Oh, progress.

All the early mornings and hard work really turned into something amazing this weekend. Without Daves help, none of this would've been possible. Rory and Dave got so much accomplished and when I am looking at the back of the house, I can't even imagine what it looked like beforehand. We weren't planning on having a screened in porch so early on, but the weather was so unstable all weekend - that it was hard to commit to the roof. They did get a good chunk of it done, but my favorite accomplishment was replacing the windows in the back. It's oh so nice to have real glass in the bathroom instead of cardboard. Hopefully these pictures can capture the major changes.

Exterior on moving in day

Interior on moving in day


Two weeks later...

How it happened.

Thank you Dave for everything. We appreciate everything you have done for us and our house. We are grateful for your time and efforts and will enjoy the new space you helped create. We are not there yet but you've given us a good start. We love you.

Ambitions and Achievements

Over the past week a lot has gone on at the house. The sink leak was fixed and the yucky faucet was replaced by a new one. Also, one side and the front of the exterior of the house were scraped and primed. We picked out the paint color for the exterior - Gray, "Graceful Gray" to be exact - and we are going to paint our front door an eggplant purple. Actually, I think that the paint pallet calls it "Ripe Fig". Dave, Rory's brother, is in town for a long weekend and the pair has high ambitions for their time. The sound of drills, saws, and tearing wood have been echoing through the house all day. The back sun room is completely demolished, it no longer exists. In it's place will be a mud room and a screened in porch. I have been cooking to try and keep the working men fed - this morning I made BBQ sauce and have baked a pork tenderloin for pulled pork. I also made a cilantro pesto - thanks to both Jan and Emily I had an overwhelming amount of cilantro - but the pesto turned most of it into a delicious treat. Oh! We also got a dumpster delivered. Very exciting times here.

I am going to save the pictures of the porch demo until the end of the day, because I want to get the whole day's project from start to finish. Instead, I will show you these:

The side of the house before the scraping and the priming....

The same spot after the fact.
The yard before the weed whacking
And after!

The floorboards (love them) that are different widths and go in many different directions. This is where the kitchen boards meet the living room boards.

And...the sunset from the front yard sometime during the week

I will be posting again very soon to show you the progress from the day.

And so it begins...

Months of hard work and aggravation. Are we going to need another water test? Will we make this deadline? Is that signature enough? Is it ever going to happen? We knew that purchasing a house wasn’t simple, but I really didn’t expect such a high stress, unrelentingly infuriating process. Rory may or may not have gotten his first grey hair. And I lost my patience too many times to count.

But last Friday, even though we weren’t certain it would happen until 2pm that day, we closed on the house. Our house. It finally happened. The past weekend was so full of hard work – cleaning, painting and cleaning some more. We couldn’t have gotten everything accomplished without all the help that Jan and Bill provided - their honed cleaning skills, excellent company and delicious potato salad.

It is starting to feel like more of a home already. I don’t walk around saying “Oh gross, Rory look at this!” that often (only once or twice a day). From now on weekends are going to be full of projects to improve this home that we are going to make our own. This weekend – the kitchen sink and bathroom will be put under the scrutiny of Rory’s plumbing skills.

Now for the pictures! Keep in mind this house was built in the 1860s and has lacked the upkeep it needed to live up to its full potential. We are going to give this house the TLC that it so desperately needs. And you can follow the process right here.

From the front

From the back

Kitchen during cleaning

After lots of cleaning

Living Room area - ignore the boxes -
the bedroom is on the opposite side through the doors

I will share pictures of the kitchen and bathroom after this weekend when Rory has worked on the plumbing. By the way the picture in the header is Mt. Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont and about a 10 minute drive to the access road from our house. We are ordering the replacement windows, doors and roof supplies this week. Lots of hard work to come, but we can't wait to jump in. Until next time...