Twelve years of neglect left us with plenty to fix, and apparently retirement means fixing it one project at a time.
There are moments during this renovation when I have to stop and look at the house and think, “Wow. Is this really the same place?” After 12 years of neglect, this house has needed an almost ridiculous amount of attention. We’ve tackled the roof, the gutters, the floors, the trees, the brush, and a long…
Once we started dealing with the trees, it became pretty obvious that we weren’t talking about a few trees that needed trimming. We had a LOT of trees and a lot of them needed to come down. Many were dead or dying, some had been damaged or overwhelmed by ivy, and others had simply been…
When we came home, I knew the yard was going to need some work. I did not realize quite how much work. One of the biggest problems was the ivy. It had been allowed to grow unchecked for years, climbing trees, covering the ground, and working its way through just about everything in its path….
When we first started figuring out what needed to be done around the house, the roof was the one thing I knew we couldn’t mess around with. It was old. It was in bad shape. And after twelve years of questionable property management, it was pretty obvious that replacing it wasn’t going to be optional….
After twelve years in Canada, Dave and I decided it was time to come home to Oregon. I had officially retired in 2025, at 62, and I was looking forward to settling back in, enjoying some time with family, and maybe slowing down a little. The house had been rented and managed while we were…
THE FIRST CLUE WAS THE SMELL I knew there was a problem with the house the moment I walked through the door. I smelled mold. Dave and Mom couldn’t smell it. But I could, and I knew that smell. It wasn’t something I was imagining, and I wasn’t about to ignore it just because nobody…