... joy in babeland.: Home Sweet Home

If you've read my bio blurb (to the right), you'll notice the term "(pseudo) homeowner." That might be confusing to some of you... here's the skinny.

A view of our house from the street,
prior to any renovations.

A little less than a year ago, Terry and I bought a house in the teeny riverside town of Coxsackie. We paid less than some people spend on a car - knowing our renovations would basically double that cost - and in the end we'd have a sweet little place to call home for a bit of money and whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears... all of which have actually been shed during the restoration process. Terry doing the sweating and bleeding (thanks to a major tumble down the stairs). I'm responsible for the tears (thanks to my child-bearing-hormones and a forever changing move-in date).

So... what's going on inside this diamond-in-the-rough?

We've done a LOT of work, and there is still a fair amount left. Ok, ok... WE haven't done a lot of work at all. TERRY has done a lot of work with a gracious band of help. Here's the short list of things that have already been done:

- The moldings and doorways have been scraped down to bare wood in order to remove any lead paint.
- Much of the plaster was removed and replaced with new insulation and sheetrock. Some areas now reveal exposed brick.
- The backside of the foundation was dug up, rebuilt, and re-poured.
- A huge black walnut tree and several other smaller trees were removed, preventing a catastrophe waiting to happen.
- The old kitchen and downstairs bath were tore off. A new edition was rebuilt, including a second level master bedroom with a pretty vaulted ceiling, nice size closet, and small view of the Hudson.
- Drainage was added (and is still being worked on) to the hillside and driveway.
- A small retaining wall on the driveway side was rebuilt, now holding back our backyard and patio space off the kitchen.
- The front porch was reinforced, now (almost) ready for some rocking chairs and lemonade.
- We purchased "a kitchen" from this cool company called Green Demolitions. The cabinets, refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher were all salvaged and recycled.

The finishing touches are far from done. We've still got priming and painting to do in every room and the wide board hardwood floors need refinishing... just to name a few.

In the meantime, we're staying with my mother... who is a saint! We've stayed way longer than expected, and she genuinely seems like she doesn't completely hate us yet. Thank God for Felix - he was born just as we were wearing out our welcome... now Grandma Rae doesn't want us to leave (yet)!

Here's the "under construction" shots. Hopefully, I'll be posting some of the finished product very, very soon!