The thing about buying a fixer

Here's the thing I didn't think of when we bought this house. It seems obvious now, but at the time, it just never crossed my mind.

We looked at the house, all of it's flaws. We said, "Yes, we can fix this. Yes, we can live with that. It will take a while, but we can do it."

What I didn't think of is that while we work, ever so slowly, on one project after another...the house continues to deteriorate. The list gets longer and longer and longer.

I took out the yucky shower doors and hung a curtain. Yay. Huge improvement. Now the wooden molding at the base of the tub is rotten.

Ew. It's actually not as disgusting as I feared. I've been putting this off for a while. Like...a year. I finally worked up the courage to yank that stuff off of there. It was on there GOOD. Somebody likes their silicone caulk. At least I think it was caulk. It was like caulk, but gooier. Much gooier.

I'll scrub it up tonight and replace it with this.

                                   

We took down the old broken trellis. Uh-oh. The bottom 2-3 feet of the shed is rotten. Gonna have to replace that.

But isn't my little pond cute? I planted lettuce, cabbage and herbs, but they didn't come up. I may very well be the world's worst gardener. I keep trying. I'll pick up some new seeds and try again. Perseverence. That's what I'm all about.

A hurricane rolled though. The roof leaked. The laundry room wall crumbled. It's fixed and repainted now. That was 2 weekends, right there.

My husband, D, replaced the old ceiling tile. How nice. The roof leaked again (guess that patch didn't hold) and the new ceiling tile fell in. Now we're (and by we, I mean D, because I'm too short, even with the ladder and, well, it's icky up there) taking out the ceiling tile and refinishing the wood ceiling.

The roof has now been patched properly.

Isn't that wall paper hideous? That was on the original list. You can see, most of it is down now. That last chunk is lingering still.

Don't get me started on the flat-black-painted-tile on the lower walls. Clearly, this kitchen was not intended for actual food preparation.

D put an AC unit in the spare room. Now the wall beneath it is started to mildew. Sigh. That room needed new paint anyway.

I so underestimated this whole house-fixing-up adventure. I have never dreamed of fixing up a house.

I love old houses. I love the character. Every door in our house is a different size. They have working skeleton key locks. The light fixtures are brass with etched glass. I love that.

But I never wanted to be the one to do the work. I wanted to buy a newly renovated old house.

I have hobbies. I like to paint and make curtains. But ripping out rotting wood? Not a part of my plan. No. Not really.

But you know what I learned about houses? They aren't cheap. Unless you do the work yourself. And so, here we are.

The whole business makes me tired.