We bought our little home almost nineteen years ago, from the widow of the man who built it in two stages. The first – a two bedroom, one bath house with a small living room and eat-in kitchen was built in 1950. The second, done in the mid 60s’, made the living room into a third bedroom and bath, the kitchen into a little sitting room and added on a new living room, dining area and kitchen. The little 900 square foot house increased to almost 1,700 square feet.

We have been dreaming of this day forEVER. We paid our last mortgage payment in October, enjoyed not having a mortgage for a couple of months, and then took out a small home equity loan to get Sally a new dress. Her crumbling blue siding was well past its prime, and she also needs some subfloor repair and new flooring. While we’re at it, we’re going to put up a beadboard ceiling!

I am really looking forward to the finished project in two or three weeks (hopefully sooner). In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the progress, beginning with the brick repair we had done:

Sad little house — we originally planned to have the brick stained to match the trim color we planned, but after they pressure washed it, we reconsidered. I’m glad I was there to see how good it looked before they stained it!
It’s looking so much better.
He is sealing the brick so it holds its color better over time.
New Hardiplank over foam insulation. This side of the house gets COLD in the winter, so we are hoping this will help.
This used to be the front of the house before the original owner turned it sideways and added on. That little window over the a/c compressor is a bathroom now, but it was the front door!
I noticed this out the brand new backdoor a few days ago. Beautiful.
Repairing rotten wood and putting in new porch posts.
They used to be skinny posts – we really like the simple way our builder dressed them up for us.
Of course, there’s always a surprise. The flat roof over the garage had a hidden leak. This has been repaired and Monday we are having a new roof put on the garage.
New backdoor and painting coming along!
First coats of paint are almost done. I am so happy with how everything is looking. Look at our red door!!!

This is all for now. I’ll be taking more photos and sharing them as the work progresses. Right now I need to go take a chandelier apart…

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