Biography
I am on my 5th house renovation. Started out with a farm about 20 yrs ago, renovated a big 3000 square ft 1894 farmhouse i had purchased in Yuma VA, with 65 acres for 65,000.00 twas nice to be a land baron even if the bank owned it.. not bragging but it was just such a good bargain at that price... it was mine for awhile. Got the house about 80 percent restored and she burned to the ground in about 20 min.. apparently the addition which was done in 1980's this guy has clamped two dryer wires together and taped them up in a wall.. (sigh).. after a while we got an L shaped double wide trailer, it was a special build and special order that these people got and then filed bankruptcy.. we got a house built out of 2x6 walls everywhere built very sound and strong only it had trailer windows and tons of hunter green carpet throughout, i did love my new place though. we cleaned up the house site and situated the triple wide in the middle of the property next to a big open field. twas completely private very nice property..where i spent the summers planting trees and shrubs and flower, we had about 15 cares landscaped by the time we were done, a big bamboo forest, tons of twisted trees, i would twist these dogwood and willow trees into shapes, braided some and bent some over into the ground and back up, very sculptural... hated loosing the house but realized that we were in better shape financially after she burned. with the insurance pay out.. still has some debt, grading out a new house site, buying the home and drilling for a well took a substantial amount of our funds. i would have remained there if i had not developed a mystery illness, long story short.. 7 year illness. caused vomiting, and between the shoulder blade pain when i would eat, and the loss of about 80 lbs, at 109 lbs and dozens of doctors later, i was to beg a doctor to cut me open and look around. a doctor from india who worked in whitesburg ky listened to me. turns out i had e coli in high concentrations in my well water, it had settled in my gallbladder and made me very sick. I had vomited so much i had a procedure prior to getting a diagnosis called a nissen fundoplication. a surgery to prevent reflux.and vomiting this seemed like a good idea at the time, i would have done anything to keep food down..yet . this went awry and caused me to dry heave and speed up my metabolism.. and caused everything i ate to go immediately into my small intestine. twas a very very bad surgery... after getting the gallbladder out things got back to some normality for me and i decided to sell the farm and move to the suburbs, i could no longer do the upkeep to the place. i've been in mount carmel with a new lease on life, for the past 13 years or so, renovated an 1980's modern type house, cedar with lots of windows.. and have loved it here.. then a about 4 yrs ago i decided to buy my mother a home in TN she had gotten divorced and was having trouble making her house payments in ky.. using a credit card i purchased her a home in TN. in kingsport about twenty min from me the house cost 13 grand... a total bargain, new roof with heat pump included. we had to redo the kitchen, replace the kitchen floor, but after painting sanding the floors redoing the wiring and plumbing and adding new windows. i began to see the benefits in buying a dirt cheep house and fixing it up, how rewarding that could be..eventually i remortgaged my current house and paid off the credit card.. twas easier to buy the home this way because the banks don't want to loan on a fixer upper sometime, having that much available to me on a credit card limit was hugely helpful... this got me thinking and so i discussed with our realtor what i could rent my current mount carmel house out for,, nearly double my current mortgage.. i love my house but do NOT like paying so much for a mortgage.. so i began looking finding this little house built in 1930 in gate city va, (twenty min away) it was in need of some sill work, and was listed at 24 grand, i bid 18 and got it for less then twenty.. I am thrilled its got no insulation, antiquated wiring its two bedroom down and has a big open room upstairs that could be turned into two more bedrooms. with a big attic space above that, all upstairs is finished out with unpainted bead board.. and nice wood floors even the attic space is finished out with beadboard. downstairs features wood floors large moldings, a solarium, with french doors.. a big double sided fireplace with two hearths... and a wrap around porch. i will need to repair the sill in the back bedroom and replace half the wood flooring in that room. strip gut the little bathroom and redo it.. move the kitchen to the room that has the stairwell in it..( it just makes sense to put a kitchen there) and where the old kitchen and laundry area was I will someday create a second bath & new laundry area, with a hall and pantry to make up for lack of kitchen space. its got built in's that will work perfectly and make nice storage in the new kitchen... I close on the house the 28th of December 2017.. am very excited, i already bought a vintage cast iron deco looking kitchen sink with drain board, from facebook market place and also purchased an old tempwood sealed stove from the 1970's. . i plan on getting the chimney inspected this friday and make sure that the stove can be safely used. i also got a great black friday deal on some propane free standing logs, since we do not have natural gas in the area.. i am really looking forward to this new project, am considering some foam in insulation, they can apparently do that nowdays in existing walls thru only a few small holes drilled.. and will heat with the gas and wood for the first few years, making upgrades to the home as i acquire rental money from my current home. this all seems like a perfect plan to me, to rough it for a while and be able to have my current home pay for itself and at the same time put a little money away in savings.. i am very optimistic about the future now where only a few months ago i was wondering how i was going to pay for dental work and buy a new pair of bifocal glasses.. I will be posting about my house reno adventures on here and putting up some photos. i do not want to flood facebook and my friends with all this but love to read about others experiences and love to share my own when it comes to restoring these old spaces... gentle restoration is the way to go.. cheeply yet with good taste and nice choices.. you do not need granite counter tops, nor 50thousand dollar bathrooms in a home.. don't listen to HGTV. a home can be a home and be a representation of you and your likes an dislikes and not have to break the bank.. if you don't know how to do something... GOOGLE it.. chances are someone else done figured it out and has put up a video.. well that's my story.. its been a lot of reading to get here, but I hope you will join me for this journey and share some stories of your own.... merry christmas everyone and happy new year.. take care
