
When you buy a house with plans to immediately renovate, pretty much everyone will tell you, you should live it in for a while to get a sense of the space and understand the needs before diving into the project. I really did not want to do this. Please note the bathroom photo below.

That said, for reasons beyond our control (ie a v. busy/non responsive architect) for about 4 months, we drove up and spent one night every week or so in the house. Only ever one night at a time because I refused to use the leaky shower and was also not interested in ever opening the microwave or oven in that kitchen.

This little house is not much to write home about. According to Zillow, the house was built in 1979 but according to the permit office in town, both the porch and the garage were built before that and there was no permit for the house itself. Very mysterious!

If you’re asking, does this mean your town had no local laws or ordinances pre 1979? The answer would appear to be yes.
When we eventually started demo, we discovered that it was actually 5 or 6 different additions done over a long period of time and not the simple box built in 1979 we thought we were getting. Despite the patchwork history, the layout of house is simple.

Two beds, one bath, living, dinning, kitchen and a mudroom. The house sits on a hill so in the back of the house there is a full height unfinished “basement” that is actually mostly above ground and that screened in porch is raised. Like this:

I know what you’re thinking, “Kate! Screened in porch?!? That’s the dream!” Let me assure you, no, this porch was not the dream.

This porch was murder-y, kind of dangerous, had a very ugly tacked on roof, plywood floor, and shoddily repaired skylights.
Other highlights included: wall to wall carpeting, florescent lights, 1970s beige GE appliances and linoleum kitchen floors. Pretty. Damn. Dreamy. Why even renovate??
Do I sound like I’m complaining? I actually freakin loved this house!
Everything was old and cheap but the house had been well cared for and loved, and you could tell. The kitchen had Home Depot cabinets and formica counters, but it was spotless. All wall to wall carpets are terrible but this one was in mint condition and Lemon thought she had died and gone to heaven rolling on it. Did I mention the framed poster of the Declaration of Independence in the mudroom??
We finally had counter space for the fancy espresso machine we got as a wedding gift so we drank morning coffee out of Ikea mugs from the $500 espresso machine.
The maroon wood burning stove worked like a dream and Andrew became obsessed with it and started comparing it to a jet engine. Building and maintaining the fire became our evening activity since there was little else to do. We had no internet, slept on a mattress on the floor and had basically no furniture.


We made simple dinners, read and listened to records. We did crossword puzzles and went on long walks to explore our new property. We discussed the changing water levels of the stream, sketched ideas for a bridge to cross the stream, and attempted to rake portions of the enormous property.


We even had a couple of guests (the true heroes).

TBH, it was dreamy. I’m not sure if it was the doom and gloom of being a liberal in November and December of 2016 but this total escape was exactly what I needed and craved.
I was already excited about the project but this time helped me to clarify my vision for the house. I started to understand where the light was, especially in the dark days of winter, the parts of the house we wanted to spend time in and what was missing. It was also a good reminder to keep things simple.
These short visits were so fun and I won’t ever forget them. I even started to like that little blue bathroom.

