Can you believe it has been eight years!?! Goodness. Eight years. So much life lived.... Especially this year with all that has happened, it has reminded me how very important Home and Family is. I have always been so very very grateful for this little house. It has truly been our haven and safe sanctuary.
"We shape our buildings; therefore they shape us." ~Winston Churchill
This little house has also shaped me, in so many ways. How could it not! An intense year long renovation, a thousand and one decisions (for a person who hates making decisions this was really hard!) time and resources stretched to the limit and family who was always there to push and prop me up. It has taught me so much; so many house skills, how to manage time and money better, how much I am really capable of when I put my mind to it and opened up un-dreamed of avenues!
Eight years ago I wasn't really dreaming of being a landlord of multiple properties. I had a possible plan that this little house might be a rental if things didn't work out as I hoped, but I sure wasn't thinking as far ahead as having a house and two rental properties! That would have been very over whelming!
Do you see the house to the left of my Little House? That is Sister House. She is almost identical in floorplan as my house and joined the family in August!
I wasn't really planning on buying another house this year, but the neighbor who owned it was ready to sell and I couldn't say no! I have had a dream of owning Sister House almost as soon as I got settled in my house! Sister House has been a rental for the last twelve and came with renters, so no remodeling yet. I have been trying to content myself with sprucing up the yard and tiding up the back yard. I can't wait to tackle a few more outside projects next spring!
Now on to this year's Have-Done-List!
If you are new here, every year I list out projects I have completed. I started this tradition the first year as a way to show myself that progress was indeed being made!
Most of last year was taken up with installing a boiler and radiators and dealing with projects it created. It started last October with pulling out all the old ductwork,
By the end of January we had the boiler and radiators installed.
Early Spring the old cold air return holes in the floors were patched.
In April I also patched the entry ceiling. To run the upstairs radiator we had to cut a pretty large hole in the entry ceiling.
Then it was on to adding another layer of Shellac to the floors in June.
And then we finally found a new rug to go with our refreshed shiny floors!
Not the longest of lists, but the boiler was a major project! I still haven't patched the heat vents and trim. I am saving that for a long winter project!
"He who loves an old house never loves in vain.
How can an old house used to sun and rain,
To lilac and larkspur and an elm above,
Ever fail to answer the heart that gives it love?"
Isabel Fiske Conant