SACH
When we were looking for a house to purchase,
when we referred to what we now call "Three Meadows," we called it "Suck-Ass
Crap House." It was a gorgeous (if unmaintained) lot in a great location -- but
the house was frightening. The roof had been leaking in the unoccupied house
for years, and many of the walls had rotted away, and there was mold covering
several ceilings and floors. The only rational thing to do was to bulldoze. I
had a secret hope that the place would burn down in the few months after we
bought it (and insured it), but before we moved in. No such
luck.
After my mom and grandma cleaned
the place up, it turned out that one wing of the house was kind of sort of
livable, so we decided to live in that wing while we decided what to do with the
place -- bulldoze all or half, or try to save some of it. And after a year of
evaluation, we decided to keep it, and remodel it to our tastes in our own
time.
Now, two years later, the place
is quite livable. The roof (brand-new) sheds water, there's no mold, and the
place feels like home. It's still a disaster in many ways, and the construction
will be ongoing for years yet, but every month it gets even better. And there's
something freeing about a house that's so bad that every change is automatically
an improvement.
Next on the list is
gutting and rebuilding the main bathroom. Then some paneling on the ceiling of
the living room. Then my office gets a major makeover, adding electrical, two
windows, flooring, and shelves.
Life is
good.
Filed Thu - October 21, 2004, 05:56 PM in
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