If this post isn’t 100 percent coherent or perfectly spelled, it’s because my friend L and I just celebrated with bloody Marys (and I didn’t make either of them as “lite” as she requested). Work this afternoon is going to be … interesting.
One year ago today, at precisely this hour, I dragged my U-Haul trailer into town after a trip that was more eventful than I might have wished, but ended well with a little help from my friends.
I paused at the title company long enough to sign papers. I popped into the real estate office to pick up keys. I called L to say I’d made it — then I followed her on over to my new-old house. I was seeing the house for the very first time.
Before that, I’d viewed photos and gotten second-hand opinions (thanks to L, who found the place, and the real estate agent; and the home inspector, of course). But that was my first in-person experience. One year ago today.
I think L was extremely brave to have found and done all the legwork on a house purchase for someone else — especially an old house like this one. Very risky behavior there, L!
I loved it from the first moment.
In the year since, I’ve gotten a few surprises. But considering the “interesting” things a 100-year-old house can do, I’ve lucked out. I’ve done a ton and have 10 tons more to do. But I can say (knock wood) that never once have I run into any surprises as “interesting” as this one sent just this morning by a blog reader and fellow old-house adventurer.
At times I feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the improvements still needed. L and not a few blogistas keep telling me to remember how far I’ve come in a year. So, in the name of celebrating not only the anniversary but a year’s worth of small, plodding accomplishments, here are a few befores and afters:
Living room before:
Living room after:
(Actually, since taking this photo I’ve torn up the carpet and removed the pellet stove and its surround. Temporarily it looks uglier than this — but it’s still progress!)
Dormer room before:
Dormer room after:
With new wall and closet behind the bed.
Kitchen before:
Kitchen after:
… with apologies to those who were expecting to see natural wood. I had good intentions, but the wood wasn’t in decent enough condition. And yes, the pink is ridiculous. But this house just affects me that way.
Garage before (ugh!):
Garage after:
Doors still to come.
And of course if you’ve been around a while, you’ve already seen before-and-afters on the sun porch.
So. Today the front door … tomorrow the trim. Ever onward!
Damn slowly onward. That’s how old houses go. But still … onward.
Nice! Congrats!
It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year! But you’ve surely accomplished a lot and made it your own. I don’t know how you’ve found time to keep up with the blogging, but I’m certainly happy that you have.
It’s coming along. Takes time and sweat and money and time and more time. I can’t believe it’s a year. I’m glad you’re blogging too. I read your blog every day and you help balance all that depressing government crapola. Now, I’m off to paint some kitchen chairs for #3 daughter.
How much did you do yourself,and how much did you contract out? If you don’t have money, but have lots of time, you can do a surprising amount,even if you really don’t know what you’re doing-I’ve seen places restored by folks who had never driven a nail, hardly, that looked really good-they just read up on it, took their time,learned from their mistakes,and went with it. It seems to me too many people think “experts” have to do it, and they have some sort of magical powers the average person doesn’t. Nope-you can do a lot yourself-best way to get it the way you want it to be.
The strangest-coolest-thing I’ve found buried in walls(when I worked rental) was all the chandeliers and wall sconces of an 1880s gas lighting system. Perfectly intact-even the glass shades-the mantles had rotted away, but five bucks says with new seals/gaskets/mantles, they would have worked(insurance company might not like 100+year old gas lights,though).
It can be fun taking out the old-bashing things with hammers and crowbars is a form of therapy,at times.
I’d have emailed this to you but lost your email… here’s me showing my modest dose of Living Freedom at a concert… in a T-Shirt you may recognize: http://twitpic.com/66moz8
Wow! Looks great! Just goes to show that hard work reveals great results.
Well done claire…very nice
Great job!
I love the dormer; also the front door.
The house seems darker, yet quieter and more restful ā even the pink kitchen. And the cabinets look larger with one color.
Yeah, Iād say that house is liveable.
Ragnar — that is a flaming hoot! And so are the photos of your pup stealing your beer and your “emergency supplies.”
https://twitpic.com/654wka
https://twitpic.com/3vbkgy
Thank you, everybody. š I realize it’s all nothing spectacular. The biggest accomplishment has really been hauling close to three tons of trash to the landfill (broken pieces of furniture, rotting fence and landscape timbers, broken garden ornaments, bags of household garbage that for reasons unknown ended up stored above the garage, etc.). So much else has just been clean-up, paint-up. But still, it’s encouraging to look back on the year’s work. And so nice of y’all to be with me through this.
Scott, I’ve done about half myself — all the sanding, painting, drywalling, and cosmetic stuff. I’ve found a wonderful (honest, affordable, reliable, intelligent) contractor who’s willing to come in for jobs large or small. He framed the wall in the dormer room, for instance, then I sheetrocked, mudded, and finished it. He installed the front door and did some foundation repair. He’ll put skirting on the house when I’m ready to re-side, but I’ll tear down the old siding myself and shingle and trim the place on my own. (Unless I win the lottery; in which case I’m having a Mai Tai while somebody else does all the work.)
Bless him, he’s willing to have me assist him on jobs where I can’t afford to have him bring a partner. (I know a lot of contractors would charge extra to have “help” from the homeowner; I do my best not to be a nuisance.)
Scott — extremely cool finding chandeliers and wall sconces inside a wall. Wow. (Definitely beats the heck out of tree bark.)
Knowing how creative you are with odd doo-dads, I can see you having fun making use of them.
The picture of your truck with the UHaul trailer behind it pops into my head quite often….it made an impression on me more than I care to express “in the open” – in the “look at her just packing up and heading into something not entirely known, can’t ignore how it all just seemed to fall into place so quickly” inspirational way……it didn’t encourage me to do the same thing, as much as it validated the possibility (if that makes any sense)….we never know what adventure will come along next, and this one turned out pretty cool for you….
Anyway, congrats on the first anniversary of many more home anniversaries……this is the first time I’ve seen so many pictures of it, and damn! you did come a long way in a short amount of time, it looks great!…..Old houses tend to belong to themselves, and fight anyone who tries to make it different, but this one accepted you with open arms….even sight unseen prior to it….you both meshed well, LOL……
I, too, can’t believe it’s been a year already….time is sure flying by…….
Just thought you and your readers might like to get a free Kindle copy of an e-book “Living Off the Grid. This is time sensitive as I don’t know how long it will last.
http://www.thementalmilitia.com/forums/index.php?topic=29197.0
Congratulations, Claire! You’ve done wonders with the place. And I, for one, think your kitchen is beautiful – even if not quite the colors I’d choose for myself.
You may get a laugh out of this story. My first husband and I rented a small house on the edge of a city in our first year, with the landlord agreeing to let us take the cost of paint and a few other things out of the rent. We obviously knew little or nothing about painting in those days…
The previous tenant had painted all of the interior walls, with the exception of a red brick fireplace (thank God) a deep, dark purple. I kid you not.
We applied primer, and then a good two coats of white paint. Next day it was still purple… just a much lighter shade. Three coats later it was a pale lavender and the landlord would not spring for any more paint. In a way, I think the lavender clashed more with the red brick than the purple had, but we were out of options. Wallpaper would have been better, but we’d already spent the money on paint and never could afford it later.
After living with the lavender for two years, we finally moved to our first real home in rural canyon country. The story of that house can wait for another day, but we were quite sure it had started out as a very poorly built barn. š
Wow! You should hire yourself out.
Very nice! And your friend is quite brave to help you buy a house without visiting it first! The pink kitchen is an improvement, even if it isn’t the color scheme I would have picked.
Thank you! And believe me, the three shades of pink in that kitchen (coupled with green walls) aren’t something I would ever imagined choosing for myself, either! I’m definitely not a pink person. I just knew I was going to be stuck with those “pink glitter” countertops for a long time … and the rest followed.
Somehow, this house brings out my sense of humor, and painting things hot pink strikes me as enjoyably absurd.
Oh, Claire… it’s so. Pink.
Yes, Jac. It’s so strangely, shockingly, glaringly PINK.
And I keep wanting to assure people I’m really not a “pink person.” But truly, the house did make me do it. I mean, here’s a 100 year old house whose kitchen was last remodeled ca. 1959. What am I gonna do? As I saw it, I had two choices: a) win the lottery, tear the whole kitchen out, and start over from scratch or b) go full-tilt 1950s.
So you see, I had to do it. You really can’t blame me.