A lot of people wanted it,” Eric Albus says of a delightful and charming old farmhouse that was once for sale outside Groom. Built in the late 1800s, it was located 250 feet off Interstate 40. “No one could figure out how to move it.”
That was 2003. Eric bought the house for $7,200 and thought it was the deal of his life. The home had recently been rented out but the owner was ready to get it off his land.
Lucky for Eric, he had a couple of acres in Rolling Hills that would make the perfect final resting place for the vintage structure. And after all, how difficult would it be to move an old home just a few miles down the road? Eric studied routes for two months. He was determined to get the house moved, even if he had to travel Panhandle backroads.
The reality proved far more complicated.
“I had a big group of friends. We were going to move the house and bachelor-pad it,” Eric says. “The move took so long, two of them got married in the process.”
It took two years, and Eric learned a lot about moving a house. He tore 80 percent of the plaster from it because it was too heavy, removed the roof because it was too tall, and had to take out the basement, porch and washroom in order to get it down the road.
He also got an education in permits. Which you definitely need to move a house down Interstate 40. “Yeah, we didn’t have a permit or anything,” Eric says with a chuckle. “They told me they were going to tear it down. I told them to get after it.”
Fast-forward several years and copious “I want to give up on this” exclamations later, Eric was out of money and out of passion. He had finally gotten the house to his property in Rolling Hills, but as it turns out, getting it there was just half the journey.
That’s when the love of his life, Jill, came into the picture. A creative and whimsical soul with energy to spare, she provided just the spark Eric needed to start anew.
“We’re project people,” she says, laughing.
They married in 2008 and lived in a camper behind the house for six months while they worked on the structure.
“Jill put a hot meal on the table every night,” Eric says.
“I thought it was important in the new marriage that I had dinner on the table,” Jill adds.
That routine lasted until summer temperatures arrived and the air conditioning couldn’t keep up. “We shifted to sandwiches,” they say with a laugh.
For Eric, the work on the house aligned with what he’d been doing all his life. He grew up remodeling houses with his dad. Today, he’s a welder by trade, but still found the house renovation tedious and expensive. Jill seconds that.
“We were so broke.”
But little by little, they started to see progress. They completed enough of the home to move in. They became the proud residents of what was essentially an efficiency apartment—a bedroom, bathroom, laundry room and part of a closet.
Even then, with a light at the end of the tunnel, there were moments when throwing in the towel seemed like the logical thing to do.
“We’d say, ‘I don’t want to do it,’ but then we would regain our spark,” Jill says. “Then we got pregnant.”
“Then we got a loan,” Eric jokes.
Nothing speeds up a project like a baby on the way.
By 2012, Jill and Eric say they had finished the house, “for the most part.”
Of the quirky, eclectic Texas homestead that resulted, Jill says she wanted to create a space that was a cozy oasis in Amarillo. Think farmhouse meets artistic experiment, with Jill’s personality on full display. “We love Amarillo, so it feels like Amarillo, but it’s a surprise,” she says. “There’s something around every corner.”
It’s a lesson in intentional serendipity. It makes sense, as antique and vintage shopping is one of the couple’s joys. Jill has a real gift for repurposing something and giving it a new, often kitschy life.
The Albus Menagerie
The house isn’t the only living quarters on the property today, but first, the animals should be mentioned.
The Albus “family” is made up of two adults, two kids, and two mini-donkeys, Carlos and Manuela, who are, by the way, romantically entangled. Also there are 28 chickens, four miniature or toy Australian shepherds (Tulsa, Taos, Trigger and Piper), three goats (whose names are not appropriate for print in a family magazine), and one quail
(a recent addition named Bob).
“I want more,” Jill says.
Almost instantly, Eric replies, “No, we’re not getting any more.”
It’s worth noting that Eric just added Bob to the crew as a gift for Jill.
One of the property’s more unique structures is a converted grain silo that now serves as home to Jill’s flock of chickens. “This was another great deal—free to anyone who would move it,” Eric says. He moved it.
There’s chicken wallpaper and chicken artwork—because of course there is. Jill has made sure the flock has a very sleek chicken run to spend time in, and she’s given the birds a sufficient number of bird antiques to live among.
Trailer Park
The property hosts nearly as many Airstream trailers as non-poultry animals. Some of these vintage houses on wheels date back as far as the 1970s. Eric and Jill have remodeled those as well, and have even used some of them for actual travel. But these vehicles are truly a reminder of the camper where Eric and Jill lived when they got married almost two decades ago.
Jill is also an avid gardener, but with an approach to gardening that is decidedly (and unsurprisingly) off-kilter: Her raised-bed gardens are made from the beds of old pickup trucks and a missile silo. She grows a variety of vegetables, including eggplant, tomatoes and squash.
Building Love
Exploring the property itself is a lot like talking to Eric and Jill. There are so many laughs, whimsical finds and examples of function with a lot of heart. This is their love story for everyone to experience—a true harmony of old and new, country and chic, rescued and reimagined. It’s one of a kind, and it’s not done yet.
“In the next year, we’ll be primarily done,” Eric says.
“But we’ll never be done,” Jill reminds him. “We’ll always think of ideas. You know—change it up.”
Two souls who pride themselves on finding the best in everything, giving us all some unexpected joy along the way.
