15 Oct 2015 How do you build a house? How do you write a story?

by Brenda McClain

Turns out that houses and stories are a lot alike because home is where the story begins for Jack Shock, a classroom veteran but a naïve construction novice. 

Shock has written many stories and read even more, but he approached with caution the idea of clearing an acre of land to build a new house in Searcy, where he’s lived for 31 years after having spent the first couple of decades in his hometown of North Little Rock.

“One of my first life memories is watching carpenters hammer lumber together in what would later become my bedroom (in our first house),” Shock said. “I guess the story starts there.”

A friend recommended that Shock buy a book about how to build a new old house, and he spent weeks reading it cover to cover. After engaging an architect in Little Rock, he was ready to go.

But then he found the table.

Just as each story has a main theme, Shock said finding the 15-foot long plantation table changed the design direction immediately.

“I was poking around in the third-floor attic of an antique barn in Springdale, and I saw it,” he said. “I didn’t want to get too excited and tip my hand, so I just casually said to the owner, ‘That’s a nice table.’”

Although the owner was not initially interested in selling, Shock rented a trailer and made the drive from Springdale to Searcy in a light spring rain with the table wrapped in trash bags and tarps.

A quick trip to the architect resulted in a new kitchen plan, and now the table is the centerpiece of the kitchen, where Shock says he is at home but not proficient. “With two grandmothers and a mother with five sisters, I didn’t need to grow up with the Food Network to tell me how to boil an egg,” Shock said. “That’s about all I can do, but I do it very well.”

The story of his extended family’s life always centered on the kitchen, and Shock says that’s what he wanted to re-create in his new house.

“Even though I don’t really cook very often, when friends come over, we all end up lingering in the kitchen even though I have a perfectly good family room that goes largely unused with company.”

Shock called on friends and students from Harding University, where he has been a professor in the Department of Communication, to help get the table in the unfinished house. “Never underestimate the muscle force of college students who will work for pizza,” Shock said.

After the table was in place, the construction continued. “The house was built around this table,” Shock said.  “I hope the next owners like primitive antiques because they’re buying a table.”

The idea of a farm table in the third floor of a barn sparked ideas for the rest of the house. “After I found the table, the rest was easy. I knew I had a good place to start, and I began to put the rest of the house together as if it were a story.”

Shock spent about three years going to auctions, estate sales and antique stores throughout the South. “My goal was to have 15 chairs around that table and none of them would be alike, and my price limit on each chair was $10,” he said. “I thought that would make a great story, but I also didn’t have any money.”

He found two chandeliers in Stuttgart, although they were originally in a house in Belgium.

“I call the chandeliers ‘the sisters’ because they have the same bone structure, but they have different finishes,” Shock said. “I knew they would complement the yellow color I had pre-picked for the kitchen. I didn’t trust the wiring of a 100-year-old light fixture, so I had them rewired and found an electrician brave enough to take on the task of figuring out how to hang them.”

Shock has worked with many friends and galleries through the years. “I love working with Nancy Hatfield at Sowell’s furniture in Searcy,” he said. “Sowell’s has been in business for 75 years, and they are a Searcy mainstay. Nancy’s daddy, John Sowell, extended credit to me when I was a young teacher and didn’t have two dimes. Our families have been entwined for years through our Harding and Searcy connections. Now, I can call Nancy up and she’ll come over and say you need to do this and do that. I think I have good ideas, but hers are always better.”

Shock has shared his home and his story with a series of beloved dogs. At the time he built the house, he had Traveler, a chocolate Labrador retriever with a taste for lighting fixtures.

“Before I could hang ‘the sisters’ Traveler ate all the original wax Belgian bulb covers. I easily found replacements online, and I firmly believe the Internet was invented to help save dogs like Traveler when they get in a jam.”

During the construction process, Shock relied on his friends and family to help him put everything together. “I inherited some great pieces along with seven sets of chin
a. I’ve never had a wedding shower, but I have seven sets of china,” Shock said.

Shock said he firmly believes that all of our stories begin at home.

“I am so lucky. I’ve been loved every day of my life and surrounded by friends and family who want me to be a part of their story and who want to share mine. I hope I’m always surrounded by pieces in my home that come along with a story. 

“That’s how you build a house. You get an idea. And then you buy a table. The rest is easy.”