Almost done with redoing my bedroom. Paint, remove broken closet doors, tile on floor, feature wall, new blinds on window and paint and stain on some of the furniture. Doesn’t sound like so awful much but it has taken up a chunk of time. I still want to paint or restain my bed, but that is one of the projects that has gotten pushed to the rear. It seems like most rooms in the house are almost finished except for______, that one thing we have put off until later.
Paint color chosen for this room is called Gorgeous White….well it is beige. Who comes up with all these crazy names for paint anyhow? Wouldn’t that be a fun job to be the one naming paint colors. I wonder if you go to college for that?
Member of the Parrow clan have always had this large empty space on their family tree when it came to Edward Parrow. He left the family in 1900 for places unknown. No one knew who his parents were, or where he was born, or anything much about him.
Fast forward to 2019 and the great strides in DNA testing. Many many thanks to Janice Parrow (Mrs. Kenney) for dealing with all the technical aspects in our project to finally determine some answers to our questions. Another thank you to Cody Parrow for allowing us to use his DNA for this project. I don’t begin to understand this technology but we did need a straight line male descendant. That means it had to be a male descendant from each generation, down from our Edward.
Drum roll here…!! So our Edward Parrow (my great grandfather) was actually born Edouard Perreault on April 28, 1836. His parents were Michel Perreault (1806-1879) and Emelie Goulet. They were married Feb 9, 1835. This line is descended from Nicolas Perreault who was born in 1642 in France and died in Quebec, Canada in 1717.
We still don’t know where our Edward died, but from all indications, he ended up in Moose Jaw, Canada and most likely died there and is in an unmarked grave. For now it is enough to know his lineage, after wondering for so many years.
Disclaimer–I am not a birder or bird watcher or any kind of expert on birds at all. I have been known to feed them and watch their birdbrain antics and can even identify a few of them, one of which is the Cardinal.
When we moved to Tupelo, I was hearing Cardinals but was not seeing any of them. Didn’t think much about it, just figured they were up in the big trees some wheres. The Cardinals racket didn’t sound quite right tho. So I wondered out loud to sis, “Do you think birds have a southern accent too?” She just laughed at me or rolled her eyes or some such response!
Then one day, the light bulb clicked on. There was a strange bird on the crape myrtle making Cardinal noises, but just a hair off. I seems that we have a lot of Mockingbirds in Tupelo. And yes, they do Cardinal tunes…………but is it their southern accent that makes them sound a little off or do the Cardinals in Tupelo do indeed have a southern accent? Well, I still don’t have the answer to that question. My goodness, the things that keep me awake at night.
We finished up a few projects this week. The folding table for the laundry room was a much needed addition. The legs are old iron sewing machine bottom, spray painted a cheery gum drop! Still to come in that room is a clothes rod over the table. We have had a lot of fun with crates also- The rolling cart will be used in the craft room for those supplies that you need constantly but don’t want cluttering up your work space. The other crates turned into a bookshelf for my bedroom. Well, of course I needed a book case in my bedroom!
Another thing we love about Tupelo is the price of gasoline! It usually sits around 2.25 a gallon…it did go up a bit around the 4th of July, but then dropped right back. And about a week ago it took another dive! Plus we have Kroger grocery stores with gas stations. This translates to another 10 to 20 cents off per gallon with your Kroger card. Gotta Love IT!
It’s rollin’ down the tracks………The main interruption to our peace and tranquility in Tupelo is the frequent sound of train whistles. I read online that there are between 20 and 25 trains daily traveling through Tupelo. The city needs approx 19 more intersections outfitted with safety crossing arms to cut down on noise. As it stands, the trains must blow their whistles or horns or whatever you call them, all the way through town as most intersections only have the flashing lights to warn traffic.
Honestly, the train whistle is not that unpleasant a sound, it has just become a background noise, much like the mockingbirds and other creatures that provide those signs of life so you don’t forget you are not the only living thing on the planet. Of course with that many trains, you are sure to get stopped at a crossing!
This intersection is where we get stopped occasionally just a few blocks from home. Some of the trains are very long too. I counted 75 one day before I nodded off and that particular train was all coal cars. Others are a mix of rail cars carrying who knows what but I sure wonder what all they are moving! Do you think these mandatory traffic stops are all part of the conspiracy to get us all to slow down? well, it does work for a short while. And I always hear that old Johnny Cash song in my head, so on the plus side, free entertainment all the way around!
Last Sunday we took the day off from projects and all work around the house. Instead we planned a trip to Goodwill and a couple other places. We started out at Goodwill since it was the farthest away and planned to stop at the other 2 on the way home. Well, by the time we loaded up our goodies from the first stop, we had to head for home and unload so we could go again! yep…a good time was had by all!
Blanket chest
bar stools
potting station
This blanket chest was our big find at Goodwill. It appears to be brand new, no scratches, no scuffs. We plan to put this in the guest room and use for extra blankets etc. Pretty cool find, but Patti has nixed my suggestion to paint it!! For now, taking up space in the dining room! Looks like the guest room will be the next room for redo!
We also found these bar stools dirt cheap. On Monday Patti combined them with a piece of wood we had on hand and made a potting station. For now, I suspect it will be used as our project/work table. It also has a handy shelf made with more old wood and slid into place by removing some of the rungs on bar stools. Pretty fast project and something we really needed! We also sweated our butts off Monday and cleaned up the garage and work space, so now we are ready to roll! Oh…….and Monday afternoon we both went to the chiropractor! Oh our aching backs!! We are still working on that “you’all need to slow down thing”!!
We must have said- no fixer upper’s- at least 100 times while looking for a home in Tupelo. Well of course you know what we ended up with!
We couldn’t pass this one up—rooms are large, floor plan just what we wanted, the yard is huge, the neighborhood is quiet yet convenient to shopping, and yes the home is a constant challenge! The previous owners left behind all their heavy curtains and blinds covering dirty windows. We have filled quite a few garbage cans with their decor they left behind. I like to think that the home is happier now with sunlight streaming in thru cleaned windows! (thanks to Patti, chief window washer)!!
Another challenge has been to figure out which light switch does what…if anything. 2 days after closing, we were headed back to Missouri to get the rest of our stuff, planning on getting an early start when lo and behold, the garage door opener just would not work. We finally strong armed the door open so that we could get on the road and left that issue to deal with at a later date. Several days after that we were finally all moved in, but the electrician hadn’t gotten their yet to look at the door, when suddenly the garage door was working again. Patti had discovered that one of 2 switches by the back door to garage actually turned off power to the garage door opener. problem solved! Don’t touch that light switch please!!
We have painted rooms, tiled one bedroom floor, had ceiling fans installed and plug ins and outlets in some rooms replaced too. At some point someone had painted over some of the plugin and switches to the point where you could not even get anything plugged in because of all the paint- Uffda!
The kitchen is still an ongoing project, we cleaned cupboards and then painted the insides and tiled the bottoms and removed some of the cupboard doors for an open concept to see if we would like it (We do!) In the future we plan to sand the cupboards and then stain or repaint.
Yard work is still ongoing, we have trimmed hedges and hauled out trash left behind. Waiting for cooler weather for someone to come and pull out a whole mess of bushes in the front of the house and in the yard. Fall will be a break from inside work as we start to concentrate on the outside a little more. The big plan is to plant a Magnolia tree in the front yard, can’t believe this yard doesn’t have one!! We will fix that oversite!
Patti is the resident Tool lady! She has even learned to use a Skil Saw. Watch out world! Projects in process as of today are a rolling cart for the craft room, and a folding table for the laundry room made from iron sewing machine legs. Stay tuned!
Thanks for stopping in! Say hey by clicking on the page title (Fixer Upper)!
Lots of projects going on in Tupelo–One that has finally been completed started out with 4 legs that were found at an estate sale here in Tupelo. They were joined with a wooden wall hanging that I drug along from Missouri (another junque store treasure) .
The legs were originally primary colors and were fastened to square blocks of wood. They were free standing and had been used as candle holders, judging from the amount of dripped wax on them. Blocks were taken off, legs cleaned up and then fastened to a piece of plywood. The plywood was then glued to the wall hanging (now the tabletop!)
It has found a happy home next to the front door below an old picture of the 2 yankees in Tupelo taken quite a number of years ago….1957 to be exact! What cha think??
The 2nd question we are asked, after “Where ya’all from” is why did you move to Tupelo?
Patti and I did a tour of most of the state of Mississippi and part of Alabama. When we got to Tupelo it just seemed like a good fit. People were friendly, town size was good (population around 38 thousand) , crime rate low, affordable housing. It just ticked off a lot of boxes that we were considering. And of course, it is the birthplace of ELVIS, need I say more? His birthplace is a museum/tourist attraction that we haven’t gotten to yet, but we will! The downtown features a bunch of guitar decorations and music note light ups, murals of the town and Elvis. Very cool area to explore. Also it is the First TVA city. I had to google what that meant (first city to receive power from the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933). Also has a Buffalo park, Confederate Battle Field, assorted monuments and other places to explore when we find the time.
Shopping is good and plentiful, from little shops and restaurants in the downtown area, to the local mall shopping area where you can find everything from Lowes, Home Depot , Kohls, Wallyworld, Penneys, and it has a Hobby Lobby and Joanne Fabrics! Tons of eating places, some chains and lots of locals too. Our favorite local place is called Chicken Salad Chick, every kind of chicken salad that you can imagine and so good! And we have a big antique mall, monthly flea market that is huge and several resale thrift stores ( translate that to projects!)
We chuckle almost daily over the Police Report in the local rag. Some examples would be “so and so lent their car to some guy they only knew by first name and now 2 weeks later they still hadn’t brought it back, so they were reporting it may be stolen. Or the 2 sisters that lived next door to each other and fighting over property line and the tree that one sister had taken out that the other sister said belonged to her….well you get the idea, mostly non violent (unless you were the tree) and a very nice change of pace from the police reports I was used to reading in St Louis newspaper.
Unemployment is low with lots of businesses in Tupelo and a big Toyota plant not far outside of town. Not that we are looking for jobs! But it is a good thing. Also, Tupelo is located just 2 to 3 hours from many other larger cities, like Memphis, Columbus and Nashville, so easy to get to a larger airport to fly off somewhere. There is an airport in Tupelo, but only a couple of flights a day to Nashville I think.
All in all, a nice sized city with everything that we are looking for! So Why not Tupelo Indeed!
