Old House by the River

We keep running into unexpected projects as we continue to get settled into our new house. With the record breaking cold temps we've been having, the bathroom that the kids use froze up. We started having them use the upstairs bathroom, but that toilet has had issues ever since we moved in, and within a few flushes that toilet was offline as well. We do have a master bathroom, but having the kids, (and neighbor kids and friends), walk through our bedroom got old fast, especially since our bedroom is a part of our closet project and is a messy construction zone right now. Because of this Nick and his dad decided to finally figure out what was going on with the upstairs toilet. First they had to cut the bolts off, since they were completely rusted over. Then Don spent quite a bit of time with his hand/arm down the sewage drain pipe, (note to self: get Don a really nice Father's Day gift this year), and then Nick messed around with the old toilet to see if there was something c...

It was a busy holiday weekend as we worked on our closet project and then Nick also helped roof his sister's new garage.  We didn't have time to get everything done that we wanted to accomplish, but we did make a bit of progress. We got the exterior wall strengthened, insulated and dry-walled. We also got the ceiling insulated. Epic selfie LOL! *** This time last year we were in the middle of our selling/buying chaos and we decided to not do a traditional Christmas. We didn't set up a tree or any decorations. We didn't even do wrapped gifts. So this year we wanted to spend some time decorating and setting up the tree that we bought for our new house!

After a lull we got back at it a few weeks ago with a big project-we put in a new furnace! Back when we had our pre-purchase inspection done the inspector said the furnace was fine. Wrong . Within a few days after our move in we realized that the furnace wasn't working properly and we ended up using the pellet stove for the rest of winter. While we enjoy using the pellet stove it became tedious, (and expensive), to rely on it as our only heat source. Since the furnace was old and inefficient we decided to put in a new one, and Nick and his dad got it installed just in time for the cold weather to arrive! We've also started another project that I'm really excited about-converting a part of our 3-season, wrap around porch into a master bedroom walk-in closet! We love the porch, but the east side faces our neighbor's backyard and doesn't have a nice view. This area has a door connecting the porch to our bedroom and Nick came up with the brilliant idea to use this s...

We've been in a bit of a lull with the house and have been focusing on other things these past few weeks. Nick's still helping his sister quite a bit at her new house, and then he's been working on job sites that have required a lot of driving, (Petoskey, Ludington etc). Plus the back to school craziness has hit, as well as fall activities. However, Nick did find time to buy something he's been wanting for years-an old project truck. He found one that had been used as an advertising piece at an antique shop, that was going out of business, and he had a friend help him trailer it home from Battle Creek. It's a 1955 Ford F-600. What makes it unique is that it's an old Army vehicle and it has a lot of character under all the rust! It had been sitting behind Nick's parents barn since we bought it, but we decided to get it home last night. What an adventure that was! We had no idea if it was drive-able for any length of time, so Nick called his friend, Chuck,...

As summer flies by things continue to be busy over here. Along with the endless list that needs to be tackled on our house, Nick's also been helping his sister, Jessie, with her new house and has been spending a lot of time over there working on getting her new furnaces set up. There's a lot going on and it's easy to get overwhelmed by everything that needs to get done, but we're slowly making progress! We got our new refrigerator a few weeks ago and I love it! The one that came with the house had been vandalized by the previous owner, and it was also a style we really hated because it had such limited space. We got a 'door-in-door' style, and I love how big the freezer is and how many extra shelves the fridge has! I've been making decent progress on the back bluff, clearing brush and unearthing more pathways. I had a bit of a setback though, when I realized I was highly reactive to poison oak! Both of my legs are covered in it right now and the itchines...

One of the big pluses about our new house is that we have Grand River front property. Not only will this come into play down the road for re-sale value, but we're really excited to use this area for a kayak launch and then a fire pit/gathering area. However, the area down by the river is very wet and it was completely overgrown. One of our neighbors informed us that the previous two owners of our house tried to tame this area and both gave up. But, put a seemingly impossible challenge like this in front of my husband and it's game on! The first thing we did was figure out why it was so wet in some areas. We discovered that there's natural springs in numerous places, which is very cool, but tricky to work with. Nick's toying with the idea of building a ram pump down the road, but for now he's identifying where the water is flowing and then digging trenches and putting in drain tile. This is a very labor intensive project and little by little things are being set up...

A few days ago we experienced our first big summer storm at the new place, and we realized that all these pretty trees we have can be a big hazard in bad weather! We were fortunate to only have a few come down, compared to many of our Lamont neighbors who sustained much more serious damage, (including one house that had a fire), but our downed trees made a big mess and we have some damage to our roof that needs to be fixed now. Our patio furniture also took a beating and one of our chairs is beyond repair-bummer! We're assessing what needs to be done with some of the trees that are still standing near our house, to prevent this from happening again!