On Saturday, August 21, 2021, the rabbi at Temple Israel, Rabbi Fox, shared a poem called “House: Some Instructions” by Grace Paley. As I heard the poem read, I realized I have so many wonderful memories of the houses I’ve lived in during my lifetime. Each house has so many wonderful memories and also are a part of me.
I want to write a bit about all the houses that have been a part of my life. There really are many. I know some people live in the same house their entire lives. My husband Dan’s mother is still living in the house purchased by his parents in 1954!
Somewhere in the San Fernando Valley, southern Calfornia (mid-late 1950s)
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| Edith, Billy, and Jo Ann Schneider - 1958 |
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| I don’t remember this apartment in this photo of course - my parents moved as soon as I could walk because they didn’t want me to fall in the pool. This is where I lived before they moved to the place in the top photo. My dad says the apartment with the pool was on Sepulveda Blvd in Los Angeles |
I only have a vague memory of my parents renting a house in the San Fernando Valley (near Los Angeles) when my mom, Edith Kadison Schneider, was pregnant with my sister Lynnellen. My dad, I guess, was doing an internship or a residency in Los Angeles when he was a young doctor. I remember playing in a huge yard. I also remember her saying she had to go away for a few days and came back with a baby.
Sacramento, California (late 1950s)
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JO ANN (age 4) in playing at our Sacramento, Rancho Cordova House
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| Playing with my siblings Lynnellen and Billy and other kids at the Rancho Cordova house in Sacramento |
The first house I really remember was when I was four years old. It was a house my parents rented while my dad was stationed at Mather Air Force Base in the Sacramento area. They had a house with round little windows on the base, but moved into a house near the base in an area called Rancho Cordova. I don’t remember much about the house but there was a big yard I played in with my brother and sister who were younger than me. It must have had two bedrooms since I remember sharing the room with two other cribs with my brother and sister. There must have been lots of young families on the street since I vaguely remember playing with other children on that street.
Canoga Park, California (1960 or 1961 to 1964)
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| 8401 Rudnick Avenue around 1961 |
When I was five, my dad completed his time in the Air Force and we moved back to Southern California. There my parents purchased a big tract home for $25,000 in Canoga Park, California. It was the biggest house on the street, at 8401 Rudnick Avenue.
I just turned five years old when he bought the house just in time for me to begin Kindergarten at Nevada Avenue Elementary School. My grandparents, Fannie and Max Schneider, drove me and my siblings, Billy and Lynnellen, from Sacramento to Canoga Park. When we arrived at the house, the first room we entered from the garage was a family room, kitchen, and dining area. The room was huge, and I remember asking my father “Is this the whole house?” He replied there was many more rooms and I was amazed at how big the house was after living in the little rental house in Rancho Cordova.
The room my sister and I were going to share was huge and my brother Billy even had his own room. There was a guest room-study downstairs that also had a bath and an entire other room downstairs that would become the living room we wouldn’t really live in that included a fireplace. My parents had their own suite upstairs.
As time passed, my dad hired a custom landscaper to do the landscaping. He had ice plant planted in front. The driveway went up a hill and circled around a flat area behind the house. Eventually, my dad had a pool built there that even included a pool house with a shower, bathroom, and changing area. The pool fit into that square space and had a diving board. My parents enrolled us kids in swim lessons and I remember my dad teaching me how to blow bubbles in that pool. He also had a chain link fence built around the pool so no children would fall in or break in. The neighborhood kids would walk by in their bathing suits hoping to be invited in for a swim.
To enter the garage after the pool was built was really difficult, but possible. The garage door was moved to the side of the driveway. The area where the pool was was a square area at first and that is where I rode a two-wheeled bike for the first time!
I think the washer and dryer were in the garage.
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Jo Ann, Billy, Arthur, Lynnellen, and Edith Schneider at the Canoga Park House - August 1962
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The room my sister and I slept in had lace frilly curtains that matched our bedding. When we first moved in she was still using a crib though. I remember laying in that bed very, very sick when I had an ear infection. I also remember the tooth fairy not coming one Sunday morning and running into my parents room to tell them and to return to find a shiny quarter under my pillow! I think I believed in magic after that.
I remember the huge birthday parties my mom gave at the house and when she hired the teen next door to play Bozo the Clown and all the kids believing she really was THE Bozo! I remember walking to and from school and having the rare treat of getting to go home for lunch once in a while and eating little frozen Banquet chicken pot pies when I got to go home for lunch. I had the best mom ever! I remember playing for hours with the neighborhood kids and getting called home for dinner.
Life was really happy for me there, but when I was eight years old, in the middle of the school year, in the middle of Third Grade, my dad decided he was tired of “commuting” to UCLA and the VA Hospital near Westwood Village, and announced we were going to move. I remember pleading with my mother and crying about moving, and my mom promising it would not happen, but we ended up moving anyway.
As we drove away from Nevada Avenue Elementary School, on my last day of living in Canoga Park, I said to my mom, “What about the garden my class planted? I will never see it again.” All I can remember about that time of my life and that house are happy memories.
Bel Air, California (1964–1972)
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| My mom (in a mini skirt) in the backyard of our Belair house - probably around 1967 |
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| Jo Ann, Billy, and Lynnellen in the backyard of the Bel Air house |
The next house our family lived in was in Bel Air right next to Beverly Hills. My parents told me never to tell anyone we lived in Belair since everyone there was supposed to be rich, but it never felt like we were well off when we lived there.
My dad bought that house for $65,000 which in those days, was a lot. The house was located at 1017 Somera Road, Los Angeles, California. We had to drive through the West Gate of Bel Air and go on many winding roads with no sidewalks to get to the top part of Bel Air where Somera Road was located. The view from our backyard was spectacular: you could see the Pacific Ocean and much of the pretty parts of Los Angeles from our living room’s windows.
The Bel Air Fire had occurred when I was seven years old, so this house was a rebuild. It seemed to be partially finished. For example, there was a two car carport, so we could not load the garage with stuff. The house was only one story and seemed smaller than the house we owned in Canoga Park. There was this huge entry area with a white marble floor as you entered the house and the dining room was to the immediate right. From that entry area, was a huge living room and also a separate family room. Both rooms had spectacular views. You either had to enter the kitchen by walking through the dining room or walking through the family room. The kitchen was very dark I recall with a kitchen nook. On the other side of the kitchen was a mud room type entrance that could be entered from the carport (we didn’t have a enclosed garage!) and the washer and dryer were there. From that mud room area, there was a maid’s room and a private bath. That room was my brother Billy’s room. Back at the entry area was a long hallway that led to the bedroom wing where my parents’ master bedroom and private bath were and two other bedrooms and a bath.
My sister and I each were given our own rooms at the end of the hall and we shared a bathroom that had two sinks and a shower-tub.
There was a walk in closet in my parents bedroom that was used as a sewing room.
My parents decorated the house professionally and I recall the drapes in the bedroom matched their bedspread. I think they did the same thing in my room. Daddy painted some furniture pink and blue for my sister Lynnellen.
The heat never worked correctly in that house I recall. Every morning my mother would turn the heat up to 100 degrees so we could all pretend there was heat. I also recall the bath-shower my sister and I shared did not work, so we had to bathe and shower in my parents huge master bathroom that included a separate shower and tub and even a dressing room.
We kept hamsters in the bathroom without the working tub-shower and even guinea pigs I recall! (Not at the same time.) We also kept goldfish in that bathroom.
My room had twin beds with plaid bedspreads and drapes that matched. There was a huge wooden desk in my room and a shelf next to my bed that was filled with paperback books my mother ordered from our school’s Scholastic Book Club.
The family room area was furnished with a table that my dad turned into a game table. He taught us to play roulette on that table and we learned how to gamble with chips! We had our own roulette wheel.
During the week we ate dinners in that room and Saturday lunch. We rarely ate in the dining room that was furnished with a dining room set given to my parents by my Grandma Fannie and Grandpa Max. There was a chandelier in the dining room. The family room area also had bookshelves that came from my dad’s failed laboratory. I took a library course in Junior High and put all the books in order and even set up library cards for all those books!
My parents had purchased a piano for us in Canoga Park and it was placed in the living room by the window. We all took piano lessons and practiced on that pretty Kimball spinet. There was a couch in that room and my dad’s favorite mid-century blue chair. There was a telescope by the window where we could view all of Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean up close.
In those days, families didn’t always use their living rooms, but our family did. It was where we watched TV. I recall watching Saturday morning cartoons in that room.
There was a tether ball court in the backyard and a deck and grass. I missed our pool. I think my dad considered building a pool but never did. There might have been a danger of the house falling off the hill if the backyard had been dug into.
There was a trail that went down the hill behind the house, but I only walked down there once I recall. There might have been a small basketball area there or something.
We lived in that house in Bel Air from the time I was eight years old until I was 15. As I remember that house, I recall really being unhappy. There were kids on the street to play with, but there were no sidewalks, so my parents didn’t let us leave the house. Most Saturdays, we waited for my parents to exit their bedroom which they only did for meals. Once Saturday morning cartoons ended, we were left on our own and completely bored. I would read the same books over and over again. I arranged the books our family owned into a library type system and even made a card catalog describing the books. (I worked in the school library in junior high school and learned how to do that.)
We stayed in the house for a bit after my father became the head of the department of pathology at City of Hope, but it seemed inevitable that we would need to move since it really was a long commute to Duarte where City of Hope was located.
I recall making the move to Arcadia when I was 15 years old and during the US National Figure Skating Championships in Long Beach. That would have to have been January of 1972. I don’t think I cared about leaving that house. I had no friends in the area and the house had become quite worn down.
Arcadia, California (1972 –1975)
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| JO ANN smiles while sitting on her car at the Arcadia house 1974 |
Our new address as of January of 1972 was 1055 West Foothill Blvd, Arcadia, California. The house was on a gigantic piece of property with shaded trees off of a service road that went alongside Foothill Blvd. There was a huge circular driveway, a carport, and a three car garage. The house had been owned by a basketball player, so there was a basketball court in the back and a pool. There was some sort of covered deck in the back where we put a ping pong table.
This house was really like a dream since it had everything my parents wanted. Every room had its own entrance. When one entered the house there was an entry area, but doors closed off the entry to the living room (which became my brother’s room), the family room-dining area, the bedroom wing. To enter the kitchen, one had to enter through the bedroom wing or the family-dining room or from the outside back porch. Attached to the kitchen area was the maid’s room with a private entrance and bath and laundry room. I think the maid’s room was first given to my brother, but it eventually became my skating partner’s room since it had it’s own private entrance. By that time, my brother had moved to Colorado for skating.
My bedroom connected to a huge master bathroom which I shared with my parents. I would go through that bathroom a lot to wish them good morning!
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| My sister Lynnellen in her Arcadia house room |
My sister’s room was in front of the house and connected to a bathroom that also served as a guest bath that connected to the entrance of the house. I could have used that bathroom, but I preferred the one that was connected to my bedroom although I had to share it with my parents. During my sister’s rebellious high school years, I heard she would climb in the window in the front of the house that led to her bedroom when she was out late at night with friends.
Yellow shag carpet covered the family room-dining area that looked out on the backyard deck. I think the yellow shag covered a hardwood floor; it was common to cover hardwood floors with shag carpet in the 1970s.
It didn’t cross my mind how elaborate a house the Arcadia house was.
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| My skating partner Rich relaxing in my dad’s favorite mid-century modern chair (we still own that chair) |
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| Jo Ann sitting in front of the piano at the Arcadia house |
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| My sister Lynnellen cooking in the Arcadia kitchen |
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| Me in my dad’s favorite mid-century modern chair |
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| My skating partner Rich smiling in the Arcadia kitchen |
I never made any friends in Arcadia due to my intense skating schedule, but I did enjoy being able to walk to a shopping center that was really near the house.
I loved swimming and shooting baskets in the backyard. We enjoyed playing ping pong too. I remember Thanksgiving meals in the dining area, but mostly we ate in the kitchen nook.
There was so much room in the garage, but I recall it just being full of stuff that my parents never put away. I am not sure we parked the cars in the garage since there was so much room in the driveway for multiple cars.
When I learned to drive, California Driving School came to pick me up every Saturday. The instructor would park on the street rather in the huge driveway and that was quite a walk from the curb.
When I left Arcadia to attend Colorado College and skate at The Broadmoor, I remember my mom hugging me and crying as we left in my bright green Gremlin car that was parked in the front of the house.
Once I was able to drive, I remember driving on the Southern California freeways. We would go from the Arcadia house to West Covina on the 210 freeway, or to Paramount on the 605 freeway. We’d drive through Pasadena to get to the rink in Burbank.
I spent hours in my room studying I recall, but I did go into the family room to watch TV.
As I write about that Arcadia house, I miss it, but we were never really planted in Arcadia. My parents sold the house for $95,000 when I was 19 years old after my dad became the department chair at the Chicago Medical School.
Broadmoor Villa - Colorado Springs, Colorado (1974-75)
When I went off to Colorado to skate, I first lived with a family in the upper Skyway area of Colorado Springs, but I moved before my freshman year of Colorado College began to a little furnished studio apartment (studio apartments were called efficiency apartments in the 1970s) that cost only $135 a month at 25 E. Sommerlyn Road at the Broadmoor Villa Appartments. It was the same apartment complex my skating partner and other male skaters lived in, but they shared a two bedroom, two bath apartment.
My little studio-efficiency was on the second floor. Parking was outside and the entry was outside like a motel. I had to go down the stairs and walk across a parking lot to the laundry. Further away across the parking lot, was a pool.
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| My lifelong friend Paul Steiner smiles with my dog Sunny inside my Broadmoor Villa Apartment |
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| My dad visiting me at the Broadmoor Villa Apartment |
The studio came furnished with a sleeper sofa and coffee table, a dining table and chairs, a bar that looked into the kitchen, a closet, kitchen, and bathroom. I loved the place and kept it as “neat as a pin.” My parents bought me a little black and white TV and I had a clock radio. We put my desk and chair and metal bookcase next to the window. (I must have brought that out from California or my dad bought me the desk in Colorado.)
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| My dad and I lying on the closed up closed sleeper sofa at my Broadmoor Villa apartment |
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| My mom drinks coffee at my Broadmoor Villa Apartment |
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| Me and my dog Sunny sitting on the cot at my Broadmoor Villa Apartment |
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| Thanksgiving 1974 at my Broadmoor Villa Apartment |
These were the days before internet or cable TV and I was quite lonely at that little apartment. I ended up buying my Pomeranian dog Sunny for $50 when I was living at that apartment since I was so lonely. Sunny would sleep right next to me on the double bed that was in the sleeper sofa.
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| Sunny and JO ANN |
I hated having to take my laundry outside and down the snow covered steps on freezing Colorado days. (I always did my laundry on Sundays since it was the only day I didn’t skate.)
When my parents visited, they would sleep on the sleeper sofa, and I slept on a cot and in a sleeping bag. That sleeping bag was something I used when I was too lazy to pull out the sleeper sofa and then I would sleep on the couch.
I did wish for an apartment with a bedroom though since it was a pain opening up that sleeper sofa every night and putting it away every morning.
When my dad visited sometime after I just turned 19, he saw an ad in the local newspaper for an auction of condos in the lower Skyway area called Skyway Condominiums at 935 Saturn Drive and decided he wanted to purchase one. For me, that was a dream come true! Imagine, two bedrooms!
My dad asked me to pick out condos to bid on before the auction. I picked out the ones that included being close to the laundry rooms!
The Condo - Colorado Springs (1975–1977)
Our unit is the one with the smaller balcony
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| My sister Lynnellen smiles with my mom in front of the green fireplace at “The Condo” |
When my parents sold their Arcadia house, it was coordinated with the purchase of ‘The Condo” that was purchased at the auction in Colorado Springs for $18,000. My dad and I discussed what furniture we had in Arcadia that would work at our new condo, and the movers stopped in Colorado on their way to Illinois with what was to go inside the new two bedroom condo.
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| My dad looks at my photo album in the condo’s extra bedroom. - notice the yellow shelves I painted! |
It was 1975, the years when green shag carpet, green fire places, green walls, green appliances, and green walls were the norm. The entire condo, even the bathrooms, were carpeted with green shag carpet. The condo is on the second floor of Skyway Condominiums. It is a two floor condo; two bedrooms and a full bath are on the third floor that is across the hall from the laundry room and downstairs is the living room, kitchen, small balcony off the living room, dining area next to the kitchen, a bar, and a powder room. The condo has two entrances: it can be entered on either the second or third floors.
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| Holding my dog Sunny in the condo extra bedroom |
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| My skating partner Rich reads and sits at counter of condo near the kitchen |
Leading out of the condo, down the hall, is a center staircase on the second floor that leads down to a beautiful year round indoor pool surrounded by glass. The pool was what really made me want my dad to buy one of those condos. It was just so beautiful and had a hot tub. That was one of the first hot tubs I ever went in in fact.
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| My Grandma Fannie visited in 1976 and enjoyed swimming at the condo with me |
When I first moved into the condo, all the new owners who bought their condos at the auction would sit in the hot tub and discuss their new purchases. My dad made a limit of not spending over $20,000, so that is the reason we ended up with a condo that faced the east and did not look at the mountains. There was a guy who got his lower level condo on the east side for only $10,000! He tried to sell his condo and even had flashing lights in his windows advertising the sale! The first floor condos had the bedrooms in the basement.
Although I was younger than most of the owners, I sure enjoyed meeting them. Charlie Bickley, who eventually became the Colorado Springs mayor, owned the best three-bedroom unit near the front of the building. He and his wife welcomed my visits. Their unit had two full sized bathrooms and was on only one floor. There was another couple that fell in love while living next door to one another. They covered their walls with foil like wallpaper and full length mirrors and had plans to join their two units together.
I lived in the condo alone at first and like my little studio apartment at Broadmoor Villa, I kept it “as neat as a pin.” We furnished The Condo with a corner group sleeper type twin sofas in the living room, our Formica kitchen table set (green of course) that had been in Arcadia and had briefly been in an apartment my family rented in Denver. (Oops…I have forgotten to write about the one bedroom basement apartment that was across the street from the Colorado Ice Arena…I will do that next.)
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| Me and my mom and our two Pomeranian dogs at the condo 1976 (I think) |
The bedrooms were furnished with my childhood twin beds (I bought matching pink comforters for those beds) in the larger bedroom and my family’s sleeper sofa that had been in Arcadia. The desk from my sister’s room in Arcadia was in my room and was used as a dressing table. My desk that was in my little studio apartment was put in the other bedroom that was set up as a study. In the living room we also had a huge chair (that I had recovered) and a little green ottoman and a coffee table my dad refinished. We also recovered three white bar stools from my dad’s lab with yellow vinyl and put them by the bar. To match all the green decor, was a green wall phone next to the bar. The lamp shades were green and yellow.
Eventually, my brother came to live in the Springs to skate and moved in the room with the sleeper sofa. I don’t recall him ever putting the bed away. It was hard for me to share my “neat as a pin” condo with him at first. My sister moved in briefly, and slept on the corner group downstairs. She smoked and burned a small hole in the corner group, so for years we turned that bed around to hide the burn in the upholstery.
This was the days of weird wallpaper. I had the kitchen and bathrooms papered with foil wallpaper that included bright green and pink colors!
We also bought an aquarium and enjoyed watching different fish swim in it. The aquarium was kept in the dinette area. I tried to grow some indoor plants in the condo and even succeeded in growing an avocado plant from an avocado pit. When I was away, my brother didn’t water my avocado plant, so it died.
I also took care of our family’s Pomeranian dog Nicky at the condo in addition to my beloved Pomeranian Sunny. Billy wanted a cat, so we had a couple indoor declawed cats living at the condo too.
Now let me side track to the little Denver apartment my family had in the early 1970s…
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| This is not the exact apartment building where we rented a basement apartment in 1971, but it looked a lot like this from the outside |
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| Denver in the early 1970s |
My brother Billy was training under Carlo Fassi in Denver at the Colorado Ice Arena, so my dad found a little basement one bedroom apartment across the street from the rink’s parking lot. He decided to buy new furniture for it in Denver. That is where the corner group sofa came from, green and yellow lamps, a green and white Formica table and green and white chairs, green and yellow dressers and green and yellow plastic end tables came from. When our entire family slept in that apartment, my brother slept on a cot in the kitchen, my parents of course slept in the bedroom on a double bed they purchased for that apartment, and my sister and I slept on the twin corner groups beds. It was quite a crowded situation, but it worked. I don’t think my family kept that apartment for more than a year or so, so the furniture was shipped to Arcadia eventually.
I remember the apartment was walking distance to a Target and I thought it was so nice that we could walk to Target and shop.
The Colorado Springs Condo was furnished with much of the furniture from that apartment.
I lived in the Colorado Springs condo until my senior year of college when I wanted so much to live on the Colorado College campus for my senior year.
Ticknor Hall - The Colorado College (1977-78)
I had the cutest single dorm room during my senior year at Colorado College in an over one-hundred year old building called Ticknor Hall. It was on the first floor and had a window seat and was right next to the pay phone and the coke machine. I had to go around the corner and up a few stairs to use the dorm bathroom and showers.
The loneliness I felt during my first three college years ended during that time I lived in the dorms since I made many friends on campus. Friends came to visit me all the time in that little room. I kept a little fridge in the room full of diet cokes. I set up my bed like a little couch and was so, so happy. It was fun not to have to drive to campus and be able to eat at the dining hall.
My childhood friend Marion stayed with me in that little dorm room in January of 1978. That month together was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. She slept on the same cot I had slept on when my parents visited me at the Broadmoor Villa studio apartment. My parents took care of my dog in Illinois when I decided to live in the dorms.
I think my time living in that little dorm room might have been one of the happiest years in my life.
Francis De Paaw International House - Hollywood (Summer of 1978)
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| This is not my actual dorm room in Hollywood, but it was pretty basic and looked like this I recall |
After I graduated from college, I lived in Hollywood for most of the summer of 1978. I first stayed with some college friends and with some other friends in Los Angeles, but finally found a room in a dorm in Hollywood off of Sunset Boulevard called Francis De Paaw International House. I expected that dorm to be similar to the dorm at Colorado College, but the Hollywood dorm in a way more dangerous place. I used to leave my dorm room door at Colorado College wide open all the time when I used the restroom to let friends know I was home, but when I did that in the Hollywood dorm, I was told I would have my belongings stolen and to lock my door even when I used the bathroom. I tried to make friends there, but I was very lonely in Hollywood and only stayed six to seven weeks. The room really was a typical dorm room on the second floor with a single bed and a long hall where I went to use the bathroom and shower. My rent included breakfast and dinner in a dining hall that was part of the dorm complex.
I was very happy to pack up my car and move into my grandmother’s house in Belmont Shore in Long Beach at the end of that summer!
My Parents’ House in Illinois (1976–2016)
I was 19 years old when my dad took a new job as the head of the department of pathology at the Chicago Medical School. The school was actually not in Chicago, but in a north shore suburb called North Chicago. Most of the faculty lived in a suburb called Highland Park or lived in Lake Forest, but my parents ended up purchasing a house in a place called Lake Bluff, north of Lake Forest. They lived at 300 Park Lane, Lake Bluff, Illinois 60044, on the corner of Park Lane and Green Bay Road. That was only about a five minute drive to the medical school.
They picked out the house with the idea that their three children might live there. Actually, that never happened at once, but we all did stay in the house at different times.
This house had the most traditional lay out of all the houses my parents owned: The upstairs of the house was solely made of bedrooms. There was the master bedroom suite of course, a hallway with some storage space, and three very large bedrooms and a nice sized bathroom with two sinks and a separate area with a bath-shower combo and toilet.
The house had a lot of dark wood paneling and wall paper which was common in the 1970s.
The downstairs was fairly traditional: There was an entryway, with a living room to the left, a laundry room to the side of the entry that led to the two car garage, a family room that was connected to a kitchen nook and kitchen, and a dining area that connected from the kitchen to the living room. There was a powder room right next to the entryway at the front of the house. Windows were everywhere and there was no fencing which was typical of houses in the Midwest.
There was an unfinished basement with steps down from the kitchen. My parents made the mistake of telling the movers to put miscellaneous things in the basement which caused a nightmare when we unpacked. Every box had to be carried up a very scary set of stairs.
There was a huge desk left in the basement that we never used since it was too heavy and big to bring upstairs.
I think my dad may have had an idea of eventually finishing the basement, but that was never done. It flooded during their 40 years there and so some treasured items were destroyed.
There were hardwood floors upstairs, but much of the hardwood floors that were in the rest of the house were covered with wall to wall carpeting (again common for the 1970s). There was a lot of wood paneling too.
There were shutter like doors that separated the kitchen from the dining area.
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| Smiling in front of the furniture I painted and refinished in my room at the Lake Bluff, Illinois house |
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| Smiling with our dog Heidi in the Lake Bluff house’s kitchen nook |
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| My sister Lynnellen made a snowman in front of the Illinois house |
When we moved in, the house was completely move in ready. I spent a great deal of time when my parents first moved in in December of 1976, refinishing and painting furniture for my room. I painted my childhood dresser with a stain that made it look like wood. I painted the white bookshelves that had been in my room as a child bright red. My brother never really lived there, but I think my sister did. Her room was filled eventually with ceramics she made at the College of Lake County. My parents put the funny green and yellow 1970s dresser and bedroom accessories in their bedroom suite.
Sadly, due to financial problems, my dad decided to rent the house out during the 1977-1978 school year. We moved into this huge mansion that was on the grounds of the nearby VA hospital where my mom worked full time and my dad worked part time (the medical school used the VA as a teaching hospital).
I believe it was the summer of 1977 when we made that temporary move.
(I am not sure when they moved back to their house at 300 Park Lane, but my parents owned that house in Lake Bluff for about 40 years. My very close friend June and her husband Bill, packed up and discarded many of the old things after the house was sold. I am forever grateful for all their hard work! What was kept was moved to Colorado.)
Two Apartments in an Old Mansion - North Chicago, Illinois (1977–1979?)
My dad got someone to connect two apartments in an old over 100 year old gigantic mansion called Dewey House on the grounds of the VA hospital. (It is apparently considered on the list of historical places..I didn’t know that!) One of the apartments must have been a three bedroom apartment and the other one was a two-bedroom apartment, so we ended up with five bedrooms total. I guess there were two kitchens, but I think we only used one of them. The two apartments were on the first floor of the mansion that had been divided into apartments for people who worked at the V.A.
Because there were two apartments, the place was huge. I recall we used one area in the larger apartment as a dining area and living room. The area that would have been a door to separate apartments ended up serving as a private entry area and connected both apartments. My dad had it closed off. I think we entered from the outside but I am not sure.
I really don’t remember much about the bedrooms and how many bathrooms we had. I do recall that staying there felt primitive since the apartments were old. Maybe we used the second kitchen as a laundry room? I doubt there was a dishwasher.
I am pretty sure we moved all the furniture in my parents Lake Bluff house to the two apartments in the mansion.
I would sometimes wander into the large attic in the building. I think there may have been tennis courts nearby since I recall playing tennis with my mom on those courts. I would also sometimes walk around the VA and explore. I’d see the mental patients walk through the V.A. halls in groups.
I don’t recall parking in a covered garage, so we must have parked in an outdoor lot next to the building. Nearby were some beautiful townhomes that I believe my dad wished they could move into, but they were all occupied.
I am guessing my parents lived there on the VA grounds for about two years, but it could have been longer. When they moved back into their own home at 300 Park Lane, the renters had caused a lot of damage that was not repaired for a long time.
Belmont Shore, California (1978-79)
I was totally exhausted when I moved from Hollywood at the end of the summer of 1978 into Grandma Fannie’s house in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach, but I was also relieved. Belmont Shore is a very nice area near the beach in Long Beach.
It was just a week or two before Labor Day that I officially moved in. Instead of taking one of the bedrooms upstairs for myself, I moved into Grandma’s room into the other twin bed in her room. Grandma had not been a widow for long and I must have slept in the bed that had been my grandfather’s. (In the old days, married couples slept in separate beds.)
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| My Grandma Fannie holding me at 232 Granada Avenue, in Belmont Shore - my grandfather bought the house in the 1940s I think |
My grandparents’ house, located at 232 Granada Avenue, Long Beach, was a big house built in the 1930s I think. It has a kitchen and nook downstairs, a large living room, a dining room and den and a powder room downstairs. The garage was detached and could be entered through the alley. Upstairs originally were only two bedrooms and a huge bath, but my grandfather had added a third bathroom and two more bedrooms upstairs on the roof. Those two added bedrooms were cold in the winter and hot in the summer, so I had no desire to sleep in one of those rooms. The other bedroom belonged to my Uncle Bobby and was filled with magazines, books, and was off-limits. The room that didn’t have a bed was furnished perfectly like a sitting room, so sleeping there was not an option. I kept my things in the added bedroom that had a bed.
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| Lynnellen, Billy, and Jo Ann Schneider smiling in front of our grandparents’ house - April, 1962 |
The backyard had a fig tree and my grandma gave me figs to eat off of that tree.
Grandma Fannie was only in her mid-seventies then and was fairly active. She loves my company. After she dressed in the morning, she would go downstairs and not go upstairs again until she went to bed. She never watched television until after dinner, but sat in the living room at the corner of the beautiful couch in that room most of the day reading or knitting. The living room was furnished with antiques.
I was so proud to live there and invited friends there all the time. My husband to be Dan spent a lot of time there and ate meals with me and Grandma in the dining room that was between the kitchen and entry to the living room area.
I lived in that wonderful Belmont Shore house until the day I got married which was April 7, 1979.
The Atherton House - Long Beach, California (1979 - 1982)
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| Jo Ann and Dan at the Atherton House 1980 |
When Dan and I were engaged, we obtained two apartments. The first one was down the street from Grandma’s house on The Toledo and then we got a brand new type apartment in a huge complex in Downey. I can’t really count either apartments as homes, since I never lived in the apartment on The Toledo (Dan stayed there) and only stayed in the apartment in Downey for the first three weeks of our marriage. I don’t think we ever cooked in that Downey apartment, but we did sleep there and the apartment was very beautiful I recall. It had a cute standing fireplace that turned on with a switch and was a spacious two bedroom for a young couple.
We moved because I got laid off from my job right after we returned from our honeymoon and to save money, sharing a house sounded fun and appealing.
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| Jo Ann and Dan at the Atherton House |
Rather than write a lot about the house on Atherton Street on this blog, I will just link to the story of the Atherton House below.
Our 14th Street Apartment - Long Beach, California. (1982–1988)
When Dan and I moved out of the Atherton House, we’d been married for three years. We were really excited to have a little place of our own. The apartment was on top of a three car garage at 4381 E. 14th Street, Long Beach, California. One of the garages was ours to use, but we filled it with bikes and storage stuff rather than our car which we parked on the street.. The apartment was quite small, but had it’s own entrance, a patio, and our own mailbox at the bottom of the stairs that led up to our apartment. When we entered the apartment, we stepped right into our living room. The kitchen was to the right and had enough room for a kitchen table. There was another door out of the kitchen that led to the patio. On the patio we put the park benches that my Grandma Fannie had given us. There were two bedrooms, a small storage closet for our towels and sheets and another closet for our coats and a very small bathroom. For us, the 14th Street apartment was huge after sharing a house for three years. It stood alone, so it felt like a little house. We furnished the apartment with our 100 year old piano, a couch we probably got off the street, bookshelves, and two beds (one king and one full) and with old refrigerators in the kitchen. I imagine we got the king bed at a garage sale, but the full bed was given to us by our former housemate Don. The refrigerators we given to us by Bob and Bill from the Atherton House and one of the small refrigerators belonged to Dan. We needed all three refrigerators since none of the refrigerators held much food. We named the refrigerators after our former housemates: the biggest one we named Bob, the white one we named Bill, and another small one that froze things we named Gary!
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| A gathering of our friends at our 14th Street Apartment in 1982 |
Life on 14th Street was quite calm until I began to teach skating in 1983. Once I taught skating, we were rarely home. We bought our first color television in 1984 during our time on 14th Street so we could watch the summer Olympics when they were in Los Angeles. We did have gatherings at that small apartment, including our good-bye party before we moved to San Francisco in April of 1988.
San Francisco, California (April 1988 until the end of October 1991)
We loaded up a U-Haul truck and headed to San Francisco at the beginning of April 1988. Our new two bedroom apartment there we’d rented sight unseen and was at 2382 48th Avenue, 48th Avenue and Taravel, in the Sunset District of San Francisco, across the street from the beach, which in San Francisco is not considered prime property. The apartment did not include parking, so we had to park on the service road on the street. The garage underneath the apartment was huge though and there was a washer and dryer there for the four apartments in the building. We kept our bikes in that garage which was a mistake since the bikes got ruined and rusted by the beach air during our time there. Our apartment was on the second floor where there was another apartment across the hall, and there were two more apartments on the third floor. The owners of the building lived in one of those apartments with their son.
After living in that small apartment above the garage on 14th Street, this apartment seemed massive. We had an entry hallway with two bedrooms on each side of it, a decent sized bathroom, and a large living room and kitchen.
We bought our first new living room set and dining room set there and also put a stackable portable washer and dryer in the kitchen eventually. Our bedrooms were still furnished with our garage sale type beds, but the place really looked nice. We had a huge window in both the living room and kitchen. I recall buying cute frilly kitchen drapes for the kitchen.
Dan and I acquired a huge book case somewhere during the 14th Street days and that bookshelf was filled with books. When the San Francisco earthquake occurred in 1989, that huge book case came tumbling down.
We bought our first little desktop computer, a Mac Plus, during our San Francisco days and kept that computer and printer on a little wooden desk we had purchased at a garage sale for $10 that we brought with us from the 14th Street apartment. I believe I bought a pretty blue comforter and pillow shams for the guest bedroom and we used a crochet blanket I made as a bedspread on our huge king bed. When I taught skating in San Mateo at a mall, we found a beautiful comforter and pillow set there that we still have for our king size bed in Colorado. We had an antique like dresser with mirror in that bedroom too.
I think we were sad to leave that nice San Francisco apartment when we headed to Colorado Springs at the very end of October of 1991, but we also really wanted to live in Colorado!
“The Condo” Again - Colorado Springs, Colorado (1991—1995)
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| The Wonderful Indoor Pool at “The Condo” |
In 1979, Dan and I honeymooned at “The Condo” in Colorado Springs. We’d return there at least once a year for vacations. Every time we were there, The Springs felt more and more like it should be our home. We wanted to be there more than anything.
We had first planned to just stay in “The Condo” a little while until we found our own apartment, but at the last minute, my father told me that we could stay there as long as we needed, so instead of putting our belongings and furniture from San Francisco in storage, the movers moved the things that were in the condo to a storage unit, and moved our stuff in.
It took about a week for Dan and I to unpack, but the excitement of being in Colorado made all that unpacking fun. Our furniture from San Francisco looked nice there.
In time, we painted the green walls white, put in new blue carpet and new wall paper (got rid of the 1970s foil like paper), and put in vinyl floors in the bathrooms and kitchen. We got the green fireplace painted black. We put a ceiling fan in the dinette area. Our stackable washer and dryer fit nicely in the dinette area even though the kitchen was not as big as the one we had in San Francisco. Eventually, we bought a new king sized bed. In San Francisco, we found this wonderful natural stained wood furniture called Canwood, but I don’t remember whether we bought the Canwood collection for The Condo or not.
Our son Joel was born when we lived in The Condo and so the second bedroom became a nursery where we had a beautiful white rocking chair with blue cushions, a crib, a white changing table, and bassinet.
Across the bar, we put in white folding doors and inside the bar doors we painted the park benches given to us by my Grandma Fannie white and used them as bookshelves. Our nice comfortable couches and loveseat from San Francisco furnished the living room and our pretty glass table with blue chairs furnished the dinette area.
I think I would have stayed in The Condo forever, but my dad encouraged us to consider buying a home. That was a good decision, since we bought a home not that far from The Condo in Cheyenne Meadows when I was pregnant with my second child, Rebekah.
We moved into the house we still own, the house we call “The Blue House” at the end of 1995. Rebekah was born in April of 1996.
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| “The Condo” in 2020 |
Our family still owns “The Condo.” We have remodeled it and have taken out the 1970s furniture and use it now to host friends and family. We also still go to “The Condo” to swim in the wonderful pool there. Unfortunately the building has deteriorated in time. Most of the owners don’t live there and some of the renters that have lived in the building have vandalized certain areas in the complex, but our little condo is still quite nice.
The Blue House - Colorado Springs 1995 until present
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| Jo Ann, Joel, and Dan - the day the Blue House became ours! October 27, 1995 |
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| A Google Maps photo of The Blue House in about 2014 |
We bought The Blue House after searching for homes during the spring and summer of 1995. We didn’t know I was pregnant then or we might have chosen a different floor plan. The house was one of Classic Homes’ models called The Williamsburg. We had a number of things we were allowed to pick regarding the floor plan, ceilings, color of the home, carpets, basement, etc. What attracted us to The Williamsburg model was the possibility of a finished basement, but also how the child’s bedroom was on a different side of the living room than the master bedroom suite. We liked the upstairs laundry room that could be entered through the garage too and the large kitchen. We chose the option to turn what could have been a third upstairs bedroom into a dining room.
Now that I have owned this home since 1995, there are things I would have done differently. I would never put the kitchen in the front of the house again. When my son was little, every time we ate a meal, he’d see children playing outside and wanted to join them. If we want to eat in the backyard, we have to carry the food across the house through the living room. The dining room is a pretty room, but quite useless.
The finished basement seemed like a wonderful idea, but it has flooded twice and no one really likes going down there. When the children were young, they all slept upstairs in what now is Annabelle’s room, but once was little Joel’s room.
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| Jo Ann and Rebekah in front of our Canwood furniture Armoire (I was pregnant with Annabelle) |
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| Little Joel enjoying the blue carpet and steps at the new The Blue House |
When we first bought the house, we had no idea how much work we needed to do to make it a home. We had to purchase window coverings for the FOUR windows in the kitchen. I chose beautiful blue shades and blue kitchen curtains. The dining room and living room were covered with blue shiny room darkening drapes. Our carpet was blue and we had blue and white vinyl floors in the kitchen and bathrooms. We had pretty dark blue counters in the bathrooms and light blue counters in the kitchen.
The house has vaulted ceilings on the top floor, which is really quite useless but gives the rooms more of an airy feeling. We had ceiling fans put in the living room and upstairs bedrooms which fought against the summer heat at first. Only about two years ago, we finally installed air conditioning.
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| Little Baby Annabelle at the top of the Blue House stairs …notice the blue carpet into the finished basement |
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| Smiling in The Blue House’s Kitchen - Joe, Rebekah, and Jo Ann 1997 |
Little Joel’s room was at first decorated with red Mickey Mouse drapes and that included a matching twin bedspread and blanket on the the wall. His pillows matched too. Joel had a nice white dresser and a toy chest.
Dan and I bought a beautiful canopy and bedframe for our king size bed. We also had and still have an Armoire and dresser set made of natural wood from the Canwood furniture company. Our kitchen currently has the Canwood dining table we originally had in the dining room.
The living room was originally furnished with our beautiful blue living room set that we’d purchased in San Francisco, but the children destroyed it in time, so now it is sparsely furnished with a futon and some chairs given to us by my friend June. The dining room has my parents’ folding dining table in it and a beautiful cabinet given to us by June and also a dining room hutch where I keep special dining things.
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| Nordic skiing in front of The Blue House |
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| Three of our family’s PT Cruiser parked in front of The Blue House |
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| A LOT of snow in front of The Blue House! |
The two downstairs basement bedrooms were originally furnished with the double bed we had with us since the 14th Street days and with a cute day bed I purchased from a catalog. I put matching drapes in that room that matched the daybed comforter. Sadly, all those items were destroyed by our kids, so now we have an inexpensive single bed in the study and twin trundle bed set in the larger bedroom that is now my daughter Rebekah’s room when she is in Colorado. My friend Larisa gave us her small spinet piano which is in Rebekah’s room.
Upstairs houses our wonderful 100 plus years upright grand piano and a couple of chests hold my treasured piano music.
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| Dan, Rebekah, and Grandpa sitting on the porch swing in front of the Blue House |
The Blue House has been through a lot. The basement flooded and mold grew. We had to get the mold out and completely redo the basement which now looks quite nice with its vinyl that looks like wood floor. At the foot of the stairs is a very nice digital piano. There is a organized storeroom in the basement.
The chimney was blown off the house in a windstorm! We decided not to replace it and sealed the wood burning fireplace and have a heated electric log in the fireplace instead.
The upstairs and the stairway have laminate wood floors that replaced the blue carpet that just got completely worn out by my kids. Most of the original furniture is gone, but the furniture in mine and Dan’s bedroom is still the same.
For a time, Joel took over the basement, but now the basement is a family area again. The study that had the matching bedding and drapes has served as Dan’s office when the VA moved his work to our home because of the pandemic of 2020. The basement still has the inexpensive dark blue window covering that Dan and I hung on wooden rods in 1995.
The bathrooms have new counters. The lower bathroom always had double sinks and that is still there.
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| Annabelle and Dan smiling in the Blue House’s kitchen |
We added a bike shed next to the house and changed where the gate to the backyard is. There is also a storage shed in the backyard and a new deck has been built that has a covered canopy. Two cars can now fit in our garage ever since we moved the bikes into the shed.
The reason the house is bright blue and white is because years ago, my husband Dan painted the house himself with a brighter blue color than I wanted, but as time went on, I loved the color, so when we had the house repainted, we painted it again with that same bright blue!
The roof has been replaced after a few of the terrible hailstorms that have occurred in Colorado Springs.
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| This is our “newer” white picket fence! Notice the beautiful arch/pergola and walkway to the front door! It is now covered with roses and greenery. |
The Blue House is on what is called a keyhole street and looks out at Cheyenne Mountain. It has been our home for all these years, but doesn’t feel like home to me really since I have only slept in my bed twice since the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to stay in my father’s beautiful Colorado home in Larkspur, Colorado . The Larkspur house is so special and feels much more like home these days.
Larkspur, Colorado (1996 — present)
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| Joel, Annabelle, and Rebekah - Larkspur House When They Were Little |
Right after my daughter Rebekah was born on April 16, 1996, I met my parents (who were staying at The Condo) at a coffee house in Manitou Springs, Colorado. There was a stack of newspapers at that coffee house. As my parents looked at those newspapers, they saw an advertisement about land for sale in Larkspur, Colorado.
I will never forget that day: My mom and dad left the coffee house and headed up to Larkspur. When they returned they announced that they’d purchased 2 1/2 acres of land! They liked the idea of owning a home eventually somewhere between Colorado Springs and Denver so they could be close to both my family and my brother’s family.
That was in the spring of 1996. For the next four or five years, we’d travel to the land once awhile and play in the snow there.
In around 2000 or 2001, my dad called and said he was finally building a house on the property. He asked us to take a look at the hole that had been dug in the ground as building began. It didn’t take long for the house to be completed and when it was completed, let me say this about the house we named “Larkspur” - “What a house!”
There are three floors; one is a walk out basement. The driveway leads up from the road to the house so there is a lot of privacy from the street. There is a three car attached garage and leads into the house’s laundry room. The deck in front is huge. In the summer we sit outside on the porch swing and the Adirondack chairs on the deck.
As one enters the house there is a huge entry area. From the entry area, there is a dining area with a huge chandelier and a really fancy dining table. A large powder room and a large kitchen with a huge island and desk and kitchen nook are adjacent to the dining room. That design isn’t the best, but it was the design my parents wanted since houses from their generation always did not have the kitchen near the living room.
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| The elaborate dining room at the Larkspur house |
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| My parents at the Larkspur House patio |
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| A family photo in the Larkspur house entry area |
The living room is on the other side of the huge entry way area. At first the only television in the house was there since my dad hoped everyone would be together watching television. There is a full bath in that area and a den. Next to that is my dad’s (was my parents’) bedroom suite. That suite includes a large bedroom and an en-suite bathroom with a huge walk in closet and desk. The tub has jets, but if you fill that tub, there is no hot water in the house for hours. The study, kitchen, and master bedroom lead to decks in the back. There is a hot tub in the back and a gazebo, but the hot tub has not worked for a few years now.
There are wonderful trees in the back and throughout the property.
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| Joel, Annabelle, and Rebekah were so proud of this snowman they made on the Larkspur property! |
Now let me talk about the upstairs: Most of the upstairs is a loft, but there is also an entire studio apartment up there with a private entrance. The original idea was that my parents would have a nurse live in that apartment to take care of them in their old age. My husband Dan and I have ended up being my dad’s nurse it seems, so we sleep in that area. The Murphy Bed is always down. In that apartment area is a walk in closet, huge bathroom with a tub-shower and a small kitchen which we use to store excess food and drinks and we use the dishwasher there once in a while. My daughter Annabelle sometimes uses the oven, but it rarely has been used. There is a console piano and a digital keyboard piano upstairs in the loft and there is a little wing that served as a study, but we keep a Christmas tree up there in that little area year round since it always seems to be a holiday in Larkspur. There is a living room type area up there with huge comfortable chairs that can be converted into single beds. There is a patio up there that has a beautiful view! There are shelves up there that include board games including different versions of Monopoly and cards.
The finished walk out basement is like another house almost! In that area, is an office filled with my father’s medical books and our photo albums and memories. There is another room with a ping pong table that can also be a pool table which serves as a game room. From the game room, there is a large store room where we store precious memories, but also my son’s weights are in that room.
There is a huge hallway down there that connects a family room area. There is a huge outdated television in that area and the hallway has a nook filled with books, video tapes, and DVDs. There is another large bathroom and three more bedrooms.
One of the bedrooms was originally considered “The Kids’ Room.” My sister in law Amy had decorated it with twin beds and had given each one of my father’s grandchildren drawers for their belongings, but that room now serves as my son’s room. He has a frame of the flag he took up Mt. Fuji when he climbed that volcano in that room and there is even a huge photo that once served as a painting of him skating as a little boy that was hung at the Ice Arena at Chapel Hills Mall.
The other two rooms serve as guest rooms. One of the rooms has a very large king sized bed and sitting area and the other has a queen bed and double closets.
There is a smaller store room in the basement next to the bathroom and Joel’s room where the water heater is. There we store the family’s inflatable kayaks and stand up paddle boards and even an inflatable boat! We also store some luggage in that storeroom.
The garage is filled with three cars and a long bike rack that hold numerous bikes and scooters, tennis rackets, shovels, a pickle ball set, skis, poles, ski boots, snow shoes, other sports equipment, and trash and recycle containers.
The grounds the Larkspur house sits on are beautiful. We added a tire swing and wooden tree swing and a park bench under a tree area close to the street. I cross country ski on our property in the winter. I love climbing up the hills on the property and skiing down!
During the pandemic of 2020, all my family was together at the Larkspur house taking care of my dad. It was a wonderful place to be while we practiced social distancing. The thing is that the house is far enough away from “civilization” that it can be lonely being there at times. But….hiking, biking, and scootering can be done right out the door!
I must mention that all the decor, the furnishings, everything was done by my sister-in-law Amy. What is in Larkspur is beautiful. Even my father’s treasured grandfather clock is in the living room. Family photos are all over the house.
I am so thankful for “Larkspur!” It really does feel like home.
The Portofino Condo 5400 E. The Toledo - Naples Island, Long Beach, California (2006 - present)
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| Jo Ann smiling in front of the Portofino |
When my parents visited my sister and family when they lived in Illinois, they usually stayed at hotels since there was not room in my grandmother’s house that my dad gave to my sister. One day, my sister told them that a condo was for sale at The Portofino, a Belmont Shore-Naples landmark.
My parents bought that condo and hired a professional designer to get it ready for them. At first a car wasn’t there, but in early 2015, my husband drove out a car to keep there which is kept in an assigned parking spot in a covered and secure garage in our assigned parking space.
This is a spacious condo with two bedrooms and two bathrooms on the third floor of the building. Some of the units in the building look out at the Bay (a wonderful beach area in Belmont Shore), but our family’s condo looks at the street. There is balcony the full size of the entire unit which is like a room in itself. The kitchen and the living area are a good size, there is a master bedroom with a huge en-suite bathroom that my dad uses when we stay there and a smaller bedroom and bathroom that includes a combo bath shower. Family photos and photos of Belmont Shore and Long Beach in the early days are on the walls. I bought an electric fireplace to keep my dad warm. He sits in his favorite chair, an Eames chair and watches television for hours in that living room.
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| A precious memory of my kids Rebekah, Joel, Annabelle playing on the beach across from the Portofino |
There is a pool downstairs that looks out on the Bay and a boat dock that holds our family’s hard kayaks. In the master closet upstairs we keep the kayak paddles and an inflatable stand up paddle board and accessories. In the entry way closet, we keep camp chairs, beach chairs, and things for the beach.
The smaller bedroom has two twin beds and the master bedroom has a nice queen sized bed and a television for my dad to watch his Turner Classic Movies.
Both the condo in Long Beach and the Larkspur house feel so much like home that is hard for me to not to want to be in them. I have a whole life in Long Beach now since I have taken my dad back and forth from Colorado to Long Beach on a regular basis since early 2015. We need to thank Southwest Airlines for making that possible and also Temple Israel in Long Beach for giving us a religious home.
My husband’s mother and brother and sister live nearby and so does my sister and her grown children and four grandchildren. When I am in Long Beach, I have such a sense of feeling that I belong there since so much of our family is nearby.
During the Covid 19 pandemic shutdown, we stayed away from Long Beach for about a year and a half. It was during that time that another place, Sun Valley, Idaho also became a second home for the Schneider-Farris family.
Sun Valley, Idaho - March, 2020 until present
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| The Schneider-Farris Cabin-Condo in Sun Valley, Idaho! |
In February of 2020, I took a trip with my dad to Sun Valley, Idaho to furnish and prepare a studio condo in Elkhorn Village in Sun Valley that my son Joel purchased site-unseen while he was traveling and touring and performing with Disney On Ice. Joel’s condo was move in ready and I meticulously decorated and furnished that condo with the goal of it being a vacation rental. Everything I did, with the help of Adam Pennington, a young man I hired to help me put furniture together and hang things, came out great. I didn’t realize how much work went into that small space!
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| My son Joel’s wonderful Sun Valley studio condo! |
It was during the time that I was working on my son’s condo that Adam discovered a condo, just two doors down, was up for sale.
It may have been a whim, but my husband Dan had been given some money, and we had wondered how to use that money. We realized we could afford this somewhat beat up fixer upper studio and put in an offer which was accepted.
Oddly, the place became ours on Friday the 13th…March 13, 2020…just when the pandemic hit in full force!
“What have we done?” We thought! At first we sort of panicked!
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| Adam Pennington and my dad and I after we’d completed my son Joel’s condo in Sun Valley - March 2, 2020 |
Adam was out of a job once the ski mountain closed suddenly, but even before the mountain closed, I told Adam he could stay there. Adam picked up the keys for me on that memorable Friday the 13th!
He and I began discussing how we would remodel it. So much needed to be done.
Adam joked that I was his only employer, and soon there was a mandate that construction of any kind could only be done if a person lived in the place they were doing construction! That described Adam’s situation. He even ended up being sick with Covid while he was there.
There were old carpets to tear out, walls to be painted, old countertops to be removed, new countertops to be placed, sinks and plumbing to be replaced, and the hearth on the fireplace stuck out and was very old fashioned. There was a broken window covering too.
One could say that my fixer upper needed a lot of work!
Adam did almost all the work himself. When the isolation of the pandemic ended, he took trips to Twin Falls to purchase the butcher block counter tops I wanted and got this beautiful piece of granite to rebuild the fireplace’s hearth.
When the paint store finally opened, he bought bright white paint and repainted the pink walls. I ordered luxury vinyl plank via Amazon.com that looked like wood for the floor. Adam lived on a concrete floor after he pulled out the old carpet, but eventually he laid a new floor which was much more comfortable.
Adam bought new sinks in Twin Falls. After he replaced the old counter tops he tore out, he replaced my sinks and I think with the help of Wilcro Plumbers in Ketchum, the pipes were replaced.
For a while, Adam’s only source of water was the tub! I remember him saying how fancy it felt to actually wash his hands in the sink again.
The water heater was also replaced by Wilcro Plumbers.
Together Adam and I came up with ideas on decor. He suggested wood outlet covers around all the plugs. The cabinets and the kitchen bar were nice, so we kept them. Adam hung a ski rack next to the entry door and rehung the coat rack and decorative skis that came with the condo. He stained the baseboards and put it around the newly laid floors.
I decided that ceiling fans were needed in both my condo and in Joel’s, so those were ordered by Ketchum Lighting and installed by Dan’s Electric.
I ordered a light filtering window shade on Amazon that never arrived during the pandemic shutdown, so when I reordered a shade, I decided to order a room darkening shade which ended up being a great idea. We picked out a wood mantel that I also ordered on Amazon that Adam hung above the fireplace.
I had both my fireplace and Joel’s fireplace converted to the type of gas fireplace that turns on and off with a switch.
The bathroom heater had to be turned on by bending under the sink and it also was quite old, so I had the heater replaced in the bathroom. Wood cabinets and butcher block countertops and wood backsplash were also added and wood was placed in front of the new kick heater there and there is now a thermostat to run the bathroom heater. I also got the fan and light above the bathtub replaced.
Adam put together the wood bar stools I ordered. He also installed the new over the stove microwave I ordered and installed a new stove. I added a red Keurig coffee maker, a wooden pod holder for the coffee pods, a red toaster, a red toaster oven, and even a red cutting board.
We had a bit of a disaster when the refrigerator that came with the condo’s ice maker flooded the unit, so I ordered a new red retro refrigerator and had the old appliance hauled away (all with Adam’s help).
I ordered a dark sold wood headboard and matching end tables (believe it or not from Walmart) and a natural wood dresser that Adam suggested we put in the area between the bathroom and the fireplace.
There was another area on the other side of the fireplace that took some searching to find a piece of furniture that would fit, but finally Adam called and said “You did it!” I found a futon from good old Walmart.com that fit into that corner that serves as a couch and also converts to an extra bed if needed. The coffee table that came with the unit is in front of that futon, and so there is a nice little “living room area,” but the big thing that takes up most of the space is the queen bed I ordered from Mattress Firm.
The first bed frame I ordered from Mattress Firm was delivered broken during the pandemic. To get it replaced was a bit of a nightmare, but finally a working bed was set up, but something was wrong with the first two mattresses, so finally, after I was in Sun Valley in the winter of 2021, I took a trip to Twin Falls and paid for a nice mattress at the Mattress Firm in Twin Falls. Now the bed is great!
The bedding is really special cabin type bedding I ordered from Black Forest decor. There is a matching valence. There is a bear and cabin theme and a bit of a retro theme throughout the condo. I ordered a replacement mirror surrounded by wood for the bathroom. There is also a wood like framed full length mirror on the bathroom door. Adam hung a wood shelf above the toilet and a towel holder for extra towels like one sees in hotels. On those racks are colored towels that go with the mountain type decor and also white bath towels are stacked on the wood shelf. Next to both sides of the bed are bear themed rugs that match the bedding nicely.
There are wood trash bins and solid wood stools at the foot of the bed where one can warm oneself in front of the fireplace. Adam suggested a fake cowhide rug that also sits in front of the fireplace. Adam also put together a small black storage closet for me where I keep the brooms and vacuum.
The condo came with a huge wooden armoire that is on the other side of the window. In there are stored extra sheets and pillowcases on the top shelf, but there are nice wooden hangers that were given to Adam which he gave to me in that closet. I keep a laundry basket in that closet. There is plenty of room to hang clothes in the armoire and that armoire also includes two large drawers.
Unfortunately we have to feed quarters into the washer and dryer that is just down the hall, but I did buy a small Asian made portable folding washer that I keep in a storage area above the refrigerator that can wash very small loads.
I take out trash just across the hall and the elevator to our condo is right across the hall which is so nice since we don’t have to climb any stairs to access the unit. The parking lot we use is covered and we keep a car there all the time in the covered garage.
There are some mountain decorations on the walls and a huge window like painting hung above the wood mantle over the fireplace that looks at a beautiful lake and mountains.
The bathtub and surround and toilet were replaced and the toilet’s seat is even made of solid wood!
Our little cabin-condo really looks like a mountain cabin once inside. There is an area with built in shelves and next to those shelves is a luggage-shoe rack.
This summer, I added an water ice type cooler fan, but there is also a regular fan stored in the wooden armoire.
Tennis courts, pickle ball courts, a pool and hot tub, and even the local post office is across the street. Bike and hiking paths are right there too and even a free bus that takes us through Sun Valley is nearby. We don’t play golf, but during the winter we can cross country ski on the golf course or climb up Elkhorn mountain and ski down!
I absolutely love my little cabin-condo in Sun Valley and know every inch of what is inside of it! I spent all of the winter (five months) there in 2020-21 and hope to spend the entire winter of 2021-22 there skiing, skating, and cross country skiing in Sun Valley. The area has truly become our second home.
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Summary:
When I started this blog post, I didn’t realize how many places I have called “home!” Like the poem below, I especially think of the little cabin-condo I have in Sun Valley all the time, but the other places I have lived and still live at are very much a part of my life and implanted in my memory! Wow!
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House: Some Instructions
If you have a house
you must think about it all the time
as you reside in the house so
it must be a home in your mind
you must ask yourself (wherever you are)
have I closed the front door
and the back door is often forgotten
not against thieves necessarily
but the wind oh if it blows
either door open then the heat
the heat you’ve carefully nurtured
with layers of dry hardwood
and a couple of opposing green
brought in to slow the fire
as well as the little pilot light
in the convenient gas backup
all of that care will be mocked because
you have not kept the house on your mind
but these may actually be among
the smallest concerns for instance
the house could be settling you may
notice the thin slanting line of light
above the doors you have to think about that
luckily you have been paying attention
the house’s dryness can be humidified
with vaporizers in each room and pots
of water on the woodstove should you leave
for the movies after dinner ask yourself
have I turned down the thermometer
and moved all wood paper away from the stove
the fiery result of excited distraction
could be too horrible to describe
now we should talk especially to Northerners
of the freezing of the pipe this can often
be prevented by pumping water continuously
through the baseboard heating system
allowing the faucet to drip drip continuously
day and night you must think about the drains
separately in fact you should have established
their essential contribution to the ordinary
kitchen and toilet life of the house
digging these drains deep into warm earth
if it hasn’t snowed by mid-December you
must cover them with hay sometimes rugs
and blankets have been used do not be
troubled by their monetary value
as this is a regionally appreciated emergency
you may tell your friends to consider
your house as their own that is
if they do not wear outdoor shoes
when thumping across the gleam of their poly-
urethaned floors they must bring socks or slippers
to your house as well you must think
of your house when you’re in it and
when you’re visiting the superior cabinets
and closets of others when you approach
your house in the late afternoon
in any weather green or white you will catch
sight first of its new aluminum snow-resistant
roof and the reflections in the cracked windows
its need in the last twenty-five years for paint
which has created a lovely design
in russet pink and brown the colors of un-
intentioned neglect you must admire the way it does not
(because of someone’s excellent decision
sixty years ago) stand on the high ridge deforming
the green profile of the hill but rests in the modesty
of late middle age under the brow of the hill with
its back to the dark hemlock forest looking steadily
out for miles toward the cloud refiguring meadows and
mountains of the next state coming up the road
by foot or auto the house can be addressed personally
House! in the excitement of work and travel to
other people’s houses with their interesting improvements
we thought of you often and spoke of your coziness
in winter your courage in wind and fire your small
airy rooms in humid summer how you nestle in spring
into the leaves and flowers of the hawthorn and the sage green
leaves of the Russian olive tree House! you were not forgotten
Grace Paley, “House: Some Instructions” from Begin Again: The Collected Poems of Grace Paley. Copyright © 1999 by Grace Paley. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC, http://us.macmillan.com/fsg. All rights reserved.
Source: Begin Again: The Collected Poems of Grace Paley (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2000)
