This is it.

This is it, buried behind the bushes.

So we bought a house! By we I mean Cindy and I and by house I mean a place for her and I to live. Alone. Those close to us know that we have rented half of a two family home for over 20 years. That's not something I'm ashamed of, but also not information I've trumpeted so more casual friends and followers may find that surprising. Our rental arrangement was quite affordable and very comfortable for many years, but the situation deteriorated more recently and we had to move on. That story might be the subject of a full post some future day.

We have been casually searching for homes, with help from my realtor sister Karen, for many years. As our current housing situation deteriorated, the search became more intense. Our search was generally concentrated on the west side of the city of Binghamton. We have lived in that neighborhood since 1990 and grown to appreciate it, warts and all. Cindy is a "city" girl, enjoying having everything close by and prefers taking the bus to work when the snow flies. For me, I like the older homes and architecture that they provide.

SO...the house we bought is a fixer upper, built in 1915. I expect much of this blog will be stories and pictures of my struggles (with Cindy) as a weekend carpenter/plumber/electrician/landscaper to restore the home to it's full potential and glory.

Fireplace

It's not an exceptionally large home, around 1500 sq ft. 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, but with a separate two car garage that has a large second floor. Other features of note include a magnificent fireplace in the large living room, a bonus room on both floors, and a triple lot.

When we spotted the house it had been on the market for over 500 days. The owner had not occupied the home for almost 10 years. It had been most recently rented to college students and the wear and tear of this is very evident in parts of the house. Good news is that the beautiful hardwood floors on the first floor had just been re-done after a burst pipe in the first floor bath damaged them. Also, a brand new roof with warranty covers the house and garage.

Window cleaning operations with Cindy.

While we've been waiting to paperwork to clear and close on the home, the owner allowed us prepossession access to the home. This has allowed us to clean and do some minor prep work. I've covered the first floor hardwood with heavy weight paper to protect them from our cleaning, and the painting I will soon be starting. We have been removing the storm windows and cleaning off years of dirt and, well, tape. Someone that lived here before LOVED taping things to the windows, but wasn't real big on removing the tape.

Vine growth on house from last year. It was much more
extensive after another year's growth. 

Another big operation has been the removal of vines and weeds that have been choking the house. I forgot to take a picture of the extensive growth of grape vines on the south side of the house, but a real estate photo from the web shows the vines from at least a year back. The best method I've found so far to remove the vines is to simply rip them down by hand. Unfortunately, this leaves little spots on whatever surface the vine was on, along with small sticks. I plan to experiment with a spackling spatula to see if I can scrape off some of the leftover debris.

Attic debris

Halfway through the cleaning, but still have work to do. 

Another major task has been to clean up the attic.It had not been touched since before the roof was done. The roofer had apparently laid down a large tarp to catch the debris, which worked perfectly but was still in place with lots of dust and wood. Also, previous owner/renter items were still in the attic. There were piles of clothes, boxes, Christmas decorations, wardrobe bags, among the debris. Several bed frames and head boards were also part of the leftover attic treasures. I spent a considerable amount of time removing huge, head puncturing nails from the rafters. Like almost any attic, previous generations has used nails and brackets to hang things from the attic rafters. Like the tape on the windows, no one, until perhaps I arrived, had ever bothered to remove these hangers even though their original purpose had long passed. The next day, Cindy and I figured out how to remove the attic windows to give them their first good cleaning in decades, At some point I will need to remove them again, then re-caulk and paint them. The old dried caulk was falling out as we cleaned the windows.

Well I think that's enough for my first blog post. I hope to generate comments and suggestions from my followers as we forge ahead. I think this will also serve as a useful history of the house, and what we've done to restore it, for any future owners. If you see a bald guy covered with dirt, paint, grease, sweat and a worried look on his face having a much deserved beer at Sharkey's, that will be me. If I'm with a lovely lady, that would be Cindy.