This was the era when three families were living in the house. Ed installed a kitchen sink and cook stove in what was the dining room so that Ken and Larue could live in the front half of the house (old dining room, living room, and two bedrooms). After a serious illness plus stress from another area, Larue was fighting what the doctor called nervous exhaustion and was having great difficulty coping with life. She needed to be near help 24 hours a day and Dot and Ed sacrificed almost half their home and much of their privacy to provide Larue with what she needed to get well.

Dot, Ed, Bob and Bert lived in the kitchen (down the hall toward the rear of the house from the old dining room) and the remodeled back porch, which was converted into a dining/living room. They used the rear two bedrooms. Newlyweds Don and Lois and eventually their first child Judy lived in the downstairs kitchen and an old storage room that Don and Ed converted into a bedroom. The downstairs kitchen had been used years ago by Dot's sister Anne and her husband Bill Keyes, so the plumbing was in place but not the sink and stove, which had been removed to make a play room for the Lindberg boys (ping pong, mainly). 

Don and Lois' quarters were really cramped, but apartments were very difficult to find after the war. Bert was going to college at the time (Illinois Institute of Technology) and had to wait until everyone was in bed before he could do his homework in relative peace and quiet. Ed installed a toilet in the basement next to Don and Lois' kitchen for their use, and the bathroom upstairs had to be shared by Ed, Dot, Bob, Bert, Ken, Larue, Scott and Claudia. With no tub or shower downstairs, for baths this list was extended to include Don, Lois, and Judy, eleven people in all. Everyone pitched in and made it work. We had respect for each others' privacy while enjoying the opportunity to mingle in each others' parts of the house and know each other on a daily basis.

This room was largely unchanged from what it was when they occupied the whole house. This picture was probably taken before complete conversion of the porch to a living/dining room. The table and chairs here were put into the converted porch. Most interesting is the old kitchen sink in the background behind Ed, and the old stove behind Dot. You can see one handle for the stovetop burners and to its right part of the stove's upright oven. Many wonderful meals and baked goods were made in that oven. Among many other talents, Dot was a wonderful cook.