Renting Grandma's House

We moved to Panaca on July 31st, 1981 - on Paul's first birthday. We moved because there was a teaching position, which had been offered to me by Dr. Mathews, and because the Lee family wanted someone to live in and fix up Grandma's home. It all started innocently enough. The first and only person to help us move in was Richard McHenry. He had been watering, mowing, and caring for the house for a number of years. He helped me pack the heavy things in: beds, sofa, easy chairs, dishwasher, and washer/dryer. The rest Venice and I hauled in over a week's time. The house was small, old-fashioned, and in my mind, beautiful for its simplicity. Venice was more skeptical as the house lacked outlets, insulation, a place for the washer/dryer and dishwasher; and it was hot in June, July, and August and freezing in November, December, and January.

In the summer months, we learned quickly to leave the front and rear doors open at night, box fans at each end, blowing air through the rooms. At about 10 AM, everything had to be closed up to trap the cool air in until it became like a furnace inside and too uncomfortable. The doors flew open, usually around dinner time. There was a period of an hour or two when it was too warm to be inside. The kids (Tony and Paul) found this out early and retreated to the east side of the house to play in the dirt, chop on the stump, and climb into the collapsing septic tank.

The first month and half I didn't get paid because I hadn't worked yet. It was tough. We lived on the good graces of Bob Dotson who gave us credit at The Merc until we could pay him back. We ate a lot of generic mac and cheese, Bologna sandwiches, and spaghetti to get by. The water and electric companies extended us credit too. The phone company, on the other hand, wanted the equivalent on one month's rent ($150) before we could get Grandma's phone reactivated. Her number was 52. We were given the number 4678. No prefix was needed to dial within Panaca, just four digits. To dial long distance one had the option of using the new dial direct feature or to ring the operator for assistance. We often called the operator to find out scores of "away" football and basketball games, check on the weather in Pioche, and find out why there were police or fire sirens. When I took the old Bakelite phone to Pioche to exchange for a new plastic phone, the office staff said "We were looking for that model, it's the only one we didn't have in our collection."

The first few years teaching, I didn't make much money. We qualified for commodities and utility subsidies. I took them without qualms. I remember going over to the high school cafeteria took stand behind the semi trailer with my hands out for Velveeta cheese, powdered milk, and canned chicken. We would sometimes get bread and vegetables if they hadn't spoiled. The utility subsidy meant we could apply it against our electric bills. I was fearful of the Propane heater in Grandma's house, so we used torpedo-shaped space heaters to heat. Grandma's house wasn't insulated. The first remodeling job was to wire the house for outlets, place visqueen on the outside of the windows, and insult the ceilings. Lee Maughan helped me or it never would have been finished by Halloween.

The agreement with The Family was: rent was $150 but it could be worked off as "in kind labor" at $10/hour. I was credited for repair/remodeling materials too. It was a good deal for family because so much of the house needed updating. It was good for us because I could work most of the rent off. In the five years we were in the house we: installed outlets; patched lath and plaster; insulated the ceilings; painted the exterior; painted all the rooms inside except the cellar; leveled and put new sub floor in the kitchen; installed vinyl flooring in the kitchen, bathroom, and mud room; carpeted the front room and bedrooms; placed visqueen on the windows; cut down four honey locust trees; removed four honey locust stumps and filled in the holes with gravel; filled in the septic tank with gravel; built a shed; plowed the garden spot - removing fifty year-old sage and rabbit brush; mended and repaired/replaced the fence and put up a new fence in back; installed TV cable; shored up and fixed the porch foundation; watered and mowed and trimmed lawns; planted and fertilized gardens; raked and burned leaves and weeds; and did most everything that hadn't been done in twenty years.