The house is over 100 years old and it had been vacant for the past three years. The previous owners were elderly. The wife died first. Three years ago, the husband moved to a nursing home. He passed away last year so his children finally put the house on the market. We got a great deal on it.
But you must remember...very old home, owned by aging people who were in poor health. And it hasn't been lived in since 2011. So it has tons of things that need updating, repair, or replacement.
*The ceiling in the half bath off the kitchen is cracked. Bill thinks it's due to the...
*Fact that the house needs a new roof
*The full bath upstairs was originally a bedroom. So it's pointlessly large and everything in it is blue. EVERYTHING--the door, the toilet, the tub, the radiator...it's so bad it's comical. Bill replaced the toilet seat, so that's white, but now it's even more hideous.
*The carpet in the master bedroom is the color of newborn baby poop.
*There isn't carpet in the other two bedrooms. It's linoleum. And it's lumpy.
*Electrical outlets are at a premium. The smaller two bedrooms each have a pair of outlets. They splurged in our bedroom and gave us two pairs. But the bathroom only has two outlets. We have to get creative, especially when we are trying to work remotely. Hard to plug in all of our electronics in just two outlets. And the wiring is a bit sketchy.
*The wood floor underneath the carpet in the front hall and the dining room buckled in two spots. I have tripped over those lumps more than once. That's one of the first things we will have repaired, but it does involve pulling up a lot of thick, early 80s carpet.
*The basement is scary and unsafe. I haven't been down there since we walked through with the realtor. I get a kick out of watching Bill go down there. He hates it. He has to psych himself up to go down there.
*There are a series of ancient cupboards lining the narrow staircase to the basement. My mom and I made the mistake of opening them. We quickly closed them. We will deal with that trash some other day.
*We bought new mattresses for this house. We have since discovered we can't get the box spring for our queen bed up the stairs. Bill is going to have to remove some trim and perhaps part of the wall so we can get it upstairs. In the meantime, we got the mattress upstairs and that's working just fine.
Lest you think I'm miserable and resentful, let me assure you that I find most of these problems highly amusing. The house has so much character and it's in one of my favorite places in the world. We just need to be patient and tackle these projects one at a time. And Bill keeps telling me how happy he is. Even thought many of these projects are going to fall on his shoulders!
Here are a few pictures, for your viewing enjoyment.
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