We are finally new old house owners.
And as promised, today I will both reveal the name we've given our new old home (which will stand unless we find it has had another in the past), and show more pictures. If you missed the pictures I've posted before or are finding this thread long after those were posted, you can find them in this album.
There are two creatures that both Sean and I are especially fond of, which are otters and bees. There are lots of stories about why, and how we've carried our love of them in various ways over the years, but for now I'll focus on bees.
We like bees. Even when Sean became an exterminator and had to deal with many, many, many bees (often angry and that hurt him), he still loved them. We both think they are a great thing because of what they can do (especially pollination), how for many years bumblebees in particular were thought to do the impossible (since scientists couldn't figure out how they could fly), and, well, a whole lot of other reasons.
When we moved back to Newton, NJ, where we had lived before at one time, we found this guy:
When we bought him, I asked Sean what he wanted to call him, and he said "Beebe". We already knew about this name because it was one given to folks who kept bees. In his mind, bees keep company with bees, so that worked. If you'd like to see his mini backstory and why he lives in a rainbow pail, click on his photo. (We may be nearing middle age, but we are children in our hearts.)
Here's a short history on the Beebe surname:
source: House of NamesAt present, one of the things Sean told me was that he wants to help preserve bees. I think this is a good idea too. As many folks might know, colony collapse disorder is a concern for many. So we've been looking into beekeeping for many years now. Most recently, we are looking into greenhouse bees--bees that don't typically leave a greenhouse. We're still learning a lot about it, but part of why some folks do it is so that there can be exchanges with others to keep colonies robust. There is also thought that when the hive grows, some of them can be given to other keepers, especially those that have lost bees for one reason or another. There is a small chance, despite their containment, that the town may not allow it. We are in the process of seeing what is possible. If we can't keep a small colony there, we may later buy some land nearer to the more rural areas where we can. This is a long term project for us. We'll also do more typical things like having a regular pollinator garden, as well as making bee baths. (Yes! They are a thing, like bird baths, and so nifty.)The name Beebe was derived from a place name in Leicester called Beeby. The place name was derived from the Old English "beo" meaning "bee", and "byr", or "settlement". That is, it was the place where they kept bees.
When we found what I formerly have called the Baker Bungalow is because it's located on Baker Street here in Gardner, we also talked about how we might bring back more bungalow-esque details to her. [We had also talked about possible bee related details when we thought we would be buying and restorating the Carpenter Gothic.] One notion he had when I showed him some of my idea photos was to use a honeycomb relief pattern instead of diamonds or squares in the upper portion of the home on the gable sides. The color scheme would be along the lines of honey with something chosen for the third contrast that we're still mulling over, and over time we've though of other bee like touches to go along with the theme. We know most folks in town might eventually just call it "the bee house" or "the hive", and that's ok. Unless we find out it had a name from prior owners, she'll be Beebe for us. Now, she's much bigger than our original Beebe, but that's ok because Queens are bigger in real life.
Next up, some new pics I took this very night. I am dead tired, I admit, and the camera isn't the greatest, but some of these are new from the old stuff if only from angle. A few are of definite future "project" spots. Since I was taking them at night, everything is interior. I will try tomorrow to take some outside as well. Since we just closed, not a lot has changed. I meant to get over there to take some pics when we had the big snow a bit ago, but we were so buried in the mortgage morass that I never managed it.
Before that, here's a reminder photo of which house it was we actually bought. (My original neighborhood thread wound up covering our entire search for a new old forever home. So some folks understandably got confused about which one it was we actually bought!)