Have you ever lived in a place where you felt it was HOME?? Well, I've liked, even loved many places where I've lived--Germany for one, and Greece for another (many reasons why), but was it Home?? No, not r-e-a-l-l-y.

In 1987, following a serious auto accident my husband and I needed to relax and recooperate, so we decided to take ourselves a trip (working unassigned territory, a special assignment for the ministry) in Western Kentucky.

I was born in Louisville Kentucky and having left there at age 2, felt it was just another big city -not HOME. Once I visited my Uncle in Western Kentucky, but had never had yearnings for Home --until we found our Sugar Grove.

Sugar Grove--that is the community my husband's ancestors resettled, in 1804 after leaving for Illinios fearing an all out massacre. Earlier, two of the children had been scalped, and the whole extended Lamb family fled across the Ohio and settled into what is now, Gallatin County, Illinois.

For some reason, my husband's great-great-great grandparents, James and Mary Polly Clarke Lamb came back and settled near the original homeplace his parents built and settled in 1794. By that time, the community was called Sugar Grove, because of all the sugar maples there. It lies 7 miles East of what is now Marion, in Crittenden County, Kentucky.

So, there we were in Western Kentucky and we decided to go search out more of our Lam/Lamb family genealogy. It lead us to the Crittenden County Library. There we discovered other Lambs were already interested in genealogy, and a file in the Library led us to the community!

At this point you have to use your imagination--picture my husband driving up to this old shack and hyperventilating; he wanted it that badly. Even before he knew it was Lamb property. I thought he was a little-over-the-top, or one brick shy of a load...but, now?

Now I know the meaning of HOME.

I never imagined we could turn it into the beautiful home sitting high atop the hill, and yet sitting at the bottom of another hill. I also never imagined that when we got the deed from the previous owner that it would contain the names of my husband's parents as well as, his aunts and uncles! They'd never been there, nor spoken of Kentucky, nor the ancestors settling here.

So, come on in an visit a while, visit our house that stood waiting....

Waiting to become HOME.

The oldest photo is from Velda Lamb, who's grandfather built our house. Velda was a distant cousin who lived in the area. Please be patient, there are several photos to load. They are arranged in chronological order..

The oldest known photo of the house. ca.1900	This is what it looked like the first day we saw it in October 1987, a sad little shack.
	Group of three Photos Upper left. The front porch before we worked on it. Upper right. After we made a deal to buy the old house, we spent all our available time trying to fix it up. We thought we could do it in about a year. WRONG!!! Immediate left. This is pretty much as it looks today. Notice the large maple tree on the right? That was the small "bush" in the first photo, ca 1900.
This what the inside looked like when we first bought it in 1987. A gutted mess. The two doors to the right led to what was then the back porch. It is now our kitchen. Shown here two fireplaces back to back.	This what our restoration looks like now. The photo on the left shows both the living room and front bedroom. This shot shows the front bedroom. The fireplace is covered with a shutter treatment. Looks good and holds in the heat when not in use. The oak was re-claimed from the home's original 100 year old floors! We wanted to keep them, but were unable to.
The photo above shows the living room with the fireplace in the middle. We covered most of the large stones, but left enough so that people could see their enormous size. Some of these stones are as large a refrigerator. We boxed in some of the area and built an entry way on one side of the fireplace and a large bookshelf on the other.	The photo above shows another view of the living room. We insulated the inside and outside walls and put in storm windows. The walls are over 6 inchs thick and this keeps the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. In 1998, we put in central heat and air.
A view of the back bedroom (this time,looking West),this room had been two small bed rooms, at one time. This is the way we first saw them, except cleaner after we arrived! Here we built closets and drawers all across this one wall. Can't get enough storage!	Our back bedroom now. We took out the wall that separated the two rooms and made one larger room. We think the white cast-iron mantel makes it "homey", don't you? We bought it for $1 at an auction! It took one month to clean and paint it.
This is the same wall as above. Only now we have plenty of storage with doors and drawers everywhere! We went across the road and took a felled cedar and made a cedar-lined closet, too. Stencils decorate the front. When we put in the wall-to-wall carpet it really improved the looks of the room, and we bought the cast-iron bed for $1.00 and had it sand blasted; then white enamel paint made it look good , plus it matched the mantel!	The photograph above is from a wall in what is now the kitchen. Many years ago people pasted old newspapers to the walls to help keep out the cold. This i an ad for a buggy sold locally around the turn of the century, you might make out it sold for $50, and another for even less! The paper is now behind our stove in the kitchen, we couldn't bear to get rid of it! The next few photos are of our work in the kitchen, the first room to be really "livable".
Here you will see it as it is now. I just bought some cast-iron trivets from this auction and other things from another one, until the wall filled up. The ice-tongs seemed a good way to hold (modern) paper towels! The only thing we bought new was the stove top and the tiles. It got to a point where we decided to see how "cheap" we could furnish it. Doesn't early "Goodwill" photograph well?	Here we made a well pump cover to look like a hutch. We don't need that gun anymore; it came in handy, though. Other-wise, I'd never gotten out of bed on a cold night to load the ol' wood burner sitting on our hearth! I really miss the old wood burner; but I don't miss what I called "sleep-working"; getting up at 2AM to load it is a thing of the past--thank goodness!
Sitting next to the "Warm Morning" woodburner was SOOOO comforting--I regret we're not able to do that, but I've never regreted getting central heat & air! Aren't we spoiled? After 6 years of chopping wood, I wanted COMFORT. We took a brick from the homeplace of John Buchannon Lamb, Bob's great grandfather, and put it in this wall.	This looked like as good a place as any to convert to a bathroom. Remember, this house had never had running water--let alone anything other than an out-house! We were told this used to be a kitchen--so, it's still a "necessary" room!
We first used yellow poplar for the walls and as you can see it shrunk! A little more paint on the tub, and a gift of a "used" potty and we just needed to decide what to put on the walls. Hey! What about the old out-house? It finally fell over, and we took the wood and put it to good use! Here it is on the walls in the photo on the right. Everyone flips over the old barrel that houses our oval sink. Now, I'm ready to go "modern" for the bathroom. Bob is balking--we'll see...
The photo above is what the bathroom looks like now. The cabinet at the left is made from the wood of the old out-house. It was maple planed down and varnished.	The photo above is of the latest room, we added on. This is our dining room. It's the brightest room in the house with white walls and ceiling. We have bird feeders just outside the windows so we can feed the birds and get a good look at them from inside. It is also easy to refill the feeders from the windows.
The photo above left shows another view of the dining room. The old buffet on the left was bought in an auction and partially rebuilt and a new mirror was installed. The photo on the right above shows the cabinet where our home computer is stored. The doors can be closed to hide all the modern electronics.
Both photos above show our latest improvements to the house. The deck and hot tub was built in July 1998. The photo on the right shows Bob relaxing with a glass of wine. This was after sunset last Fall. It is really special in the Winter. We love to sit in the 100 degree tub with ice and snow all around. It's great. You might think it doesn't go with the antique decor, but we put up lattice work that matches the front of the house and it's worth it. Driving past it still look like just a very old house. We both love the hot tub, but especially Bob, as you can see in the shot below left.
Bob loves to relax in the hot tub with his favorite "Ducky." On the right, you can see the view of our from porch in the Summer. Below are two shots from other seasons.
Above left is a photo of our yard in the Fall. We eat as many meals as possible outside on the deck. Most of the year gives us good enough weather for outside dining. The last photo shows what our house looks like in the Winter. It's beautiful anytime of the year; summer, winter, spring and fall. And , yes, finally!!! it's "HOME", at last.
The photo above left shows another view of of our home in winter. (Sammye likes this one better than the previous one, so I put it in to calm her). The other photo is when Sammye and Bob went to town and had their portrait made.

Sitting on our front porch is very relaxing, but we tend to repeat stories  

Now that you have seen our home, why not visit with us. At least E-Mail us and tell us what you think. If your browser allows music, the song that's playing now is "Blue Moon Of Kentucky".

Bob & Sammye Lamb