Project House Status Update

Ahh... I am back from a long week working on my project house. It is really coming along. (Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home or I would show you how well we are doing.)

With the hard work of handiman Vern, the outside of the house is finally looking like somebody might like to live there. (In fact, as he was working outside, an old woman approached him to ask if the house was available for rent.) The porch is new and level. There is a pretty, white railing on it. A new front door has been added to the "mystery room" (now an entryway). A platform has been added to get into the house via the entryway. (Steps to the platform still need to be added.) The house does not look at all like it did when I first bought it.

Inside the house, well, that is not looking so good BUT it is way better than when I first bought it. Vern replaced the broken window pane in the master bedroom. (The same room where my sister-in-law, sister and daughter replaced all the wallboard -- it still needs to be painted). He also replaced the two, old, wood-framed windows in what will be my daughter's summer-time bedroom while she attends college. There is heat in her bedroom now, too. Vern added ductwork last week. That's good because it uses one of the large holes that was in her wall. I patched the other hole last week (with a little help from the handiman).  I also painted the walls white. (Shh! It is a secret until she sees it.) I still need to do one more pass with the white, though. The pink and yellow in there were pretty vibrant and still bleeds through a bit.

The main floor is the worst of everything at this point. The big issue: Cracks and holes in the walls need to be addressed before it can all be painted. which has to happen before the flooring is installed. However, I do now have a functiong kitchen stove! (Woo Hoo!) It was delivered last Wednesday and Vern did the plumbing to hook it up for me. My first meal that I cooked in it was french bread pizza. (I have not brought my dishes to the house yet.) Now all I need is a kitchen countertop, installation of my new sink and garbage disposal, some upper cabinets and I will be set to cook.

Alright, there is still an awful lot of work to be done before I can move in. The work needed is daunting if you think about it. So I am not going to think about it. I am just going to do it. I still need to go up one more time before Vern's work is finished. That will happen when I go up in mid-October. He has some things to do inside the house, including some electrical work and the plumbing for my dishwasher. Then he is also going to finish up the outside of the house so that I do not have to do a Lambo Leap every time I want to enter the house from the front. While he is doing those things, I intend to paint in the master bedroom. I will also touch up the second bedroom. That will finish the upstairs painting and it will be mostly finished. (The bedroom doors still need to be added/replaced.)

Goal for the end of October: Finish painting the upstairs so that my son can see a mostly finished upstairs when he comes for my sister's wedding in November, and beds and bedroom furniture can be moved into it for me to more comfortably stay there to work on continued repairs. Let's see if I can meet my goal.