I was enchanted with the book, Swiss Family Robinson, and asked my father if I could have a rope ladder installed in my room, and bookshelves built high above the door, near the ceiling, so that I could be perched above and absorb myself in the written words of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. . .authors who appealed to me then and now...
I fancied myself a writer and an illustrator. . .while my father wanted me (as he wanted each of his children) to follow in his footsteps. . .to become an architect. Perhaps, he said, I could study architecture during the summer between high school semesters with Solari? Dad and I had traveled to a Chicago museum to see an exhibition on Solari's work, and on one of our family trips to Arizona, we visited Arcosanti in addition to walking the grounds of Taliesin West. (In the past, a Solari bell hung from each of the beams that extended over the long-walk to the front door of our home, but, more recently, these bells were removed, and my father's extensive collection of paintings, sculpture and oriental rugs sold. . .)
My father's house has been vacant (or nearly so) for two years. Having visited my home in September 2010, the house was a shell filled with memories. . .
The heat had been turned off, in the dead of winter, and we struggled to restore the heat to prevent radiant pipes from bursting. . .
The home had been broken into - twice - more recently to steal copper pipes. . .
And, while the price of my father's estate continued to fall from its over-priced private listing of $4.2 Million to its eventual sale at $835,000, I was most concerned that the buyer would be a developer who would level my father's home, and build new homes that would be an affront to nature, rather than a ode to mother earth.
It appears, however, that my father's home has been purchased by an appreciator of the arts who has retained an architect to restore the home to its original details (with some minor modifications). The buyer has requested the plans to our father's home so that no details are lost in this restoration, and it appears that the electrical system in the home will be upgraded. And, the landscaping will be redone. . .with the original plants uprooted and replanted.
The buyer, a professional, plans to retire in Barrington, and in my father's home. . .and, it appears that he appreciates an architectural gem. . .
My father would be grateful for such a good ending for the home that he so loved. . .and such a good beginning. . .
