Author: BarbaraSnyderRealEstate

January 20, 2019

The big green monster is framed, roofed and connected to the main house. In between trips to the city to spend time with new grand children and busy work schedules, we managed to get the garage closed in prior to winter. This is Tim’s house. It will be home to his woodworking shop and a final resting place for a lifelong tool collection. I lovingly refer to the upstairs as the “twin cave”.  I hope it will be filled with the laughter of our  grandchildren, Abigail and Eliza. Tim did an amazing job on the breezeway including decorative rafter tails. We are now out of time, energy and money, not to mention it’s bloody cold out. So we will wait until spring to determine what to use for exterior siding and interior finishes. Wish us luck on selling our current home on Walnut Tree Hill. It’s time to move!

September 25: Amazing but true: T and B married 35 years ago on September 17th. Bigger news, VOILA, as if by some magic trick, we are the proud grandparents of two gorgeous girls: birthed on September 5th by our beautiful daughter Sarah and her husband Tom. Everything pales in comparison with nature’s amazing process of childbirth. We are truly blessed with two little marshmallows, Abigail and Eliza. Our best planning had the garage foundation poured, the building framed and closed in before these babies were born. Life, as usual, proceeds without our consent on timing. Did I promise this was our last dance somewhere before, Lots of Laughs. We spent the summer finishing up interior trim and details of the house and looking at garages. Our zoning variance only allow us certain positioning of the garage which presented challenges in placement and design. The garage represents the second marshmallow for me. It is my reward for sticking with the house day after day which I lovingly began to refer to as the “Gulag”. If I was prone to immediate gratification in my early years, I know for certain that I have the gift of patience as an adult. I know that if I practice that patience there are often two marshmallows at the end of the road for me.

16 Months: Could I change that 16 months to 9 months, roll back time and pretend. Not on your life. Of course my last dance would be a MARATHON.  It is only fitting that a gal like me would save the best and most grueling event for last. We have slowly put all the piles of Legos together. Tim has painstakingly cut every piece of trim in our little house and installed. I have assisted and moved behind him with sandpaper and caulk.

The walls are painted, the kitchen is in and the bathrooms are functional. We got our Certificate of Occupancy in early June. Floors are being finished next week. Very exciting!

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.

Week 19:  So I want to address the elephant in the room. There is not a front door on this house. I get calls all the time about this fact.  People stop by and ask me as they are driving by. Contractors who have worked here all ask me. Where is the Front Door? There is concern and worry that I forgot this important architectural detail.

I have lived in many homes where the front entry was never used because the location was akward, out of the way or didn’t have proximity to where cars are parking.

The main entry to the this house is on the end by the driveway. The challenges of designing a 1200 square foot home are many. There simply isn’t alot of wall space. So in this case, I decided that using valuable wall space for two different entry points was not  practical. The windows are placed high to allow for maximum light, but allow for functional wall space below for furniture, cabinets and privacy. The bedrooms are at the back which is where larger egress windows are located.

The gutters are on. I have to keep reminding myself where I came from.

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“What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song
And I’ll try not to sing out of key”

Week 18: One of the greatest songs of my youth. It whirls in my head lately. Tim and Kevin finished most of soffits and trim. Duane Trevail and Clarke Sellers put up as much siding as they could in a few days. My utility pole went in last Saturday.  10 weeks I waited for that sucker, ha ha.  Beardsley and Son dug the trench to the house from pole. My electrician, Rob, laid three 90ft pipes by noon on one of the hottest days of the year. The town inspector passed trench and pipe at 2pm, we laid caution tape on top and KABOOM! We were Done!

The driveway was graded with loads of crushed stone. So happy to have this stage done and dreaming of power at the site. My plants and grass are surviving with much verbal attention and watering. I am resubmitting our application for a zoning variance in order to build a 2 car garage.  I have retained an attorney to help with this process. All of our neighbors have written letters in support of the request.

Now I need some good luck.