Harris House:Project House

When we purchased our house (9 months ago already—boy, time flies) it looked like this:

Ahh, home sweet home.

 

 

Lovely, it takes years of neglect to achieve this particular look…

Don’t you just love that salmon-rose color? How could anyone pass that up?

 

Who hated this house this much?

So inviting! Just the place I’d love to come to kick back and relax after a long, hard day…if I’m a serial killer!

 So many things were wrong with that picture, but we were young and dumb and we THOUGHT we were getting a good deal. Besides, I absolutely LOVED our house from THEE MOMENT I stepped inside. The place had potential, and I wanted nothing more than to restore it to its full glory. It was a shame that it had been treated with such disrespect (especially being historic). I remember my husband telling me that we could fix it up—we can customize everything to our liking, he said. And I, being an overly romantic cornball instantly imagined a romantic "Notebook" type of remodel.

Swoon worthy…drools just a little.

That DIDN'T happen (at least not yet anyways)…even before we moved in we had problems. And not just the ‘this is a horrible paint job’, ‘let’s upgrade the fixtures’ type of stuff. Think more like gas leaks and ripping out the entire kitchen ceiling to repair the bathroom plumbing above. Cheers to homeownership right? It was a mess! The fact that we weren’t present for our “inspection” only made matters worse. We had already attended a inspection on another house that fell through, and well, we got the gist of it—no need to take another day off of work to see that process right? WRONG! I bet the next time we make a big purchase both of our behinds will be there, front row and center.

Besides fixing the plumbing and stopping the gas leak so far we’ve had to:

1. Restore the electricity to the outside of the house—we had none, zip, zero, zilch. Those months of fumbling around in the dark like a virgin trying to find the keyhole certainly won’t be missed!

2. Install a new sewer line which involved digging up a section of our basement. Trust me, it isn’t pretty when the plumber tells you that you can use your toilet, but you shouldn’t put anything in it other than liquids. Well what do you propose we do sir?! That had to be fixed immediately. 

3. More plumbing work—because old pipes and hubby’s heavy handed tendencies were a no-go. Add to that the hotel cost for the night.*Groans*

4. Extermination fees. Because Poop Fairies flies are nasty, vile little creatures that will be assassinated upon crossing our threshold, "say hello to my little friend!" I’m usually a pretty peaceful person, but NO.  

And of course, all of this was in addition to the restoration that had taken place before we moved in, which included: laying a new sidewalk and driveway, painting the entire interior, adding a brand new kitchen, new (plastic) plumbing, porch repairs, refinishing the wood floors, updating the lower level bathroom, installing a new furnace, and most importantly (to my husband anyways) the inclusion of, ding, ding, ding…central air.

 

Here's some side by sides for good measure:

 

 

Much better, wouldn't you say?

 

 

This was one of those "good enough" jobs, we'll eventually upgrade  

 



My room to unwind and be one with nature...doesn't get much better than this...

 

 

Everyday after work we'd come to the house and work some more before going back to our townhouse. It was insane!

 

 

 But  obviously not insane enough to not pose for a pic :-)

 

 

What were those shelves there for?!



 





 

Today, things are slowly (really slowly) coming together, but we still have a long way to go. We have so many projects on our ‘To Do’ list that I doubt I can count them all.  I still have my moments when I want to be done with it, walk away completely (Cash for Keys anyone?), but my husband is always there to remind me that it’s a process. 

My hope is that one day we’ll look back on this process and realize that we truly made our house into our home, but until then...Lord help us!