Our Home
Buying our first home was a process my wife and I have learned so much from. Right now as I’m writing this story, it’s hard to think about the positives of home ownership, since we now spend all our spare time fixing up the place. However, there were many key elements to buying our home that make it an amazing first step. We knew going into the deal that this duplex needed work. It has one 3 bed 1.5 bath house that my wife and I live in, and a 4 bed 1 bath house that is across the fence that was also part of our deal. The joys of repairs so far have included a massive rat infestation removal and cleanup, crawl space barriers, all new plumbing, bathrooms, kitchens, painting, knocking out walls, electrical, lights, windows, doors.... too much. We have spent the last 6 months of our quarantine together learning how to try and fix up a home. Now that we are living here, it’s been an adjustment from our quiet old rental on a farm. We have great neighbors, but theft is a slight problem in the area. Living in Portland has saved me lots of driving time to get around to my various jobs though, and I don’t mind saving that gas! Through the next few years, Kendra and I look forward to making a new community a friends here, finding a local church group to get involved with, and continue building our home and making it a comfortable place to live. If we still have energy to do this again, we may find ourselves wrapped in another home renovation project when we make our next investment purchase. We will see...
by Andrew Cox
We bought a house!
After almost 4 months in back and forth negotiations and delays, we finally closed!
May 15, 2020
We saw the inside for the first time in almost a half a year
As we stepped inside, we heard water running in our crawl space (busted water heater) and rats running in the ceiling. Not a pretty sight.
May 15, 2020
We starting cleaning up the place
Our yard was a forest, gutters and roof were covered in moss, overgrown bushes, and debris scattered everywhere.
May 16, 2020
Then we started wrecking it ourselves
Wrecking walls, wrecking floors, wrecking cast iron tubs. You name it, we wrecked it. 😎
May 21, 2020
Goodbye to the old
The worst part was the cast iron tub for sure.
May 23, 2020
Goodbye to our kitchen
The sad part was finding more rot behind the walls... rot, rats, battle star galactica. 💩
May 29, 2020
In with the new
Skipping ahead to the more fun parts of the renovation, we got to put in a new kitchen, floors, and paint. It all made such a difference!
July 16, 2020
New bathroom!
We love how the bathroom turned out. We moved the location of the tub and added a window to provide more natural light. (And ventilation😉)
August 05, 2020
Never going to be finished
While we have come a long way, we still have plenty to go! Our hope is to finish the roof and exterior paint/siding by the end of summer. I am so thankful to have the wonderful support from my brother teaching me many things, to an experienced contractor for the difficult tasks. We are blessed to be living here and hope to enjoy our next years to come.