We had no idea so many readers were curious about the original owners of our house until emails and comments started arriving asking whether we’d ever heard from them. We were curious too: did they know their old home was featured online? How much had changed during their decades of ownership? Would they mind the paint and updates we’d made? Then, just weeks ago, the family surfaced. The original owners—who lived in the house for nearly forty-five years—found our blog through a friend and reached out with memories and photos that brought the house’s history vividly to life.

In an old post we shared a few quirky vintage finds we’d discovered under the cabinets during our kitchen remodel. One of those pieces of paper turned out to be a childhood drawing by the woman who contacted us—drawn when she was five. That small connection made the whole exchange feel extraordinary. She wrote to introduce herself and to tell us about the house from her perspective:

“Hey youngsters! That’s the house I grew up in! My mother lived there from the mid‑50s when it was built until 2000 and sold it to come and live with my family. I love the things you have done with it; it is so much brighter and younger! That old dining room next to the kitchen was my bedroom at one time. I hope you are very happy in your new home. — Lisa”

Her note confirmed one of our guesses: the room we use as a dining area used to be a third bedroom. Learning that made us especially glad we converted it back to a bedroom during our kitchen remodel. It was surreal to be talking with someone who grew up in our house in the 1950s and 60s. We asked more questions and were delighted when Lisa replied with a second, longer letter describing the family’s life in the house and the changes they made over the years.

“My parents moved from 29th Street in Richmond City when they had me. I was their second child; my brother was three years older. They bought your house when I was born in 1957 for $13,000. All of the ranchers in that neighborhood had a carport on the end of the house. My father enclosed the carport and did all the brickwork himself to create the room you now call the den.”

She added a delightful aside about the house’s old fixtures: the green toilet in the half bathroom was her mother’s choice. More importantly, Lisa painted a vivid picture of the massive DIY efforts her father undertook. He dug the basement by hand with the help of day laborers, built the block work, and constructed the sunroom above the basement. The sunroom originally had screens all around it; it was enclosed later with patio doors. Lisa remembers being taken to Canal Street each morning during the summer to pick up laborers, who would return to the plaza at the end of the day. The entire basement and sunroom came together through those long, manual efforts.

“I think my mother misses that sunroom the most,” she wrote, and included photos of her family from around 1960—moments that made the house feel more like a living timeline than a structure. One Christmas photo shows the area that’s now our dining room; the window behind the tree looked out onto the screened porch that was later bricked in to form the den.

Lisa also confirmed a surprising backyard detail: there really had been a clay tennis court between the house and the woods. It didn’t last long—her brother and she weren’t passionate about tennis—so their mother turned the space into a garden “park.” She shared memories about the garage too: it was built around 1980 because her father had always wanted one, but he fell ill shortly after it was completed, and never enjoyed it the way he had hoped. Despite all the changes, Lisa says the den with its fireplace was her favorite spot: cozy on winter nights, especially when it was snowing. She also offered a practical tip: if we ever get snow, the street is an excellent sledding hill.

Hearing from Lisa and seeing her photos was one of the highlights of living in this house. Learning that her father had personally built the den, sunroom, and basement, and that the backyard once hosted a clay tennis court, has deepened our appreciation for the home. It now feels even more special knowing the hands and stories that shaped it long before we moved in. We’re genuinely grateful to Lisa and her family for reaching out, sharing their memories, and helping us connect with the true history of our home. Casa Petersik clearly had many DIY adventures even before we ever picked up a paintbrush.