The home.

Here is the home. It was a stick built house, though it looks a lot like a modular/move on home. The home itself is built pretty well, but because of neglect the deck needs replacing and a couple of trusses need to be repaired due to excessive snow loads. Unfortuantley, whoever poured the foundation for the original owner didn't do it right and the west side of the home has a section of foundation that will have to be replaced or repaired. I think we will be replacing it because the repairs that could be done won't eliminate the problem in my opinion. We negotiated with the seller and were able to adjust the price of the property to offset the cost of the required repairs.

The back of the home has a nice large deck, but it is not covered and as a result is falling apart from years of lots of snow piled up on top. We'll probably have to rebuild it and cover it. Another negative of the home is that the roof is not steep enough for its location. Its sits in the middle of a whole bunch of trees and doesn;t get much sun, so if the home isn't heated the snow just piles up.

This is the inside of the home. I guess I should say was the inside of the home. The first weekend we owned the place i went up with some brothers, my dad and brother in law and we went to town tearing out the 70's carpet, brick and that hideous tile beneath the woodburning stove. I'm sure it was cool when it was new, but it's not anymore.We tore out the old green doorknobs, dark dingy doors, casings and baseboards, vinyl flooring, tile tub surround and anything else that we didn't like. I had immediate plans to retile the bathroom and get at least one room refinished so that we could use the home through the winter and remodel it slowly. I had big plans for the place last year and went home that Sunday thinking of all the great things we could do with it.

2 Days later I was at the ER with my 6 yr old daughter in the middle of the night. The cancer she had fought and put behind her the year before was back for round 2. We were devastated. Obviously she is much more important to us than an old home in the woods so it has remained pretty much untouched since. It is now just over 1 year to the day since tearing into the place. Our daughter went through a bone marrow transplant and spent most of the year at the hospital, but she is finally home and doing much better. So as life begins to settle down a little, I am reminded that I have a property that needs to be fixed up in the event that I need to sell it to pay for these rediculous medical bills. So i have started weighing the options for remodel, and started this blog as a place for me to save my ideas and the remodel process.