The house all lit up for the Holidays, December 2002, almost a full four years after we first began working on it. It's been an interesting journey, and while it's certainly far from over, it's quite amazing how far we've come.
Look for a few updated galleries after the New Year. The interior is light years ahead of where it was, even in the last set of images. In the meantime, click on the image to the right for a larger, full screen version. |
On January 29th, 1999, I settled on my first house: a 130 single townhome that, for the past fifty years, had been allowed to weather slowly as the decades passed. The little old woman who had lived there alone had no money or ability to keep the house in liveable shape, so when I took over the property at the end of January, it stood much as it had when she first received the house from her parents some fifty years prior.
The roof leaked, the door was patched with scotch tape, floorboards had rotted and she had the front hallway walled in and installed a toilet at the bottom of the stairs once she could no longer manage them herself. The main bathroom had no sink and the old clawfoot tub was slowly rusting away.
Despite all that, the house had potential, so I made a reasonable offer, procurred an FHA mortgage, and by mid-February, work began.
At this point, it should be made clear that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Walking through the house with the old wallpaper peeling off the walls and the dusty old lamps dimly illuminating the hallways, I had no clue that over the course of the next six months we would end up completely gutting this house and putting it back together, piece by piece. At the time, it just seemed like it could be a cool house.
I figured we'd knock a few walls down, patch a few holes, run some new electricals and be done with it. The plumber could move the pipes for the bathroom and we'd expand it a bit and add a sink. It should be easy.
Two months later, with half the wallpaper scraped, holes in every wall, ceiling and floor, dirt everywhere, electricity out of only one outlet and no working toilet, I was in for a big lesson in home repair. (some may call it home reconstruction)
Along the way I walked through every two weeks and took photos with my digital camera. Looking back over the early galleries, I still get chills everytime I look at that bathroom when we first started. As we continue to decorate and finish out the house and property, I'll be adding more galleries to reflect the progress.
With the gracious help of my wife (my girlfriend at the time - it's amazing she ever married me after this), my friends, family, and more than a few contractors, we somehow managed to pull it all off. Today, we are living happily in the home on Washington Avenue, and despite having a ton of finish-work left to complete, the house is comfortable and ours.
Feel free to follow along with the house galleries, step by step. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to email me.
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