeff's friend's told me it would be difficult to remove and I should just paint over the wallpaper. When someone tells me no to an idea I tend to do the opposite to prove them wrong. Our wall looks beautiful now. We removed the wallpaper, primed and painted it. 

So when you first enter the home, the first thing you see is the dining room. There is so much sunshine that pours through those giant windows I love it. At first I thought maybe we could turn this into an office since we have quite a large living room but for now I think we will keep this as a dining room. 

Next we have the kitchen. I absolutely hate this kitchen. I enjoy cooking and baking but this kitchen is so hideous I just can't cook in it. Call me spoiled but there are so many nooks and crannies and holes in the cabinets that cockroaches are endless. No matter how many times I've gotten on my hands and knees to clean and shine and polish they keep coming. It disgusts me. So until this kitchen is renovated I won't be in here. Our oven actually doesn't work, we got a new oven but the wiring to this room needs to be rewired so I can't cook even if I wanted to. The dishwasher never worked and the fridge is leaking water all over the floor constantly. The microwave is the only normal thing in here. The sink is huge but I don't need three sinks. I loathe this kitchen.

Let's move onto this lovely living room. It is two story as well. It has a beautiful brick front fireplace which I plan on painting grey to make it more modern. It has one giant window (closest to the fireplace) that I plan on changing into another sliding glass door to match the left. I want to extend the deck outside so that we can turn one of the exits through the sliding door into a screened in deck porch. I think that would be so nice. Maybe also with an attached gazebo. So much potential in this beautiful home filled with character!! 

This little "bar" section is under the loft and faces the living room. That retro radio on the wall also plays records. I don't know what to do with that. In all honesty I want to knock that wall down and open the dining room into the living room for an open floor plan. But Jeffrey isn't so keen on knocking anything down at the moment. Maybe later once the house is more compete. Neither of us drink either so this bar is completely useless. Currently I use it to store cat food and fill up my watering pail to water my plants. 

What is upstairs you ask? Well here is the loft. I was thinking of turning this into a little office. The slanted roof makes it a bit difficult to figure out what to use this for. I was thinking perhaps to knock that wall down and extend this room further to potentially turn into another bedroom. On the other side of that wall is nothing according to our inspector, it sits above the kitchen which as you saw has low ceilings.

Next to the loft is the Master Bedroom. This is the largest bedroom in the house. It overlooks the lake and is quite nice. Jeff wants to turn this into a guest bedroom but I would love to have the Master up here since technically it is the official Master Bedroom. Not to mention this room has a lot of hollow space around it which means with a few wall demolishes you can expand this room even further. The only problem (that Jeff has) is that it's a bit warmer. It is on the second floor, heat rises, it doesnt stay as cool as the rooms downstairs. 

This is the Master Bathroom. It has a large walk-in closet with a small closet sized toilet and shower. Why was everything cluttered back then? I feel like I'm taking a shower on an airplane from how claustrophobic this is. That blue wallpaper btw has like velvet in it. More oddly is why everyone back in the 70's had the need to put carpet everywhere especially in the BATHROOM of all places!! Around the toilet, the shower, the sink.

This is the Guest Bedroom where we have actually placed our bedroom furniture. This also overlooks the lake but you can't quite see it due to the jungle growing our backyard at the moment. This room also has a walk-in closet and airplane sized toilet and shower. On the other side of the room it has an attached laundry which is nice. 

Here is a close-up of the bathroom in case you wanted to take a closer look at that lovely wallpaper. We plan to modernize all the bathrooms eventually and remove all the wallpaper. Perhaps at one point I can see that this house was regal and nice. The previous owners definitely did a great job with the matching aspect of it all. 

Here is the second guest bedroom. I actually liked the floral drapes and have kept them. To be honest I have plans to turn it into a maxi dress, that would be pretty. This would make a really cute nursery, for now it is being used as our video game room. Very macho and manly, no? It's a man cave. Haha!

This is our hallway bathroom, it is the only bathroom that is wide and spacious, unfortunately this 3 bathroom house has only 1 working toilet and shower and it is NOT this bathroom. :( We plan on changing this into something more modern and pretty and useable, it's just not #1 priority yet. 

I think all that's left to show you is our unfinished basement which comes with it's own brick fireplace as well as a toilet and sink in the other corner. So technically 3 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath. I don't know if the toilet works or not but at least we know plumbing down here works (or worked at some point) for when we finish this basement out and rent it out in the future! It's actually quite large to the right but it's a basement, you get the idea of what it looks like. It has lots of windows and it's own walk out door. Score! 

Stay tuned for our slow renovations. I will show before and after pictures as we get done with each room. We will get it re-appraised soon and hopefully our (more Jeff's) labor will show through! 

Goodbye Old House!

When I got married and moved to Missouri, this was my first home. Jeffrey had already purchased this a few years prior. He calls it a Condo, I call it a Townhouse. It was a nice neighborhood with perfect walking and biking trails. The only negative thing I can think of is that when it rained it flooded. 

At the end I'll add a picture of our "lake front" property whenever a storm passed through. 

These pictures were taken by a photographer hired by our Real Estate Agent when we were selling the home. We had the end unit and our street was called Moonlight Meadow. So pretty in the snow!

This was the entryway that had a small foyer. We had a Powder Room to your immediate right which was also next to the coat closet. That little sign hanging that nobody read asked guests to please remove their shoes.

Jeffrey and his Mom worked together on this bathroom. They painted it a colonial/french blue if I remember correctly. It was a nice little bathroom. This house has 2 1/2 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms.

 This was our living room. Jeff chose all the paint colors before I had moved in. That giant portrait is of himself that his parents gifted to him for his 30th birthday. Obnoxious!! The purple couches in the corner are hand me downs from his parents that he refuses to give up. I chose the lovely blue/grey couch!

 I love the open floor plan of this home. The living room flowed into the dining and kitchen area. Being an end unit we had two extra windows that gave so much light into the rooms! 

I'm so proud of this kitchen! I painted it myself. It was a horrid brown color that seemed hadn't been updated since the home was built. I wanted new appliances because the white on white was a bit much but Jeffrey said new house new appliances. The white cabinets made such an improvement, it also brightened up the room. 

 Here is a close-up of the kitchen. The only improvement I would add to this kitchen is to have a small island (with wheels so I can move it around). The counter space was never enough for what I wanted or needed to do. 

This is our upper hallway, that giant window I loved to sit in, as did the cats.

This was our guest bedroom. It basically had two master bedrooms with two walk in closets and full bathrooms. This is a perfect starter home for a newly married couple or even if you live alone! The outside maintenance of the house is covered by HOA. We turned our spare bedroom into a video game/office room with a pull out couch.

This was our Master Bedroom. It had a big beautiful window that let in so much light it was amazing. However. Jeffrey hates the light, secretly I think he is a vampire. He had not 1 but 2 black out curtains on this window to block out the light. Everyday when he left for work I would remove the shades and let all the light in! 

This was our master bathroom with attached walk in closet. It was a nice size. This bathroom had a tub and the guest bathroom had a walk in shower. Jeffrey took up most of the space but I had a little section to myself.

This was our patio. I enjoyed sitting here watching nature or people walking or riding their bike on the trails. Jeff hung a bird feeder outside and we had some patio furniture. I had a few tomato plants out on the patio as well. 

This was the view of our backyard from the walking trail. The photographer did a great job!
I will miss my first home in Missouri, it was simple yet beautiful. I liked living here.
Life moves on! Stay tuned for pictures of our new house!!