CLINTON – First-time visitors to this country home sometimes gasp, squeal or go saucer-eyed. The maroon 1926 Model T in the driveway is one of few clues that the extraordinary awaits inside.

Alonna Dukeman and Ron Deatrick have taken the place from remuddled to riveting. Victorian parlor coziness mingles with jungle themes and wall-to-wall decorative touches that transform what was a rather ordinary farmhouse.

A floor grate and stained-glass doors and windows are suspended in ceilings. A wall is a wooden quilt and a floor contains an inset image of a corn crib.

The 1932 home, a barn and a second outbuilding nestled on six acres in rural Clinton give two guard dogs room to ramble. Alonna bought the house in early 1995, but worked on it six months before moving in. She bought the house with paneling, carpet over hardwood and suspended ceilings.

Hardly a trace of those remain.

Alonna is a formidable force with most power tools, a sewing machine, rolls of wallpaper and tile. Nearly everything was self-taught.

Ron does electrical work, plumbing, carpentry and just about everything else. That includes operating a circular saw. “It kicks back,” said Alonna, who won’t touch one. She’s afraid of losing a finger.

“He gave me the push or drive,” she said of Ron. “I could not do it without him being behind me.”

She and Ron met at Walker Tire & Exhaust, Clinton, where both formerly worked.

The couple did more than 90 percent of the work themselves. Relatives and friends helped with projects such as drywalling the attic’s walls and ceilings which, with all its angles, took 400 hours.

Going to sales or meeting people getting rid of stuff fueled Alonna’s ideas. She and Ron took two antique doors with stained-glass windows and set them in a suspended ceiling made of car siding in the dining room. In the front parlor, stained-glass windows are in the ceiling in similar fashion. Both are backlit.

The front hallway ceiling is reproduction pressed tin. “It’s called Raspberry Merlot,” she said gleefully. “Don’t you drink that?” She sat down and sang along to “Five Foot Two” as she pumped an oak player piano’s pedals.

She wanted the visual punch of a cutout of a pattern from an antique weather vane for her kitchen cabinets. One carpenter told her it could not be done. Another said he could do it, but she couldn’t afford it. A third suggested she do it herself. She got out a jigsaw and never even made a practice cut before using it on a cabinet.

After she fell through the floor of the corn crib on the property in 2001, she drew a picture of it before it was taken down. She planed boards salvaged from the crib and used them on the basement walls, floors and ceiling.

She cut individual pieces of wood to make the corn crib image on the floor. Track lighting around the floor shines on the crib. The basement was once concrete walls and a concrete floor. Now it also has an elaborate wooden quilt design on one wall, and shelve on two walls holding a lit Christmas village year-round.

The master bedroom promises a “wow” factor.

“When you lay back on the bed, the entire ceiling looks just like the 1932 barn that is outside on my property,” said Alonna. That involved cutting and piecing more than 500 pieces of sandpaper for the roof shingles alone.

“People come in — they can’t believe what’s on the ceiling,” she said.

Ron works as a rolloff driver for a disposal company when they aren’t plowing through projects. But he draws the line on some things. “I don’t dust,” he said.

Alonna drives the Model T, which belonged to her parents, Norma Jean Aldridge Copas and the late Florin “Buck” Aldridge, a watch and clock repairman.

“Top speed is 38 (mph), unless there’s wind,” said Alonna. “I drive when there is no snow or ice and I drive it every day, weather permitting,” she said. “When I drive it out of the barn, it is like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang rolling out.”

She used to make porcelain dolls and sew their clothes, and has taught others the craft. “I’ve helped with over a thousand. At one time, I had 216 dolls.” She’s since given some away.

Dozens of boxes hold hundreds of legs, arms, torsos and heads separated in boxes on shelves in a large room.

The unsettling sight is like eerily stepping into a Stephen King novel. But that is another story….

Upending the conventional

Other decorating ideas from Alonna Dukeman:

• A plastic white ceiling medallion intricately painted multiple colors echoes the kitchen decor.

• A floor grate hangs in a suspended ceiling, with a recessed lighting fixture above it backed by a mirror.

• A circle of barbed wire from a nearby fence post — twigs still entwined — is a wall wreath in the living room.

• A section of weathered gray ladder leans against a bedroom wall, holding belts on each rung.

• A small artificial Christmas tree stays up year-round to keep costume jewelry handy.

• A padded church pew along the dining room wall adds seating for 10.

• An old screen door with gingerbread trim is the attic entrance. The attic is a bedroom with a jungle theme.

• A kitchen floor grate has a faux painted grain to match the room’s hardwood floor.

• A wire snack rack from a store holds bags of chips and other treats for her grandchildren.

• Swinging doors to the kitchen have heart cutouts with two of her father’s pocket watches hanging.

Racing mind the muse for ideas

CLINTON — Why does Alonna do what she does? She doesn’t know.

“I go to bed. My mind just races. I don’t know where I come up with these things. It’s non-stop. I never stop. I’m just working all the time.”

In addition to the fun on the home front that most others consider hard labor, Alonna works for a payroll department for a contractor. “People (her co-workers) say I work just like a machine.”

But Alonna helps others, too. “If she knows of someone in need, she is there,” said Candy Heap, co-owner of Ace Hardware, Clinton. Alonna is frequently there while working on her myriad projects.

One day, Alonna was at the store when two women came in gushing about the Model T parked out front.

They wanted a ride.

Alonna dropped what she was doing and gave them one, Heap said.

Alonna fixes what she calls “sunshine trays” about three times a year, including Christmas, and takes them to businesses she finds especially helpful, including Ace.

She’s done that for about 25 years.

“She’s just go-go-go. I would love to bottle that stuff,” said Heap. “For as talented as she is, she is just down to earth. She’s so interesting your brain just can’t keep up.”

Source: www.pantagraph.com

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