Something like 15 years ago, a contractor bought a house across the street from our house. He decided to do a major flip/upgrade while he lived in it. He added a second story, turned the single car carport into a two-car garage, redid the siding, and added a mother-in-law suite. He completely gutted the interior of the house. However, as the economy went south, so did his money and he ended up losing the house to the bank before he could finish it. That happened a few months ago, and the house was bought by a mother and her grown daughter and son-in-law who are fixing it up to live in it. They have been hard at work finishing the house, and I’ve been watching excitedly. Since I can’t do all the things I want to do for my house, I am living vicariously through them.

When I say the house was gutted, I mean there was nothing inside except the studs for the walls. A short while ago, I cheered when a big truck came by and delivered sheetrock! There are now finished walls, and I spy many 5 gallon buckets of paint in the garage. Yesterday, they tore up the single car driveway and put in a new one that went all the way in front of the two car garage. The siding was missing from the very front of the house by the front door, and they just put in stone – beautiful!

Also in the garage, I spy a bunch of doors. I am not sure what else they are planning to do, but I can’t see a kitchen so I assume that still needs to be completely put in, and flooring. Also, the windows have been spray-painted with big X’s so I assume they’ll replace the windows too. They worked about a month or two inside the house where I couldn’t see anything so I assume they were doing the wiring and other smaller less-interesting tasks. I’m excited for them!

I have been told to come over whenever and take a tour, and I’m dying to do that, but I haven’t gotten a chance. I’m waiting for when I have time, Savannah is not taking a nap, and the owner is around and not looking busy talking to contractors. From what she told me, her son-in-law is doing a majority of the work himself. If that’s the case, I need to get to know him and pick his brain… especially if he knows about older houses. There are some things I would love to get advice on, from someone knowledgeable about older houses and not going to financially benefit. :-)