We sought out a different path than most people would choose to take. Right before we decided to take the plunge and purchase our Foursquare, I kept hearing the familiar phrase Dave Ramsey likes to chant, "We have to live like no one else, so we can live like no one else!" Truly all of the pieces had long been forming in both Jeff's and my life. It required the catalyst of Covid, of sky rocketing house prices in our area, and of seeing too many "flippers" messing up old houses and tearing out the character that cannot be recreated, combined with Jeff's talent and business of historic renovation, and our desire to achieve a debt free life (in contrast to the rampant materialism around us), to propel us on our abandoned house renovation journey.
Over the last couple months while we've been waiting for contracts and insurance to finalize - we have had lots of time to estimate and plan what needs to be done first, to create a renovation budget, and to discuss what we want our goals for our renovation to be. We fell in love with this house first because we love the floor plan, and second, because it is in its original state. The house still retained most of it's original wavy glass and all of the original windows, trim, bath fixtures, triple bead board, mantles, wood floors and plaster walls. We intend to restore every bit of it, altering only what is necessary, and making some modern upgrades but with attention to detail and historically as accurate as possible.
That's right - we don't intend to tear out the plaster and lathe, our plan is to repair and restore. This isn't the path for most people, but Jeff has spent countless hours of his down time researching plaster and the proper way to repair and replace it. It's amazing how complex and unique plaster is. Jeff learns like a sponge - it's really quite amazing to me to watch how his mind works. I'm quite jealous actually - as my fibro fog mind has trouble remembering most things. So here he is soaking up the plaster knowledge, some of which I will share in a future blog.
So we have two months from the close of our house to when we need to move in, and there is a lot to get done between here and there. Did I say there's a lot, I meant, an enormous amount of things to get done. And in between we have our regular schedule of work, homeschool, and the holidays. Thankfully the plan is to get enough done to a few rooms that we can at least live in them while we continue to get things checked off the long reno list. Time to begin, one room at a time!