October 1, 2021 When we closed on this house in early July 2020, all of 15 months ago, my concept of time was very different. I imagined (even during Covid times) that we would be setting up a Christmas tree in the house in 2021 (what? Are you dreaming, girl??) So, things are going a bit slower than I expected, although Bob had it right – he knew it would take a lot longer!
Now might be a good time to reflect on what we have actually accomplished! Btw, you can search the blog using key words, if you want to travel back in time to re-read some posts… for example, “septic”. Ha! (That one’s a bonanza of entertainment!) But seriously, now that real work is beginning inside the house, we have to remind ourselves that our time and money has been, overall, successfully spent. Lots of good stuff has happened.
We, with the help of great friends, cleaned and made the apartment a fairly comfortable place to live, we cut and cleared many large trees from crowding the back of the house, replaced all the rotted siding and trim, found the septic tank, found it full of roots, and solved that problem by replacing it. We endured multiple septic back-ups, but solved it in the end by replacing all the pipes too. We fixed the heating and cooling systems for the apartment/garages, got rid of hundreds of gallons of waste cutting fluid (not quite hazmat, but nasty enough.) We (ourselves) purged and cleaned over 7,000 sf of house and garages filled with junk, filth and random stuff… an 8 ton dumpster full, and actually not done yet…. ugh! More cleaning, and cleaning….
We finished siding the incomplete exterior areas of the house, replaced over half of the many roofs, added 3 skylights to the garage apartment, and power washed and painted the entire garages and most of the main house, including renting a 110′ lift! The tower had quite a few repairs, although it still leaks (arghh!) We repaired the garage doors, and added a roll up garage door to the back shed garage. We installed a complete lightning protection system (including a flag pole) for the house and garages, with over 1,000 feet of copper cable (3 strikes and you’re out! oh wait… that’s already happened…) Our architect created “built as” plans and more, we had an engineering review, and made tentative design plans. We cleaned windows, did landscaping and lots of planting, and removed hundreds of feet of dog fencing in the woods. We dispatched over 100 mice in the house/garage, a huge carpenter ant infestation, and a few chipmunks! We finished the garage half-bath (the first completed room in the house!), fixed door locks, finally got a washer & dryer, and well, I am sure there is even more that I am forgetting… !
When you are living through something, it is hard to keep perspective. But looking back at the listing photos, compared to where we are now – it is both satisfying and slightly horrifying, I mean what were we thinking when we agreed to buy this house?? LOL (we are on the crazy train, for sure!) 🙂 Stick with us, the good stuff is coming. 🙂
Leave a Reply