First and Ten…

Week 20: I didn’t play football, but I went to my brother’s games every weekend with my Dad. The first down was always an exciting feeling. Your team has possession and has opportunity.  Our small project is well “out of the ground” and then some. I started making a “house” gratitude list each day which has help me enormously.

Someone asked me this week why I decided to blog about this: Every other house renovation we have done(6 in all) has ended with a few before and after photos. Great for showing at parties, but only reflecting the final score. For me the entire journey is the story. This isn’t HGTV where we can edit out the pouring rain for 5 weeks in a row, or forget the battle to get a power line, or hide a bout with lyme tick and have a nervous breakdown. This is a marathon and there are points along the way that you want to stop, sit down and forget the whole idea. This is about weathering the storm and pushing yourself forward.

We have POWER as of this week after 3.5 months without. We have GUTTERS which will stop the front yard from washing out every time it rains. We have SIDING and TRIM! We have GRASS growing on the front lawn and a fairly well established back lawn. I pushed hard on the landscape because I know how long it takes to get established planting.  I had the dog fence installed this week so my beloved Ollie can come to work with us.

Tim had his last commute to West Virginia in August and is home now for good. Two and a half years of working 9 hours away was hard, but It did allow us the resources to do this project. We are very grateful.

With the exterior well on it’s way we will move into the interior for the fall and winter. This is going to be much more our in our comfort zone and Tim’s expertise: interior trim carpentry and built-ins. The size of house means every square inch has to be designed for function and utility. No wasted space.

Our second application to ZBA for a garage has been accepted and our public hearing is set for August 30th. We have support letters from all the neighbors and we have a good attorney representing us. We need the garage to make this whole project work. Our fate is in their hands.