BIG RED isn't just chewing gum.

I had hoped to begin posting something sooner, but diving into the restoration took priority. As we head into fall, I thought maybe it was time to get serious about creating a site for everyone who is curious about how it's going.
We have a community of interested and well meaning people who want to know how we plan to treat the old girl. We have family and friends who are caught somewhere between two sentiments..."you lucky dogs" and "thank god it's not us". We feel the same way.

Who are we? I am from Canton, Illinois originally. I went to "NMSU" which is now known as "Truman State University" in Kirksville, Missouri. I met my wife Ashley (originally from St. Louis) there and we ultimately moved back to the Peoria area for work. I am the head of the IT division at a company in Peoria. We have a daughter, Elena, who began school this year and calls our house "the castle". We also have a dog "Ace" and a cocky cat named "Wampus".

After living in Spring Bay, Illinois for several years, we decided to start looking for a larger house. We didn't know how "large" that would become. Ashley found the house online and convinced me to drive out to look at it on Mother's day. We thought the same thing most people do when we saw it..."Wow! That house is awesome. It needs work, but can you imagine how beautiful it could be?" We decided to get a look inside and contacted the realtor. As we looked through the house, Ashley began to squeeze my hand HARD. From the amazing woodwork throughout the house, to the original pool table in the 800 square foot attic, we became hooked. By the time we walked out the front door, we'd made up our minds.

Buying the house turned out to be a pleasure. The family we bought it from had put a great deal of money, labor and love into the home and under different circumstances would never have moved. We bought a house and gained new friends in the process. They passed on a huge assortment of knowledge about the house, the town and life in Big Red. The work they did set us up very well to continue the process. Without that foundation, our job would be much harder.

Why "Big Red"? The house has been called that for many many years because of it's primary color. There was a brief period many years ago when it was painted white, but it didn't last long. As far as we can tell, red was the original color...and for those of you dying to know...yes, we'll be sticking with it. I don't want to be run out of town on a rail.

Now that we have that out of the way, I'll begin to post some pictures of our progress inside and tell you about our plans.

You can always jump to the web based photo album by clicking the slide show photos on the left side.