‘Rural Route Revival’ makes progress on homes, online

The builder-producers of “Rural Route Revival” have been busy over the past couple of weeks: filming the Olney in America celebration, putting up the walls of their first house and permitting two others, and posting the trailer for the documentary-style streaming series about Olney on a new YouTube channel.

Passersby on West Oak Street saw the walls of Lance and Corey Groves’ first home rising over the weekend after the brothers resolved lumber shortages and had two loads delivered for the three-bedroom, two-bath house. The brothers received permits to build two more homes at 305 W. Oak St. and 113 W. Howard St. and plan to pour concrete for those projects the week after next – provided the plumbers arrive next week, Lance Groves said.

The two new homes will be larger than the one now under construction, he said. The City approved plans for a single-story, four-bedroom, three-bath house at 305 W. Oak St. and a two-story, five-bedroom home at 113 W. Howard St., Mr. Groves said.

“The longer we spend in Olney, the more we come to know that there are families with a lot of children and there are a lot of children coming back and forth between a couple of families,” he said. “We really want those bonus kids from blended families to have space of their own. We want houses that are fit for the modern family.”

While builders were at the job site, the camera crews that are documenting the Groves’ pledge to build homes for Olney workers filmed the June 30 Olney in America celebration at the Olney Country Club. The crews captured crowd shots and fireworks with a drone and shot the concert by Olney natives Kevin Bullock and Casey Keeter, and Race Ricketts, who is lending his Young County anthem “940” to the series soundtrack. The Groves also shot videos of Mr. Ricketts playing acoustic music in the production trailer they have set up on State Highway 114 at the edge of town.

“We are teaming up with Race to do some promotional videos because we love him and believe in him .. we are going to drop a series called ‘The Trailer Sessions’ and invite other local musicians to come and play,” Mr. Groves said.

That series as well as the Rural Route Revival trailer will be posted on the production team’s new YouTube channel, “Rural Route Revival” (@RuralRouteRevival). The team also has established social media channels to promote the series, including a Twitter account (@ RuralRouteTx), he said.

“The main thing is getting these houses built – the TV show is how we are going to fund all this stuff,” Mr. Groves said. “We are in a really good spot. It took us a long time to get to this spot. The hardest thing is the limits we put on ourselves. When we trust and there are no limits, everything works out.”

“We are running this race with a crowd of great witnesses,” he said, quoting from Hebrews 12:1.