An Explanation and a Request

For those of you who have been wondering if we are documenting the renovation, the answer is yes. I have taken thousands of photos at the house. If you see someone outside the house obsessively clicking away, it is probably me. Before and after photos have become somewhat difficult due to the amount of scrolling required to get back to the beginning. I find these photos to be incredibly important. Its amazing what changes can be seen in just a few days or photos and even more incredible when we finally make it back to the beginning. Some shots are just of the house, but my favorites are the candid shots with someone working in the background. What I share online is really just a small fraction of what I have collected. Another small fraction of my photo collection makes it into a book. The inside of the house, which I've really only given a glimpse of online, is inside those pages. 

This book was a Christmas gift for my Dad. He gets the additional in progress shots that I don't have time to share. He also gets the additional photos of our family. He gets the photos that mirror his memories, installing windows, measuring rooms, and the blueberry pie that we made after a long day at the house. Some of these photos would lack significance to an outsider, but they are all an important part of the experience. 

For those of you who haven't gifted someone a photo book, I would highly recommend it. At Christmas this gift is always enthusiastically passed around. It's a great way to share memories and stories with family members who weren't along for those moments. These small books have gone to work with him, stopped by the bank, gone to various appointments and have even gone on vacations. The amount of travelling these books do is certainly impressive. The book is very photo heavy and due to the amount of time it takes me to sift through all the images, I usually fold up a few pages of paper with a story on it to add to the book once it arrives. 

This year I would like to tuck something else inside the cover. I would like to collect your stories and memories of the house to print out and include along with the book. People are always stopping by the house to share their stories but it would be wonderful to have them recorded so that we can look back on them. Just like my thousands of house pictures I’m sure that this house has thousands of stories to tell. 

If you would like to share your own story of the house or know someone who has a story to tell please email me at fwknoxvilla@gmail.com. 

For those of you who know my Dad or might see him outside the house, please keep this a secret until after the holidays. I'm sure he is expecting another book this year but not the additional stories. 

I can't wait to hear all the stories that the house hasn't been able to share with us!

 -H