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Alexis' House at Allis Ranch
The Kouba Ranch House - 1910 - Helen and Joe Kouba
In 1910 Helen Kouba, a woman with a dream and a family inheritance, paid $3,000 for a Sears Catalogue House and didn't tell her husband. When the boxes arrived by rail in Corral, Colorado (now Sedalia), she finally told him what she had done. Her husband's reply? "I don't know how to build a house!" And so they stored the boxes in the civil-war era shed next to their home of the same period. 
Thirteen years later, migrant workers traveled through West Plum Creek Valley seeking work in exchange for room and board. One day a man and his son knocked on the door and said, "I see you have a house stored in your shed. I can build that house." Joe replied, "But I have lost the blueprints." Confident, the man proclaimed, "I don't need blueprints. I can use the pictures in the Sears Catalogue." And Helen Kouba got her dream home.
The Kouba Ranch House - 1970 to 1991 - Andre and Pat Allis
By the time Pat Allis, Helen and Joe's grandson, and his new bride, Andre, moved into the Sears House, it was badly in need of repair. For twenty years, Andre and Pat raised their two children in the house and continually worked on the house and the land.
Because there was no insulation and the single-pane original diamond-bar windows, the signature of the house, were cracked and wind blew through the framing, they put blankets and towels around the floor boards and windows. Eventually Pat installed a wood-burning stove, put paneling on some of the walls and ceiling beams across the original horsehair plaster to keep it from falling down. They put linoleum on top of the Douglas fir floor boards, repaired the broken basement windows to keep water, dust, rodents and snakes out, and by 1988 had saved enough money to buy new kitchen cabinets, carpeting for the bedrooms, and new wood for the front porch. 
The ranch house and outbuildings circa 1975
In 1991, Pat died of a heart attack on the back porch, and the Allis family sold the remaining 840 acres of Grandpa Joe's ranch to Colorado Open Lands, which created Allis Ranch Preserve.
Allis Ranch House Restoration - 2004/2005 - Margaret and Dave Rhyne
By the spring of 2004, the ranch house was in complete disrepair. Renters had neglected it and field mice had claimed it as home after the renters moved out. Allis Ranch homeowners considered repairing the house and renting it but later decided they didn't want to bear the expense nor be landlords, so they offered the house for $1 to anyone who would pay to move it. Although two families, both of whom lived within three miles of the house, were interested, ultimately they declined to buy the house because the bids for moving it ranged from $50,000 to $100,000. Despite its history, the Allis Ranch homeowners were considering scraping the house. 
Alexis and Dave and I lived on the only Allis Ranch lot contiguous with the ranch house parcel and proposed to the homeowners that the two parcels be re-surveyed and re-platted so the ranch house would legally be on our property. In exchange, we offered to bear the expense of restoring the house with the intent of renting it to a family who could help us care for Alexis. The homeowners agreed and work began on Thanksgiving weekend, 2004.
Working alongside day laborers, we spent more than 300 hours tearing out the original plaster and lath and all of the door, window and baseboard trim, ultimately filling three 30-yard roll offs.
Once the house was down to its studs, we hired a structural engineer to access the framework. The wood studs were hard and straight and true. The structure was sound. "They should build houses like this today" we were told. 
By the end of 2004, we had pulled out all of the knob and tube wiring, had new duct work and a new heating system installed, had raised the ceilings on the second floor by a foot to accommodate fans, had the original windows replaced with exact replicas, and had had three roofs replaced with new underlayment and asphalt shingles. Encouraged by the progress, we could envision Alexis spending many happy hours with a family living in the house by summer. But fate had a different plan.
Alexis' House - 2005
On the morning of January 8, 2005, we found Alexis in bed not breathing. Our attempts to revive her were unsuccessful.
For two months we couldn't go near the house, our hearts were so filled with grief. But eventually the ranch house became a place of refuge and healing for us. As we worked and cried and sweated over the next several months, the house began to take shape and we named it "Alexis' House" in honor of Alexis.
We tore out the linoleum and carpet, removing hundreds of nails and carpet tacks. We had the floors sanded, repaired and sealed with a clear coat, showcasing their natural grain and color. Dave set up a carpentry shop in the basement and replaced the original wood trim with exact duplicates. All exterior walls were insulated with spray-in foam and glass block windows replaced the broken basement windows.
Family and friends joined us in April and painted all of the interior walls in half a day, infusing the house with music and laughter. In May a dear friend planted a memorial garden with bleeding hearts and forget-me-nots under Grandpa Joe's cedar trees in the front yard. The sandstone bench which Andre and Pat had placed beneath the cedars years before was engraved with Alexis' name.
I found an iron bed with hearts in the headboard and footboard for what would have been Alexis' bedroom on the main floor. We covered all the beds with hand-stitched quilts from Dave's maternal grandmother and installed three-butterfly solid brass door knobs from his maternal great, great grandfather on the front door. 
On July 25, 2005, what would have been Alexis's 30th birthday and was, ironically, Andre and Pat's anniversary, friends and family gathered once again at Alexis' House but this time they filled the gardens with flowers in her memory. Once again the flower beds at the ranch house are full of life and color. Dave and I spent the night at the house with Megan, Aaron and Brianna and remembered Alexis and her indomitable spirit which we believe has become part of the house's legacy.
Alexis' House began as a dream by a woman with $3,000 and a secret. For almost 100 years, it has been a place for families and their friends to share their lives and create memories. It has inspired devotion and faith and has always demanded hard work.
For the Rhyne and Allis families and for all of the neighbors in the West Plum Creek Valley who have memories of the house from their youth, Alexis' House is a structural symbol of change and endurance, of dreams fulfilled and lives lost but not forgotten, of physical and emotional restoration, and, most importantly, of family love. It stands to remind us all of the entwinement of past, present and future. 
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